Boris Chen - Helping You Pick Fantasy Football Teams
Have you ever felt a little overwhelmed when getting ready for your fantasy football draft? You know, trying to figure out which players to pick and when? Well, there is someone who has really changed how many folks approach this whole process, making it a good bit simpler to sort through all the choices. His name is Boris Chen, and his unique way of looking at player rankings has become a go-to for a lot of people hoping to get a leg up in their leagues.
This approach comes from a background rooted in data, yet it's been made so accessible that anyone can use it. Boris Chen, a data scientist for The New York Times, has brought some serious analytical muscle to the often-tricky world of fantasy sports. He takes a lot of the guesswork out of building a team, offering a fresh perspective that many have found to be incredibly helpful, you know, when it really counts.
What Boris Chen does is take a lot of expert opinions and then groups players into what he calls "tiers." This means instead of just seeing a long list of players from one to one hundred, you see them in bunches of similar value. It’s a pretty smart way to think about things, giving you a clearer picture of who is comparable to whom, which can be very useful as your draft moves along.
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Table of Contents
- Who is Boris Chen?
- How Does Boris Chen Help Fantasy Football Players?
- What's Behind Boris Chen's Data Magic?
- Where Can You Find Boris Chen's Work?
Who is Boris Chen?
Boris Chen is someone who has made a pretty big mark in the fantasy football community, offering a different way to think about player valuations. He is known for his work as a data scientist with The New York Times, where he applies advanced methods to look at NFL players. This work then helps folks who play fantasy football make more informed choices, which is pretty neat. He has been running a weekly blog since about August, sharing his statistical thoughts on NFL players. This information is, so, meant to be helpful for fantasy football players all over the country. He actually describes what he does in a way that shows his deep thinking about the game.
Before his time at The New York Times, Boris Chen was an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This background in business and analytics likely gave him a strong foundation for the kind of work he does today. He’s also based in San Francisco, California, which is a hub for many folks working with data and software. He's actually a software engineer, and he brings more than six years of experience to the table, showing a real passion for looking at things analytically.
Many people know Boris Chen through his professional community on LinkedIn, where he has quite a few connections, more than five hundred actually. This presence online helps show his connection to the broader world of data and software development. His history shows someone who enjoys taking complex information and making it useful for others, which is exactly what he does for fantasy football enthusiasts. It's almost like he enjoys solving puzzles, and then sharing the solutions.
Boris Chen's Personal Details
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Name | Boris Chen |
| Current Role | Data Scientist for The New York Times |
| Education | Undergraduate student at University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business |
| Primary Location | San Francisco, California |
| Previous Location | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Professional Experience | Software Engineer with more than six years of progressive experience |
| Online Presence | LinkedIn profile, personal blog |
| Key Contribution | Pioneering fantasy football tier analysis using machine learning |
How Does Boris Chen Help Fantasy Football Players?
For anyone who plays fantasy football, getting ready for the draft can feel like a really big task. There are so many players, so many opinions, and it’s hard to know who to pick. This is where Boris Chen steps in to lend a hand. He’s known for creating a system that helps people pick players for their fantasy teams, whether they need running backs, wide receivers, quarterbacks, or tight ends. He takes a lot of the expert ranking data that’s out there and turns it into something much more useful for making draft choices, which is pretty clever, actually.
His work really helps you see the player landscape in a different way. Instead of just a simple list, he presents players in groups, or "tiers," which means you can see which players are roughly similar in value. This is incredibly helpful during a draft because it lets you know when it’s okay to wait a bit longer for a player in the same tier, rather than feeling like you have to grab someone right away. It helps you avoid reaching for a player too early, or missing out on someone just as good a little later. This method has been a big help for many, including those who found it a bit tricky to keep track of who was taken after using other ranking systems.
The core idea is that by looking at players in these groups, you can make smarter decisions about when to pick a certain position or player. For example, if you see that there are still three quarterbacks in the top tier, you might decide to pick a running back first, knowing you can still get a top-tier quarterback a few picks later. It’s all about making the draft process a bit less stressful and a good bit more strategic. His charts even help you decide your lineup each week, which is pretty handy, you know, for the regular season.
Boris Chen's Tier System Explained
The system that Boris Chen developed for fantasy football is built around the idea of "tiers." Instead of just a long list of players from best to worst, he groups them into categories of similar value. This means that everyone within a particular tier is considered to be roughly comparable in terms of their expected performance. This way of thinking is, so, quite different from traditional rankings, and many find it a lot more practical during the fast-paced environment of a draft.
For example, let's say you are looking at quarterbacks. Instead of seeing Tom, Dick, and Harry ranked 1, 2, and 3, Boris Chen might put them all in "Tier 1." This tells you that picking any one of them would be a similar choice, and you don't necessarily need to worry about missing out if the first one is taken. This really helps with draft strategy, as it allows you to pick players from different positions while still getting top-tier talent. It’s about getting the best value at the right time, you know, during the draft.
He applies this tiering concept to all the main skill positions in fantasy football, including running backs, wide receivers, quarterbacks, and tight ends. He also looks at defense and special teams (DST). The goal is to provide a clear, visual way to see where the drop-offs in talent might occur, which is a very useful piece of information when you are trying to build a winning team. It’s a way to simplify a complex decision-making process, making it a bit more straightforward for everyone involved.
What's Behind Boris Chen's Data Magic?
