Build your own power ratings.
Rate the pieces, and the pieces make the rating. Name the columns whatever you actually argue about, score all 32 teams, and the last column adds them up. Brandon Kravitz’s finished sheet sits next to yours the whole time.
Everything starts at zero and stays in this browser.
Your rating is the sum of your columns, and it becomes your line on the weekly board, next to the market, our model and Kravitz. A team you have not touched stays at zero and sits out.
The method, and where the numbers come from
This is the Billy Walters approach, the one that ran the sharpest betting operation in America for three decades. A rating is what a team is worth on a neutral field. Everything about a specific game gets added later.
Ours reads the projected starter, the roster value index for every position group, and our head-coach ratings. It never fills itself in: click the cell and take it, or ignore it entirely.
Walters valued a starting quarterback at roughly a touchdown. Because it is a room rather than a bolt-on adjustment, it is already inside team strength and never counted twice.
Top non-quarterbacks were worth 2.5 to 3 points each to Walters, and about 60% of players nothing at all. His order of damage: pass catchers, defensive line, offensive line, defensive backs, linebackers, running backs.
Home field, rest, travel, time zones, weather, turf, and bounceback spots are game adjustments, not team ratings. We add home field (+2) when your rating becomes a line; the rest is the next layer we build.
The Kravitz column is a finished professional sheet for comparison, in his words: “Preseason I compress numbers from sources I trust. In season I move them myself: what a team actually did rather than what the scoreboard said, injuries, who they played, and the game factors. It is a spreadsheet and a lot of hours.” Copy his numbers as your starting point, then move the ones you disagree with.
Your ratings live only in this browser and are never sold as picks, by you or by us. The posted line is the market at our last log, so verify the current number with the sportsbook. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER. · Expert rankings & the board · Find winning bets · This week’s lines · Back to the betting desk