NFL Week 14 – Industry Expert Grading

Injuries played a big part in Week 14 in the NFL, just like they did a few weeks ago. This week there were three injuries to players on the consensus list; Andy Dalton, Tyler Eifert and Thomas Rawls, who were all touted near the top of the list at their respective positions. Likely if you had one of these players it was difficult to recover unless you hit on the rest of your players. Oh well, such is life in the NFL and as they say, at least it just wrecked one week of your DFS season, not your entire year as it could have in a season long league, especially during fantasy playoff time.

The Industry Consensus picks had a good week with numerous of the big producers this week such as Russell Wilson, Blake Bortles, Todd Gurley, DeAngelo Williams, Odell Beckham Jr., Doug Baldwin, Allen Hurns and Jordan Reed. It sure would have been a nice payday if you were able to put together that combination this week.

Be sure to check out the season long scores for all of the experts that we are tracking at the NFL Industry Expert Grading page.

On to the Week 14 grades, class is in session!

Week 14 Consensus Recap

Each week I will recap the top consensus picks that were posted to review how they graded out. The Industry Consensus picks had a very solid week finishing in 10th place out of 27 experts graded this week.

Quarterbacks

Highly Touted
A+ – Russell Wilson – He is just on fire right now with 4 straight games with 3+ TD passes
D – Jameis Winston – Expected much more in a good matchup against the Saints

Recommended
A+ – Blake Bortles – Late rushing TD propelled him to an A+
A – Ryan Fitzpatrick – Solid and consistent again this week
B – Cam Newton – Limited by the Panthers taking their foot off the gas in the 2nd half
C – Tyrod Taylor – Let down game this week with only 1 TD pass after back-to-back 3 TD weeks
F – Andy Dalton – Tough injury for the Bengals and fantasy owners
F – Ben Roethlisberger – Dalton injury changed the entire game script

Suggested
B – Drew Brees – Solid game for Brees with 312 yards and 2 TD passes

Running Backs

Highly Touted
B – Doug Martin – Only had 11 carries, but still managed 81 yards and a TD
C – LeSean McCoy – Solid game, but didn’t live up to all the “revenge game” hype
F – Shaun Draughn – Limited to 13 touches including only 2 receptions

Recommended
A – DeAngelo Williams – Steelers controlled the game and Williams benefited with 2 TD runs
B – Jonathan Stewart – Big 1st half before getting hurt and sitting out the 2nd half
F – Thomas Rawls – His day and season cut short by injury
F – Devonta Freeman – Falcons offensive couldn’t get anything going against Carolina

Suggested
A+ – Todd Gurley – Contrarian play of the week with 140 yards and 2 TDs
A – Lamar Miller – Big 1st half, but then the Dolphins went away from him for some reason
C – James White – Got a late rushing TD to save his day
D – Matt Forte – He was out carried by Jeremy Langford this week, but did score

Wide Receivers

Highly Touted
A+ – Odell Beckham Jr – He is on an absolute roll right now, just like last season
A – Brandon Marshall – Has over 100 yards and a TD in 3 straight games
A – AJ Green – Put up numbers even with AJ McCarron at QB for most of the game
C – Antonio Brown – A “down” game for Brown who still caught 7 passes for 87 yards
F – Allen Robinson – Hopefully you pivoted to his teammate Allen Hurns this week

Recommended
A+ – Doug Baldwin – On. Fire.
A – Alshon Jeffery – First game over 100 yards since Week 9, first TD since Week 8
B – Sammy Watkins – Long TD reception early, but not much else
D – Danny Amendola – First game under 10 targets since Week 9
F – Mike Evans – Only had 4 targets, his lowest since Week 2
F – DeAndre Hopkins – Had a season-low 6 targets

Suggested
A+ – Allen Hurns – Cheaper and better Jaguars WR this week
B – Jarvis Landry – Season-high 18 targets for 11 catches and 99 yards
B – Eric Decker – Yet another solid game for Decker
B – TY Hilton – Solid bounce-back game for Hilton with 132 receiving yards
C – Julio Jones – Has not scored since Week 8
C – Marvin Jones – Typical game for Jones with 6 catches for 61 yards
F – Brandin Cooks – Only had 5 targets in a game the Saints controlled

