What’s going on, #Family?

How is your fantasy football draft prep going?

Have you read through all the featured articles? Have you studied everything inside the Strategy Sessions section? Have you watched all of the Player Profile videos? And you dynasty league junkies, have you gone through the amazingly in-depth analysis of the 2018 NFL Draft? If you’ve answered yes to all of these questions, then you are exactly where you need to be. If you said no at any point, you better hop to it. Week 1 of the NFL regular season is right around the corner.

Now that you’ve answered my questions, allow me to answer yours –

When do we update our player rankings and the Ultimate Cheat Sheet?

First off, allow me to point you in the direction of the time-stamp on our Rankings Page.

Whenever our rankings are adjusted, whether it’s standard or PPR, rookies of IDP, Top 100 or dynasty, this time stamp will reflect the exact time and date of the most recent update. It won’t tell you what the specific update is or exactly what the change was, but rest assured, all of our rankings are current to that date and time. If a player is injured, we will try to update at least that player as quickly as possible. However, we may need a little time to ascertain just where the other players impacted by the injury should slot.

For example: When Derrius Guice tore his ACL, we immediately dropped him in our running back rankings and made the appropriate adjustments to the rookie, dynasty and Top 100 rankings as well. We inserted Robert Kelley and Samaje Perine , but their true place in the ranks still needed time to develop. The same thing is happening with Adrian Peterson . He is listed, but where we believe he should rank still needs to be determined by how he plays in Friday’s preseason game and what the coaches are telling us about his potential use. Blindly adding him above or below certain players without a true understanding of his current talent level or expected role would be doing a disservice to you. We get that this is right in the middle of draft season, but rankings and our Ultimate Cheat Sheet are not about hot takes, nor should they be.

And that brings me to the most important point…

We study the player rankings, the Ultimate Cheat Sheet and all of our featured articles – Offensive Lines, Training Camp Battles, Handcuff Grid, Sleepers, Busts, etc. – daily. Yes, that’s right, daily. My nose is in this Draft Guide every single day.

However, that does not mean that the player rankings and the Ultimate Cheat Sheet are changed every day. The word ‘update’ means just that – the content is brought ‘up to date.’ If there is no news, if there are no injuries to report, then there is no need for an update.

What constitutes a need for an update? Injuries, of course. If there is a major injury, whether it’s to a skill player or an offensive lineman, we will update the affected players as we deem necessary. A torn ACL warrants a change in the rankings. A strained hamstring, if not deemed serious, does not. Marlon Mack has been slow to heal and is in danger of missing Week 1. That prompted a change in the rankings and the Cheat Sheet. Being told that Carson Wentz may miss Week 1 is actually old news and that fact has already been baked into his place in the rankings as well as his place in the Cheat Sheet. If we are told he will miss an addition three weeks, well that would certainly prompt a change, but just a reiteration of what we here at Fantasy Alarm already expected, does not.

For the same token, we are not going to change our rankings based on the hype from some local beat writer. When Tim Twentyman of the Lions official web site pointed out that Kenny Golladay took more two-receiver reps than Golden Tate in the second preseason game, people freaked out. OK, maybe it was more the Golladay-truthers freaking out, but we certainly weren’t taking it as a sign to drop Tate in our rankings and bump up Golladay.

“But Howard, they said Jim Bob Cooter is going to use more 3 and 4-WR sets!”

I got news for you. Every team is starting to use more 3 and 4-WR sets. It’s the latest NFL trend and after talking to Steelers GM Kevin Colbert who said that everyone was leaning in that direction, it made me want to change Golladay’s ranking even less and you should definitely listen to that interview on SiriusXM On Demand. Bottom line, the hype machine doesn’t, nor should it, alter our rankings.

And just for the record, because the Ultimate Cheat Sheet does not have a time stamp, I will happily tell you it was last updated Saturday, September 1 at 7pm ET. The PDF Download should fully populate with updated rankings and cheat sheet no later than Sunday, September 2 at 8am ET.

So that’s where we’re at, #FAmily. You can feel comfortable in knowing that we are working extremely hard to bring you the best information to help you crush your drafts and win your fantasy football leagues. We are updating continuously, but not haphazardly. Trust in us, trust in the process and let’s win these championships with clear thinking, quality analysis, level heads and most of all, together.

And by the way, if you're reading this and you DON'T have the Draft Guide? What are you waiting for? Click here NOW!!!