What do you think about when looking at the top 15-20 teams out there? (I presume few of us rank every 297,000 teams each year.) I think many of us (most?) are influenced by Athlon et al. at least to get a top 20 or so. Maybe a team below that perks up and gets interesting later on, which is neat I think.
My own rather qualitative "ranking scheme" goes like this:
1. Solid returning QB with experience. This is my number uno factor, by a good measure. Obviously, a highly regarded FNG can be given some "points", and we fairly often today see an FNG QB do really well, but it's harder to predict.
2. Returning OLmen who were good last year. This can compensate for an inexperienced QB to an extent and make a decent RB look really good. If 3-4 return and 1-2 were all conference, really good sign.
3. Consistency. If the team has recruited well and has finished top ten over the past 5 year period or so, it's obvious they likely will finish there again. Duh.
4. Schedule. Each team typically has 4-5 "loseable games" each season, if they are top ten material. Some of these games can be decided by a late fumble or penalty or whatever and end up as a loss even by the better team.
This is usually pretty good for choosing 7-8 of the top ten, and sometimes useful in spotting a less heralded team that has the potential to have a great year (top ten). And of course, "round up the usual suspects" works well also.