FANTASY FOOTBALL ARTICLES

More BTA Rankings:  Quarterback  |  Running Back  |  Wide Receiver  |  Tight End

Better Than Average (BTA) was developed to show how players truly rank between themselves by looking at every game from last season and for each defense and determining three things:

"8" - Which players scored in the top 8 game performances for fantasy points allowed by a defense. Basically, which players had an above average performance (top 8 in a 16 game season) that a defense gave up.

"4" - Which players scored in the top 4 game performances for fantasy points allowed by a defense.

"1" - Who had the most fantasy points scored in a game against each defense last season. There could only by 32 such events per position since each defense can only allow one "best game".

BTA - Simply adding up the 1, 4 and 8 values to arrive at a numerical expression of how effective a quarterback truly was last year against all other players in his position. The ease or strength of schedule doesn't matter. Only what a player did against all other players in that position against that defense.

It is a challenge enough for any wideout to turn in the best performance against any defense given that it will typically face at least three different receivers per week. To do it more than once is a major feat and that shows just how remarkable Victor Cruz was in 2011 when his breakout year surprised even his fantasy owners.

This also suggests that Jordy Nelson should be considered as a new star when his team mate Greg Jennings never had any "best games" against a defense. And Torrey Smith only had two monster games last year but that was notable and as a rookie should portend better things to come this season.

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