Michael Nease reached the halfway point of our Experts Poll with the lead in the overall standings, and he took another step towards the title by winning the Wide Receivers category.
Nease, who writes for Big Guy Fantasy Sports, didn’t have a standout killer pick in this category. He started off by ranking Davante Adams No. 1, costing him some points against most of the field. And Nease lost more ground by ranking Adam Thielen (who also got hurt) higher than everyone else (4th). But Nease made enough other solid selections to dig his way out of that hole and finish as the highest scorer at this position.
Most notably, Nease ranked A.J. Green the lowest of everyone (16th). That was his most important pick. Nease also was the lowest on another injured receiver (T.Y. Hilton) and the 2nd-lowest on Odell Beckham and Keenan Allen. By moving those guys down, it allowed Nease to pick up some value on all of the other receivers who moved up a few spots on his list.
Whatever the reasons, Nease won the category. Tony Holm of Fantasy Sharks finished 2nd, while Jody Smith of FantasyData.com took 3rd.
This competition isn’t like a regular league. All 20 picks in each category count for each of the 20 experts. The higher they rank each player, the more he counts towards their score. Thielen, for example, scored 114.4 points (in PPR scoring). Nease ranked him 4th, and that pick was worth 2,516.8 points – that comes from 114.4 being multiplied by 22 (the 22 comes from 26 minus 4). Had somebody ranked Thielen first, the pick would have been worth 2,860 points (114.4 x 25).
Lots of numbers in play, and when all the adding and multiplying is completed, Nease won at Wide Receiver.
| EXPERTS POLL, WIDE RECEIVERS | |
|---|---|
| Analyst | WR |
| Michael Nease | 64,863 |
| Tony Holm | 63,742 |
| Jody Smith | 63,702 |
| Chris Liss | 63,595 |
| Paul Charchian | 63,577 |
| Alan Satterlee | 63,322 |
| Lenny Pappano | 63,245 |
| John Hansen | 63,132 |
| David Dorey | 62,989 |
| Sam Hendricks | 62,785 |
| Cory Bonini | 62,781 |
| Bryan Teegardin | 62,454 |
| Michael Nazarek | 62,383 |
| Brack Varnon | 62,144 |
| Aaron Bland | 61,927 |
| Jesse Pantuosco | 61,179 |
| Bob Henry | 60,906 |
| Mike Clay | 60,798 |
| Scott Pianowski | 59,929 |
| Jeff Ratcliffe | 59,599 |
This kind of contest can be scored in various ways. There isn’t a perfect, fair way to grade preseason top 20s. So we also look at the results when a “safety net” is placed underneath each pick. That is, A.J. Green not playing at all was a huge pollutant at this position. What would the results look like if we filtered out the less meaningful guys, at least to a degree?
So with scoring system B, we look only at the 24 wide receivers who put up starter-quality numbers. That is, the 25th-best wide receiver last year was Odell Beckham, with 203.5 points. For Beckham and the other receivers outside the top 24, we’re calling them worth zero. For the guys inside the top 24, they get credit for however much better than Beckham (203.5 points) they were.
Using this alternate scoring system, Nease still wins at wide receivers, so he can definitely claim top honors at this position.
In the alternate scoring system, Lenny Pappano (Draft Sharks) moves up from 7th to 2nd. David Dorey of TheHuddle.com moves up from 9th to 3rd.
| WIDE RECEIVERS (alternate scoring) | |
|---|---|
| Analyst | Points |
| Michael Nease | 12,232 |
| Lenny Pappano | 11,799 |
| David Dorey | 11,743 |
| Tony Holm | 11,575 |
| Alan Satterlee | 11,571 |
| Jody Smith | 11,508 |
| Chris Liss | 11,498 |
| Cory Bonini | 11,421 |
| Sam Hendricks | 11,344 |
| Paul Charchian | 11,306 |
| Brack Varnon | 11,215 |
| Michael Nazarek | 11,108 |
| Aaron Bland | 11,028 |
| John Hansen | 10,942 |
| Bob Henry | 10,916 |
| Bryan Teegardin | 10,898 |
| Mike Clay | 10,657 |
| Jesse Pantuosco | 10,176 |
| Scott Pianowski | 10,016 |
| Jeff Ratcliffe | 9,776 |
We’ve got two positions left – QB and RB – and they tend to play the biggest role in crowning the overall champion. There were lots of poison players at the QB position (Andrew Luck, Ben Roethlisberger, Cam Newton, most notably) and those who did the best job of downgrading those guys will have a huge leg up in the competiton.
With four of the six positions scored, Nease is the overall leader. Holm is about 2,000 points back (not much in this kind of contest). Paul Charchian (LeagueSafe.com) is about another 1,000 back, and Chris Liss is an additional 1,000 back.
Jeff Ratcliffe won this competition two years ago; he’s currently sitting in last. Two other analysts who’ve both won this competition multiple times are in the bottom 5: Scott Pianowski (Yahoo Sports) and Bob Henry (FootballGuys.com)
| EXPERTS POLL, OVERALL (WR-TE-K-D) | |
|---|---|
| Analyst | Points |
| Michael Nease | 170,136 |
| Tony Holm | 168,439 |
| Paul Charchian | 167,298 |
| Chris Liss | 166,351 |
| Brack Varnon | 165,454 |
| Sam Hendricks | 165,322 |
| Michael Nazarek | 165,222 |
| Alan Satterlee | 165,019 |
| Lenny Pappano | 164,584 |
| Bryan Teegardin | 164,396 |
| Jody Smith | 163,642 |
| John Hansen | 163,537 |
| Cory Bonini | 163,113 |
| David Dorey | 162,949 |
| Mike Clay | 162,675 |
| Scott Pianowski | 162,412 |
| Aaron Bland | 161,848 |
| Jesse Pantuosco | 161,293 |
| Bob Henry | 160,982 |
| Jeff Ratcliffe | 160,953 |
—Ian Allan