Don't just look at player's actual stats, look at their opportunities as well. A player may or may not score points on a given play. Your RB may get stuffed on a run, or the QB may overthrow your WR, or your QB may have a receiver drop a pass. All these cases could easily have gone the other way.
The easy way to determine opportunity is to look at players attempts. The players with more attempts should be more valuable to you, all else being equal.
For example, if you look at two RB's with 1200 yards and 10 touchdowns each, but one had 100 more attempts, that should be the player you rate higher.
Let's assume that the player with lower attempts had two 80 yard runs for TDs. Most people will think, "This player is explosive, he must be the better player."
I agree that it may be more exciting to pick this explosive player, but every Owner in your league will be thinking the same thing. His value will be decreased because you'll have to take him earlier.
You should think along the lines of, "This player is consistent, he gets a lot of touches and is a major part of his team." These are the players you want to target, even if they are not the hot pick. You can get them later, and they may pleasantly surprise you.
The best example of this type of player is Curtis Martin. He gets the ball, scores decent fantasy points and no one really notices. He's fourth all time in rushing yards and in 2004 rewarded Owners who drafted him with a fantastic season. Look for players like this who fly under the radar.
You can also look at player's Targets as well as their catches. Footballguys.com has compiled target stats for three positions; WR, TE and RB. Look at the number of times a player was thrown to rather than the number of completions. If players have equal yardage and TD numbers, but one was targeted more, I'd take that player.
Finally I would suggest looking at redzone and goalline stats to help determine if a player is a factor in those areas. Again, Footballguys.com has these stats archived. This can help to determine what will happen when a team gets into a good scoring area. Do they throw to one particular receiver? Do they pound away with their stud RB? Do they switch to a goal line specialist?
To summarize, look beyond the basic stats and try to figure out if a player is consistently getting the ball. It will help you find value with your draft picks. The more a player gets the ball the more likely it is that he'll consistently score points for your team. More attempts means a player has more opportunity to break off a long gain, or score in the redzone. It is much safer to draft a player with solid numbers over many attempts than to draft an explosive looking player with few attempts.
