We crown the champions of our Experts Leagues (assembled for our preseason magazine) after Week 16, just like most fantasy leagues. Mario Puig of Rotowire was the winner in 2020, in a year when it actually paid off not to have a top-3 or 4 selection. Picking 5th, he settled for Alvin Kamara, and that worked out pretty well.
One player doesn't win a title, of course. Puig nailed each of his first six picks. After Kamara he took Nick Chubb, then a pair of wide receivers who were among the best in the league -- Allen Robinson and Calvin Ridley. As No. 3 wideouts go, Robert Woods worked out fairly well. And then Puig grabbed his quarterback in the 6th round: Kyler Murray.
These are "Draftmasters" type best-ball leagues (we also hold an Auction), where you select your team and then watch it perform during the season. No roster moves, and you get the best lineup from your team each week: 2 RBs, 3 WRs, and 1 QB-TE-PK-D/ST. Later picks for Puig that contributed included T.J. Hockenson, the Tampa Bay Defense, and a pretty nice Week 16 starter (AJ Dillon).
David Dorey of The Huddle came in 2nd. He drafted from the 12th spot, making tight end Travis Kelce his top pick. Kelce just set the tight end receiving yardage record. DeAndre Hopkins in the second round also worked out well.
Dorey did not hit on a lot of his early picks. Third-rounder Odell Beckham and fifth-rounder Mark Ingram went bust. It was a pair of picks in the double-digit rounds that paid off handsomely: 10th-rounder Aaron Rodgers, 13th-rounder Justin Jefferson. Never believe your late-round picks can't be league-winners. Last-rounder Chase Claypool also made Dorey's lineup on occasion.
Michael Nazarek of Fantasy Football Mastermind came in 3rd. Particularly impressive is that his top pick, Michael Thomas, was a bust, killing a lot of teams that drafted him in the first round (7th overall). But most of Nazarek's first seven picks hit: Miles Sanders, Adam Thielen, Chris Carson, Darren Waller and Will Fuller. A pair of veteran quarterbacks operating pass-happy offenses, Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger, were also very good.
Full standings are below. In this league there are no playoffs; it's just total standings after playing each team each week for the first 16 weeks of the NFL season. Top score each week goes 11-0, 2nd-highest score goes 10-1, etc.
It should be noted that some teams were hit more heavily by injuries (or opt-outs) than others. Fantasy Index Open representative Brack Varnon, as a for instance, lost Kenny Golladay to injury and Damien Williams to opt-out before the season even began. The other Index Open representative (both of whom qualified by finishing in the top 11 of the previous year's Experts Poll) used two of his top 4 picks on Joe Mixon and Deebo Samuel. Sam Hendricks of Extra Point Press used early picks on Austin Ekeler, Zach Ertz and Derrius Guice. There's no coming back from that in a no-transaction league.
We'll post the results from the Experts Auction league in the next several days. Congratulations again to Rotowire!
| EXPERTS DRAFT LEAGUE FINAL STANDINGS | ||
|---|---|---|
| Team | W | L |
| Rotowire | 134 | 42 |
| The Huddle | 122 | 54 |
| FFMastermind.com | 112 | 64 |
| Draft Sharks | 108 | 68 |
| Fantasy Sharks | 108 | 68 |
| Footballguys | 99 | 77 |
| GuillotineLeagues.com | 83 | 93 |
| Fantasy Index Blackout | 71 | 105 |
| Big Guy Fantasy Sports | 65 | 111 |
| Index Open - Teegardin | 57 | 119 |
| Index Open - Varnon | 50 | 126 |
| Extra Point Press | 47 | 129 |
--Andy Richardson