Congratulations to Brack Varnon of Houston. He’s the winner of the Defense category of the 2019 Experts Poll.
Unlike all but one of the other contested in the competition, Varnon is not a professional from the fantasy football industry. Instead, he qualified by performing well in the Fantasy Index Open. But Varnon was able to outperform the pros in the defenses category.
Varnon started off by wisely ranking New England higher than anyone else – 3rd. That gave him a nice head start on the field, with the Patriots scoring a league-high 163 points. In this competition, we used 2 points for each takeaway, 1 for each sack and 6 points for touchdowns (including special teams).
Varnon also wisely was among the lowest on both Jacksonville (10th) and the Chargers (13th). Both of those defenses were high enough on the other boards to finish in the top 4 (on average) but both had disappointing years.
Our scoring system for this competition is notoriously complex. Basically, we’re taking a player’s production and multiplying it against the position where it was ranked. The Patriots, for example, scored 163 points. Nease ranked them first, so said pick was worth 4,075 points (163 x 25). Had he ranked them 2nd, he would have received 3,912 points (163 x 24). He had ranked them 3rd, it would have gone for 3,749 points (163 x 23) and so on.
Total up all the points, and Varnon was able to edge Michael Nease of Big Guy Fantasy Sports. Nease was the one expert who was even lower than Varnon on the Jaguars and Chargers. After winning at Kickers earlier, Nease is the overall leader with a third of the positions scored.
John Hansen of Sirius XM Fantasy Sports took 3rd place in the Defenses category.
| EXPERTS POLL (Defenses) | |
|---|---|
| Analyst | Def |
| Brack Varnon | 33,786 |
| Michael Nease | 33,742 |
| John Hansen | 33,212 |
| Paul Charchian | 33,116 |
| Mike Clay | 33,012 |
| Jeff Ratcliffe | 32,810 |
| Jody Smith | 32,793 |
| Aaron Bland | 32,726 |
| Michael Nazarek | 32,686 |
| David Dorey | 32,654 |
| Tony Holm | 32,499 |
| Alan Satterlee | 32,447 |
| Lenny Pappano | 32,438 |
| Chris Liss | 32,213 |
| Jesse Pantuosco | 32,158 |
| Scott Pianowski | 32,103 |
| Bryan Teegardin | 31,970 |
| Sam Hendricks | 31,967 |
| Bob Henry | 31,571 |
| Cory Bonini | 31,317 |
We’re scoring these picks two different ways. In the alternative scoring system (with a floor placed under the 12 defenses that finished with the best scores) the same three analysts finished in the top 3, only with Nease and Hansen flipped.
Tony Holm was the most notable mover in this grading system, rising from 11th to 4th.
The alternative, floored-based system is intended to address the problem of players who miss substantial games with injuries. Such players tend to play key roles in the results of this kind of competition. But that’s not so much an issue with defenses, with NFL teams at least able to plug in replacement players and get on the field for all 16 games.
| DEFENSE SCORES (alternate) | |
|---|---|
| Analyst | Def |
| Brack Varnon | 3,344 |
| John Hansen | 2,950 |
| Michael Nease | 2,855 |
| Tony Holm | 2,788 |
| Paul Charchian | 2,687 |
| Mike Clay | 2,627 |
| Jody Smith | 2,603 |
| Michael Nazarek | 2,568 |
| Jeff Ratcliffe | 2,566 |
| Alan Satterlee | 2,454 |
| Chris Liss | 2,407 |
| Lenny Pappano | 2,389 |
| David Dorey | 2,326 |
| Aaron Bland | 2,318 |
| Scott Pianowski | 2,206 |
| Jesse Pantuosco | 2,153 |
| Sam Hendricks | 1,997 |
| Bob Henry | 1,969 |
| Bryan Teegardin | 1,923 |
| Cory Bonini | 1,532 |
—Ian Allan