Usually with these experts poll competitions, there isn’t much difference between the entry. A pick here, a pick there, and a guy is elevated slightly above the others. That’s for the Fantasy Index Open (which has 170 entries) and the Experts Poll proper in the magazine, with 20 industry analysts duking it out.
But there was an uncharacteristic knockout at tight end. Bob Henry of Footballguys.com simply blew everyone away. Henry finished with 31,174 points, almost 2,000 points ahead of everyone else. Michael Nazarek of Fantasy Football Mastermind finished 2nd, and Micah James (FFmagicman.com) took 3rd.
Henry ranked Antonio Gates 10th (higher than everyone else), which helped his score. He also tied for highest on Travis Kelce (16th), who had a nice season but wasn’t even in the top 20 of all but two other guys. Henry also benefited by being the lowest on Dennis Pitta (15th) and the 3rd-lowest on Kyle Rudolph (14th). Both of those guys got hurt.
EXPERTS POLL, TIGHT ENDS (standard scoring) | ||
---|---|---|
Rk | Team | Points |
1. | Bob Henry | 31,174 |
2. | Michael Nazarek | 29,320 |
3. | Micah James | 29,168 |
4. | Tom Deskovitz | 28,870 |
5. | Scott Pianowski | 28,663 |
6. | Scott Sachs | 28,594 |
7. | Chris Liss | 28,561 |
8. | Mike Clay | 28,267 |
9. | Michael Fabiano | 28,081 |
10. | L'Roy Anthony Hale | 28,037 |
11. | Michael Livengood | 28,036 |
12. | Lenny Pappano | 27,958 |
13. | Cory Bonini | 27,770 |
14. | Bryan Hough | 27,533 |
15. | David Dorey | 27,530 |
16. | Sam Hendricks | 27,277 |
17. | Tony Holm | 26,710 |
18. | Bill Enright | 26,209 |
19. | Paul Charchian | 25,988 |
20. | Alan Satterlee | 24,991 |
We’ve also got the deal this year where we’re looking at the alternate scoring method – the Chris Liss scoring system. He suggested some kind of mulligan system, so that when you blow a pick on a guy like Dennis Pitta, it doesn’t count so much against your score.
In the Chris Liss Scoring System (the floor system), you start by taking the 20th-best guy at the position. In this case, Scott Chandler (67.7 points). Then, players receive credit only for production above and beyong 67.7 points. If you get a guy below that threshold, whether it’s 0, 20 or 50 points, those guys just count as zero (the assumption being that in a regular fantasy league, you would figure out that they suck and replace them with a Chandler-type guy.
In the alternate scoring system, the standings are pretty similar this time around. No big movers.
EXPERTS POLL, TIGHT ENDS (floor scoring) | ||
---|---|---|
Rk | Team | Points |
1. | Bob Henry | 12,654 |
2. | Michael Nazarek | 11,785 |
3. | Tom Deskovitz | 11,640 |
4. | Scott Sachs | 11,601 |
5. | Micah James | 11,599 |
6. | Scott Pianowski | 11,233 |
7. | Mike Clay | 11,164 |
8. | Chris Liss | 11,147 |
9. | Lenny Pappano | 11,074 |
10. | Cory Bonini | 11,051 |
11. | Michael Fabiano | 10,973 |
12. | Michael Livengood | 10,915 |
13. | L'Roy Anthony Hale | 10,847 |
14. | Sam Hendricks | 10,761 |
15. | David Dorey | 10,692 |
16. | Bryan Hough | 10,331 |
17. | Bill Enright | 9,992 |
18. | Tony Holm | 9,810 |
19. | Paul Charchian | 9,629 |
20. | Alan Satterlee | 9,034 |
At the halfway point of the poll, only two experts have ranked above-average at all three positions, Michael Nazarek and Micah James. But the higher-scoring positions are still to come (QB, RB and WR).
The top 11 finishers qualify to participate in the Mock Draft league in the magazine. Here’s what the overall standings look like right now (with 3 of 6 positions scored).
EXPERTS POLL, OVERALL (standard scoring) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rk | Name | TE | PK | Def | Points |
1. | Micah James | 3 | 1 | 9 | 99,101 |
2. | Bob Henry | 1 | 9 | 17 | 98,721 |
3. | Michael Nazarek | 2 | 5 | 8 | 98,374 |
4. | Mike Clay | 8 | 3 | 15 | 97,377 |
5. | Scott Sachs | 6 | 13 | 1 | 96,684 |
6. | Bryan Hough | 14 | 6 | 7 | 96,471 |
7. | Tom Deskovitz | 4 | 16 | 2 | 96,221 |
8. | Michael Livengood | 11 | 11 | 4 | 96,064 |
9. | Michael Fabiano | 9 | 10 | 14 | 95,764 |
10. | Chris Liss | 7 | 18 | 3 | 95,565 |
11. | Cory Bonini | 13 | 8 | 16 | 95,357 |
12. | Scott Pianowski | 5 | 17 | 10 | 95,158 |
13. | David Dorey | 15 | 7 | 20 | 95,087 |
14. | Tony Holm | 17 | 4 | 19 | 95,042 |
15. | L'Roy Anthony Hale | 10 | 15 | 6 | 94,798 |
16. | Alan Satterlee | 20 | 2 | 13 | 94,465 |
17. | Sam Hendricks | 16 | 12 | 18 | 94,091 |
18. | Lenny Pappano | 12 | 20 | 11 | 93,873 |
19. | Bill Enright | 18 | 19 | 5 | 92,717 |
20. | Paul Charchian | 19 | 14 | 12 | 92,710 |
Here are the overall standings with the revised scoring system (with the safety net below guys like Pitta). In revised scoring, Cory Bonini, Tom Deskovitz and Lenny Pappano each move up 4-7 spots. Bryan Hough, Mike Clay and Tony Holm each fall by 4-7 spots.
EXPERTS POLL, OVERALL (floor scoring) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rk | Name | TE | Pk | Def | Points |
1. | Bob Henry | 1 | 9 | 14 | 19,740 |
2. | Tom Deskovitz | 3 | 11 | 2 | 19,564 |
3. | Micah James | 5 | 5 | 6 | 19,402 |
4. | Cory Bonini | 10 | 1 | 4 | 19,354 |
5. | Michael Nazarek | 2 | 6 | 11 | 19,203 |
6. | Scott Sachs | 4 | 12 | 3 | 19,194 |
7. | Chris Liss | 8 | 18 | 1 | 18,925 |
8. | Mike Clay | 7 | 8 | 13 | 18,311 |
9. | Michael Livengood | 12 | 16 | 5 | 18,159 |
10. | David Dorey | 15 | 2 | 20 | 18,044 |
11. | Scott Pianowski | 6 | 17 | 12 | 17,965 |
12. | Michael Fabiano | 11 | 7 | 19 | 17,906 |
13. | Bryan Hough | 16 | 10 | 8 | 17,722 |
14. | Lenny Pappano | 9 | 20 | 10 | 17,709 |
15. | L'Roy Anthony Hale | 13 | 19 | 9 | 17,686 |
16. | Sam Hendricks | 14 | 14 | 17 | 17,609 |
17. | Bill Enright | 17 | 13 | 7 | 17,354 |
18. | Tony Holm | 18 | 4 | 18 | 17,079 |
19. | Alan Satterlee | 20 | 3 | 16 | 16,396 |
20. | Paul Charchian | 19 | 15 | 15 | 16,333 |
—Ian Allan