I made this decision, based on a suggestion from a reader, who said the blog “isn’t for me.” I don’t agree with that assessment, but what I’ve learned is that the blog isn’t for my busy time. The blog was never meant to be a running Q & A with me having to constantly come back to answer questions. I’m perfectly fine doing that in the offseason, when I actually have time. But I don’t have the time from August-December. The comments were open for other readers to chime and share their thoughts on the topic at hand, even to disagree and offer their own spin for others to think about. But again, this time of the year, it turns into 30-40 people asking me questions on each post, and I can’t keep going back to answer them 5-6 times a day while taking my time away from 99% of our other customers who are content to [...]]]> With the 2011 preseason well underway and the regular season obviously right behind it, I have made a decision to move away from the blog for the rest of the year.

I made this decision, based on a suggestion from a reader, who said the blog “isn’t for me.” I don’t agree with that assessment, but what I’ve learned is that the blog isn’t for my busy time. The blog was never meant to be a running Q & A with me having to constantly come back to answer questions. I’m perfectly fine doing that in the offseason, when I actually have time. But I don’t have the time from August-December. The comments were open for other readers to chime and share their thoughts on the topic at hand, even to disagree and offer their own spin for others to think about. But again, this time of the year, it turns into 30-40 people asking me questions on each post, and I can’t keep going back to answer them 5-6 times a day while taking my time away from 99% of our other customers who are content to simply read and absorb our content. Being a glorified chat session isn’t really what my definition of a blog is, so then I look like a jerk for not answering questions. I do a weekly chat, and I will continue to do a weekly chat the entire year if people have questions for me. In fact, we will do three chats a week this year, just for those who have questions for us. I’m also going to do one more podcast a week during the season than I did in 2010, most likely the weekly review podcast.

The post that got me thinking about this was an ongoing conversation about the delay in my updated Draft Plan, which was posted on the site Saturday afternoon 8/13. I really wanted to get it done before the first kickoff, but I didn’t make it. I did get it up before about a third of the league played a single preseason game, at least.

Obviously, here comes the lockout excuse. But I don’t think people realize how much work it was to basically re-write about 35-40% of the whole site while covering free agency, which usually goes down in 3-4 months. We usually have those 3-4 months to cover it all, make adjustments, and write probably 300,000 words on the upcoming season while also tweaking projections, following news, etc. This year we had about two weeks to do all that. I think we did a good job, but the full draft plan article takes me about 25-30 hours of work, and I didn’t have that for a couple of weeks right when the lockout ended. And I couldn’t really do it before the lockout ended (I actually did, but it was a condensed version).

If a customer doesn’t appreciate some of my business practices, I understand. If he or she doesn’t want to give their business anymore, that’s certainly their prerogative. But I think it’s clear that we’re all busting our asses to maintain a high quality service. These articles we post take a long time to write, and they’re usually very long. We don’t just make stuff up, either. Things have to be researched, and talked through, which also takes a lot of time. It’s been particularly tough given the lockout. There’s a reason people are pissed off if something’s not posted early enough: it’s good stuff, and good stuff takes time to produce, and time has been at a shortage this year.

So anyway, just because I’m not doing the blog doesn’t mean I’m not working. You may notice this year I’m going to put my name on some more things. These are things I’ve always written, but just never put my name on. It seems some people think I’m slacking or something. I assure you, I’m not slacking. The staff is 500% larger than it was 5 years ago, and I’m working more hours now than I did then. I’m not complaining; I’m just pointing out that I’m not slacking. I keep hearing “More Hansen” from people. If I did much more there would be “No Hansen” because Hansen would be dead.

I’m still alive, and I plan to be alive all year and do whatever I can to help you win a championship. But to do that, I need some help myself, and it’s going to help me knowing I don’t have to worry about looking like an A-Hole for not answering all the questions left for me on every blog post.

I wrote in February that this lockout would be difficult for us to get through, but that we would get through it, and we’d be ready to go once it was finally over, and that is the case. We’ve been cranking out a lot of content the last few months/weeks, and we’re currently sitting on extensive player profiles on 300+ offensive players.

But we are navigating through uncharted waters, so we’re going to need a little time before we’re ready to roll out key items such as those player profiles. We’re going to sit back and wait to see how free agency – which will kick off on Friday at 6pm goes – and since we think things will happen fast and furiously and have a major impact on the fantasy landscape, we’re going to let that play out before posting our in-depth profiles and some other key items. Of course, we’re standing by ready to break free agency [...]]]> As you know by now, the longest labor impasse in the history of the NFL is over. Although we were concerned at various stages of the dispute, we were confident that the full 16-game season would be saved, and that’s now the case.

I wrote in February that this lockout would be difficult for us to get through, but that we would get through it, and we’d be ready to go once it was finally over, and that is the case. We’ve been cranking out a lot of content the last few months/weeks, and we’re currently sitting on extensive player profiles on 300+ offensive players.

But we are navigating through uncharted waters, so we’re going to need a little time before we’re ready to roll out key items such as those player profiles. We’re going to sit back and wait to see how free agency – which will kick off on Friday at 6pm goes – and since we think things will happen fast and furiously and have a major impact on the fantasy landscape, we’re going to let that play out before posting our in-depth profiles and some other key items. Of course, we’re standing by ready to break free agency down as it happens, which will take some time on its own.

The challenge we face is due to the fact that we have SO much content on the site or in the can that will need to be updated, so I just wanted to give you a heads-up and let you know that we’re going to move as quickly as we can to follow all the free agency activity and adjust accordingly. My hope is that we’ll return to normalcy around August 5^th and will return to our usual preseason practice of following all the action and updating our various articles and features. We do ask for your patience, however, as it will take a while to fill in the blanks once free agency runs its course, and things may not be “normal” for another 2-3 weeks.

