Congratulations to David Dorey of The Huddle. He's the winner of our annual Experts Draft League.
This is the draft that we publish each year in our preseason magazine. In order to get it into the publication, we hold the draft in late May, shortly after the actual NFL Draft. The field is comprised of the top 11 finishers in the previous year's Experts Poll, plus one of the top two finishers in our annual Super League competition.
It's a no transactions league, but we do play it out, which each team getting its best starting lineup each week during the regular season. Each team plays every other team each week, so the top-scoring team goes 11-0, bottom scoring team goes 0-11, etc.
Picking 5th overall, Dorey started off his draft with Marshawn Lynch, Arian Foster and Randall Cobb. That trio carried his team, as did shrewd mid-round picks like Jeremy Maclin (6th) and Jeremy Hill (10th). Matthew Stafford and Philip Rivers worked out for him at quarterback, and he wasn't hurt by only having one healthy tight end (Jared Cook); neither Dennis Pitta nor Jermichael Finley helped his roster.
Scott Pianowski of Yahoo! Sports was runner-up, in part because he hit on each of his first six picks: Matt Forte, Jordy Nelson, Aaron Rodgers, Andre Ellington, T.Y. Hilton and Golden Tate.
In 3rd place was Michael Nazarek, and it's fair to say his selection of DeMarco Murray at 19th overall was key. Mid-round picks of Joique Bell (6th round) and Tony Romo (9th) contributed, but his late-round selection of Odell Beckham Jr. (15th) was probably the pick that was the biggest difference-maker.
Because we drafted so early, some teams found their chances doomed by players who looked great back in May, but didn't turn out that way. Players like Montee Ball, Doug Martin, Pierre Garcon, Cordarrelle Patterson and Toby Gerhart proved to be wasted picks.
Final standings are presented below. Those who want to dig deeper into the rosters can check them out in our preseason magazine.
2014 Experts Draft League | |||
---|---|---|---|
Team | W | L | T |
The Huddle | 125 | 51 | 0 |
Yahoo! Sports | 115 | 61 | 0 |
FFMastermind.com | 110 | 66 | 0 |
Rotowire | 105 | 71 | 0 |
Footballguys.com | 101 | 75 | 0 |
KFFL | 97 | 79 | 0 |
Fantasy Football Warehouse | 83 | 93 | 0 |
Super League Qualifier | 83 | 93 | 0 |
Fantasy First | 83 | 93 | 0 |
FFChamps.com | 63 | 113 | 0 |
FFMagicMan.com | 53 | 123 | 0 |
Pro Football Focus | 38 | 138 | 0 |
--Andy Richardson