The NFL regular season is in the books. All of the NFL DFS experts have submitted their final exam (Week 17) and the grades have been tabulated and the winner of the 2016 NFL DFS season is… DailyFantasyNerd!
DailyFantasyNerd rode a third place finish in Week 17 to jump from second place in the overall standings into the top spot to finish the season. Congrats to DailyFantasyNerd and all of the NFL DFS experts we tracked this season. Click here to see the complete listing of all experts ranking in the final Overall Standings.
With that, I will flip the script a little this week and present the season long awards first with the Week 17 grades to follow below.
Head of the Class – Season
Here are the top experts in the Overall Standings after Week 17 of the season, including which site has provided the top DraftKings points per $1000 of salary.
#1) DailyFantasyNerd (Score: 3.60) takes over the top spot in the final week with a third place finish in Week 17. DailyFantasyNerd has been at or near the top of the leaderboard all season providing strong optimized lineups.
#1) DailyFantasySportsRankings (Score: 3.57) also moves up in the final week into second place, thanks to their late-season push including taking the top spot in Week 17. They really found their groove over the last few weeks of the season making a strong push up the leaderboard. They also finished in the Top 5 last season showing great consistency year-over-year.
#3) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 3.54) fell from the top spot in the final week of the season. They only managed a 14th place finish in Week 17 which led to their drop in the standings. They still had a very good season’s worth of picks to finish near the top of the leaderboard.
#4) DailyFantasyCafe (Score: 3.42) remains in fourth place finishing a very solid season of recommendations. They worked their way into the top five around midseason and were there to stay.
#5) DailyOverlay – Value Index (Score: 3.23) held off the competition in Week 17 to finish in the top five. Got off to a hot start and faded a little bit down the stretch but overall had very good recommendations all season.
Finishing out the top 10 were:
#6) Rotowire (Score: 3.20)
#7) RotoGrinders Consensus (Score: 3.16)
#8) FantasyWired (Score: 3.15)
#9) GoingFor2 (Score: 3.06)
#10) DailyOverlay – Offensive Tendencies (Score: 3.03)
Top Value – DailyFantasyNerd (3.02 DK Pts/$1000)
The DailyOverlay Industry Consensus finished the season with a solid 11th place ranking in the overall standings out of 25 experts. The Consensus picks were solid and consistent all season which is what you often get when you take the consensus of a group of experts.
Head of the Class – Season (By Position)
Sometimes there is just that one class that you excel in. Here are the top experts at each position through Week 17 of the season including which site has provided the top DraftKings points per $1000 of salary.
QB
#1 tied) Rotowire and DailyOverlay – Value Index (4.00)
Top Value –DailyOverlay – Value Index (3.43 DK Pts/$1000)
RB
#1) RotoGrinders – Lineup Builder (4.44)
#2) DailyFantasyCafe (4.27)
Top Value – DraftKings Playbook (3.28 DK Pts/$1000)
WR
#1) DailyFantasyNerd (3.37)
#2) DailyFantasyCafe (3.25)
Top Value – DraftKings Playbook (2.98 DK Pts/$1000)
TE
#1) DailyOverlay – Offensive Tendencies (3.52)
#2) DailyFantasySportsRankings (3.49)
Top Value – Rotowire (3.16 DK Pts/$1000)
DST
#1) DailyFantasyNerd (4.54)
#2) Rotowire (3.50)
Top Value – DailyFantasyNerd (3.57 DK Pts/$1000)
Thanks to all the NFL DFS experts and a great season! We will look to provide NFL DFS Consensus rankings for the first couple weeks of the playoffs (not graded) and then see you all again next season to see if DailyFantasyNerd can defend their crown.
Consensus Recap – Week 17
The Industry Consensus picks finished the season on a high note with a 6th place finish out of 18 experts graded.
QB (Score: 5.67 / Rank 6th out of 18) – Strong week for the Consensus with four of the top six QBs on the slate including Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan, Drew Brees and Matthew Stafford.
RB (Score: 4.22 / Rank 6th out of 18) – At running back the Consensus came through again with four of the top seven RBs including top picks of Rex Burkhead, Devonta Freeman, Mark Ingram and Bilal Powell.
WR (Score: 3.67 / Rank 7th out of 18) – All but two WR recommended by the Consensus list scored at least 10 DraftKings points led by top plays of Michael Thomas, Davante Adams, Julio Jones and Golden Tate.
TE (Score: 3.00 / Rank 5th out of 18) – The Consensus list had the top point scoring TE with Zach Ertz but little else.
D/ST (Score: 3.00 / Rank 9th out of 18) – The Cardinals defense was the top point scorer at the position and the top recommended play on the Consensus list.
Head of the Class – Week 17
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 17 based on their cumulative grades for all players they touted this week.
#1) DailyFantasySportsRankings (Score: 4.79) completes a great run the last few weeks with a top finish in Week 17. They had eight grades of “B” or higher from their 14 selections led by picks of Aaron Rodgers, Mark Ingram, Julio Jones, Kyle Rudolph and Cardinals defense.
#2) Moxyball (Score: 4.17) finishes in second place for the week with seven out of 14 grades of “B” or better, including top plays of Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan and Michael Thomas.
#3) DailyFantasyNerd (Score: 4.13) rounds out the top three with five out of eight grades of “B” or better. They were led by selections of Julio Jones, Bilal Powell and Cardinals defense.
Top Value – FantasyPros (3.51 DK Pts/$1000) provided the top value plays of the week with key value picks including Alex Smith, Shaun Draughn, Rex Burkhead and Rishad Matthews.
Head of the Class – Week 17 (By Position)
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 17.
QB –ProFootballFocus (10.00) was led by their lone selection of Aaron Rodgers.
RB – FantasyTeamAdvice and DailyOverlay – Value Index and RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (5.00) all tied for the top spot at RB this week with players such as Devonta Freeman, Devontae Booker and Rex Burkhart.
WR – Moxyball (5.67) led all experts at WR led by picks of Michael Thomas and Golden Tate.
TE – ESPN Love/Hate (6.50) topped the TE position with picks of the top two tight ends, Zach Ertz and Kyle Rudolph.
DST – DailyFantasyNerd (10.00) for the top spot with a single selection of the Cardinals defense.
Study Time – Week 17
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 17 experts that didn’t make the grade this week.
- Scout Fantasy (Score: 1.56) had a poor week with four out of nine selection receiving an “F” They were let down by picks of Darren Sproles, Travis Kelce, David Johnson and the Raiders defense.
- DraftKings Playbook (Score: 1.63) had a down week with 11 grades of “D” or worse out of their 16 selections. Key disappointments were EJ Manuel, Fitzgerald Toussaint, Steve Smith and Charles Clay.
Extra Credit – Week 17
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 17 extra credit goes to the following…
A+ – Alex Smith (FantasyPros)
A+ – Sam Bradford (Rotowire)
A+ – Shaun Draughn (DailyRoto, FantasyPros)
A+ – Rishard Matthews (DailyRoto, FantasyPros)
A+ – Dennis Pitta (DailyOverlay – Offensive Tendencies)
A+ – Kyle Rudolph (DailyFantasySportsRankings, ESPN Love/Hate)
A+ – Vikings defense (DailyRoto)
Thanks to all of our readers and be sure to check out the other great content on the site including NBA, MLB, PGA and Nascar. Feel free to comment, send us an email or hit us up on Twitter with any feedback on the NFL content this season.
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