This off-season has also been a difficult one in terms of development, but we still do have some nice enhancements and additions this year. Some of those are:

• The Guru Challenge – We should roll out the revamped prize structure this week. This year, all Season Pass players will be placed in leagues of 40 teams and will compete against the 39 other owners for season league prizes. In addition, players will also compete simultaneously for weekly prizes for putting together the best starting lineup each week. Check the site later this week for more details and where you can get in on the action this year.
• Draft Analyzer software – It will be back in 2011 with our projections, likely this week.
• MyGuru App – We’re working on a new App that will essentially be a mobile version of your MyGuru. This is something that will be a lot more useful for the regular season, given the functionality of Myguru. We’re going to have to do more testing in the coming weeks, but this item will be offered FREE for all 2011 subscribers.
• Player Comparison Tool – We’re wrapping up a new tool that will allow users to compare players in a variety of categories and view charts to put the comparison into perspective.
• Mock Drafts – We will be rolling out a little mock draft engine that utilizes the software of our friends at myfantasyleague.com.
• Weekly Player Projections – We’ve developed this new tool this year, so each Tuesday morning during the season, you can see projections for the upcoming week that are arrived simply being crunching the numbers. For more on this tool, check here.
• Beefed up IDP coverage – We’re excited to beef up our IDP coverage this year, thanks to the addition of a new contributor, Mike “IDP” Monk. Mike’s truly an IDP guru and has operated a popular IDP blog that focused on the IDP WW and his talents will be fully utilized this year.

We’ll certainly have other enhancements this year, and you can always get most of your questions answered about our offerings by clicking on the “Site Help” link on the upper right of each of our pages (that will be updated for 2011 this week). Otherwise, if you’re wondering about what’s going on, make sure you check out the site, our blogs, and our Twitter and Facebook account for updates on our progress, chats, podcasts, blog posts, new articles, and more.

This next month is going to be an absolute nightmare for us to handle, but we’re not complaining. We’re excited and ready to get to work. Most important, we’re more committed than ever to offering the best service and product we possibly can.

Have a great season, and we’ll see you in the playoffs.

I’m alive and well, just like the NFL season. Way back in February I promised that we’d be ready to go once the offseason labor drama was settled, and we’re on target for that. We’ve essentially stayed with our usual publishing schedule, and we’ve been putting the finishing touches on well over 300 massive player profiles now. Unfortunately for us, we’ll have to tweak them big time once free agency kicks off, so we’re probably not going to release these profiles for a few weeks, but we’ll be ready and on track, as promised.

We’ve also been working on a few subtle enhancements, as we always are this time of the year. We have a couple of nice new tools to roll out later in the summer, but just yesterday we released a revised Subscriber Index Page. This page is a little less busy, [...]]]> It has been a while since I have posted to this blog, so I figured I should chime in to prove to people that I am still alive. Actually, if you have been reading the last 4-5 big articles we have posted on the site, you should know I am still among the living, since I wrote them.

I’m alive and well, just like the NFL season. Way back in February I promised that we’d be ready to go once the offseason labor drama was settled, and we’re on target for that. We’ve essentially stayed with our usual publishing schedule, and we’ve been putting the finishing touches on well over 300 massive player profiles now. Unfortunately for us, we’ll have to tweak them big time once free agency kicks off, so we’re probably not going to release these profiles for a few weeks, but we’ll be ready and on track, as promised.

We’ve also been working on a few subtle enhancements, as we always are this time of the year. We have a couple of nice new tools to roll out later in the summer, but just yesterday we released a revised Subscriber Index Page. This page is a little less busy, and the big upgrade is the top story scroll. Now, instead of just one top story, our homepage will scroll through 4-6 of the top stories that we feel need to be featured, which is a nice addition. The page otherwise is a little cleaner than it was, so that’s also good.

We also added this week a small thing on each player page. When you check one out now, you’ll see our latest comments on the player from both our projections (updated 2-3 times a week in the preseason and even more often during the season for a particular week) and also from our keeper rankings. So if you’re ever wondering what we think about a player for the season/upcoming week or for the long-term, you can simply look the player up and check that out. I think that’s a nice little addition, and for people who think we produce too much content, if you really want the Cliff Notes version on a player, you can simply look the player up and check out his player page.

Next up, we’ll be getting the Draft Analyzer software back up and running, and we’re working on an iphone/android application for the season, which will be a app version of MyGuru. We’re also working on a mock draft engine that should be good to go this year courtesy of myfantasyleague.com, so users can come to our site and join a mock at any time. They will be continually running, and if leagues aren’t filled those empty teams will be filled by the computer. I’m sure we’ll have a few more surprises. It’s been a tough year to invest in infrastructure and site upgrades, but it wouldn’t be a new season for me without at least a few new things for subscribers to enjoy, and we will have some things this year.

It’s been a tough offseason, but it looks like we’re almost out of the woods and that we will have a full 16-game NFL season. I’m not going to lie and say I was never worried, but I’ve pretty much said that this thing will get done in time to save the full season all along.

It’s going to be a lot more hectic in July and August since free agency will be a wild ride, but you can be damn sure I’m not complaining.

Well, they just got more complicated for me.

In the past, we’ve only been able to rank keepers on a static page, one that was not tied to our database. Now, our keeper rankings will be presented like our regular projections, and even better I have added some category grades to try to put these players into better perspective. I basically have combined a few criteria (graded from 1-10 with 10 being the highest grade) for each of these two categories. They are:

Talent: This is basically self-explanatory, but I consider not only what the player has to work with physically but also what the player is capable of becoming down the road.

