PPR Winners and Losers: Which Players are Helped and Hurt by PPR?

Aug 23, 2017

Steve Andress

My favorite word at any fantasy draft party is ‘magazine’. When somebody in my league says that word, I instantly know who the dead money is. Seriously, who uses a fantasy magazine anymore to make draft decisions? With content that was written before training camps opened, no less.

I feel like Matt Damon in Rounders in those situations, mopping up at a random Atlantic City casino poker table. (Pro tip: Atlantic City sucks now.)

4for4 subscribers should know this weapon well, having the most accurate PPR rankings in the industry since 2010, coupled with customizable rankings to match all of their league’s scoring settings in the Full Impact section.

Below I’ll go over the players with the greatest discrepancies between their 4for4 top-200 standard and PPR rankings.

Note: I’ll only look at RBs and WRs, as Eagles TE Zach Ertz and Chiefs TE Travis Kelce were the only TEs to improve PPR ranking. Each only moved up one spot: Ertz from TE10 to TE9 in PPR and Kelce from TE2 to TE1 in PPR.

At the end of the article, you’ll also find a table to help you easily compare 4for4’s standard and PPR top-200 rankings in one place, with the first column noting PPR Score. This is the difference between a player’s PPR and standard ranking. The higher the PPR Score, the more the player benefits from PPR scoring.

PPR Winners: Running Backs

Danny Woodhead (+46)

A 4for4 favorite may be ready for a triumphant return to PPR leagues, where he was once a top-5 finisher in this format. Obviously, staying healthy is the big question mark here; however, Kenneth Dixon was already lost for the season, and Terrance West shouldn’t be too much of a threat to Woodhead’s passing game role.

James White (+35)

White is outside the top-40 RBs in our standard rankings but checks in at RB32 in PPR. Money talks in the NFL, and the Patriots gave White a contract extension this offseason. Sixty receptions may be hard to repeat given the new weapons added and returning to the offense, but he’s definitely more valuable in PPR than standard.

Theo Riddick (+25)

Riddick missed six games last season, but he was the No. 8 RB in PPR on a points per game basis in 2016. Ameer Abdullah is back from injury in 2017. So, we don’t like Riddick as much, but he’s still a decent PPR value in drafts, moving from outside the top-30 RBs in standard to RB25 in our PPR rankings.

Darren Sproles (+29)

LeGarrette Blount has stunk it up this preseason, and he has caught more than ten passes in a season only once anyway. The Eagles need Sproles ... again. And here he is, ready to outperform his ADP once again in what could be his final NFL season. Sproles moves inside our top-30 RBs in PPR formats, coming off 50 receptions in back-to-back years.

PPR Winners: Wide Receivers

Larry Fitzgerald (+40)

Entering his age 34 season, Bruce Arians recently commented he only has two NFL-level receivers on the roster. Obviously, he was not including Fitzgerald in that comment. Why am I mentioning this? Because it appears, once again, Fitz doesn’t have much competition for targets. He’s had more than 100 receptions and 145+ targets each of the past two seasons. He moves way up in our PPR rankings to WR15 from WR31 in standard.

Golden Tate (+29)

Tate’s reception totals from 2014 to 2016: 99, 90, 91. Now, Anquan Boldin is no longer on the Lions, giving Tate a better chance to add a couple more touchdowns to his total of four last year. Tate moves from outside the top-30 WRs in our standard rankings to a top-25 PPR option at the position.

Willie Snead (+22)

Snead has averaged about 70 receptions in his first two seasons, despite missing a game each year. Now, Brandin Cooks leaves more than 110 targets up for grabs. Sure, Ted Ginn will get some of those, but it’s not crazy to think Snead could catch another 10 balls this season (maybe more). He just cracks our top-20 PPR receivers and is an excellent draft-day value.

PPR Losers: Running Backs

LeGarrette Blount (-44)

Blount was already never a pass-catching RB, and now reports out of Philadelphia are that he has been struggling mightily in his new offense. Blount hasn’t had double-digit receptions in a season since 2011. He’s way down at RB49 in our PPR rankings.

Adrian Peterson (-41)

If Mark Ingram is not the RB catching balls for the Saints offense, it’s going to be rookie Alvin Kamara, who has already been playing with the first team offense in preseason. Peterson may have averaged more than 30 receptions in his last three healthy seasons, but this will be a committee backfield both on the ground and through the air. His PPR ranking of RB31 is 10 spots lower in PPR, down to RB41.

Jonathan Stewart (-38)

Stewart has caught more than 20 passes just once in the past five seasons. Combine that with his injury risk (missed three games each of the past three years, 10 games in 2013 and seven games in 2012), and Stewart gets knocked down eight RB spots in our PPR rankings compared to his standard ranking of RB30

Derrick Henry (-26)

Henry’s ninth-round ADP was already hard to swallow in standard leagues, where he’ll likely require an injury to the fairly durable DeMarco Murray to return on the investment you’ll have to make. Henry's 13 receptions last year are even more of a PPR red flag. He barely makes the cut of our top-40 PPR RBs, seven spots lower in that positional ranking versus standard scoring.

PPR Losers: Wide Receiver

DeSean Jackson (-21)

D-Jax has only averaged 3.6 receptions in 24 games over the past two seasons. That’s a 16-game pace of only 57-58 receptions. He may be a deep threat, but a low volume of catches significantly moves Jackson down our PPR rankings. Instead of his WR32 standard ranking, he’s outside the top-40 WRs in PPR.

Martavis Bryant (-19)

In 24 career games, Bryant has averaged just four receptions per game. That comes out to a 64 reception pace over a 16 game season, and that’s not ideal for PPR. Factor in the potential of another league policy violation resulting in a season-long suspension, and Bryant moves from WR13 in our standard rankings down to WR28 in PPR.

Sammy Watkins (-11)

Watkins drops from WR21 in our standard rankings to WR30 in our PPR rankings. In addition to that, the change from the Bills to the Rams is also a downgrade for us, as Watkins was a top-15 receiver in our rankings pre-trade. Cooper Kupp appears to be a factor in the passing game in Los Angeles for the Rams this preseason, and it’s never ideal for a player to change teams in the middle of the preseason and have to learn a new offense on an extremely abbreviated schedule, let alone one helmed by a quarterback with as many question marks as Jared Goff.

The Bottom Line

You have to make sure your fantasy rankings are tailored for the scoring settings of your league, or your draft could turn into a disaster. Take advantage of the table below, as well as 4for4’s Full Impact hub.

You must be a subscriber to view the table comparing 4for4’s standard and PPR top-200 rankings...