Chris Liss, writer for Rotowire.com, was able to come up with better picks than the other 19 analysts at wide receiver, with Josh Gordon the guy who led the way.
Chris Liss of RotoWire has been hovering in the middle of the pack thus far. He finished 7th, 9th and 13th at the tight end, defense and kicker positions. But we’re moving into the big-money categories now, and Liss is making his move.
Liss is the winner at the wide receiver position, outscoring everyone except Ladd Biro (Fantasy Fools) by over 1,000 points.
David Dorey of The Huddle finished in 3rd place at this position, and he’s the new overall leader.
The explanation for why Liss is a little more complex than what I’ve presented at the other positions. He was one of four guys who included Josh Gordon in his overall top 20. That’s a good starting point. But it has to go second-level before he works himself clear of those guys.
Most of the experts in this category did well at the top. For Liss, all five of the wide receivers in his top 5 overall ranked in the top 7 in scoring – Megatron, A.J. Green, Demaryius Thomas, Dez Bryant and Brandon Marshall. But nothing too remarkable there. Most of the analysts had all of those guys in their top 6, and some outscored Liss up at the top.
Then Liss’ list goes bad. His next two are Julio Jones and Roddy White. They seemed like great picks at the time, but they both hurt. So relative to most of the other experts, Jones-White cost Liss points. He needed to make up some ground there.
In this scoring system, recall, every player scores points for everyone – the higher you rank him, the more his score counts for you. Julio Jones scored only 70.7 points before he got lost for the year. Liss ranked him 6th. So that’s 70.7 x 25 = 1,767.5 for the RotoWire.com team for that one. The 25 comes from 31 minus 6 (where Liss ranked him).
Josh Gordon is the guy who helped move the needle for Liss. He picked up almost 3,000 points there by ranking Gordon 18th. Liss also was higher than most on Torrey Smith and Jordy Nelson.
But three other guys also had Gordon in their top 20. Scott Sachs (Perfect Season Fantasy Football) was the highest on Gordon, putting him way up at 10th. Sachs finished behind Liss because he messed up the top. While many were scoring points with those safe receivers at the top, Sachs had Andre Johnson, Julio Jones and Roddy White in his top 5, and he dropped Demaryius Thomas down to 19th.
Alan Satterlee (Fantasy Football Warehouse) ranked Gordon 16th – slightly higher than Liss – but he also misplayed the top of the board. He had Julio Jones up at 3rd, and his top 10 also included Randall Cobb and Percy Harvin. Injuries for all three of those receivers.
Tony Holm (Fantasy Sharks) put together a board pretty similar to Liss. He also had Gordon 18th. But he ranked two guys that Liss didn’t, and he lost in that exchange. While skipping Jordy Nelson (179.4 points), Holm went with Reggie Wayne (another injury issue) and Denarius Moore.
So Liss is the winner at this position, and he’s also in play for the overall title. He’s sitting at 3rd on the big board right now.
I also like to look at the other end of the rankings on this thing. Paul Charchian (LeagueSafe.com) finished last at the wide receiver position. That’s seemingly a surprise, given that he’s been in the industry for over 20 years with various written products and podcasts. Looking at Charchian’s list, the big hole is Percy Harvin. Charchian saw him as a perfect with the Seahawks, ranking him 4th overall – way higher than almost every other expert. But Harvin played in only one game, destroying Charchian’s entry at this position.
With this kind of scoring format, it’s a pick here or a pick there. Take myself for example. In the Fantasy Index Open (which is just like the Experts Poll except open to everyone) I placed in only 119th out of 209 entries at wide receiver. But if you look at my selections from the magazine relative to these experts, then I’m up at 3rd – missed on Amendola and Cobb, but one of the few with Antonio Brown, Pierre Garcon and Torrey Smith (and had good fortune to avoid picking Harvin, Wayne and Hakeem Nicks). Same analyst, same players, but in mid-May I’m 3rd out of 21 and in early August I’m 119th out of 209.
I try to avoid putting too much about myself in these things. I’m here to run and oversee these contests. But I am aware of how my picks at doing. So far, I have been 3rd at wide receivers and 3rd at defenses, next-to-last at tight end and 16th at kicker. Overall that would be 7th place, just behind Scott Pianowski.
EXPERTS POLL, WIDE RECEIVERS | |||
---|---|---|---|
Rk | Name | Company | Points |
1. | Chris Liss | Rotowire | 62,983 |
2. | Ladd Biro | Fantasy Fools | 62,228 |
3. | David Dorey | The Huddle | 61,902 |
4. | Tony Holm | FantasySharks.com | 61,302 |
5. | Cory Bonini | KFFL | 61,217 |
6. | Scott Sachs | PerfectSeasonFFB.com | 61,165 |
7. | Scott Pianowski | Yahoo! Sports | 60,886 |
8. | Bob Henry | Footballguys.com | 60,813 |
9. | Bill Enright | Fantasy Football Champs | 60,635 |
10. | Alan Satterlee | Dynasty Football Warehouse | 60,418 |
11. | Micah James | FFMagicMan | 60,411 |
12. | Michael Nazarek | Fantasy Football Mastermind | 59,912 |
13. | Mike Clay | Pro Football Focus | 59,783 |
14. | Pretzel May | Fantasy Draft Master | 59,773 |
15. | John Moore | 2012 Fantasy Index Open | 59,506 |
16. | L'Roy Hale | Fantasy First | 59,226 |
17. | Lenny Pappano | Draft Sharks | 59,127 |
18. | Sam Hendricks | Fantasy Football Guidebook.com | 58,987 |
19. | Christopher Harris | ESPN | 58,715 |
20. | Paul Charcian | LeagueSafe | 57,264 |
EXPERTS POLL, OVERALL LEADERBOARD | |||
---|---|---|---|
Rk | Name | Company | Points |
1. | David Dorey | The Huddle | 185,275 |
2. | L'Roy Hale | Fantasy First | 184,844 |
3. | Chris Liss | Rotowire | 184,052 |
4. | Alan Satterlee | Dynasty Football Warehouse | 183,186 |
5. | Micah James | FFMagicMan | 183,126 |
6. | Scott Pianowski | Yahoo! Sports | 182,746 |
7. | Mike Clay | Pro Football Focus | 181,714 |
8. | Bob Henry | Footballguys.com | 181,702 |
9. | Cory Bonini | KFFL | 181,697 |
10. | Tony Holm | FantasySharks.com | 181,534 |
11. | Michael Nazarek | Fantasy Football Mastermind | 181,444 |
12. | Ladd Biro | Fantasy Fools | 181,304 |
13. | Scott Sachs | PerfectSeasonFFB.com | 180,854 |
14. | Christopher Harris | ESPN | 180,359 |
15. | Bill Enright | Fantasy Football Champs | 179,889 |
16. | John Moore | 2012 Fantasy Index Open | 178,784 |
17. | Sam Hendricks | Fantasy Football Guidebook.com | 178,494 |
18. | Lenny Pappano | Draft Sharks | 178,368 |
19. | Paul Charcian | LeagueSafe | 177,241 |
20. | Pretzel May | Fantasy Draft Master | 176,080 |
--Ian Allan