In movie trailer voice-guy voice:
In a world … where the mission, if you choose to accept it, is to conquer your fantasy football league, when the plans can self-destruct in five seconds with the wrong draft pick, there comes a man capable of awe-inspiring stunts with spreadsheets, a man who will leap into the abyss to try to find the perfect formula to calculate player value.
Not just any man, but a Fantasy Madman. And that Madman is ready to save you from a dead reckoning and turn your fortunes into a Barbieland of fantasy trophies. A man who will make others tremble in fear as he declares softly, “I have become mad, destroyer of leagues.” And he will help you do so with his world-changing creation, the Manhattan Project of fantasy formulas, the DVQ.
So punch your ticket to this theater of fantasy madness, and let the DVQ blow your mind.
Happy 10th birthday to the Draft Value Quotient! The Madman’s favorite invention caps its first decade with mere tweaks to the formula we feel has hit the sweet spot over the past few years.
The DVQ’s mission is to deliver a universal rating number for each player. This number points to the pick in the draft at which that player’s projected production meets the draft pick value. So if Johnny Catchgood has a DVQ of 36.2, that means he is expected to score enough to warrant a pick around No. 36 in the draft.
Fantasy Football DVQ Explainer
Hop out of the pool, unpack your vacation suitcase, boot up your laptop and get ready, because fantasy football season is back.
The Fantasy Madman has returned with the latest iteration of his DVQ.
The Draft Value Quotient is a player rating system that assigns one universal number for every player. This value projects the point in the draft at which a player’s projected production will match the estimated draft pick value.
Since there is a wider separation among production at the top, so too is there a wider gap between DVQ values at the top of the rankings.
The player projections takes into account playing time, expected use/touches, coaching tendencies, part performance and injury history. The DVQ measures these projections against a player’s schedule and factors in positional depth and value above replacement.
These ratings are updated regularly.
The ratings take into account a player’s projected production, based on coaching tendencies and past performance, weighed against the strength of schedule, weighed against how he performs compared to positional peers, weighed against the replacement value at his position, weighed against how that evaluation stacks up against the player pool as a whole, among other factors.
The formula also tries to take into account each player’s volatility – how much fluctuation in scoring you can expect from week to week, with large swings dragging down projection values.
Be aware, just as there is more separation between players at the top than players in the middle or bottom in real fantasy production, there too are much larger gaps in DVQ ratings near the top.
For example, Billy Joe Bassmaster might be ranked as the No. 6 overall player with a DVQ of 55.2, and Bucky Goldwater might be next at 88.7, and that 30-point/pick gap between two players would not be unusual near the top of the rankings. These gaps can help fantasy managers identify player tiers or steep drops in expected production, and those managers adjust their draft strategy accordingly.
So take the DVQ for a test drive, or climb back in and rev the engine. Do some laps, do some drafts, win some leagues. And have fun DVQing.