About Football Sensei
Sometimes it’s not obvious to me, as a Broncos fan, who I should be rooting for in a game that doesn’t involve my team or one of our division rivals. “Do I want the Dolphins or Steelers to win this one?” I made Football Sensei to calculate the effect of every game on my team’s playoff chances, and definitively answer the question “Who should I root for?”
Goal: Simple Rooting Guide Reference
When I'm watching RedZone, I don't want to be trying to figure out Strength of Schedule tiebreakers or calculating which team is more likely to take a Wildcard spot. I made this website so, for the 2-3 games each week where I don't have a clear favorite, I can just look at the table and root for whoever helps the Broncos make the playoffs. I get the data for the rest of teams out of the simulation for free, so I figured I would make it all publicly accessible.
The Data:
Playoff Aspirations
If you're in the Wildcard race, you can see the impact of every game this week on your team's playoff odds.
Draft Positioning
If your team is garbage, no worries! I have rooting guides for teams that are tanking too. You can see exactly who to root for to maximize your odds of getting a top draft pick next year.
Securing Top Seeding
If you’re pretty sure your team is making the playoffs, you’ll probably want to root for maximizing your odds of getting a playoff bye. Football Sensei has rooting guides for that too.
How to Use Football Sensei:
- Select Your Team: Navigate to your team's dedicated page from our homepage.
- View Game Impacts: Before an NFL game, check your team's page. The "Game by Game Impacts" table lists upcoming games and indicates which outcome in provides the biggest statistical advantage for your team's selected goal (e.g., increasing playoff odds).
Approach:
Football Sensei uses a combination of the Elo rating system to gauge team strength and Monte Carlo simulations (running millions of season scenarios) to calculate probabilities for playoffs and draft order. This allows me to quantify the impact of individual game results. You can learn more about the specifics on the Methodology page.