It is that time of the year again. Lineups need to be set, and with that comes some tough decisions. After Week 1, Week 2 of the fantasy football season could feel like a must-win, making your start/sit decisions that much more important.
One of the most popular tools here at FTN is our fantasy football rankings. Each week, we bring you non-PPR, PPR and half-PPR rankings to help you win your league.
Throughout the season, I will break down what players our FTN rankers prefer more (or less) than the expert consensus rankings at FantasyPros. For this article, I will be looking at the half-PPR format.
At quarterback, FTN and the ECR are fairly aligned for the second week in a row. However, Trevor Lawrence is one of the few quarterbacks that FTN has ranked a bit higher than the ECR.
Matt Ryan has the biggest gap when it comes to players that the FTN crew has ranked lower than the ECR, but this is only two spots lower. Both have him as a reasonably superflex starter this week.
After the “Rain Bowl” that saw many disappointing performances, it appears that the ECR is not as high on David Montgomery as our FTN crew, as they have him just inside the top 24 while our FTN crew has him at 21.
Jeff Wilson is in for a significant increase in work after the 49ers lost Elijah Mitchell to a knee injury, with this the FTN crew is much more in on him this week and have him in the top 24, while the ECR lands him more as a high-end flex option.
It’s not a huge difference, but it’s notable that our staff rankings have Derrick Henry one spot about D’Andre Swift in the rankings, but that is flipped in the ECR. Both are comfortably inside the top 10, though.
The drafting community is sold on Darrell Henderson after he played over 80% of the snaps in the season opener, but our FTN crew is still a bit more skeptical, having him just barely inside the top 24.
The FTN crew heavily favors Tee Higgins this week, though that is contingent on his availability — he is currently in concussion protocol and has yet to practice this week. That likely explains why he’s a good bit lower in ECR.
Terry McLaurin and Brandon Aiyuk are two players that the FTN crew is a touch more bullish on in Week 2, having them both three spots higher than the ECR.
After a solid Week 1, our FTN rankers appear a touch less enthused about Gabe Davis still as they have him outside the top 15 as opposed to the ECR.
Additionally, after a disappointing Week 1, FTN rankers are also not as bullish when it comes to Courtland Sutton, having him two spots lower than the ECR.
In a much less significant disparity, the FTN crew believes a bit more in Deebo Samuel as opposed to A.J. Brown, as they have them flipped compared to ECR.
At tight end, FTN and ECR are mainly aligned, but the FTN crew is a bit higher on both Dawson Knox and Tyler Higbee this week. The lone player our rankings were particularly higher on than the consensus is Hayden Hurst, who saw some decent work in Cincinnati in Week 1, and our rankings clock him inside the top 15.
Outside the top 12 ranked players there was a larger disparity, most noticeably with Hunter Henry, the ECR has him closer to the top 12 than our FTN crew who seems to be completely out on Henry this week.
Albert Okwuegbunam is another player that our FTN crew believes is only useful in 2TE leagues as opposed to his ranking inside the top 12 in the ECR for his game against Houston.