ROSTERLIFT

Ranks are an ordering, not a quantity. The #12 player is not twice as good as #24, so ranks cannot be added up to compare two sides — turning an ordering into a number takes a model, and the model is arguable. Here is exactly what this one does, so you can argue with it.

The curve

Value falls off as a power of overall rank, because that is the shape the problem has: the gap between #1 and #5 dwarfs the gap between #80 and #84. The slider above is the exponent.

Replacement level

A player is worth what they give you over the best player at their position you could have had anyway. That baseline comes from your own league settings: how many of each position everyone has to start. It is why kickers and defenses come out near zero, and why superflex moves quarterbacks so much — it pushes the quarterback baseline from around QB13 to around QB25, and the curve is steep there.

What it does not know

• Your roster. A team already deep at running back values a third one differently, and this does not look.
• Injuries, schedule, or anything else that is not in the ranking you chose. Change the ranking and the answer changes.
• Whether the ranking you chose was written for your format. Scoring format is tracked; one-quarterback versus superflex is not, and a one-quarterback ranking has QB1 far lower than a superflex league would. Moving the baseline cannot undo that.
• That a two-for-one flatters the side getting two players, because only starters score. The totals are shown separately for that reason.