Former Niner Back Carrying the Ball for Fantasy
If you’re at least in your late 20s, you probably remember Roger Craig as a player (or the manager of the San Francisco Giants, but that’s a different, much older fellow).
Well, in retirement, Craig apparently has his sights set on the fantasy game. Not only does the No. 2 career rusher in 49ers history have his own advice blog for fantasy football players (really, who doesn’t at this point), but he takes the craft so far as to include detailed statistical analytics.
In fact, the analysis tool that he favors, Spotfire, is now available for sampling by anyone looking for a way to get deeper into the numbers in preparation for their draft. This joins a growing number of online analytical tools directed at the growing fantasy football market, a field that added Sports Data Hub at the beginning of this month.
Craig appears to be more than just another player trying to cash in on his recognizable name after his career is over. According to the Spotfire press release, the former running back is a business development executive with TIBCO Software Inc., Spotfire’s parent company.
A quick browse of his fantasy analysis shows that Craig isn’t afraid to go out on a limb either. He uses Spotfire’s consistency ratings to rank Brian Westbrook as the top running back for the coming season and cites injury risk in slotting Steven Jackson 16th. The ranking of San Francisco’s Vernon Davis as the No. 5 tight end smacks of a bit of homerism, but I guess we’ll let the season decide that.
His blog also presents advice video clips from Craig, although the ones I viewed were boring and didn’t offer much worthwhile information. Here he is talking about the top of the rankings at his former position:
Tags: 49ers, brian westbrook, fantasy football, football, nfl, roger craig, running backs, san francisco 49ers, spotfire, statistical analysis, steven jackson, tight ends, vernon davis
