It’s not just who you draft, it’s when you draft them. You’ve probably heard this or some variation 100 times, but it’s definitely true. Fantasy owners really need to be on their toes to guess when their competitors will take a certain player. There are a lot of things that can affect the general perception of a specific player. For instance, if every single “expert” is raving about the same guy as a great target in the middle round, you’re going to have to be very aggressive to pick him up.
Justin Forsett ADP: Why Yahoo! fantasy football ranks him higher than ESPN
Justin Forsett had a monster season and doesn’t have much competition this year. Where should you draft him in your fantasy football league?
Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
Additionally, the platform for your draft is going to affect the average draft position. Not all sites feel exactly the same, so there will be some discrepancy on the ADP. For instance, if Yahoo! ranks Player X at 25 and ESPN ranks him at 75, his ADP on Yahoo! will be much higher than on ESPN. If some sneaky commish wanted to, he could choose his platform based on the rankings alone. If ESPN has his favorite guys higher than Yahoo!, he would want to do it on Yahoo!.
One other thing worth addressing is that ESPN uses two receivers and one flex while Yahoo! uses three receivers and no flex. This has very little impact on the rankings, but it’s just something to think about.
Justin Forsett is definitely one of the more interesting cases.
ESPN rank: 34Yahoo! rank: 22Fantasy Football Calculator (FFC) ADP: 22
Usually, a difference of 12 spots isn’t a big deal, but when you look at the caliber of players in the 22-34 range, it’s one of the most significant disagreements among the two platforms. Yahoo! and the FFC ADP have Forsett as a second-round pick, which means he should be a very high-end RB2 and he will be an RB1 on a number of teams.
The big concern on Forsett is that he really just did it for one season. Besides that, he certainly could be a strong RB1. They have a great line, they'll still go with a zone scheme, and the Ravens offense should put up some points. As long as you're fine with the small sample size, Forsett is a fine pick at the turn of the second and third rounds. ESPN owners might be able to steal him around 27-30.
