The vocabulary AutoTiers uses, defined the way we actually mean it. Some
of these are league-wide fantasy terms; others are specific to how our
engine turns projections into tiers. Where a term drives a scoring rule,
we link the guide that explains it in depth.
VBD (value-based drafting)
A method for comparing players across positions on a single
scale. Instead of asking "how many points will this player score?",
VBD asks "how many points does this player score above the player
you could get for free at the same position?" A quarterback who
scores 300 points is not necessarily more valuable than a running back
who scores 220, because good quarterbacks are plentiful and good
running backs are scarce. VBD makes that scarcity explicit by
subtracting a position-specific baseline — the
replacement level — from every
player's projected score. The remainder is the number AutoTiers
actually ranks and clusters on.
Replacement level
The projected output of the last startable player at a
position — the quality you can expect to find on waivers or with a late
pick, essentially for free. AutoTiers sets it per position by
multiplying your league size by a position factor and reading the
player at that rank: running backs and receivers anchor at
2.5 × league_size (about RB30 / WR30 in a 12-team
league, reflecting how many start across flex spots), tight ends at
1.25 ×, and single-QB leagues at
0.67 × (about QB8 — the last quarterback you can
reliably stream, not QB12). In superflex
leagues the quarterback baseline drops much deeper. That player's
score is the zero point; everyone else is measured against it. See the
methodology page for the full table.
Adjusted score
A player's blended projection after every enabled rule has
been applied. AutoTiers starts from a weighted blend of last season's
production and current consensus projections, discounts the prior-year
term if the player missed games, then multiplies in each rule's effect.
The adjusted score is what feeds VBD and, ultimately, the tiers.
Target share
The percentage of a team's total pass targets that go to one player. A
25%+ target share is elite — roughly one of every four throws — and is
one of the stickiest, most predictive signals a receiver or pass-catching
back carries from year to year, because it reflects a role the offense
has chosen to build around them. It drives the
Target Share Premium rule.
Carry share
The percentage of a team's running-back carries that go to one back. It
separates a true lead back from a member of a committee. Under 50% flags
a committee (a penalty); under 30% flags a pure handcuff or change-of-pace
back. See volume & workload.
Snap share (snap %)
The percentage of his team's offensive plays a player was on the field
for. It is the broadest measure of a player's role: you cannot produce
on plays you watch from the sideline. A snap share falling under 55%
usually signals a shrinking role, which AutoTiers can penalize.
Red-zone looks
Carries plus targets inside the opponent's 20-yard line — the touches
most likely to become touchdowns. Because touchdowns are worth six
points and are hard to project directly, red-zone opportunity
is a more stable leading indicator than red-zone scoring. A
heavy red-zone role (25+ looks in a season) earns a boost; see
opportunity & usage.
Opportunity score
A composite of a player's targets, carries, and red-zone looks that
estimates how many fantasy points their usage should have
produced, independent of whether the ball actually bounced their way.
Comparing real production against opportunity is how AutoTiers spots
regression candidates in both
directions.
Touchdown regression
The tendency of touchdown totals to drift back toward what a player's
opportunity implies. Touchdowns are famously noisy: a player who scores
three or more times above what his red-zone volume predicts is unlikely
to repeat it, and AutoTiers treats that as a
sell signal.
Jenks natural breaks
A one-dimensional clustering algorithm that finds the "natural" gaps in
a set of numbers — the cut points that group similar values together
and put the biggest jumps between groups. AutoTiers uses it to
draw tiers, because the whole point of a tier is that the players inside
it are interchangeable and the drop to the next tier is real. We use
Jenks up to 11 tiers; above that the score distribution is smooth enough
that equal-size quantile splits are more honest
than letting Jenks chase noise.
Quantile splits
Dividing ranked players into equal-size groups (e.g. twelve tiers of
equal count). AutoTiers falls back to quantiles when you ask for a large
number of tiers, where genuine value cliffs are too small for Jenks to
separate from random variation.
Superflex
A league format with a flex spot that can start a quarterback, so most
teams start two. This roughly doubles quarterback demand and pushes the
replacement-level quarterback far deeper
(to about QB18 in a 12-team league), which sharply raises what elite
quarterbacks are worth in VBD terms. AutoTiers adjusts
the quarterback baseline automatically when you set two QB starters.
ADP (average draft position)
Where a player is being drafted on average across public leagues. ADP is
a measure of market opinion, not projected value, so AutoTiers
never feeds it into a player's score. It is used only as a
tiebreaker for ordering players who land in the same
tier. The FAQ explains why.
PPR / half-PPR / standard
Scoring formats that award one point (PPR), half a point (half-PPR), or
zero points (standard) per reception. The choice reshapes the entire
board: full PPR lifts high-volume receivers and pass-catching backs,
while standard scoring rewards touchdown-dependent runners. AutoTiers
re-scores every player for the format you pick.
Prior-year games discount
A weighting that keeps a partial prior season from dragging a player
down unfairly. Last year's point total silently bakes in zeros
for missed games, so AutoTiers scales the prior-year term by games
played, reaching full weight around a 14-game season. An injured star's
four healthy games no longer read as a full, terrible year.