With the final week of the NFL regular season completed all of the experts that we have tracked this season have submitted their final exam to be graded before receiving their final grade. There were a few experts that dropped out as the season progressed and a few that joined the class during the season, but, in the end, the final grades are the true reflection of all the hard work that all of the NFL DFS experts put in this season.
The race to see who would be at the top of the class this season came down to the wire and in a photo-finish that was decided by just 0.003 DailyOverlay points, the valedictorian of the 2015 NFL DFS class is VenoDFS-Derek who beat out Moxyball-Matt by the narrowest of margins. Congratulations to all of the experts that we graded this season and especially to the top five experts for the 2015 NFL season.
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.
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.
Overall Leaderboard
To see the full leaderboard through Week 17 for all 28 experts we graded head over to the NFL Industry Expert Grading page.
#1) VenoDFS-Derek (Score: 3.610) was able to hold onto the top spot in the overall standings by just a 0.003 margin. The VenoDFS crew was added to the NFL grading mix in Week 8 and had a couple of their experts in the top five at various times during the season. Derek took over the top spot in the overall standings in Week 15 and performed well enough down the stretch to finish as the top NFL DFS expert this season.
#2) Moxyball-Matt (Score: 3.607) trailed by 0.22 points heading into Week 17, but with an excellent 2nd place(tie) showing this week was able to make up the difference and come within a hair of moving into the top spot in the overall standings. Matt was very consistent all season long and bounced between the top two spots in the overall standings the entire season.
#3) Moxyball-Marcel (Score: 3.55) holds onto their place in the overall standing with a strong 2nd place(tie) in the Week 17 rankings. Marcel spend most of the season just outside of the top five, but with a late season push moved into the top five in Week 14 and remained there through the end of the season. A strong showing for the Moxyball team.
#4) RotoGrinders Consensus (Score: 3.34) remains in fourth place in the final standings with a solid 8th place finish in Week 17. The RotoGrinders Consensus picks were very consistent all season long as they bounced in and out of the top five throughout the season, never falling out of the top 10 in the overall standings. They finally landed in the top five for good in Week 14 of the season.
#5) DailyFantasySportsRankings (Score: 3.30) breaks into the top five for the first time all season on the last week with a strong 5th place showing in Week 17. DailyFantasySportsRankings hovered just outside the top five for most of the season and with back-to-back top five finishes in Week 16 and 17 finally broke through into the top five in the overall standings.
Finishing out the top 10 were:
#6) RotoCurve (Score: 3.28)
#7) VenoDFS-Rob O’Connor (Score: 3.25)
#8) VenoDFS-Rob Veno (Score: 3.22)
#9) DK Playbook – Geoff Ulrich (Score: 3.16)
#10) DK Playbook – Jonathan Bales (Score: 3.15)
Meanwhile, the Industry Consensus picks finished the season in 16th place in the overall standings out of 28 experts with a DailyOverlay score of 3.04. The nice thing about the consensus picks is they will likely always finish near the middle of the pack. Looking back through the season the Industry Consensus picks finished as high as 7th place a couple of times with their worst ranking of 22nd place once while most of the time they were in the 10th – 14th place range. Overall a solid season for the Industry Consensus picks.
Week 17 Consensus Recap
Each week I will recap the top consensus picks that were posted to review how they graded out. The Industry Consensus picks finished the season strong with a 7th place finish out of 21 experts graded this week.
