Fantasy Index

header banner img
OUR FANTASY BASEBALL MAGAZINE IS BACK! PRE-ORDER NOW
Win here.

Fantasy News

Fantasy Index Experts Poll

Hendricks captures Wide Receivers category

Sam Hendricks (Extra Point Press) is the winner of the Wide Receivers portion of the Fantasy Index Experts Poll. He didn’t get there by pulling an outlier pick out of his hat but instead made a series of solid selections.

Most notably, Hendricks was one of only six analysts who included Keenan Allen in his top 20. He had him 16th, 2nd-highest of everyone. He also benefitted from ranking Jordy Nelson only 8th (tying for 2nd-lowest). When Nelson had a poor year, that hurt Hendricks less than almost everyone else (most had him in the top 5).

Hendricks also helped his cause by being a little lower than most on Odell Beckham, Demaryius Thomas and Allen Robinson, while being a little higher than most on Alshon Jeffery, Golden Tate and Jarvis Landry.

Whatever the combination of reasons, Hendricks was the winner at this position, followed by Mike Clay (ESPN) and Justin Eleff (Fantasy Index Podcast).

WIDE RECEIVER RESULTS (Standard Scoring)
AnalystCompanyPoints
Sam HendricksExtra Point Press42,083
Mike ClayESPN41,794
Justin EleffFantasy Index Podcast41,477
Ryan McDowellDynasty League Football41,372
Scott PianowskiYahoo Sports41,229
Jeff RatcliffePro Football Focus40,960
Ryan MurphyEast Berlin, Pa.40,731
Michael NazarekFantasy Football Mastermind40,620
Bob HenryFootballGuys40,616
Paul CharchianLeagueSafe40,399
Jody SmithGridiron Experts39,749
David DoreyThe Huddle39,504
Chris LissRotoWire39,401
Cory BoniniUSA Today Fantasy Sports39,305
Lenny PappanoDraft Sharks39,211
Tony HolmFantasy Sharks39,178
Alan SatterleeCharlotte Observer38,975
Scott SachsPerfect Season FF38,643
L.A. HaleFantasy Gives38,273
Ken ValisGaithersburg, Md.38,006

Injuries play a big role in this competition (in which we score 120 player choices by each of the 20 analysts in varying degrees). At this position, those who invested in Beckham, Robinson, Julian Edelman, Terrelle Pryor and Brandon Marshall got shredded pretty good. And players like Nelson, Kelvin Benjamin and Donte Moncrief underperformed. But this is how this contest works, with every pick by every analyst being graded in varying degrees.

If you want to get into giving mulligans (softening the blow of blown selections) we also offer “Waiver Wire Scoring” showing how things score out if you put a floor on the damage down by poor selections – using the assumption that in a typical fantasy league, that player would be replaced by a serviceable free agent on the waiver wire.

With the kicker, defense and tight end positions, we set the floor at 13 players (assuming you might get somebody in the teens as a replacement player). With wide receivers, teams tend to start 2 or 3 of them, so we’re setting the floor at 30 players (2.5 x 12 = 30), so the floor was 110.4 (which is how many points were scored by the 31st wide receiver in 2017, Amari Cooper).

So with Waiver Wire Scoring, we give credit only for production beyond 110.4 points. Any picks scoring under 110.4, whether it be 0, 50, 80 or 103, just goes down as a zero.

Using this alternate scoring system, Eleff would move up into the No. 1 spot. The big mover would be Alan Satterlee (Charlotte Observer), who would climb from 17th all the way up to 4th. Satterlee had some really good selections (higher than everyone on DeAndre Hopkins and lower than everyone on Jordy Nelson) but had too many gigantic holes in the teens – the highest of everyone on Breshad Perriman, Willie Snead and Pryor.

WIDE RECEIVER RESULTS (Standard Scoring)
AnalystPointsStd Rk
Justin Eleff10,9033
Sam Hendricks10,6461
Ryan Murphy10,4837
Alan Satterlee10,22317
Jeff Ratcliffe10,1876
Michael Nazarek10,1318
Ryan McDowell10,0974
Paul Charchian10,08910
Scott Pianowski10,0625
Mike Clay9,9632
Tony Holm9,81816
Bob Henry9,8059
Jody Smith9,75611
Scott Sachs9,67618
Cory Bonini9,50014
Ken Valis9,38720
David Dorey9,29312
Chris Liss9,23613
Lenny Pappano8,72415
L.A. Hale8,66319

With two positions left to be graded, Ryan McDowell of Dynasty League Football is the overall leader, following by Clay and Bob Henry (FootballGuys). Quarterbacks and Running Backs are the two remaining positions, and then tend to carry the most weight in this competiiton.

OVERALL STANDINGS (4 of 6 positions)
AnalystWRTEPKDefPoints
Ryan McDowell41256134,544
Mike Clay215131134,452
Bob Henry92310134,338
Jeff Ratcliffe610113134,091
Jody Smith11624133,960
Justin Eleff31965133,704
Sam Hendricks113148133,438
Scott Pianowski581020132,571
Chris Liss134812132,534
Scott Sachs1816114132,374
Ryan Murphy714913132,350
Michael Nazarek871215132,254
David Dorey1211519131,748
Lenny Pappano153187131,338
Alan Satterlee1711716131,048
Ken Valis205172130,466
Tony Holm1618411130,458
Paul Charchian1017209128,860
Cory Bonini14201618127,786
L.A. Hale1991917127,785

For those preferring scoring with a floor, Eleff is the current leader, with McDowell falling down to No. 2.

OVERALL STANDINGS (Waiver Wire Scoring)
AnalystWRTEPKDefPoints
Justin Eleff1113523,808
Ryan McDowell725623,001
Jeff Ratcliffe51516122,753
Mike Clay10126422,749
Jody Smith13815322,488
Sam Hendricks2471522,417
Paul Charchian87111022,232
Ryan Murphy31712922,219
Ken Valis16144222,186
Michael Nazarek6391621,923
Bob Henry12581221,825
Chris Liss181141121,649
Scott Sachs141911421,563
Tony Holm11202821,509
Scott Pianowski99171821,471
Alan Satterlee413102021,207
Lenny Pappano191020720,756
David Dorey176131920,675
Cory Bonini1516191720,506
L.A. Hale2018181319,756

—Ian Allan

Fantasy Index