Cory Bonini of USA Today Fantasy Sports is the early leader in the Fantasy Index Experts Poll, outscoring 19 other analysts in the Defense & Special Teams category.
Bonini was as low on anybody on Seattle, ranking it just 8th, and that was a good move. The Seahawks had a great real-life defense, allowing fewer points than any other teams, but the scoring system here was weighted more towards sacks and turnovers, with Seattle finishing just 13th.
Bonini was the 2nd-highest of anybody on Kansas City and Philadelphia, which helped his cause. Both of those defenses finished in the top 5.
However you slice it, it was enough for Bonini to come out ahead of Tony Holm of Fantasy Sharks and Bob Henry of Footballguys.
The NFL defenses turned out like this, using the scoring system of 2 points for takeaways, 1 for sacks, 2 for safeties and 6 for every defensive or special teams touchdowns.
| FANTASY SCORING TOTALS, DEFENSES | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Team | Pts | Fum | Int | Sack | Fan Pts |
| 1. | Arizona | 46 | 14 | 19 | 36 | 148 |
| 2. | Carolina | 24 | 15 | 24 | 44 | 146 |
| 3. | Denver | 38 | 13 | 14 | 52 | 144 |
| 4. | Kansas City | 38 | 7 | 22 | 47 | 143 |
| 5. | Philadelphia | 38 | 11 | 15 | 37 | 127 |
| 6. | Pittsburgh | 18 | 13 | 17 | 48 | 126 |
| 7. | Minnesota | 36 | 9 | 13 | 43 | 123 |
| 8. | St. Louis | 26 | 13 | 13 | 41 | 119 |
| 9. | Indianapolis | 32 | 8 | 17 | 35 | 117 |
| 10. | Washington | 26 | 15 | 11 | 38 | 116 |
| 11. | NY Giants | 38 | 12 | 15 | 23 | 115 |
| 12. | Houston | 18 | 11 | 14 | 45 | 113 |
| 13. | Seattle | 30 | 8 | 14 | 37 | 111 |
| 14. | New England | 14 | 9 | 12 | 49 | 105 |
| 15. | Cincinnati | 6 | 7 | 21 | 42 | 104 |
| 16. | Tampa Bay | 18 | 12 | 11 | 38 | 102 |
| 17. | Green Bay | 12 | 6 | 16 | 43 | 99 |
| 18. | NY Jets | 0 | 12 | 18 | 39 | 99 |
| 19. | Oakland | 10 | 11 | 14 | 38 | 98 |
| 20. | Jacksonville | 24 | 9 | 9 | 36 | 96 |
| 21. | Detroit | 16 | 9 | 9 | 42 | 94 |
| 22. | Buffalo | 20 | 8 | 17 | 21 | 91 |
| 23. | Cleveland | 18 | 10 | 11 | 29 | 89 |
| 24. | Tennessee | 12 | 8 | 11 | 39 | 89 |
| 25. | Miami | 24 | 3 | 13 | 31 | 87 |
| 26. | New Orleans | 12 | 13 | 9 | 31 | 87 |
| 27. | Atlanta | 18 | 8 | 15 | 19 | 83 |
| 28. | Baltimore | 18 | 8 | 6 | 37 | 83 |
| 29. | San Diego | 6 | 9 | 11 | 32 | 78 |
| 30. | Chicago | 0 | 9 | 8 | 35 | 69 |
| 31. | Dallas | 8 | 3 | 8 | 31 | 61 |
| 32. | San Francisco | 6 | 3 | 9 | 28 | 58 |
We then take those fantasy points for each of the NFL defenses and merged them against where they were ranked by each of our 20 competitors. The higher a guy ranks a defense, the more it counts towards his score. Seattle, for example, scored 111 fantasy points. Those who ranked the Seahawks #1 received 2,775 points (25 x 111). Those who ranked Seattle 2nd received 2,664 points (24 x 111). Bonini ranked Seattle 8th, so he received only 1,998 points (18 x 111), but he saved those valuable multiplier chips to be used on other defenses (like Kansas City and Philadelphia).
We have used 20-1 and 30-11 ratios in the past, but both have flaws. With the 20-1 system, the lesser picks don’t seem to carry enough weight. It’s all based on who does the best ranking the top couple of picks. That is, it doesn’t really matter if you cleverly ranked Doug Martin as your 18th pick. That would have been a great recommendation, but it would have been washed out by whatever you did with your top few selections. Similarly, the 30-11 doesn’t quite work. It tends to place too much weight on simply picking guys who don’t get hurt. That is, the winner at the quarterback position isn’t the guy who does the best job with his top 5, but instead which entry lands the most in the teens who at least stayed in the lineup for 14-plus games.
So we’ve settled on the 25-6 scale as the Lesser of Three Evils.
And at this first category, Bonini was the winner.
There are 20 analysts in this competition. Eighteen are industry experts – guys who do this for a living. The remaining two spots are filled by the top finishers in our Fantasy Index Open competition. That is, guys who have day jobs but at least have shown some ability to put together player ranking lists that are better than a couple hundred other people. The two at-large entries didn’t fare well at this category. Todd Voorhees and Pete Owers both finished in the bottom 4.
But still plenty of categories left to grade.
| EXPERTS POLL, Defenses | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rk | Expert | Points |
| 1. | Cory Bonini | 35,849 |
| 2. | Tony Holm | 35,183 |
| 3. | Bob Henry | 34,899 |
| 4. | Paul Charchian | 34,810 |
| 5. | Mike Nease | 34,761 |
| 6. | Sam Hendricks | 34,703 |
| 7. | Lenny Pappano | 34,539 |
| 8. | Micah James | 34,506 |
| 9. | Scott Pianowski | 34,443 |
| 10. | Chris Liss | 34,423 |
| 11. | Alan Satterlee | 34,343 |
| 12. | Jay Harding | 34,294 |
| 13. | Michael Nazarek | 34,245 |
| 14. | Bryan Hough | 34,220 |
| 15. | Mike Clay | 34,184 |
| 16. | L.A. Hale | 34,179 |
| 17. | Todd Voorhees | 34,124 |
| 18. | Pete Owers | 34,031 |
| 19. | David Dorey | 33,728 |
| 20. | Scott Sachs | 33,652 |
—Ian Allan

