Every fantasy football player in the country looks for the competitive edge to beat their opponent. Each game means bragging rights and sometimes winning or losing a friendly bet. (Well, friendly might not always describe it, but you get the point.)
When we look for these tips for our team, we often turn to the few people that get paid to research and dedicate their work to fantasy football. This year, I am on the quest to find the most accurate and reliable fantasy football “guru”.
I will spotlight on the four websites that own the fantasy football world and in the end, crown the best guru in the last edition of “Fantasy Guru Rankings”.
The four gurus: Michael Fabiano of NFL.com, Jamey Eisenberg of CBS Sports, Matthew Berry of ESPN, and Brad Evans of Yahoo! Sports.
Thus far, we’ve learned a great amount about the trends and problems that occur in projecting fantasy football points. Our four gurus have proven that even though they are self-proclaimed experts, any fan that does a great deal of research can probably do just as good. This isn’t the fault of these guys—they are great and do incredible work. Instead, the NFL is simply too unpredictable.
After another unpredictable week, here’s how our rankings look after Week 11 of the 2013 NFL Season:
If you need a refresher on how the scoring system works, click HERE.
*All points will be based off of ESPN’s non-PPR standard scoring for players*
Michael Fabiano, NFL.com—@Michael_Fabiano
Our leader had a standard week, going over 60-percent again and keeping his lead, now at 6.4-percent. He only has a few more weeks to hold on and has a shot at taking the crown!
He did great with his Wide Receiver sits, with Anquan Boldin being the only misfire. He called Ray Rice’s big week—maybe the clutch pick of the week!
Fabiano sealed the deal with a 5-for-6 number in the D/ST column including hits on the Bills, Cardinals, and Steelers.
Jamey Eisenberg, CBS Sports—@JameyEisenberg
Eisenberg had a major up-and-down week. He got two quarterback start picks right—a number that usually sets the tone for a good week—but he only predicted one of his six wide receiver picks right. He failed on picks of Torrey Smith, Mike Wallace, Golden Tate, and Riley Cooper.
The only reason Eisenberg recovered this week was his incredible performance with his running back selections. He got eight overall picks right including Ben Tate, Chris Ivory, and Lamar Miller.
He needs a breakout performance one of these weeks to overtake Fabiano… will it come in Week 12?
Matthew Berry, ESPN—@MatthewBerryTMR
This week might have finished Berry’s chances at catching Fabiano and becoming the Most Reliable Fantasy Football Guru.
With this average week, (18-36, 50.0 %) he’s let his overall percentage fall to just 50.8 %, putting him at risk to fall under 50-percent and look pretty bad in our rankings.
This week, he couldn’t string any solid spot together as a good category, including his wide receiver starts—failing to select one good player to start at WR. He only was able to get one of his six running back picks right: Ryan Matthews (who barely eclipsed 10 points.)
Don’t throw in the towel yet, Mr. Berry, but you’re going to need a miracle to climb up the leader-board.
Brad Evans, Yahoo! Sports – @YahooNoise
Note: As always, Evans only makes 10 picks in his “flames/lames” feature—so the object of tracking Evans is to see how correct he really is with these risky picks.
Here’s how Evans’ week looked:
“Starts”
Andy Dalton—X
Andre Ellington—X
Shane Vereen—X
Percy Harvin—X
DeAndre Hopkins—X
“Sits”
Matt Ryan—CORRECT
Eddie Lacy—X
Knowshon Moreno—CORRECT
T.Y Hilton—CORRECT
Victor Cruz—X
