It was an injury-marred football season. So the Experts Leagues we assembled back in May to run in our annual preseason magazine were even more likely than usual to be affected by injury. These are no-transaction leagues with best-ball scoring; you get the best weekly lineup from the team you built on draft/auction day. And when the dust had settled on our Auction League, David Dodds of Footballguys was the winner.
Looking at Dodds' original roster, it's clear that he had some good fortune with injuries. The only player on his roster who landed on IR at any point during the season was Coby Fleener. His team was led by Alex Smith at quarterback, DeMarco Murray-Lamar Miller-C.J. Anderson-Duke Johnson Jr. at running back, and DeAndre Hopkins-Michael Crabtree-Golden Tate-Robert Woods at receiver. Hopkins was perhaps his only superstar (although Woods was certainly a shrewd $2 pickup). But those guys came to play each and every week.
Matt Schauf of Draft Sharks was the runnerup. His team was led by Ben Roethlisberger at quarterback, Kareem Hunt and Carlos Hyde at running back, and an impressive receiving corps: Michael Thomas, Demaryius Thomas and Brandin Cooks. He also had Jimmy Graham, who seemingly scored almost every week, at tight end. Injuries were to lower-priced fliers like Kenneth Dixon and Joe Williams. Dion Lewis was a nice $3 pickup.
Third place went to Sam Hendricks of Extra Point Press. One of his two quarterbacks was Sam Bradford, who got hurt early on. But his other one was Russell Wilson. At running back, he had Todd Gurley. That might have been enough, but he also had a nice group of receivers (Keenan Allen, Alshon Jeffery and Stefon Diggs), plus Delanie Walker at tight end.
Some teams were hit particularly hard by injuries. Scott Sachs of Perfect Season Fantasy Football lost David Johnson, Ty Montgomery, Aaron Rodgers and Julian Edelman. Mike Nease of Big Guy Fantasy Sports lost Greg Olsen and Terrelle Pryor, Bryan Hough of FantasyTitan101 lost Andrew Luck and Jordan Reed, Jody Smith of Gridiron Experts lost Ryan Tannehill, Odell Beckham Jr. and Allen Robinson. Not much hope of recovering in this type of league from franchise-wreckers like those.
In this league, teams played every other team each week, to minimize luck of scheduling. The week's highest score went 11-0, lowest score went 0-11, etc.
INDEX EXPERTS AUCTION LEAGUE STANDINGS | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Team | W | L | T | TotPts | |
FootballGuys | 143 | 31 | 2 | 1831 | |
Draft Sharks | 128 | 46 | 2 | 1845 | |
Extra Point Press | 128 | 48 | 0 | 1848 | |
Yahoo! Sports | 114 | 58 | 4 | 1779 | |
FF Excellence | 87 | 86 | 3 | 1558 | |
FF Index | 86 | 87 | 3 | 1584 | |
The Huddle | 84 | 91 | 1 | 1586 | |
RotoWire | 78 | 94 | 4 | 1474 | |
Perfect Season Fantasy Football | 57 | 119 | 0 | 1395 | |
Gridiron Experts | 51 | 123 | 2 | 1392 | |
FantasyTitan101 | 48 | 126 | 2 | 1328 | |
Big Guy Fantasy Sports | 40 | 135 | 1 | 1287 |
--Andy Richardson