This year seems different

[boltnlava]

Can anyone explain why? I mean besides every team on a bye at once and the ones that aren't are the next week or maybe all the injuries and under preforming from not just studs but just about anyone. It just feels really different this year and maybe for the unforseeable future. I have never had such a hard time just to set a roster in 20 years. Seriously is this just a one year thing?

[darin3]

I think the past few years have all had their differences.  The COVID year, now we have less pre-season games, where a ton of teams aren't even playing their starters.  So we have the first month or so of the season as basically the de-facto pre-season with all the starters playing regular snaps.  That rolls into performance, with some players taking longer to gear up, sleepers to emerge, and most of all, injuries happening at the worst times.

That said, I think every year from here on out will continue to have it's own unique aspects.  I think we say it every year.

[DMD]

I would say that there is more use of committee RB and even WR. And TE in some cases. Throw in how players do well then fade, or vice versa, and there does feel like far more volatility. In projecting players, there is a declining amount of highly reliable players in my opinion.  I'll do a study on it in the offseason.

[purplemonster]

I have had good luck this year in terms of injuries. Teams are definitely moving to more committee, even hypercommittee stuff where you are getting 3 guys fairly equal amounts of time. I do think it has helped bring down the RB injuries this year, although I have no data. 

I think the bye situation may be a little worse this year because week 14 has 6 teams off and they are all duds for fantasy purposes. That leaves other weeks with comparatively high amounts of important fantasy players. I may almost need to forfeit next week because I don't know if it is worth dropping two bench players. I will certainly need to play without a kicker. 

So I think yes for prediction purposes, it gets hard when more players are involved, and also agree the first 4 weeks feel rougher and more unpolished. They are going to have to figure out a way to get guys more polished in preseason because that shizz was rough for the first few weeks. 

[Shaft]

There just seems to be less studs in the game right now. I have to mull over my starting lineups every week.

[purplemonster]

Also a few changes I've noted, I have only been playing 8 or 9 years, not nearly as many as some of you. The rookie WR is getting better and more successful. The rookie RB always was important, but seems to be getting more important. You just need to hold on for the first 4 weeks. The shortened preseason has made things rough early on. As FF players we are constantly looking for patterns, and those early upside down performances and games are confusing and frustrating. The relative inexpensiveness of rookie QB's means everyone without an established high quality QB is looking for one. And that shizz is highly variable. Fields went from confused Bambi in the woods to dominating, at least in fantasy purposes, in the space of 6 games. How do you predict that? Impossible basically. And as the QB goes, so fantasy goes most of the time, so lots of inexperienced QBs on wildly different progressions leads to lot of instability. Anyhow, I could be full of it, just some thoughts. 

[stevegrab]

I thought I saw something that NFL scoring is down in general this year, could be the same for yardage. Then you add in more players splitting that production for many teams and its creating some much lower scores. (While some of the high and low score averages appear to have dropped, I only see about a 4 point drop in average weekly score comparing the first 10 weeks to all of 2021.) 

Definitely some real volatility at various positions, not least of which is QB. Who projected Fields to do that, or even Tua. What about the massive decline by Rodgers and Brady? 

Yes the bye weeks cause headaches, but they're spread out pretty well, optimum would be 4 teams each week of 8 weeks. They have 6 twice and 2 twice. And there's a gap week with all teams playing during Thanksgiving when extra games from Sunday regional action move to Thursday. Also don't forget, bye weeks are just one of many components in trying to create the best possible schedule.

[The Grey Pilgrim]

At least the inactives due to Covid seems to be gone this year.  That's a positive change.....