We are back for our second season of NFL DFS expert grading. DailyOverlay is here to hand out the grades for this year’s crop of experts and hold them to a high standard so that we can see who is making the grades and who will need to work harder to improve. DailyOverlay is a tough, but fair, teacher handing out grades for the DFS expert’s weekly test, looking to make everyone better.
Much like the start of a new school year we have some new kids (experts) that we will evaluate this season and some kids (experts) that either moved over the summer or were held back a year and have been removed from last season’s list.
Each week I will write an NFL recap article, reviewing the Industry Consensus picks for the week and highlighting the top (and bottom) grades for the week from the experts we are tracking. For Week 1 we tracked and graded 21 sets of experts picks. You can view all expert rankings on the Expert Grading page.
When we move onto the second week we will also start to add sections for the season standings and ownership percentages both overall and by position.
On to the Week 1 grades, class is in session!
Consensus Recap – Week 1
The Industry Consensus picks had a decent week finishing in the middle of the pack in 12th place overall out of 22 experts graded this week.
The consensus list was solid at QB including hitting some of the top plays including Drew Brees and Andrew Luck. However, running back was a different story only Spencer Ware and Lamar Miller producing leading the Consensus to an 18th place ranking at the position. The Consensus finished near the middle of the pack at both WR and TE this week with the top grades coming from some strong value plays such as Willie Snead, Tajae Sharpe, Will Fuller, Dwayne Allen and Julius Thomas. And finally, Defense was the strongest score for the Consensus finishing in 7th place at the position with solid plays including the Seahawks and Texans.
Head of the Class (Overall) – Week 1
Each week I will highlight a few of the top experts for the week. Here are the experts that deserve a “gold star” for Week 1 based on their cumulative grades for all players they touted this week.
#1) DailyOverlay – Value Index (Score: 6.00) our very own Stephen jumps out to an early lead with a strong Week 1, including three “A+” grades out of six selections including strong value plays like Spencer Ware, Tajae Sharpe and Dwayne Allen.
#2) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 4.89) comes in second place this week with five out of their nine selections receiving either an “A+” or “A” grade. They were led by Andrew Luck, Spencer Ware, Dwayne Allen, Matthew Stafford and Amari Cooper.
#3) DailyFantasySportsRankings (Score: 3.87) provided 15 selections this week including eight grades of “B” or better on their way to the third best DailyOverlay score this week. Key picks included Spencer Ware, Tajae Sharpe and the Vikings Defense.
Head of the Class (By Position) – Week 1
Sometimes there is just that one class that you excel in. In this section, I will highlight who the top experts were at each position for Week 1.
QB – SportsBlog (5.75) led by selections of Andrew Luck and Drew Brees
RB – FantasyTeamAdvice and DailyOverlay – Value Index (10.00) both with an “A+” selection for their only RB picked (Spencer Ware)
WR – DailyFantasySportsRankings (7.33) with two “A+” grades out of their three WR picks (Willie Snead and Tajae Sharpe)
TE – DailyOverlay – Value Index (10.00) with an “A+” from his only play (Dwayne Allen)
DST – DailyFantasySportsRankings, FakePigskin and Rotowire (5.00) with defenses such as the Seahawks, Vikings and Eagles.
Study Time – Week 1
If we are going to give a gold star to the top experts of the week, we also need to determine which experts might need to put in some extra study time to pull up those grades. Here are the Week 1 experts that didn’t make the grade this week.
- FantasyWired (Score: 1.40) was unable to record any grades above a “B” out of their five selections including an “F” from Coby Fleener.
- Rotoballer (Score: 1.56) had five “F” grades out of their nine selections and were let down by players such as Christine Michael, Rashad Jennings, John Brown and Rishard
Extra Credit – Week 1
In this section, I will look to give some extra credit to experts that received an A+ grade for a player that they recommended when very few other experts did. Week 1 extra credit goes to the following…
A+ – AJ Green (DailyRoto, DailyRoto-Mayo)
A+ – Theo Riddick (FantasyPros)
A+ – DeMarco Murray (SportsBlog)
A+ – Dolphins Defense (FantasyPros)
A+ – Vikings Defense (DailyFantasySportsRankings, SportsBlog, GoingFor2)
Let’s see who can make the grade in Week 2!
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