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.
For those of you that play in leagues that allow six teams into the playoffs, I’d like to wish you good luck this week—assuming you listened to the right fantasy guru and are indeed in said playoffs!
This week is critical, so you’re going to want to rely on the hot hand and read some suggestions from the guru you feel comfortable with! Here are our rankings coming into this week:
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
Now that the gap between first and second place has been closed to just 4.4%, Fabiano has something to be worried about. Jamey Eisenberg had a great week, and the NFL.com guru struggled to put together anything consistent this week.
He had a combined 0-for-7 in the Tight End and D/ST “start” categories. Cecil Shorts, Chris Ivory, and Russell Wilson were among the picks that Fabiano failed to lock up.
With just four weeks left, Fabiano needs to keep his weekly percentage above 60 to keep from falling from the top spot. It’s going to be close either way—something that will be interesting to watch if Fabiano takes some risks in his next column.
Jamey Eisenberg, CBS Sports—@JameyEisenberg
In a week where it was do-or-die, Eisenberg got the job done with some clutch picks in this week’s edition.
He tallied a weekly total of over 65% by nailing his picks at the running back spot. Eisenberg got 10 of his 11 picks at running back correct—a record for this year. Among those backs, he went under the radar with Shane Vereen who ultimately caught five passes, one for a touchdown.
To inch closer to the top, Eisenberg will have to do better with consistency at the wide receiver spot. He missed on six picks this week.
Matthew Berry, ESPN—@MatthewBerryTMR
With another average week, you can forget about any chances that Berry might have had at making a miraculous comeback. Although he might be the best-known of our four gurus, his numbers show what he has been in terms on fantasy football advice—very average.
Here are just a few players that Berry misfired on:
- Jordy Nelson
- Larry Fitzgerald
- Danny Woodhead
- Julian Edelman
- Kendall Wright
If you’re in the playoffs, you might want to steer clear of Berry. While his week was a bit above average, his lack of consistency scares me off.
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 Week 13 looked for Evans:
“Starts”
Ryan Fitzpatrick—X
C.J Spiller—CORRECT
Bilal Powell—X
Rod Streater—X
Jarrett Boykin—X
“Sits”
Colin Kaepernick—CORRECT
LeSean McCoy—X
Stevan Ridley—CORRECT
Vincent Jackson—CORRECT
Torrey Smith—X
