If you have ever played fantasy football, you know that quarterback is the most plentiful position, with tons of solid starters available for pickup off of the waiver wire, and running back is the most scarce, with very little top-flight talent. What I set out to do was to truly quantify the “Wins Above Replacement” of each Fantasy Football Player, by creating a “replacement-level” baseline for each position (essentially a player that you could pick up off of the waiver wire throughout the year), and then calculating which players had the most projected 2014 points above their position’s replacement level. Using 2014 projections from DraftShark.com (future projections may change, due to drawing on a combination of different projection services when they put out their 2014 projections, such as NumberFire or ESPN), I created the CornerThree WAR Top 200 Fantasy Football Players for 2014 (based off of PPR fantasy football).

Postion and Overall Rank Player CornerThree Fantasy WAR

RB 1 Charles,Jamaal 1.813 RB 2 McCoy,LeSean 1.793 WR 3 Thomas,Demaryius 1.79 WR 4 Marshall,Brandon 1.63 WR 5 Bryant,Dez 1.54 RB 6 Peterson,Adrian 1.513 WR 7 Jones,Julio 1.51 WR 8 Green,A.J. 1.43 WR 9 Johnson,Calvin 1.43 RB 10 Forte,Matt 1.413 RB 11 Manning,Peyton 1.36 RB 12 Lacy,Eddie 1.313 WR 13 Johnson,Andre 1.19 WR 14 Cruz,Victor 1.18 RB 15 Ellington,Andre 1.173 RB 16 Murray,DeMarco 1.173 RB 17 Ball,Montee 1.153 RB 18 Martin,Doug 1.143 RB 19 Moreno,Knowshon 1.143 QB 20 Brees,Drew 1.14 WR 21 Brown,Antonio 1.13 RB 22 Lynch,Marshawn 1.123 WR 23 Jackson,Vincent 1.12 RB 24 Gerhart,Toby 1.093 RB 25 Foster,Arian 1.093 WR 26 Jeffery,Alshon 1.07 RB 27 Stacy,Zac 1.043 WR 28 Patterson,Cordarrelle 1.02 WR 29 Nelson,Jordy 1.01 RB 30 Spiller,C.J. 0.983 WR 31 Edelman,Julian 0.98 QB 32 Stafford,Matthew 0.97 RB 33 Bell,Le’Veon 0.963 RB 34 Bush,Reggie 0.923 QB 35 Foles,Nick 0.9 TE 36 Graham,Jimmy 0.89 WR 37 Welker,Wes 0.89 WR 38 Wayne,Reggie 0.89 RB 39 Johnson,Chris 0.883 WR 40 Crabtree,Michael 0.88 RB 41 Jackson,Fred 0.873 WR 42 Allen,Keenan 0.87 WR 43 Fitzgerald,Larry 0.87 RB 44 Rice,Ray 0.843 WR 45 Decker,Eric 0.83 WR 46 White,Roddy 0.83 WR 47 Garcon,Pierre 0.83 RB 48 Bernard,Giovani 0.813 WR 49 Cobb,Randall 0.8 QB 50 Luck,Andrew 0.79 QB 51 Rodgers,Aaron 0.79 WR 52 Watkins,Sammy 0.75 RB 53 Jackson,Steven 0.743 QB 54 Kaepernick,Colin 0.74 RB 55 Tate,Ben 0.663 QB 56 Brady,Tom 0.65 WR 57 Jones,James 0.64 WR 58 Jackson,DeSean 0.64 TE 59 Thomas,Julius 0.62 QB 60 Wilson,Russell 0.61 RB 61 Morris,Alfred 0.603 TE 62 Rudolph,Kyle 0.6 RB 63 Gore,Frank 0.593 RB 64 Jones-Drew,Maurice 0.573 WR 65 Wallace,Mike 0.57 QB 66 Ryan,Matt 0.56 TE 67 Witten,Jason 0.55 WR 68 Colston,Marques 0.55 QB 69 Newton,Cam 0.55 TE 70 Pitta,Dennis 0.54 WR 71 Shorts,Cecil 0.52 QB 72 Cutler,Jay 0.52 TE 73 Davis,Vernon 0.51 WR 74 Smith,Torrey 0.51 WR 75 Maclin,Jeremy 0.51 RB 76 Woodhead,Danny 0.503 D/ST 77 Seahawks,Seattle 0.48 RB 78 Williams,DeAngelo 0.473 RB 79 Sankey,Bishop 0.473 WR 80 Woods,Robert 0.47 WR 81 Wright,Kendall 0.47 TE 82 Reed,Jordan 0.45 WR 83 Bowe,Dwayne 0.45 RB 84 Jennings,Rashad 0.433 WR 85 Floyd,Michael 0.43 QB 86 Griffin III,Robert 0.43 WR 87 Hilton,T.Y. 0.42 RB 88 Thomas,Pierre 0.413 RB 89 Richardson,Trent 0.403 RB 90 McFadden,Darren 0.403 RB 91 Mathews,Ryan 0.393 RB 92 Bell,Joique 0.393 WR 93 Jennings,Greg 0.39 