Quarterbacks
Highly Touted
A+ – Ben Roethlisberger – Nice bounce-back game for Big Ben with 349 yards and 3 TDs
A+ – Matt Ryan – Opponent does matter as Ryan had his first game with at least 2 TDs since Week 11
A – Eli Manning – The Eagles didn’t roll over as many (including me) expected, but Manning still put up over 300 yards and 2 TDs
Recommended
A+ – Cam Newton – Start engraving the MVP trophy, he had more rushing TDs than 13 teams did this season
D – Ryan Fitzpatrick – Bad day for Fitzpatrick with 3 interceptions and under 200 yards passing
Suggested
A – Matthew Stafford – Finished the season strong with 6 straight games with 2 or more TD passes
D – Aaron Rodgers – Rodgers and the Packers passing game just hasn’t been productive over the 2nd half of the season
Running Backs
Highly Touted
B – Devonta Freeman – Experts and DFS players were hoping for more in a great matchup
F – DeAngelo Williams – Injury ended his day early
Recommended
A+ – Tim Hightower – Another productive game with over 100 total yards and a TD
A – Darren McFadden – Had 145 total yards, but needed a TD to be an elite play
C – Adrian Peterson – Scored against the Packers again, but limited to 67 rushing yards
F – David Johnson – Ineffective early and limited touches as the Cardinals pulled their starters
Incomplete – Todd Gurley – Gurley was inactive
Suggested
A+ – Rashad Jennings – The play of the week at RB with 170 rushing yards and a TD at a cheap price
Incomplete – Bilal Powell – Powell was inactive
Wide Receivers
Highly Touted
A+ – Antonio Brown – Big bounce-back game for Brown with 13 catches for 187 yards and a TD
A – Julio Jones – Another big yardage day for Jones with 149 yards, but needed a TD to be an elite play
F – Odell Beckham Jr – Very limited production following one game suspension for a disappointing end to the season for Beckham
Recommended
C – DeAndre Hopkins – Solid game, but nothing spectacular with 7 catches for 89 yards
F – Matavis Bryant – Missed the 2nd half, but didn’t produce when he was on the field either
F – Brandin Cooks – Only 6 targets for Cooks as Drew Brees spread the ball around on Sunday
Suggested
A+ – Brandon Marshall – Scored at least 1 TD in 12 out of 16 games this season, incredibly consistent
A+ – Jordan Matthews – Produced over last 3 weeks of the season including scoring 2 TDs this week
C – Eric Decker – Scored 1 TD in 12 out of his 15 games this season, just doesn’t get the volume of yardage that Marshall does
D – AJ Green – TD catch saved him from an “F”
F – Michael Floyd – Came into the game banged up and it showed with only one catch
Tight Ends
Highly Touted
A+ – Zach Ertz – The chalk play at TE this week came through with 9 catches for 152 yards
Recommended
A+ – Delanie Walker – Was a consistent producer all season
F – Travis Kelce – Ended the season with his worst game of the year with only one catch
F – Greg Olsen – Didn’t need to do much as the Panthers cruised to victory
F – Rob Gronkowski – Worst game of the season with only 2 catches for 18 yards
Suggested
A – Benjamin Watson – Solid game to top off a career season for Watson
B – Gary Barnidge – “B” for Barnidge in his breakout season
Head of the Class for 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) DailySportsGeek-Scott (Score: 6.79) took home first place in the last week of the season with 8 “A+” grades out of 14 selections. He had some consensus plays such as Ben Roethlisberger, Tim Hightower, Rashad Jennings, Antonio Brown, Jordan Matthews, Brandon Marshall and Zach Ertz, but also had an off the radar play of Sam Bradford to help bring him to the top.
#2-Tie) Moxyball-Marcel (Score: 6.63) comes in a tie for second place this week with 5 out of 8 selection receiving an “A+” grade. They were led by the Ben Roethlisberger to Antonio Brown connection along with other “A+” plays such as Tim Hightower, Rashad Jennings and Delanie Walker.
#2-Tie) Moxyball-Matt (Score: 6.63) matched his fellow writer Marcel at Moxyball to tie for second place this week by receiving 7 grades of a “B” or better out of his 8 selections. Key picks were Matt Ryan, Tim Hightower, Delanie Walker and Zach Ertz.
Study Time for 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.
- VenoDFS-The Cap Room (Score: 2.73) who finished in the top spot last week drops all the way to the bottom this week with 7 “F” grades out of 15 selections. They were let down by players such as Carson Palmer, Blake Bortles, Michael Floyd, Allen Hurns, Odell Beckham Jr and Doug Baldwin.
- ESPN-Matthew Berry (Score: 2.8) had a down week also getting 7 “F” grades out of his 15 selections. Some of the picks that didn’t come through this week included Tom Brady, Frank Gore, Jonas Gray, Doug Baldwin and Martavis Bryant.
Extra Credit for Week 17
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 17 extra credit goes to the following…
A+ – Sam Bradford (DailySportsGeek-Scott, DailyFantasySportsRankings)
A+ – Anquan Boldin (DailyFantasySports Rankings, FantasyPros)
A+ – DeVante Parker (FantasyPros, FakePigskin)
A+ – DuJuan Harris (ESPN-Matthew Berry)
A+ – Calvin Johnson (VenoDFS-The Cap Room)
Thanks for a great NFL season and be sure to keep coming back to DailyOverlay for our NBA grading and content!
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