The fantasy playoffs are upon us and that means the stakes have risen for owners with teams still alive. It goes without saying that there’s no better time than right now for the experts to nail their predictions. In fact, the pundits that offer the best advice could very well make the difference in propelling their readers to victory. No pressure, right?
With this in mind, let’s take a look back at the accuracy results from week 14 to find out which experts got things right. We’ll also examine how our Year-to-Date leaderboard is shaping up with just a few weeks left in the season.
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Week 14 Accuracy Results
| Top 10 Experts – Overall Leaderboard* | ||
| Rank | Expert | PAY™ |
| 1. | Christopher Harris – ESPN | 67.4% |
| 2. | Shawn Li – Gridiron Experts | 67.3% |
| 3. | Michael Sherman – Fantasy Team Advice | 67.0% |
| 4. | John Halpin – Fox Sports | 67.0% |
| 5. | Mike Krueger – FFToday | 66.7% |
| 6. | Sablich Brothers – The New York Times | 66.7% |
| 7. | Sigmund Bloom – FootballGuys | 66.2% |
| 8. | Derek Lofland – FFManiax | 66.2% |
| 9. | C.D. Carter – Sports Jerks | 66.0% |
| 10. | Mike Clay – Pro Football Focus | 65.8% |
*See how all 100 experts ranked for the week
It was a great week for ESPN’s Christopher Harris. Harris netted the top accuracy score in large part due to excellent RB advice. He especially did a good job of slotting players that disappointed fantasy owners lower than the field of experts. This includes Bryce Brown (-6 spots vs. consensus), Chris Johnson (-8 spots vs. consensus) and Ahmad Bradshaw (-4 spots vs. consensus). Each back finished outside of the top 36 fantasy RBs so it was a good week to be down on them. In terms of hitting on studs, Harris had a read on 2 of the week’s best WRs: Mike Wallace & Danario Alexander. He was 1 of only 7 experts (out of 100) to rate Wallace as a top 20 receiver and only 7 experts had Alexander ranked higher. Both players rewarded that faith by hauling in multiple TD passes en route to top 5 receiver performances.
Peak Performers
We’d also like to highlight the experts that did the best job of ranking week 14′s peak performers. Below are several key players that came through beyond expectations for fantasy owners along with the experts who delivered their top ranking.
Consensus: QB #9
Best Rank: QB #1
Actual Rank: QB #1
Top Experts: Greg Smith (The Fake Football) & Mike Krueger (FFToday)
Consensus QB #27
Best Rank: QB #17
Actual Rank: QB #2
Top Expert: Andrew Norton (GHL Fantasy)
Consensus: RB #6
Best Rank: RB #2
Actual Rank: RB #1
Top Experts: Jason Smith (NFL.com), Nathan Zegura & Dave Richard (CBS Sports), Staff (FF Freaks)
Consensus: RB #20
Best Rank: RB #8
Actual Rank: RB #3
Top Expert: Site Projections (WhatIfSports)
Consensus: WR #28
Best Rank: WR #10
Actual Rank: WR #1
Top Expert: Michael Sherman (Fantasy Team Advice)
Consensus: WR #38
Best Rank: WR #23
Actual Rank: WR #4
Top Expert: Site Projections (numberFire)
Consensus: WR #20
Best Rank: WR #15
Actual Rank: WR #3
Top Expert: Adam Rank (NFL.com)
Year-to-Date Accuracy
| Top 10 Experts – YTD Leaderboard* | ||
| Rank | Expert | PAY™ |
| 1. | Jody Smith – Gridiron Experts | 62.8% |
| 2. | Sablich Brothers – The New York Times | 62.5% |
| 3. | David Dodds – FootballGuys | 62.3% |
| 4. | Muntradamus – Beast Dome | 62.3% |
| 5. | Mike Tagliere – Tags Fantasy Football | 62.1% |
| 6. | John Paulsen – 4for4.com | 62.1% |
| 7. | Ken Zalis – Fans Fantasy Football | 62.1% |
| 8. | Justin Boone – TSN | 62.0% |
| 9. | Bryan Fontaine – Pro Football Focus | 61.8% |
| 10. | Chris Wesseling – Rotoworld | 61.8% |
*See how all the experts rank for the season
For the season standings, tt’s still the Jody Smith Show as the Gridiron Experts’ pundit has made it 9 weeks in a row at #1. With that said, the Sablich Brothers (The New York Times) did manage to cut into roughly half of Smith’s lead on the strength of their strong showing (6th place) in week 14. The Bros’ Sablich will need another clutch performance to take over the #1 spot with only two weeks left in the competition.
The other notable aspect of the Year-to-Date standings is that Pro Football Focus now has 4 experts making the cut as top 15 prognosticators. That’s an impressive feat no matter how you break it down. Throw in that PFF also has 3 of the top 5 IDP pundits and you can clearly see that they’ve been getting the job done across the positions for their subscribers.
We’ll be back again next week with another recap of how the experts are doing with their predictions. Until then, best of luck with your playoff matchups this week!
