Matt Waldman's 2017 RSP

[Coogan Football]

All good.
Yeah I fell for the "other" Mike Thomas too, whoops.
What did Snead say? Maybe we have us a post-hype sleeper? lol

Haha he just kind of looked at me like I was crazy and laughed


Me: good morning, Mr Snead, glad to see you here. Also, when are you gonna give me boy Mike Thomas a chance other than on special teams? The kid can ball

Les Snead: laughed and said "we'll see, I'll keep that in mind heading into the spring"

Nice guy though, kind enough to get a picture with him.

[onetwothree]

Misses happen. Important to see why it happened and what he adjusts with his scouting. For the most part, very thorough and very consistent.

The danger for me is having an opinion beforehand of a player and only seeking out favorable reports and dismissing anything that counters my biases. Have to remind myself to keep an open mind.

Crazy all the resources we have nowadays. I'm sure I'm not the only one that used graph paper and the Monday sports page to tabulate scores.

[MARKinMI]

Don't pay attention to the rankings. He himself in the RSP says he hates rankings and doesn't feel they tell enough of the story. I just read about what he sees and looks for when he looks at each player. Especially the players i won't take the time to study. Ranking these guys is on me not him. I just use his work to point me towards what I should be looking at. I've been buying this for years and I'm not going to ding the guy because he misses on some players. Everyone does, even the people who are paid by teams to do this. Expecting a perfect set of rankings from anyone is delusional imo.

[Goirish374]

Don't pay attention to the rankings.

agreeance.

many of the issues people have with the RSP are from using it the wrong way. he takes great pain to break his pre draft lists down into sub-comment tiers that, if you are not reading, you are missing.

in recent years this has gotten easier as he puts these sections in bold between the rankings. he might say, for example, after the top two guys in a position, that the next 8 guys have only committee caliber talent and should not be pursued in early rounds beyond the top talent at other positions. when you only look at who he has in a "top 10" you're making a pretty error.

further, he'll comment at the end of each player's section where he suspects their value will go and how you should approach drafting them before and after the NFL draft. this often includes statements on a highly ranked player like "would wait for the late second/early third round of april drafts."

[Goirish374]

inadvertent duplicate post

[ericanadian]

Bought the RSP last year and I find it inefficient. It's interesting reading, but if you're getting ready for a rookie draft, there are a lot of better ways you can spend your time than getting into the level of detail of the RSP.

[sunnyd23]

I completely bought into Cody Latimer when I read Waldman's breakdown and it blew up in my face. The thing of it is, you can't predict a player's desire to learn, work, or even their ability to learn an NFL scheme or process. That is where Latimer was done. But I digress.

Count me in as a proponent of the RSP. Keep in mind it's ONE tool for your research. The rankings are there for context, and nothing else. You will miss if you follow it to a T, but where I find it helpful is in the reasoning. Explaining & showing the work is key.

Use the RSP as a reference and how these players fit into the teams they are drafted by. And, take into account when a team hires a new coach, gets a new QB, or changes offensive philosophy.

[Jason3123]

I love Waldman but I do not follow his rankings whatsoever. He is a film scout, and he is scouting for football purposes, not fantasy purposes. Matt is a good resource though for me cause although I watch film I'm drafting off metrics/draft capital/opportunity at the end of the day. I use Matt to confirm things, or to see where we are wildly different, so I can go back and re-evaluate a player.

[clarion contrarion]

never bought it , likely never will just out of point of pride of doing my own work but the little I have been exposed to seems to be incredible. I just don't have the need or the time to sift 1600 pages deep into one person's opinion when it is released so close to the draft. I like to incorporate the many fine voices around the dynasty community and mesh them with my own observations , were I to purchase the RSP, I would be buried in it and miss plenty of podcasts and news from other sources thus over weighting one opinion . For all the praise and accolades he gets across the dynasty community he comes across as incredibly humble & selfless. Hell after all the $ the browns spent last year if they would just dropped 20$ for the RSP they would have had a better draft most likely.

[onetwothree]

Hell after all the $ the browns spent last year if they would just dropped 20$ for the RSP they would have had a better draft most likely.

[Steelersfan]

Bought the RSP last year and I find it inefficient. It's interesting reading, but if you're getting ready for a rookie draft, there are a lot of better ways you can spend your time than getting into the level of detail of the RSP.

My thoughts as well.

[Death_From_Above]

I love Waldman but I do not follow his rankings whatsoever. He is a film scout, and he is scouting for football purposes, not fantasy purposes. Matt is a good resource though for me cause although I watch film I'm drafting off metrics/draft capital/opportunity at the end of the day. I use Matt to confirm things, or to see where we are wildly different, so I can go back and re-evaluate a player.

Where I am at as well. As someone else said its ONE piece of a bigger pie. I do what Jason does as well, I build my board based off my very very professional and extremely accurate player analysis (no misses in the last 5 years, just ask my HR department) and use this as well as other tools to see the similarities and the differences and then go evaluate some more.

For the price you cant beat the amount of work put into this thing, and its a great tool to help you see exactly why he is valuing or devaluing a player because his notes are meticulous. My 2 cents.