Opportunity: This is where I’m considering a few factors. Obviously, [...]]]> Note: Check out our new Keeper/Dynasty Rankings here. We’ll release our Post-Draft Rookie Report on Friday.

I know people have been asking for more keeper and dynasty content, and I certainly want to appease them. During the season, there are weeks when I’m literally ranking and projecting 1200 players. That occurs when I do updated keeper rankings, update the rest-of-the-season projections, and rankings for the upcoming week within a two day period. These rankings take forever, and the keeper rankings an eternity.

Well, they just got more complicated for me.

In the past, we’ve only been able to rank keepers on a static page, one that was not tied to our database. Now, our keeper rankings will be presented like our regular projections, and even better I have added some category grades to try to put these players into better perspective. I basically have combined a few criteria (graded from 1-10 with 10 being the highest grade) for each of these two categories. They are:

Talent: This is basically self-explanatory, but I consider not only what the player has to work with physically but also what the player is capable of becoming down the road.

Opportunity: This is where I’m considering a few factors. Obviously, role is one of the key ones, but durability falls under this category as well. If you’re unable to play, that hurts your opportunity. I also take into account offensive system and supporting cast.

These grades aren’t perfect, but they should help put these players in better context and offer a bit more than we have been offering.

With our new Keeper/Dyansty League display, our rankings are now offered up in a more dynamic and easier to handle way

Another advantage to this new look is how you can now generate a more printer-friendly page for each position and print out keeper rankings, and of course you can view by each position only, which is better. The one thing I cannot do is rank players overall because there are way too many variables involved in a keeper or dynasty league. I can try doing that for just each upcoming season, but not for the next 2-3 years.

Of course, I still comment on the players, offer upside/downside designations, list players who have moved up or down the list since the last update, and also flag guys as dynasty options. The dynasty option is tough to wrap my head around because anyone near the top of the list is obviously a dynasty option, so basically a dynasty guy is anyone I think has a chance to have a little more value than expected right now, and probably, more importantly, down the road. These are basically younger players I think have a chance, so while I wouldn’t keep them in a keeper league that retained only 4-5 players, I’d consider them viable in a league that kept 15-20 players. It’s tough to qualify everyone because, while I don’t think a guy like Earl Bennett in Chicago is going to be very exciting these next few years, and I don’t think he’s a great long-term prospect, he will likely help the Bears right now, so he is certainly viable in a dynasty league.

I took a ton of time to populate this first dynamic keeper ranking offering, obviously considering all the events of the draft and more, and I will try to update them every two weeks going forward. I’VE COVERED 425 SKILL PLAYERS, SO I THINK I HAVE ANYONE WHO SHOULD BE NOTED, NOTED.

Also, one other cool thing we’re going to get rolling soon: when you go to an individual’s player page, you’ll see our latest keeper/dynasty comment marked by date and also our latest preseason/ in-season comment for whole season and for the upcoming week displayed by date. So if you ever want to quickly see what we think about a player for a keeper league, for the whole season/rest of the season, or for the upcoming week, you can quickly see all that on a player’s page.

I’ve made it clear this year that I do want to pay more attention to statistical analysis because I do find the league harder to figure out these days, so I think leaning a little more on the numbers can help keep our level of accuracy high. We’re always looking to give readers more information to make the best possible decisions, so I came up with the idea to produce separate projections each week that are 100% tied to the stats, and that’s exactly what we’ve done here.

What you’re looking at here is stat-based projections for Week 17 of the 2010 season. The page defaults to looking at Weeks 1-17 for the numbers. In other words, from Weeks 1-17 in 2010, the Houston Texans gave up 24.16 fantasy points per game to QBs. In Week [...]]]> As I have stated on this blog in the recent past, we are all still very confident there will be a season, so we are trying our best to proceed as usual. While it is certainly going to be harder to go “big time” with upgrades this year, we do have several cool improvement on the horizon for 2011, and one of them is already completed.

I’ve made it clear this year that I do want to pay more attention to statistical analysis because I do find the league harder to figure out these days, so I think leaning a little more on the numbers can help keep our level of accuracy high. We’re always looking to give readers more information to make the best possible decisions, so I came up with the idea to produce separate projections each week that are 100% tied to the stats, and that’s exactly what we’ve done here.

What you’re looking at here is stat-based projections for Week 17 of the 2010 season. The page defaults to looking at Weeks 1-17 for the numbers. In other words, from Weeks 1-17 in 2010, the Houston Texans gave up 24.16 fantasy points per game to QBs. In Week 17, they played the Jags, so the Jacksonville QB is ranked #1 for Week 17 in these projections. So it’s going 100% off what the numbers say. These projections can be catered to your scoring systems, of course, and if you’d like you can select a different output range of weeks to review. I would recommend looking back only 4-5 weeks because especially late in a season using the entire season’s numbers can be misleading, as a team can significantly improve on defense, or get significantly worse.

The projections work for all positions: QBs, RBs, WRs, TEs, PKs, DTs, DLs, LBs, and DBs. I think it will be especially helpful for those in IDP leagues, but it’s a nice resource for all positions.

I know people really want projections for the upcoming week as early as possible. In 2010, we did improve on our timing, getting them out on a Wednesday by around 2-3pm ET as opposed to previous years, when it went as late as 9-10PM ET. I find it very difficult to get projections out much earlier for a variety of reasons (for example, on a given Tuesday there can be 4-5 teams or more that don’t even have a set QB for the week). And in many cases, we’re in the dark on injuries until Wednesday evening, or at least Wednesday afternoon when practices are going on. At the very least, these stat-based projections will help give people an early jump on the matchups, since these will be available bright and early on Tuesday mornings (oftentimes, late Monday night, after the MNF game).

