FantasyFootballGuidebook.com finishes 4th out fo 20 Experts in Fantasy Index Magazine RB Rankings for 2018

Michael Nease was super aggressive with his running back picks in the Experts Poll last year; with seven different running backs, he ranked them higher or lower than any of the 19 other analysts. And Nease hit on enough of those picks to outperform the rest of the field at this position.
It wasn’t pretty at times. Nease ranked Todd Gurley (6th) and Saquon Barkley (12th) a lot lower than anyone else – picks that rightfully cost him a ton of points. They finished as the top-2 scoring running backs (using standard scoring).
But Nease hit on enough other picks to salvage the best score. He ranked Alvin Kamara as his No. 1 back, for example, which was about 4 spots higher than the vast majority of experts. The Kamara pick helped to essentially cancel one of his misses on Gurley and Barkley. He was also one of only two experts to rank LeVeon Bell just 5th, which paid off when Bell didn’t even play (most ranked Bell either 2nd or 3rd). Similarly, Nease ranked Devonta Freeman only 17th, about 5 spots lower than most; that also paid off big-time when Freeman missed most of the season.
Nease was also among the highest on Christian McCaffrey (13th), which ended up being a huge boon.
Total them up and Nease, who writes for Big Guy Fantasy Sports, ended up in the top spot using our complex scoring system. In this contest, you don’t draft players. Instead, everyone in your top 20 counts; the higher you rank them, the more they count towards your score.
Bob Henry of Football Guys finished 2nd in this category. Patrick Chance took 3rd. Unlike 18 of the other contestants, Chance isn’t an industry writer. Instead, he earned a berth in the competition by finishing in the top 2 in the Fantasy Index Open last year. (Speaking of the open, those scores will be released early in the week.)

EXPERTS POLL, RUNNING BACKS (standard scoring)
Analyst	Points
Michael Nease	55,992
Bob Henry	55,512
Patrick Chance	54,749
Sam Hendricks	54,396
Michael Nazarek	54,272
Justin Eleff	53,947
Scott Pianowski	53,551
Lenny Pappano	53,547
Paul Charchian	53,309
Cory Bonini	53,208
Jody Smith	52,716
Jesse Pantuosco	52,648
David Dorey	52,572
Harold Simons	51,868
Alan Satterlee	51,858
Chris Liss	51,573
Tony Holm	51,437
Aaron Bland	49,768
Jeff Ratcliffe	49,495
Mike Clay	49,383

With this competition, attrition tends to play a huge role. Rank a player like LeVeon Bell, Derrius Guice or Devonta Freeman too high, and you’re screwed. Those kind of players, in fact, end up being more important than how you happened to order guys like Gurley, Barkley, McCaffrey and Ezekiel Elliott.
With that in mind, we also score the poll using more of a Value-Based Drafting system. In such a format, you pull out the starters at each position – 12 QB, K, TE and Def, 24 RB and 24 WRs – and look at who was the best at identifying them. The rest of the players, get moved to the side (you just assume that everyone else produced the same as the best backup at each position).
Using the VBD scoring system, Patrick Chance, Sam Hendricks (Extra Point Press) and Henry were the top finishers, with Nease falling back towards the middle of the pack.
It’s a reminder that these picks can be scored in various plausible ways.

EXPERTS POLL, RUNNING BACKS (VBD scoring)
Analyst	Points
Patrick Chance	21,695
Sam Hendricks	21,479
Bob Henry	21,330
Michael Nazarek	20,993
Scott Pianowski	20,954
Lenny Pappano	20,931
Jesse Pantuosco	20,915
Michael Nease	20,915
Justin Eleff	20,847
David Dorey	20,659
Harold Simons	20,489
Alan Satterlee	20,455
Paul Charchian	20,375
Jody Smith	20,343
Cory Bonini	20,189
Chris Liss	19,346
Mike Clay	19,256
Tony Holm	18,864
Aaron Bland	18,710
Jeff Ratcliffe	18,655

With one position left to grade, Bob Henry is the overall leader, with Nease, Michael Nazarek, Scott Pianowski and Lenny Pappano close behind. Henry has finished 4th, 2nd and 2nd in the last three positions to overcome a slow start.
The last position, however, is the one with the most points at stake: quarterbacks. Those will be tabulated on Sunday.

EXPERTS POLL, OVERALL (standard scoring)
Analyst	Def	PK	TE	WR	RB	Points
Bob Henry	14	15	4	2	2	204,738
Michael Nease	16	18	9	4	1	203,874
Michael Nazarek	11	2	3	12	5	203,444
Scott Pianowski	10	1	8	6	7	203,095
Lenny Pappano	5	19	2	3	8	203,048
Sam Hendricks	17	10	6	5	4	202,869
Patrick Chance	6	9	11	10	3	202,676
Alan Satterlee	15	12	1	1	15	202,463
Paul Charchian	1	4	15	8	9	201,396
Jesse Pantuosco	8	3	10	14	12	200,906
Justin Eleff	2	14	14	17	6	200,054
David Dorey	12	16	7	16	13	199,673
Chris Liss	3	11	5	18	16	199,633
Cory Bonini	9	8	20	7	10	199,342
Harold Simons	4	5	17	11	14	198,769
Jody Smith	13	7	19	15	11	198,228
Tony Holm	18	17	13	19	17	196,332
Jeff Ratcliffe	7	13	18	9	19	195,585
Mike Clay	20	6	16	13	20	194,188
Aaron Bland	19	20	12	20	18	194,073

Using the VBD scoring system, Henry and Nease are also in the top 2 spots with only one position left to score.

EXPERTS POLL, OVERALL (VBD scoring)
Analyst	Def	PK	TE	WR	RB	Points
Bob Henry	15	16	1	1	3	50,022
Michael Nease	9	12	4	2	8	49,448
Lenny Pappano	11	11	3	4	6	49,305
Patrick Chance	7	18	8	11	1	49,072
Scott Pianowski	3	6	11	7	5	49,035
Sam Hendricks	17	4	9	8	2	48,942
Alan Satterlee	18	13	2	3	12	48,623
Michael Nazarek	13	3	5	16	4	48,435
David Dorey	1	9	6	17	10	48,223
Jesse Pantuosco	12	8	10	14	7	48,162
Paul Charchian	2	2	16	6	13	47,918
Harold Simons	8	7	19	9	11	47,158
Cory Bonini	4	1	20	5	15	47,027
Chris Liss	5	10	12	13	16	46,770
Justin Eleff	10	17	15	19	9	46,770
Jody Smith	16	14	13	15	14	46,480
Jeff Ratcliffe	14	19	17	10	20	45,134
Aaron Bland	19	5	7	20	19	44,979
Tony Holm	6	15	14	18	18	44,935
Mike Clay	20	20	18	12	17	44,611