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Hard Knocks with the Cleveland Browns and your fantasy football draft

By Jeremy Morris

BEREA, OH - MAY 23, 2018: Wide receiver Jarvis Landry #80 of the Cleveland Browns smiles as he catches balls from a jugs machine during an OTA practice at the Cleveland Browns training facility in Berea, Ohio. (Photo by: 2018 Diamond Images/Getty Images)
BEREA, OH - MAY 23, 2018: Wide receiver Jarvis Landry #80 of the Cleveland Browns smiles as he catches balls from a jugs machine during an OTA practice at the Cleveland Browns training facility in Berea, Ohio. (Photo by: 2018 Diamond Images/Getty Images) /
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LFormer mixed martial artist Forrest Griffin attends Touchdown for Charity’s celebrity fantasy football draft at Born and Raised Tavern/Lounge in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/FilmMagic)
LFormer mixed martial artist Forrest Griffin attends Touchdown for Charity’s celebrity fantasy football draft at Born and Raised Tavern/Lounge in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/FilmMagic) /

We looked back at seven seasons of Hard Knocks, where the central figures in each season were drafted, and how they actually performed during the season relative to their average fantasy draft position.

Numbers were taken from FantasyFootballCalculator.com and ProFootballReference.com based on standard, non-PPR scoring and 12-team snake draft leagues. VBD is a metric for measuring a player’s fantasy points compared to a baseline player at his position. The baseline players for each position are QB #12, RB #24, WR #30 and TE #12.

For seasons where several defensive players were featured prominently and the defense was presented as being very good to great, the Team Defense/Special Teams was listed as a player for this list. (i.e. J.J. Watt, Brian Cushing and Jadeveon Clowney were major story lines in 2015 and the Texans defense was seen dominating the offense throughout the four episodes so Houston D is included below.)

I was just as surprised as you to learn that Andy Dalton has been a top-five fantasy quarterback. The 2013 Bengals were the outlier of Hard Knocks teams. How else did the numbers break down though? And what does it mean this season?

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