I also believe these will help speed up the process of doing our regular projections because we can use these numbers as a basis for our projections and make our manual tweaks as we always do. It will also help speed up the tedious process of writing up our player matchup reports, as we always look hard at the numbers for those anyway.

Obviously, player roles will change a ton during the season, so the only solution is to list any player possible for each team/position, which is why you see all players listed for each team at every position. At the very least, we’re managed to bold and list first the player with the most touches for the season. So that’s why you’ll see Mike Kafka listed for the Eagles – but also Mike Vick bolded and listed #1 for Philly QBs.

This new tool would have ranked Arizona WRs #1 for Week 17 of 2010 and Larry Fitzgerald did actually finish #1 that week

Let’s take a quick look at some players to see how close these stat projections came to being accurate. For our purposes here, I have changed the output of weeks to the previous five games (NFL teams usually only look back 4-5 games when looking at matchups, and so do we).

• The #1 QB is then changed from the Jag QB to the Redskin QB vs. the Giants. The stat projections said 26.9 points for the Redskin starter. As we know, that was not Donovan McNabb; it was Rex Grossman. Grossman in Week 17 scored 25 fantasy points. Pretty damn good.

• The #1 RB for the week was Mike Tolbert for the Chargers against the Broncos, but if you recall he was out that week. Ryan Mathews started for the Chargers. San Diego RBs were projected to score 32.08 fantasy points in our site default scoring system (non-PPR). Mathews scored 31.9 fantasy points. Do you see why I think this new tool is a good idea?

• The WRs are a little different because the production is divvied up between 2-4 players (or more), but for our purposes the Arizona Cardinals were listed #1 based on their matchup against the 49ers, who were giving up 33.3 fantasy points per game to WRs. Amazingly, even with a terrible QB throwing him the ball (I do like Johnny Skelton’s skill set, but the dude was not ready last year), Fitz put up 11/125/1, good for 18.5 fantasy points. Guess who the #1 fantasy WR was that week? Lar Fitzgerald! So far, so good. Really good.

• At TE, the #1 ranking for the week belonged to the Titans with a matchup against Indy. As you may recall, the team moved away from starter Bo Scaife and made more of a commitment to Jared Cook late in the season. Scaife was inactive, so their potential at the position was limited, but Cook actually caught 7 passes for 58 yards, which would have been good for a rock-solid 12.8 points in a PPR, so the tool did still do the job.

• Finally, let’s take a look at the defenses. For Week 17, this tool ranked the NYJ and Dal defenses as tied for #1 against Buffalo and Philadelphia, respectively, with 11.2 projected fantasy points. You won’t believe this, but the Jets and Cowboys were the #1 and #2 fantasy defenses for Week Seventeen last year, scoring an incredible 25 and 24 fantasy points.

This is a small sampling, but these results are amazing, and I also think they clearly prove my long-standing position that you should only be looking back 4-5 games when looking at the numbers.

Now the bad news: I feel like a jackass for not rolling this bitch out sooner. But that’s in the past. Armed with this bad boy in the future, I can see us being more aggressive with our regular projections because, unless the results are terrible this coming year, I think I trust the numbers a lot more.

And there will be more upgrades and new tools to come here in 2011.

I’ve said many times over the years that I’m not exactly a businessman. I took zero business classes in college, and while I do regret that now, I’m generally not that interested in business-related things.

However, while the fantasy industry has been re-invented several times and many companies have come and gone, we’re still here doing the exact same things we were doing in 1995 (admittedly, it was basically only me back then). Through 2010, my company has been in business for 16 years, and we’ve grown in each and every one of those years. So I’m doing something right. Yes, I was fortunate enough to grab onto an industry that has been very popular very early on, but over those 16 years there have been many businesses supposedly run by “businessman” that have gone under.

Basically, my approach has been a conservative one. I could have gone for the gusto and gotten in bed with some investor/venture capital people – and I’ve been approached by [...]]]> On what could be the first of many Monday mornings with no NFL action (outside of the courts), I thought I would chime in here to give readers an update on where we stand as a company.

I’ve said many times over the years that I’m not exactly a businessman. I took zero business classes in college, and while I do regret that now, I’m generally not that interested in business-related things.

However, while the fantasy industry has been re-invented several times and many companies have come and gone, we’re still here doing the exact same things we were doing in 1995 (admittedly, it was basically only me back then). Through 2010, my company has been in business for 16 years, and we’ve grown in each and every one of those years. So I’m doing something right. Yes, I was fortunate enough to grab onto an industry that has been very popular very early on, but over those 16 years there have been many businesses supposedly run by “businessman” that have gone under.

Basically, my approach has been a conservative one. I could have gone for the gusto and gotten in bed with some investor/venture capital people – and I’ve been approached by them a ton in the past – but I wasn’t comfortable doing that mainly because of the BS factor. I’m more of a lunch pail guy who gets his hands dirty, as opposed to a suit who tries to make money from those who actually do the work.

I passed on the upside potential those kinds of deals could have brought, but I’ve slept well at night knowing I was in complete control of my own destiny. Most importantly, I avoided any serious downside. As I said above, the business has grown in each of our 16 years of existence, and I’ve been content with that growth. I haven’t been looking to explode 300% over a year or two; I’ve been content to grow 10%. In fact, over the last few years, I’ve been content to simply keep the status quo. Business in this country is all about growth, and I’m not sure it’s healthy. Sure, we all want to grow, but what’s so bad about maintaining? Especially in this economy.

