Back in 2005, we started running an Experts Auction League in our preseason annual. A dozen fantasy experts with a $200 budget each built the best roster they could, and we'd play the league out over the course of the season. No one has been as successful over the last 15 years as Footballguys' David Dodds, who closes out the decade with his fourth title.
This is a best-ball, no-transaction league, so depth is important. You can't make moves to cover for injuries, nor is there any way to add breakout rookies or handcuffs. There's some luck involved, as with all fantasy competitions, but David was able to build the most balanced team this season.
Notably, he had some of the top players at three of the major positions. Matt Ryan and Jameis Winston were his quarterbacks, so he had one of the best quarterbacks the first half of the season (Ryan) and also the second (Winston). His running back corps was led by Dalvin Cook and Nick Chubb, and he had George Kittle carrying him at tight end. Tarik Cohen, Phillip Lindsay and Mike Gesicki gave him some spot starts at those positions.
Dodds didn't have a knockout wide receiving corps, but he had enough to get by with some good weeks out of a lot of different players: Keenan Allen, Will Fuller, Golden Tate, Kenny Stills, Tyrell Williams, Michael Gallup. (In this competition, lineups featured 2 running backs, 3 wide receivers and 1 each from QB-RB-TE-PK-Team D.) New Orleans and Kansas City gave him a quality defense in most weeks.
Matt Schauf of Draft Sharks came in 2nd, and Mike Nease of Big Guy Fantasy Sports came in 3rd. Schauf was led by Deshaun Watson, Aaron Jones, Joe Mixon, Robert Woods and Allen Robinson, with Hunter Henry at tight end. Nease -- in something you can only do in an Auction league -- paired Christian McCaffrey with Alvin Kamara, spending nearly half his budget on that duo. McCaffrey scored enough for both players, and Nease's team was supported by some bargains at quarterback (Dak Prescott) and wide receiver (Tyler Boyd, DK Metcalf).
Injury and retirement misfortune torpedoed some teams. Scott Pianowski of Yahoo Sports, as a for instance, had no chance due to taking a zero at quarterback nearly every week. When we held the auction, he figured to be fine with Andrew Luck, Cam Newton and Nick Foles. Those players combined to start only six games all season. Mario Puig of Rotowire was let down by Ben Roethlisberger and David Johnson, among others.
Full standings are below; rosters can be seen in our magazine. (In this league, every team plays every other team each week during the season, with the top-scoring team going 11-0, etc.) I'll post the results of our Experts Draft League later in the week.
--Andy Richardson
| EXPERTS AUCTION FINAL STANDINGS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | W | L | T |
| FootballGuys | 128 | 48 | 0 |
| Draft Sharks | 104 | 72 | 0 |
| Big Guy Fantasy Sports | 101 | 75 | 0 |
| YouRulz.com | 100 | 76 | 0 |
| Fantasy Index Blackout | 97 | 77 | 2 |
| Extra Point Press | 96 | 79 | 1 |
| FantasyData | 90 | 85 | 1 |
| Perfect Season FF | 82 | 92 | 2 |
| Fantasy Index | 80 | 92 | 4 |
| RotoWire | 67 | 105 | 4 |
| The Huddle | 63 | 111 | 2 |
| Yahoo Sports | 38 | 134 | 4 |