Tight Ends

Highly Touted
B – Delanie Walker – Remains one of the most consistent TEs from week-to-week
F – Greg Olsen – Got banged up and sat out with Panthers cruising
F – Tyler Eifert – Left game early with a concussion

Recommended
A+ – Jordan Reed – Caught all 9 targets for 120 yards and a TD
A – Julius Thomas – Has now scored in 4 straight games
F – Austin Seferian-Jenkins – Experts were looking for a breakout game, but only had 3 catches for 31 yards
F – Scott Chandler – Gronk active resulted in zero catches for Chandler

Suggested
A+ – Gary Barnidge – Manziel showed that he can find Barnidge too
F – Travis Kelce – Another bad game for Kelce with only 3 catches for 18 yards
F – Coby Fleener – Only 1 catch

Head of the Class for Week 14

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 14 based on their cumulative grades for all players they touted this week.

#1) Moxyball-Marcel (Score: 6.00) finished in the top spot by a wide margin in Week 14 receiving 6 “A+” grades out of 11 selections. Marcel hit on some consensus plays such as Blake Bortles, Allen Hurns, Jordan Reed and Gary Barnidge, but also had some hidden gems in Eli Manning and Eddie Lacy.

#2) SportsBlog (Score: 5.25) comes in second place this week. They only had 4 selections, but they hit on 2 of them for an A+ grade this week with the Russell Wilson to Doug Baldwin stack.

#3) VenoDFS-The Cap Room (Score: 4.17) comes in a distant third place this week to round out the top three. They received a grade of “B” or higher on 10 out of their 18 selections this week. They were led by Russell Wilson, Blake Bortles, Odell Beckham Jr, Allen Hurns and Doug Baldwin.

Study Time for Week 14

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 14 experts that didn’t make the grade this week.

• Rotoball (Score: 0.63) who came into the week in the top 5 in the overall standings really struggled this week with 5 “F” grades out of 8 selections. They were let down by players such Andy Dalton, Allen Robinson, Brandin Cooks and Greg Olsen.
• RotoCurve (Score: 2.33) entered this week as the #4 expert in the overall standings, but they also had a down week with 6 “F” grades out of 15 selections this week. Players that didn’t perform for them this week were Austin Seferian-Jenkins, Tyler Eifert, Shaun Draughn and Mike Evans.

Extra Credit for Week 14

In this section, I will look to give some extra credit to experts that received an A+ grade on a player that they recommended when very few other experts did. Week 14 extra credit goes to the following…

A+ – Eli Manning (Moxyball-Marcel, DailyRoto-Mayo)
A+ – Eddie Lacy (Moxyball-Marcel)
A+ – Tyler Lockett (FantasyPros, DailySportsGeek-Brandon, Moxyball-Matt)
A+ – Golden Tate (FantasyPros)
A+ – Brian Hartline (ESPN-Matthew Berry)
A+ – Zach Miller (DailyRoto)

Overall Leaderboard

To see the full leaderboard through Week 14 head over to the NFL Industry Expert Grading page.

#1) Moxyball-Matt (Score: 3.49) holds onto first place for the second consecutive week with a solid 8th place finish in Week 14 and will look to hold off the competition over the last few weeks of the season.

#2) VenoDFS-Derek (Score: 3.42) finished in the top five for Week 14 which allows him to close the gap a little bit between first and second place in the overall standings.

#3) Moxyball-Marcel (Score: 3.34) thanks to a huge Week 14 finishing with the top score by a wide margin jumps up into third place in the overall standings. We’ll see if he can continue his run toward the top spot next week.

#4) VenoDFS-Rob Veno (Score: 3.28) falls one spot in the overall standings down to fourth place with a middle of the pack ranking in Week 14.

#5) RotoGrinders Consensus (Score: 3.22) moves up into the top five this week with a solid 11th place finish in Week 14. They have been hovering just outside of the top five for most of the season and finally broke through this week.

Despite a strong 10th place finish in the Week 14 standings, the Industry Consensus picks remain in 16th place in the overall standing out of 28 experts listed. We’ll see if they can move into the top half of the standings before the season ends.

Let’s see who can make the grade in Week 15!

Follow me on Twitter @RotoPilot