Here is a tool we’ve designed to aid us in our continued mapping out of V.1 of the 2016 RosterWatch Cheat Sheet for redraft leagues. Use it as a reference and tie-breaker tool when participating mock drafts, MFL10s or in preparing for your fantasy football draft day.

If you are familiar with the tool, click here to be taken to the shared spreadsheet. For details about how the data is collected and how the chart should be read, etc. then read on …

We’ve come to our first version of initial tight end matchup rankings for the start of the 2016 season and we’ve projected them across the course of the season to get a gauge of overall strength of schedule. These rankings are subject to change through the preseason, but will not change drastically prior to Week 1 barring injuries to key personnel.

The matchup rankings represented here are derived via a proprietary algorithm which takes into account not only standard “fantasy points against” metrics from 2015, but also weighted averages of separate individual player scouting grades for the personnel who will be defending against the tight end for the given team. Trends to end 2015 are quantified when applicable and reflected in the overall matchup rating; as well as a substantial focus on offseason personnel and coaching changes.

BLUE: Best Matchups
LIGHT BLUE: Borderline Top Matchups
LIGHT RED: Borderline Bottom Matchups
RED: Worst Matchups

The tool is sorted by “SOS” which is total strength of schedule on the fantasy season. This number was come to by simply awarding a blue matchup two points, a light blue matchup one point, a light-red matchup minus one point and a red matchup minus two points. The total sum is listed in the “SOS” column. In a complete tie between TEs in a draft, we’d tend to select players ranked with better strengths of schedule according to the initial matchup tool.

The fast start column is the total sum in this manner for the first five games. We love to give a tie-breaking edge in drafts to players who are in position to get off to fast starts in their fantasy season, because we like to be a winning team coming into Weeks 4 and 5 — when losing owners can be dealt with from a position of strength in trade negotiations.

The playoff-schedule (p/o) is much further down the totem pole of tie-breakers and things we should be concerned about as prospective fantasy owners, but it’s always an interesting thing to look at and project.

PRO MEMBERS: Click here to access the shared spreadsheet

For the RB Tool, Click here.

For the WR Tool, Click here.