QB 94 Dalton,Andy 0.39 D/ST 95 Bears,Chicago 0.36 WR 96 Nicks,Hakeem 0.34 WR 97 Harvin,Percy 0.33 WR 98 Cooper,Riley 0.32 QB 99 Roethlisberger,Ben 0.32 WR 100 Kerley,Jeremy 0.31 D/ST 101 Patriots,New England 0.31 TE 102 Clay,Charles 0.3 RB 103 Ridley,Stevan 0.253 TE 104 Cameron,Jordan 0.25 WR 105 Hartline,Brian 0.25 TE 106 Green,Ladarius 0.24 TE 107 Olsen,Greg 0.24 WR 108 Jones,Marvin 0.22 TE 109 Gronkowski,Rob 0.21 WR 110 Cotchery,Jerricho 0.21 QB 111 Romo,Tony 0.21 RB 112 Vereen,Shane 0.203 WR 113 Amendola,Danny 0.18 QB 114 Rivers,Philip 0.17 WR 115 Williams,Terrance 0.16 RB 116 Greene,Shonn 0.143 WR 117 Stills,Kenny 0.12 TE 118 Graham,Garrett 0.11 TE 119 Walker,Delanie 0.1 WR 120 Austin,Miles 0.1 D/ST 121 Chiefs,Kansas City 0.1 WR 122 Lee,Marqise 0.09 WR 123 Hunter,Justin 0.08 WR 124 Benjamin,Kelvin 0.08 WR 125 Tate,Golden 0.08 WR 126 Moore,Denarius 0.08 D/ST 127 Rams,St. Louis 0.08 RB 128 Sproles,Darren 0.073 TE 129 Ebron,Eric 0.06 WR 130 Evans,Mike 0.06 WR 131 Ginn Jr.,Ted 0.06 QB 132 Smith,Alex 0.06 TE 133 Rivera,Mychal 0.05 TE 134 Miller,Heath 0.05 WR 135 Smith,Steve 0.05 D/ST 136 Steelers,Pittsburgh 0.04 D/ST 137 Bengals,Cincinnati 0.04 TE 138 Allen,Dwayne 0.03 D/ST 139 Titans,Tennessee 0.03 WR 140 Williams,Mike 0.02 WR 141 Floyd,Malcom 0.02 WR 142 Boykin,Jarrett 0.02 D/ST 143 49ers,San Francisco 0.02 QB 144 Palmer,Carson 0.01 WR 145 Moore,Lance 0 D/ST 146 Browns,Cleveland 0 WR 147 Hopkins,DeAndre -0.01 WR 148 Gordon,Josh -0.01 QB 149 McCown,Josh -0.01 D/ST 150 Redskins,Washington -0.01 WR 151 Cooks,Brandin -0.02 TE 152 Gates,Antonio -0.03 TE 153 Bennett,Martellus -0.03 WR 154 Baldwin,Doug -0.04 TE 155 Ertz,Zach -0.05 TE 156 Gresham,Jermaine -0.05 D/ST 157 Vikings,Minnesota -0.05 WR 158 Washington,Nate -0.06 RB 159 Ivory,Chris -0.067 TE 160 Cook,Jared -0.07 WR 161 Nelson,David -0.07 D/ST 162 Packers,Green Bay -0.07 D/ST 163 Cowboys,Dallas -0.08 RB 164 Rodgers,Jacquizz -0.087 WR 165 Burleson,Nate -0.09 QB 166 Tannehill,Ryan -0.09 D/ST 167 Bills,Buffalo -0.09 TE 168 Eifert,Tyler -0.1 WR 169 Austin,Tavon -0.1 TE 170 Seferian-Jenkins,Austin -0.11 WR 171 Robinson,Allen -0.11 TE 172 Chandler,Scott -0.12 WR 173 Givens,Chris -0.12 D/ST 174 Panthers,Carolina -0.13 D/ST 175 Buccaneers,Tampa Bay -0.14 D/ST 176 Lions,Detroit -0.16 D/ST 177 Texans,Houston -0.17 D/ST 178 Dolphins,Miami -0.17 QB 179 Manziel,Johnny -0.18 RB 180 Ingram,Mark -0.187 RB 181 Anderson,C.J. -0.197 TE 182 Lewis,Marcedes -0.21 TE 183 Celek,Brent -0.21 TE 184 Amaro,Jace -0.22 QB 185 Smith,Geno -0.22 D/ST 186 Broncos,Denver -0.22 RB 187 Taylor,Stepfan -0.227 TE 188 Finley,Jermichael -0.24 D/ST 189 Colts,Indianapolis -0.24 RB 190 Stewart,Jonathan -0.247 TE 191 Pettigrew,Brandon -0.25 RB 192 Green-Ellis,BenJarvus -0.257 QB 193 Bradford,Sam -0.28 QB 194 Manuel,E.J. -0.29 QB 195 Manning,Eli -0.3 RB 196 Reece,Marcel -0.307 TE 197 Miller,Zach -0.32 RB 198 Blount,LeGarrette -0.337 TE 199 Fauria,Joseph -0.35 QB 200 Flacco,Joe -0.35

Some notes on these rankings: Josh Gordon’s projection has been hurt by his uncertain future, which finds him with a WAR around replacement level, because he could play 4, 16 or 0 games this season.

One find that somewhat surprised me was how many WRs stayed at the top of the rankings, with DeMariyus Thomas hitting the top 5.

by Robert Garcia, Northwestern University