We’re 13 weeks into our accuracy competition and the big question as we approach the finish line is whether or not anyone can catch up with John Paulsen (The Scores Report). Heading into week 13’s games, Paulsen was the #1 overall expert in the standings for 8 consecutive weeks. While this is an impressive feat, the standings have been close enough that several experts have needed only a late push to make their own run at the title of Most Accurate Fantasy Football Expert.
Was Paulsen able to fend off the competition once again in week 13? Read on to see how the latest results are shaping up!
Week 13 Leaderboard
[table “65” not found /]*Overall standings evaluate experts’ weekly rankings at the QB, RB, WR, & TE positions
Notes:
- A quick glance at the standings reveals it all: Week 13 was a dominant showing from the experts at ESPN, the likes of which we haven’t seen during our 2 seasons of tracking accuracy results. As the occupants of the top 3 spots in the standings, the experts from Bristol certainly did everything they could to help their readers make quality decisions with the playoffs approaching.
- Specific congratulations go out to Eric Karabell (ESPN) for putting together the most accurate player rankings in week 13. Anyone who follows our accuracy results on a weekly basis knows that Karabell’s 69.8% PAY™ is a very impressive rating. In fact, you’d have to go all the way back to week 2 to find an expert with a higher accuracy score. With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that Karabell rated well across all of the positions that factor into our overall results: QB (#3), TE (#3), RB (#4) and WR (#7). For his QB picks, Karabell nailed more than just the studs (Michael Vick, Aaron Rodgers, etc); he also had a good read on several players who underachieved such as Sam Bradford (STL) and Matt Cassel (KC). And at the RB position, Karabell was a believer in surprise stud, Marshawn Lynch (SEA), as he had him ranked higher than all but 3 other experts. These picks were instrumental in fueling his week 13 accuracy success.
- Another ESPN expert that delivered excellent advice in week 13 was Christopher Harris. Harris’ best showing came at the TE position where he finished as the top expert with an impressive 83.4% PAY™. He notably rode several of the week’s top performers to score so well. Specifically, Vernon Davis (SF), Antonio Gates (SD) and Jason Witten (DAL) were all slotted high in his rankings. Harris also did a nice job with his picks at WR (#8 rank) and QB (#9 rank). While he hit on a key sleeper at the WR position (Sidney Rice), Harris managed to avoid over-ranking many of the most disappointing QBs in week 13 (Matt Cassel, Mark Sanchez and Sam Bradford). This well-rounded advice across several key positions ultimately helped to make him the 2nd most accurate expert for the week.
- It’s not too surprising that the ESPN Staff Composite finished in the top 5 considering the success Eric Karabell and Christopher Harris had with their rankings. What may be surprising to some, however, is that ESPN’s Staff Composite is now very quietly up to 8th place in our Year-to-Date standings. And with a PAY™ of 59.9%, they’re literally right behind the Yahoo! Sports Staff Composite (60.0% PAY™). This represents a big rebound for ESPN after Yahoo! had a decisive accuracy edge in 2009. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out as we head down stretch since we know bragging rights are at stake for these two popular services.
Year-to-Date Leaderboard
[table “66” not found /]Notes:
- For the 9th week in a row, John Paulsen (The Scores Report) checks in as the #1 overall expert. While week 13 wasn’t Paulsen’s best showing (29th overall), his success throughout the course of the season has put him in the enviable position of having a cushion to work with as we head into the final 3 weeks of the competition. With that being said, it’s still too early for Paulsen to carve out space on his mantle (do people still have mantles?) for the first place trophy. That’s because David Dodds (FootballGuys) is coming on strong and he has cut into Paulsen’s lead for the 2nd week in a row. We should be in for an exciting conclusion to the competition if the trend continues.
- As mentioned, David Dodds is in the midst of a hot streak whereby he has improved his accuracy rating for the past 3 weeks. Dodds finished in the top 10 yet again in week 13 as he’s proving to be one of the best in the business when it comes to fantasy football prognostication. In week 14, he will look to continue to demonstrate his expertise not only in our accuracy competition but also as the Featured Expert in our weekly FanDuel contest. All FantasyPros’ members are eligible to go head to head against the industry heavyweight in this FREE contest where there is a $500 prize pool at stake!
- The lone newcomer to the top 5 of the YTD standings is FantasyFootballNerd. The Nerd had a 4th place finish in week 13 and that was good enough to boost the site up four places to 5th overall. For those unfamiliar with how FantasyFootballNerd operates, it’s a very cool site that collects the rankings from the top fantasy sites and then generates consensus rankings using their proprietary NerdRank algorithm. In short, its aggregate rankings represent “the wisdom of the crowd” and so far the crowd is performing very well, particularly at the RB (#2 rank) and QB (#5 rank) positions.
We’ll be back again next week with a wrap-up of Week 14. In the meantime, you can visit our accuracy scores page if you’re interested in seeing how everyone in our field of nearly 40 experts stacks up against one another. The entire standings are offered at no cost to our registered members. Simply sign up for FREE and you’ll be able to view all of the accuracy scores!
