Looking at Fantasy Football Player Rankings

When looking to stock your fantasy football team the first thing you probably want to look at is fantasy football player rankings. These numbers rank the players in the NFL based on their fantasy football value.

However, there is a difference between how good a player and his team are versus fantasy football player rankings. Yes, many times if you look at the top player at their position it coincides with the top teams in the league. But many times, fantasy football player rankings are based on one thing: Numbers! That's all fantasy football player rankings really tell you and you can find all of that on Fantasy Football Starters.com.

Look at some of the top fantasy football player rankings from last year and it's not always easy to see the relation, or the non-relations between statistics and wins. Start with quarterbacks. Going on last year's numbers, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer was the top QB in the league. Palmer threw for 3,886 yards, 32 touchdowns and was intercepted 12 times. Those are pretty good numbers, making him the best fantasy football QB in the league. But his team wasn't necessarily the best team. The Bengals won their division but there were several other teams that had better records, despite few having better fantasy football player rankings.

At running back, you can make the argument that top fantasy football player rankings equal success on the field. That's because the top-rated running back was Seattle Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander. The former University of Alabama star rushed for 27 touchdowns - a new single-season NFL record - and more than 1,800 yards. Not coincidentally, the Seahawks had the best record in the NFC and reached the Super Bowl.

A look at the fantasy football player rankings for running backs, and it's clear that most of the top backs play for successful teams. However, there's the case of Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson. Johnson, who didn't play most of the season but still rushed for 1,750 yards, played for a team that didn't make the playoffs. That didn't affect his fantasy football player rankings, which made him a top five running back in the league.

Wide Receiver might be the position most indirectly related to a teams' success in relation to fantasy football player rankings. A look at the top 10-12 receivers based on fantasy football player rankings reveals some good players for some good teams, such as Cincinnati's Chad Johnson and Indianapolis' Marvin Harrison. Then, there are players in the top 10 like Miami's Chris Chambers. Chambers caught 82 passes for 1,118 yards and 11 touchdowns. The Dolphins did improve considerably from the year before to finish 7-9, but the team still failed to make the playoffs. The rest of the top 12 sees players like St. Louis' Torry Holt, Dallas' Terry Glenn and Arizona's Anquan Boldin. All three had 1,000-plus yard receiving seasons but their teams didn't make the playoffs.

Of course, when talking about yardage and fantasy football player rankings, that isn't the biggest factor. The biggest factors in fantasy football player rankings are touchdowns. There are running backs that rush for more than 1,000 yards with a healthy per-carry average but if he doesn't score touchdowns, he really isn't generating the maximum fantasy football points.

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