Sam Hendricks, author of the Fantasy Football Guidebook (published by Extra Point Press), out-picked the 583 contestants who entered this year's Fantasy Index Open rankings accuracy contest. Hendricks also won the Fantasy Index Open in 2012, and he was the top finisher in this year's Fantasy Index Experts Poll.
The Fantasy Index Open contest is open to everyone who chose to enter -- professional and nonprofessional alike. Hendricks won with an entry that was solid across the board. He finished in at least the 70th percentile in every category, and was outstanding in many:
| Sam Hendricks finish by category | ||
|---|---|---|
| Position | Finish | Percentile |
| Quarterback | 172 | 70.5% |
| Running Back | 33 | 94.3% |
| Wide Receiver | 14 | 97.6% |
| Tight End | 67 | 88.5% |
| Kicker | 48 | 91.8% |
| Defense/Special Teams | 131 | 77.5% |
Mike Nease of Big Guy Fantasy Sports finished second overall. He finished 15th at running back and 18th at wide receiver (both finishes in the 97th percentile). His picks looked very different from the picks he submitted in the Experts Poll published in Fantasy Football Index magazine. Nease finished first at RB position in the Fantasy Index Experts Poll, with many wild picks. But in the Open he helped himself by moving Gurley up to No. 1, with Alvin Kamara No. 2 among running backs, while remaining higher on Christian McCaffrey (No. 11) and lower on bust Devonta Freeman (No. 14) than most other forecasters.
Bryan Teegardin, middle school science and history teacher from Rochester, N.Y., finished first among non-professionals. His winning entry earns a berth in the Experts Poll published in next year's edition of Fantasy Football Index, where he will compete in a similar contest against a field of 18 industry analysts. He will be joined by Joseph Varnon of Houston, who finished fourth overall (second among civilians). Todd Blinn of Obetz, Ohio, finished fifth / third.
Hendricks wins a gigantic trophy from AffordableTrophies.com. They’ve partnered with us on this competition for many years. Affordable Trophies offers a wide variety of fantasy league awards at their website.
To see how your own entry fared, click on the blue “Your Stuff” link at the top of the page. There should then be a “Fantasy Index Open” link near the upper right corner of the page, giving you your overall performance breakdown, including overall points and results at each position.
Scoring in this competition is complex. We score all 120 players ranked by each contestant. The higher you rank a player, the more he counts towards your score. Greg Zuerlein, for example, was the highest scoring kicker, with 158 points. If you ranked him 1st, that would be worth 3,950 points (25 x 158). If you ranked him 2nd, that would be worth 3,792 (24 x 158). Rank him 3rd and it’s worth 3,634 (23 x 158). Following that process for every player and every pick, and we get some sense of the overall quality of analyst.
Of the 583 people who entered the contest, 467 ranked 20 players at every position. Some entrants ran out of time or gave up.
What did it take to finish last in a category? One finisher near the bottom (No. 510) at the QB position ranked Jimmy Garoppolo No. 1, Kirk Cousins No. 2, Aaron Rodgers No. 3 and Patrick Mahomes No. 20. Injuries also factor into the rankings. Your entry suffered if you were too optimistic about guys who played little or none -- LeVeon Bell, Jerick McKinnon, Devonta Freeman and Jimmy Garoppolo.