You might be wondering how Boris Chen actually comes up with these helpful tiers. It’s not just a guess or a simple list. His method is based on some pretty smart ways of using data, which is where his background as a data scientist really shines. He gathers expert ranking data from various sources, particularly from the excellent folks at FantasyPros.com. This means he’s taking a lot of different opinions and putting them all together, which is a good starting point.
Once he has all that expert information, he then uses something called a clustering algorithm. This is a kind of tool in the world of data science that helps find groups or patterns within a lot of information. Think of it like sorting a big pile of different colored beads, and the algorithm helps you find all the red ones, then all the blue ones, and so on. In his case, it helps him discover the player tiers by finding groups of players that the experts tend to rank similarly, which is, you know, quite ingenious.
Specifically, he uses a type of clustering algorithm known as a Gaussian Mixture Model. This fancy-sounding name just refers to a way of statistically finding these natural groupings within the data. It’s a pretty clever way to take all those individual expert rankings and turn them into clear, distinct tiers. The resulting charts he shares let you actually see these tiers and ranks, making it much easier to figure out your lineup each week, or, for that matter, your draft strategy.
Boris Chen's Approach to Player Grouping
The way Boris Chen groups players is a key part of what makes his system so valuable. It’s all about taking a large amount of information, specifically expert consensus data from FantasyPros.com, and then using a specific kind of data method to make sense of it. He applies a clustering algorithm, which is basically a computer program designed to find natural groups within a set of data points. This is how he discovers the tiers for different player positions, like quarterbacks or running backs.
His model for tiering quarterbacks, for instance, is described as simple, yet it uses this powerful clustering method. It’s not about his personal opinion, but rather about letting the data speak for itself. The algorithm looks at how experts collectively rank players and then identifies where there are natural breaks or clusters of players who are consistently ranked close to each other. These clusters then become the tiers. This approach helps remove some of the individual bias that might be present in a single expert's ranking, giving a more rounded view, you know, of player value.
The charts that come out of this process are very visual, allowing you to quickly see the different tiers and the players within them. This visual representation is a big part of why his work is so popular; it makes complex data much easier to understand and use, especially during the fast-paced environment of a fantasy football draft. It really helps you get a quick read on the player pool, which is pretty helpful when you are on the clock.
Where Can You Find Boris Chen's Work?
If you're interested in checking out Boris Chen's fantasy football tiers and analysis, there are a few places where you can find his work. Most of his insights, including his graphs and analysis, are available on his blog. This is where he breaks down each skill position into tiers based on those consensus rankings we talked about earlier. It’s a really great spot to get the full picture of his thinking and see the charts for yourself.
All the data he uses for his models, including for quarterbacks and defense/special teams, comes from FantasyPros.com. This is a consistent source for his analysis, ensuring that his tiers are built on widely recognized expert opinions. So, when you look at his charts, you know the underlying information is coming from a solid, trusted place. He also makes the draft tier list available, which is generated from that Gaussian Mixture Model using the expert consensus data.
For those who prefer to work with spreadsheets, he also provides a version of the tier information that you can copy and paste into your own spreadsheet. This is a really convenient option for people who like to keep track of players in their own way during a draft. It’s a thoughtful touch that shows he understands how different people like to organize their information. Plus, you can even use the flex charts he provides, which is pretty handy.
Staying Up-to-Date with Boris Chen's Charts
One of the best things about Boris Chen's fantasy football resources is how current they are. The charts he puts out are updated regularly, which is incredibly important in the fast-moving world of sports and player news. You can expect these charts to be continually updated throughout both the preseason and the regular season. This means you’re always getting the most recent information, which is a big deal when injuries or depth chart changes happen, you know, unexpectedly.
Specifically, the charts update every day, and he suggests checking back on Thursday, Sunday, and Monday before game time. This schedule is set up to give you the freshest insights just when you need them most, whether you’re setting your lineup for the upcoming week or preparing for a last-minute draft. Having access to these updated charts helps you visualize the tiers and ranks, which can really help you make good decisions about your lineup each week. It’s a very helpful tool for staying on top of things.
You can view his profile on LinkedIn, which is a professional community with many members. This also provides a way to connect with his professional background. For specific position charts, like the top four tiers of defense/special teams rankings for a particular week, he often directs you to click on links on his blog to view charts for all positions. This makes it easy to find exactly what you need, right when you need it. It’s a pretty straightforward way to get all the data and insights he offers.
Boris Chen has made a significant impact on how many people approach fantasy football, especially when it comes to drafting players and setting weekly lineups. His system takes expert ranking data, primarily from FantasyPros.com, and uses a clustering algorithm, specifically a Gaussian Mixture Model, to group players into easy-to-understand tiers. This method helps fantasy players visualize player values and make more informed decisions for positions like running backs, wide receivers, quarterbacks, tight ends, and even defense/special teams. His background includes studies at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and his current role as a data scientist for The New York Times, where he applies machine learning to sports data. His charts and analysis are shared on his blog and are updated daily, with specific recommendations to check on Thursdays, Sundays, and Mondays before game time. He also provides spreadsheet versions of his tier information for those who prefer that format. His work has been widely recognized for pioneering this type of analysis, offering a valuable tool for anyone looking to improve their fantasy football strategy.
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GitHub - abhinavk99/espn-borischentiers: Chrome/Firefox extension that
