Welcome back.

This is a proprietary weekly tool provided by RosterWatch for our PRO community. You can download it as always, or use the new, sortable and user-friendly online version.

It is designed to be a decision-making tool for gauging the defensive opponents your fantasy players face. If you are new to this, our time-tested and most popular flagship in-season tool, the instructions for use couldn’t be simpler, and can be found below.

RW PRO users can download the matchup tool (or access the online tool for use) in the downloads section of their profile by clicking HERE.

DO NOT RELY ON “FANTASY POINTS AGAINST” as your primary indicator for player matchups ever again. It is a flawed metric, as you’ll see, which will cause you heartache and struggle.

The rankings represented here are derived via a proprietary algorithm which takes into account not only standard “fantasy points against” metrics, but also (and most importantly) weighted averages and medians of separate individual player and defensive-unit scouting grades for members of the 2018 unit that will be run-stopping, pass-rushing, or covering against the position in question, along with other analytic trends including projected game-script, game-flow, Vegas indicators, volume of total snaps and much, much, more.

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INSTRUCTIONS:

To use the tool, think about your fantasy player.

Let’s say you own Steelers RB Jaylen Samuels, and would like to see how he matches up against the defense he faces this week.

First, look down the list and find the Steelers (Samuels’ team). You will see that the Steelers’ opponent (OPP) is the Bengals in Week 17, and there are four color-coded cells in the horizontal columns marked “OPP vs. QBs,” “OPP vs. RBs,” “OPP vs. WRs” and “OPP vs. TEs.”

These are the OPPONENT’S (in this case the Bengals’) OFFICIAL ROSTERWATCH MATCHUP RANKINGS AGAINST THESE GIVEN POSITIONS.

AGAIN – They are not the rankings for the Steelers, but rather, for the OPPONENT THEY FACE IN THIS GIVEN WEEK (the Bengals). In the “OPP vs. RBs” cell for the Steelers, you’ll notice a big, blue ‘No. 1’. This means Samuels faces our best possible matchup for opposing RBs in Week 17 (the Bengals). This is a great indicator for owners of Samuels (or James Conner if he is able to go) and is a positive one for those thinking of rostering them in DFS contests.

Repeat the same process for other players on your roster as you are trying to decide which players to start and which to sit in season-long leagues. Also use it to identify which upside-plays to roster in DFS contests based on matchup.

With the launch of the online tool, you can now sort by any column: vegas line, over/under, and matchup ranks vs. each position for easy reference.

“1″ is the best (easiest) matchup, “32″ is the worst (toughest).

COLOR-CODES
(you like blue matchups best)

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

++RW Proprietary Algorithm