It’s possible that I’m simply not greedy, and that lack of greed has enabled my business to excel over the last decade and a half. A lack of greed has helped me keep things very contained, and keep expenses down, both for the business and for our customers (we haven’t raised our subscription price in 16 years, and if anything we’ve lowered it).

And a lack of greed will enable me to withstand the ugliness that is looming in the NFL world.

I’ve annoyed some people over the years by pointing out the hours I work during the season, but I’ve really done that to let people know that I’ve been in the trenches all along and to dispel the notion that I don’t really work as much these days. It is true that we have assembled a larger staff than ever, but that’s simply to keep our product top-notch, and to compete in an incredibly competitive marketplace. The fact of the matter is our staff is literally 500% larger than it was 10 years ago, yet I’m still working the same number of hours as I did in 2001, probably even more. I appreciate the support I’ve received from our customers who have given us their business, and I accept nothing less than 100% effort from myself for that business. In addition, I listen to what our customers want from us, constantly strive to get better in every way possible, offer more and more services and benefits with no increase in price, and along the way strive to inform, educate, and entertain. If that makes me a good businessman, then I guess I am.

Of course, there’s no denying a prolonged NFL lockout would hurt me and my staff. A canceled NFL season in 2011 would be devastating for me personally, since I have a large family and a lot of obligations, and it would be very problematic for my guys Joe Dolan, Matt Camp, and Matt Brown.

I’ve thought about college and CFL fantasy football, but I really don’t see enough interest to make it a viable endeavor and most importantly I’m not confident that we can produce an excellent product. That’s why we stopped doing fantasy baseball, because I wasn’t comfortable with the quality of the product. My wife calls me “all-or-nothing boy” because I’m either 100% in, or I’m out completely. I wouldn’t be 100% in with something other than covering the NFL for fantasy football purposes.

So for as long as it takes, we’re going to sit back and hope that we can once again do what we do best, which is cover the National Football League. As for what we’re going to be doing if there is a long lockout as it appears will be the case, we’re going to be producing our content as usual. I’m still confident there will be a season, and if it takes a while for that to be a reality, we’re going to be ready as always with a ton of content (such as our massive player profiles) to get everyone pumped up for the upcoming NFL campaign. If things drag on a while, my goal is to be able to break the news that the labor situation is over and we’ll have a season. And then very shortly thereafter announce that we’ve got 2011 profiles and projections on all players of note that total about 100,000 words. This stuff takes months to produce, anyway, so when the NFL flips its switch back on, we’ll be ready.

If there is no season, well, that would be quite harsh, especially for me. But we sure as hell aren’t going anywhere. We’ll do what we can to pay the bills, and we’ll reflect all year about how good we had it covering the NFL for a season and we’ll be back more motivated than ever in 2012. I highly doubt it will come to that, but I figured I’d make that clear. For the record, my position on the current labor situation in the NFL is that we’re currently in a process. Each side is looking to get the best deal possible, and both sides seemingly feel the best way to do it is through the courts.

It’s unfortunate that we all have to endure this process, but when you think about it, this is just business. It may not be good business, but it’s just business. I believe the fact that they are going through these lengths is directly tied to how they can’t let the 2011 season slip away: there is too much at stake.

There’s no doubt this NFL labor situation is looking very unfortunate for the fans, but if it’s any solace whatsoever, just these last 4-5 weeks with the prospect of no league up in our grills, we’re all more motivated than ever to crank out the best content in the business.

I’m still 95% sure that’s what we’ll be doing in 2011 – eventually.

We’re certainly not out of the woods yet, and we’re trying to resist the urge to assume it’s all going to work out this next week or two, it certainly seems as if enough momentum has been created to get a new CBA done this month, possibly even by the end of this week. But again, the negotiations do still seem fragile and the two sides reportedly still have a lot of work to do, so we have not put the champagne on ice just yet.

I do think there will be a 2011 season, and I’m more confident in that right now than I’ve been all year, but that still has to come to pass. What I’m really hoping for is a quick resolution this month, so we can get rolling with our free agency reviews and NFL draft previews (which we’re going to do regardless of what happens). I just want to [...]]]> This past week was a pretty tense week for all of us here at FantasyGuru.com. While we remained convinced the 2011 NFL season, at least in some form, was not  in jeopardy, things were looking quite hairy for a moment there mid-week, and also later in the week.

We’re certainly not out of the woods yet, and we’re trying to resist the urge to assume it’s all going to work out this next week or two, it certainly seems as if enough momentum has been created to get a new CBA done this month, possibly even by the end of this week. But again, the negotiations do still seem fragile and the two sides reportedly still have a lot of work to do, so we have not put the champagne on ice just yet.

I do think there will be a 2011 season, and I’m more confident in that right now than I’ve been all year, but that still has to come to pass. What I’m really hoping for is a quick resolution this month, so we can get rolling with our free agency reviews and NFL draft previews (which we’re going to do regardless of what happens). I just want to get back to normal, a desire I’m sure is shared by every NFL fan on the planet.

The good news for our readers is this experience has certainly put our jobs into better perspective for us. I will admit there is a certain dread you feel when you’re staring at the prospect of producing 300+ player profiles. It’s a process that seems like it will never end, especially since we go into such great detail. It literally takes months, with 4-5 people actively involved in the process. But that dread pales in comparison to the possibility that our business will essentially be shut down because there is nothing to cover.

So once this labor negotiation is over, readers can expect to see a pep in our proverbial step.  I know we’ll be more passionate than ever about what we do, and I know that will translate to an even better product.

In the meantime, if you’re wondering what we’ll be doing while the NFL season (for now) remains in limbo, of course: player profiles.

