Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and are all out enjoying the madness of Black Friday. I’ve got to go wrestle some people at the stores myself so I will keep this fairly short. Here is a recap of my picks from last week and a list of some of the top picks available heading into Week 12! (Read More)

After man-handling Stafford and the Lions in Week 10, the Bears have shot up to the highest projected defense for Week 11 on FanDuel. Now, let’s not put all the reasoning for this ranking the Bears are receiving on one explosive week vs. a division rival, because then we wouldn’t be giving Philip Rivers ‘ awful season the credit it deserves! Despite the Bears defense not living up to their stellar low-yardage allowed expectations of years past, they are playing very well as a team, playing to their strengths and have been opportunistic so far in 2011. While they are a safe play at D/ST however, you will notice that your value on $/Point could be better spent at other positions on FanDuel this week. With the cheaper, and nearly as attractive, Giants, 49ers and Rams available however, I will probably be avoiding the Bears this week on FanDuel – though don’t be surprised to see them devastate Mr. Rivers in Week 11. (Read More)

With Tebow playing Thursday night, and subsequently being unavailable to select in most player fields this week, I noticed another intriguing rushing-QB value option in Josh Freeman. Freeman has been struggling lately, we all know this. But isn’t that where you look for value in your players? You want to buy-low. Immediately you might say: “Woah RG Projections! They’re playing the white-hot, Super Bowl-defending Packers.” Well, hold on one second. The Packers are (partly because of always playing ahead) giving up the 2nd most passing yards in the league and have given up 16 Pass TDs. In addition, while not as reliant on the run as Tebow, Freeman does average around 16 yards per game rushing and has racked up 2 rush TDs on the season. I’m not saying run out and make sure you get Freeman this week, there are plenty of great options to choose form this week, but this is a perfect example of where the Grinders Incentives projections will put players on my radar that I wouldn’t have been aware of otherwise. (Read More)

I’ve just done something I never thought I would do. I dismissed prior beliefs, I analyzed, I researched…I actually spent time projecting Fantasy Kickers. That’s right, those guys. The 160 pound guys that are forced into sideline solitude. The ones that get blamed for losses, and don’t often get credit for the win (unless ESPN lets them showcase their four rings in a commercial). The guys that you draft in the last round of every fantasy draft you’ve ever been in. The guys that get overlooked. Well, when just 2 points can gain you over 20 spots in the FFFC, we decided it was time to get some Grinders Incentives projections for a position that can account for up to a 14 point swing overall. The projections are here, they’re up, and they’re good! (Read More)

I don’t know what it is about Monday night games, but I just can’t seem to find any luck. Two weeks ago I had Phillip Rivers and Ryan Mathews and all I needed was for them to have a decent game and I would have had a great week. Rivers ended up throwing two picks and fumbled the game away, while Ryan Mathews got hurt right before he got a chance to score. After the game, I immediately regretted the decision to take a star QB and a star RB from the same team. It just doesn’t make sense strategy wise to take two guys from the same team that each cost $15,000 when they both compete for points. Taking a QB/WR combo is much different because they work together and can both score points at the same time. (Read More)

For this week’s Grinders Incentives column, we’re going to delve into the projections, and subsequent value ratings, for the Week 10 QBs on Daily Joust, DraftStreet and FanDuel. As I’m sure you’re aware, almost every DF site utilizes a unique scoring system and possesses their own method for assigning the cost of the player. Through time and experience, the top Grinders learn to quickly assess the price and scoring differences and judge a player’s value from site to site. However, this takes a good deal of skill, knowledge and attention to detail (or they wouldn’t be the best, would they?). For the rest of us, this breakdown should help: (Read More)

Don’t you hate when you get to the D/ST tab on FanDuel and the ‘PPG’ column shows 0 after 0 after 0…? It’s annoying because every season-long league you’ve ever played in as well as every daily fantasy site seems to use different settings for Defense and/or Special Teams. You say to yourself: “C’mon man…How am I supposed to know how many sacks Arizona gets per game, and how many St. Louis lets up?!?” Sometimes I’ll wind up filling my lineup out under the cap, and proceed to outthink myself and reach for the Steelers, Ravens or some other top-priced team with an illustrious defensive tradition surrounding the franchise. On the other end of the spectrum, I’ll just get lazy and choose the $5,000 floor-priced, value matchup vs. the worst team (we’re talking to you Peyton-less Colts). It just never seems worth the effort to research for defense…Well, that’s what I used to do. NOW we have the ‘beta’ projections for Defense and Special Teams ready on Grinders Incentives. Breathe a sigh of relief, you have now just saved 15 minutes of researching Defensive stats, and you are now making an educated decision, because we just did the work for you: (Read More)

Updated: Thursday, Nov.4th, 2:06 AM – Here is a another preview for our members of the the Grinders Incentives this week’s NFL Player Projections, customized to FanDuel’s scoring system and sorted for Value. These projections aren’t just your average points per game, or your favorite sports news provider’s arbitrary ‘expert picks’. They are calculated with an extensive projection model taking into consideration the following factors: Past Performance of Player Split by Stat Category, Defensive Opponents Split Stats Which Affect Fantasy Points Scored, Special Teams, Percentage of Workload (POW) on a Player and Team Basis, Injuries, Matchup Factors (example: Playing from behind), and other Misc. Player or Matchup Factors (ex: Weather, Carson Palmer’s ‘rust factor’ upon returning to the NFL). (Read More)

What’s up everyone, I hope you all had a great Week 8. I was very close to having a great week; all I needed was Philip Rivers and Ryan Mathews to combine for about 35 points on Monday night. I didn’t think that this was too much to ask for, but after two interceptions, an injury, and a fumble I quickly figured out that it just wasn’t meant to be. That’s just how fantasy sports goes. Sometimes when you think you have no chance at all you can come back and win and sometimes when you think you have it in the bag you end up losing. But overall, it was still a successful week 8 and I’m hoping to carry that into Week 9. (Read More)

This week, you could become a millionaire…no joke. Every week of NFL season, DraftDay is holding a freeroll giving away $385 in prizes for the remainder of the NFL season, with first place getting $100. This is an excellent promotion in and of itself, but it’s also just the beginning. In addition to giving away $100 to first place, $50 to 2nd, $25 to third and $10 to the remaining players who finish in the Top 25, if you construct the Perfect Lineup, you’ll walk away with $1,000,000! This awesome promotion was concocted by the DraftDay team to lure as many new users as possible to the budding industry of Daily Fantasy, and we give it two big thumbs up. (Read More)