Bring ‘em on!

For example, I know there are a lot of people who took a good amount of time to enter their custom scoring systems into MyGuru. Well, if you did, they have all been wiped out and you have to start again.

While that sounds like a buzzkill, there’s a good reason for it: we’ve completely redesigned the thing. I had a vision of what it should be, and our programmer Jeff Mitchell, who is in fact the man, got it done.

So head over and check it out. Yes, you do have to create your teams again, but you’ll find it’s much easier and faster to do now. I’m really happy with the layout of it all, and it looks so much better. The older version was, admittedly, confusing. This new version is very straightforward and intuitive. Everything is done by team now, but if you don’t want to add your [...]]]> First of all, I would like to give big ups to you. That is right, you. It seems you clearly understand we are bringing things up to a new level this year, and by doing so we’re creating some speed bumps along the way. But ultimately, as they say, it’s “all good.”

For example, I know there are a lot of people who took a good amount of time to enter their custom scoring systems into MyGuru. Well, if you did, they have all been wiped out and you have to start again.

While that sounds like a buzzkill, there’s a good reason for it: we’ve completely redesigned the thing. I had a vision of what it should be, and our programmer Jeff Mitchell, who is in fact the man, got it done.

So head over and check it out. Yes, you do have to create your teams again, but you’ll find it’s much easier and faster to do now. I’m really happy with the layout of it all, and it looks so much better. The older version was, admittedly, confusing. This new version is very straightforward and intuitive. Everything is done by team now, but if you don’t want to add your players and all that, you can just create a team and scoring system, and you’ll see customized information. But it definitely is cool to create a team so you can see custom news and notes, projections, etc. You can also take advantage of our Roster Analyzer for the regular season. You can actually check it out now, once you enter your players and the number of starters you can use at each position. If you do this, the Roster Analyzer will look at your roster using our preseason projections and show you what we think your starting lineup should be right now. Once the season starts, it’ll go by each week. The only thing left for us to do is the little + icon on this, which when it’s working will collapse all the player news on the right so there’s less stuff on the page and it’s only your players.

Here’s a complete overview of the tool, which is taken right from the MyGuru page

Why did we redesign MyGuru?

We’ve completely redesigned this area in 2010, so if you’re used to this tool, here are a few things you should know.

• It’s much easier to use. The old design was confusing.
• We’ve dramatically improved/sped up the method for adding/removing players.
• It’s more appealing aesthetically.
• It utilizes our new “Guru Glance” feature. You can now click on your player’s names and view a wealth of information. This is a great addition if you’re looking to compare some players on your team (click the players you want to compare).
• It’s much easier to switch from team to team using the pull-down menu on the right.
• Player news is now completely separated by team, as opposed to all player news for all teams.

Other notable changes for those familiar with MyGuru

• This portal is now 100% tied to your fantasy teams. You don’t have to add players to your team, but to view custom information you have to first create a team and input its scoring system. Once you do you’ll be able to view custom information throughout the site for your league(s) by using the pull-down menu.
• We’ve given you an easy way to access all the teams you’ve created below. Click on any of links associated with your team to do things like modify the scoring, add/remove players, or view custom news, stats, and projections for just your players. Please note: if you click on any of the tabs to access a specific area of MyGuru for any of your teams, there is a pull-down menu on the right side of the navigation bar to switch over to another team you have saved.

MyGuru Information/Overview

Even if you’ve used MyGuru before and don’t recall how it works or are unsure how it now works with the changes, the best way to explain the tool is to start from scratch and explain how to set this up in step-by-step fashion:

• First up, create a team name below and click “create team.”
• You now have to enter team information (# of starters at each position), input your scoring system, and add players (if you have players). You can do all of this by clicking on the appropriate links below, or you can click on the “Manage” link in the above navigation bar and do everything at once.
• Click “Manage” and enter your number of starters at each position, modify the scoring system to best mirror yours, and add players if you already have your team set.

You’re done.

Now, when you navigate the site, you’ll see near the top of each database page (Projections, Leaders, Points Allowed, etc.) your team shows up on the pull-down menu. Simply toggle to your team, and you’re then able to view custom data to your scoring system(s).

And as you access MyGuru, you can access any of your teams and view news for your players, projections, stats, and more. To switch to another team, simple use the pull-down menu on the right of the MyGuru navigation bar.

Roster Analyzer (In-Season)

Once the season starts, click on the “Analyze” button, and if you’ve told us how many players you can start at each position and who your players are, you can view our suggested starting lineup for the week in seconds, along with current player news on your guys.

I wanted to remind people that very soon we’ll be rolling out a redesign of MyGuru. This is going to be WAY better in terms of ease of use, functionality, and aesthetics. HOWEVER, it will require us to clear out everyone’s pre-set scoring systems, teams, etc. It’s the only way to make it happen. But the good news is you’ll find that adding and removing players (which was cumbersome before) is a breeze. It’ll all be worth it, trust me.

In addition, I hope to introduce our new fantasy game next week. It’s an in-season game, so there’s no huge rush, but I’m really excited about it. We’ve polled people for three years to see if they’d be interested [...]]]> As I said in a previous post, I am not exactly great in terms of planning site enhancements, but as anyone in this kind of business (or anything tech-wise) can appreciate, when you think something’s going to take a month, it’s probably going to take 2 ½ months. And as I write this, there has yet to be a single preseason game played, so we’re not incredibly late on our 2010 improvements and enhancements (and several of them were rolled out months ago).

I wanted to remind people that very soon we’ll be rolling out a redesign of MyGuru. This is going to be WAY better in terms of ease of use, functionality, and aesthetics. HOWEVER, it will require us to clear out everyone’s pre-set scoring systems, teams, etc. It’s the only way to make it happen. But the good news is you’ll find that adding and removing players (which was cumbersome before) is a breeze. It’ll all be worth it, trust me.

In addition, I hope to introduce our new fantasy game next week. It’s an in-season game, so there’s no huge rush, but I’m really excited about it. We’ve polled people for three years to see if they’d be interested to play against other subscribers in our community and the response has been overwhelming. It’s a weekly salary cap contest. Each week will be its own contest. The fees are minimal, and the cash prizes are very good. In addition, there’s a grand prize to the team that scores the most points for the whole year that may blow you away. We’re going to roll it out soon because we’ll be offering a special “Season Pass” subscription rate. This will be a discounted price that will gain you access to all 17 weeks of the contest – and it will give you the best (and probably the only) chance to win the grand prize. There are a couple of other cool aspects that will be known soon, but I wanted to give a heads up. If you’re looking for another league or contest this year, you should probably stop your search and just roll with us in 2010.

But the point of today’s post is to “soft launch” a new little mock draft engine we’re offering to subscribers, courtesy of our friends at myfantasyleague.com. This one was kind of a last-minute deal, so I thank them for helping us out and getting it rolling for us. However, since it’s a last-minute offering, it’s not perfect, and I’m not sure it’s flaws will be corrected, since it’s crunch time for everyone in this biz. The biggest issue is probably that there are no fantasy defenses in the mix. That’s a buzz kill, but since we’re big on waiting on our DTs this year, it’s not the end of the world. It’s definitely good enough to use and for readers to gather and mock.

Here are some more specifics:

Drafts take place at 9 AM, 3 PM, and 9 PM Eastern every single day, with multiple options for each time-slot: PPR, non-PPR, IDP, and teams from 8 to 16.

The idea behind this tool, of course, is not just to help out our subscribers by offering a place to draft with other FG.com users, but also to increase the sense of community on the message boards, hoping to have users band together to plan and run these drafts themselves, using our message boards for communication. But you can go in any day and play around with it yourself and practice drafting.

Here’s how the drafts work:

1. Go to http://www2.myfantasyleague.com/mockdrafts/gurumocks.php. If the current time is between 9 PM–9 AM Eastern, you’ll see a list of drafts set up for 9 AM. If you’re between 9 AM–3 PM Eastern, you’ll see a list for 3 PM. And if you’re between 3 PM-9 PM Eastern, you’ll see a list for 9 PM. Simple.
2. In the top left corner of the screen, enter a team name and an e-mail address. Once “registering,” you’ll be sent an e-mail shortly before the draft detailing the draft, how to reconnect if you encounter any problems, and how to evaluate your draft after the fact. Once you enter a team name and a valid e-mail address, you can select your desired draft position in any of the drafts, and then click “Enter Draft.” This will redirect you to a waiting room. If you leave the waiting room at any time, your draft position will be free for the taking, so either don’t leave, or make sure you get right back in as soon as you can.

Note: There is some question as to the reliability of the e-mail mentioned above being delivered. Check your junk mail folder, but you don’t need to get the e-mail to use this tool if you stay on the draft site.

Simply head to the draft room close to 9am, 3pm, and 9pm ETand select the draft you'd like to participate in and the draft spot. Or, organize as draft as best as you can and have people show up at your time and for your draft

Once drafters are in the waiting room, they will be redirected to the live draft once the start time (9 AM, 3 PM, 9 PM) rolls around. If any draft spots are unfilled, the draft room will automatically draft based on current ADP data. So, in theory, you could draft by yourself in any slot of your choosing. From the point the draft starts, it works like any MFL live draft (for more information about this and anything else about MFL, head to http://football.myfantasyleague.com/2010/support).

The point is to create a simple and quick place for our subscribers to gather when they get “the draft itch,” which is certainly prevalent around this time of year. Utilizing the message boards to organize and plan these drafts is our ultimate goal, but as we mentioned above, you can choose to draft alone with multiple computerized teams. As for our involvement, we’d like to analyze any drafts that go particularly well, just like we’ve be doing with our “old” method.

But feel free to chat with people on the MBs and try to coordinate mocks at the aforementioned times.

I know this setup isn’t perfect, but hopefully it’s still useful enough and you’re able to work around it and do some mocking.

We do have a few more interesting things coming down the pike very soon, including a weekly salary-cap contest that we will have this year with low entry fees and large cash prizes (stay tuned for details on how to sign up for all 17 weeks of the NFL season) and a really cool GRAND PRIZE, and a redesign of MyGuru hopefully completed this week (it’s way better and easier to follow).

But right now I’d like to “soft launch” here on the blog the new software package we’ll be offering this year. I know this has been an area we’ve been lacking in, so this year we’ve teamed up with a major industry player in this realm. Here’s more information on the software.

Draft Analyzer Introduction

We’re excited to roll out new draft tool [...]]]> I would not exactly say that I am the best in terms of planning, so I can be behind with some developmental stuff, and I certainly am this year. But better late than never, and since it’s only August 1^st, we’re not that late. Bottom line, I’m always committed to improving our offerings, and I’m taking that to a new level in 2010, so it’s mostly “all good.”

We do have a few more interesting things coming down the pike very soon, including a weekly salary-cap contest that we will have this year with low entry fees and large cash prizes (stay tuned for details on how to sign up for all 17 weeks of the NFL season) and a really cool GRAND PRIZE, and a redesign of MyGuru hopefully completed this week (it’s way better and easier to follow).

But right now I’d like to “soft launch” here on the blog the new software package we’ll be offering this year. I know this has been an area we’ve been lacking in, so this year we’ve teamed up with a major industry player in this realm. Here’s more information on the software.

Draft Analyzer Introduction

We’re excited to roll out new draft tool software stemming from an agreement between FantasyGuru.com and DraftAnalyzer.com for the 2010 season. This software, both Web-based (PC and Mac) and desktop based (PC only), is a fantastic tool for running quick and easy mock drafts or analyzing your real drafts as they happen in real time or after the fact. And the best part? The version of the software posted on our site is synced up with FantasyGuru.com, so all of our projections, rankings, and recommendations are built right into the software. As we update our projections twice a week, they will also be updated in the software.

Just click on the link to the Draft Analyzer software and it will automatically load with a single license for each FantasyGuru.com subscriber

For starters, head to www.DraftAnalyzer.com to familiarize yourself with the software and everything it’s capable of doing. There is a section for brief but useful video tutorials, and there’s also a live support button on the site (which is also built right into the software on FantasyGuru.com. Check the “Help” tab in the top right corner). If you don’t want to watch the videos or prefer to fly by the seat of your pants (as a lot of fantasy owners do), there’s a fantastic visual key built right into the program; just click on the “Overview” tab to the left of the help button.

On DraftAnalyzer.com, you may notice that there’s a fee to purchase and download the software; this is not true for FantasyGuru.com subscribers. If you access our version of the software through/while logged into FantasyGuru.com, you can use the Web-based program and download the desktop-based program for no additional charge (on the Web version, just click “Desktop” to download).

Here’s the link to the software on our site.

If you click this link and are logged in, you automatically get 1 license to the software – FREE with your FantasyGuru.com Subscription.

If you choose to download the iPhone mobile app (which syncs up with the Web-based version, it’s really cool) through DraftAnalyzer.com’s store, it will cost you $6.95, because we did not want to give away our projections and rankings for free to non-subscribers, who can also access the app. It should be noted that buying the mobile app is not a requirement. You can access the iPhone/iPad application in the iTunes store here.

To download the FantasyGuru.com Cheat Sheet iPhone/iPad Application, which can sync to your online account for the software and save your custom scoring settings, go to the iTunes Store and search “FantasyGuru.com.” You’ll see our podcasts and below that links to the applications.

Beyond the basics of getting started, it’s important to realize what the primary function of this software is. While the option to mock draft with the computer from any draft position is available to you, you can also plug in results from a draft you’ve participated in to assess your team’s strengths and weaknesses through the FantasyGuru.com projections, which are integrated into the program. The main function of this tool is to aid the user in player selection during their actual draft(s).

Yes, you can plug in your own scoring system, too (just go “League Settings -> Edit Scoring Rules”), and the projections and rankings will adjust to your settings. In the “League Settings” tab, beyond editing the scoring, you can do just about everything you can do with any online commissioner software: you can create or delete teams, assign owners to teams, edit your draft order, edit roster size, change the style of your draft (snake, straight, auction), or even add keepers. The software is also capable of saving multiple leagues, so you do not have to keep re-entering a league when you want to take a look at it.

After customizing the Draft Analyzer with all your settings and quirks customized to your league, you can run the draft in any way you see fit. You can input all picks manually, you can select one team to draft, or you can run a fully-computerized mock draft with the software. Using the “Commish Tools” tab, you can mock one pick at a time (“Auto Pick Mock Draft”), or one round at a time (“Auto Pick Round Mock Draft”), and the software will stop when your pick arrives. To manually enter picks for all teams, simply scroll down to the list of available players, which also includes a handy search, and click “Draft.”

The online version of the software has more bells and whistles than the desktop version

If you draft one team and allow the computer to pick all others, it’s a quick and simple way to prepare for your draft and allow you to analyze the results in a neat manner using stats, graphs, and analysis tools built into the Draft Analyzer. But you’ll also notice the software clearly is not human; it often will recommend a pick or draft based on the projected best player available without much thought to position. For instance, it’s not uncommon for a computer team to select Philip Rivers and Brett Favre in back-to-back rounds if both are the projected “best player available” at a given time. By the same token, defenses and kickers will probably go a little bit early when using the software to mock.

Tips and Random Observations

• When entering your scoring system, try to be as specific as possible when entering everything, as it will give you the best suggested picks and if you’re running a mock draft, it will also give you the most legitimate picks for the computer-run teams.

• If you are running a mock draft where you are in control of one team, you can pick an entire round all at once (stopping at your pick) or you can make one pick at a time, which gives you more of a chance to analyze each pick before and after you select.

• While the web version gives you a look at the players with their pictures and graphs, the desktop version lets you see more players at once, but more in list form with the projected statistics.

• Either version is fine to use, but the web version definitely has a few more bells and whistles, whereas the desktop version is pretty basic with its lists of top players by position and overall.

• As we tell you with our projections, the suggested picks are just that, suggested. Sometimes it may suggest to you to draft a player at a position you may already be set at or someone you may not agree with. Do not treat these suggestions as the end all, be all.

• We know many of you are in multiple leagues with different scoring systems in each league. With this analyzer you can set up each of those leagues and see how different each draft comes out.

• Remember, you can use this analyzer at your actual draft by entering in scoring system, team names, draft order, and draft style and then entering the picks as they happen. By doing this, you can see just how each team is shaping up and where they might be strong or weak, which can give you an idea of how you should pick going forward.

• But again, the primary goal with this software is to help you DURING your actual draft and to recommend the best picks from a fantasy point perspective.

If you have questions, you can post them to our Tech Support message board. There’s also a help link on the upper right of the software on our site (it’s actually cut off a little because our page size is smaller than the software frame, but the link works).

Access the software on our site here.