Fantasy News

Tommy Stephens of FANTASY FOOTBALL EDGE is the winner of the Tight Ends portion of the 2008 Experts Poll hosted by Fantasy Football Index magazine.

This is from the poll that is published in the magazine - 20 experts listing their top 20 at each position. Every pick is scored. And in the tight ends portion of the competition, Stephens is the winner. He was followed by Michael Nazarek (FANTASY FOOTBALL MASTERMIND) and Roland Wood (DYNASTY ROGUES).

Nazarek, meanwhile, has moved into first place in the overall competition, with Wood and Scott Endsley (FANTASY DRAFT EDGE). The three most important positions - QB, RB, WR - are still in play, so it's wide open. Thus far, Endsley has put together the most impressive scorecard, ranking in the top 5 in all three positions (defenses, kickers and tight ends).

The poll, started in 1991, is different from other experts competition in that every expert has to take a stand on every significant player - every pick is scored. If an expert ranks a player No. 1 at a position, that player's actual fantasy production is multiplied by 20. If an expert ranks a player No. 2, the player's production is multiplied by 19. If the expert ranks a player No. 3, the multiplier number is 18, and so on.

In case of Stephens, for example, he ranked Jason Witten as his top tight end. Witten finished with 119.2 points in this scoring system, so that choice was worth 2,384 points to Stephens (119.2 x 20). Looking at Stephens' overall board, there isn't any knockout-type that lifted him ahead of everyone else. He was one of the few to put Witten ahead of Antonio Gates; that got him a few points. And he was among the highest on Owens Daniels (8th) and Tony Scheffler (7th), and they both had solid years. Regardless, when you add them all up, he's the winner.

Fantasy Football Index isn't an official part of this poll. We administrate and score the deal, so we've always taken a step back on this thing. It seems like the right thing to do. Unlike the experts, for example, we would have the ability to go back in and tinker with our rankings after the mid-May deadline. For this year, we would have had the ability to bail out on Cedric Benson and Travis Henry, who ran into off-field problems after the experts deadline but before our print deadline. But we always plug in our magazine picks to see how they compare. So far, we're off to our worst showing ever in the Experts Poll - below-average in all three positions.

The top 11 finishers in this poll earn spots in the magazine's 2009 Experts League, which will be published in the upcoming edition of the magazine. Whichever expert finishes first in the overall poll will get his choice of draft position; the 2nd-place finisher will get second choice of draft spots, and so on. The 12th and final draft spot will go to a Fantasy Football Index reader.


FANTASY INDEX EXPERTS POLL, TIGHT ENDS

Points
18,520  Tommy Stephens  (fantasyfootballedge.net)
 18,397  Michael Nazarek  (ffmastermind.com)
 18,225  Roland Wood  (dynastyrogues.com)
 18,203  Bob Henry  (footballguys.com)
 18,141  Scott Endsley  (fantasydraftedge.com)
 18,081  Greg Alan  (4for4.com)
 18,028  Craig Davis  (fantasyfootball.com)
 18,004  Jeffrey Kamys  (docstats.com)
 17,971  Greg Rosenthal  (rotoworld.com)
 17,890  Scott Pianowski  (Yahoo Sports)
 17,857  Christopher Liss  (rotowire.com)
 17,827  David Dorey  (thehuddle.com)
 17,754  Louis Tranquilli  (bfdfantasyfootball.com)
 17,740  Lenny Pappano  (draftsharks.com)
 17,716  James Serra  (footballsoftward.com)
 17,657  Sam Hendricks  (ffguidebook.com)
 17,655  Ryan Houston  (fanball.com)
 17,539  Nathan Zegura  (thefantasyconsultant.com)
 17,404  Dan Bakley  (thefantasypoint.com)
 14,978  Kevin Marshall  (draftwizard.com)

17,459  * Fantasy Football Index magazine picks

* -- magazine score is for exhibition purposes only; Fantasy Football Index is not eligible to win the poll.


FANTASY INDEX EXPERTS POLL, CURRENT OVERALL
(includes TE, PK and D/ST)

Points
73,866  Michael Nazarek  (ffmastermind.com)
 73,859  Scott Endsley  (fantasydraftedge.com)
 73,426  Roland Wood  (dynastyrogues.com)
 73,345  Jeffrey Kamys  (docstats.com)
 73,289  Scott Pianowski  (Yahoo Sports)
 72,982  Sam Hendricks  (ffguidebook.com)
 72,974  Bob Henry  (footballguys.com)
 72,872  David Dorey  (thehuddle.com)
 72,818  Greg Alan  (4for4.com)
 72,729  Christopher Liss  (rotowire.com)
 72,710  Louis Tranquilli  (bfdfantasyfootball.com)
 72,622  James Serra  (footballsoftward.com)
 72,470  Tommy Stephens  (fantasyfootballedge.net)
 72,468  Dan Bakley  (thefantasypoint.com)
 72,204  Lenny Pappano  (draftsharks.com)
 72,198  Greg Rosenthal  (rotoworld.com)
 72,122  Ryan Houston  (fanball.com)
 70,400  Nathan Zegura  (thefantasyconsultant.com)
 69,689  Craig Davis  (fantasyfootball.com)
 68,458  Kevin Marshall  (draftwizard.com)

71,016   * Fantasy Football Index magazine picks

* -- magazine score is for exhibition purposes only; Fantasy Football Index is not eligible to win the poll.


Tight ends were given 6 points for each touchdown and 1 point for every 10 yards. No points for receptions. Final scoring was as follows ...

Points        
  (No-Yds-TD)

 165.8  Tony Gonzalez  (96-1058-10)
  120.8  Dallas Clark  (77-848-6)
  119.2  Jason Witten  (81-952-4)
  118.4  Antonio Gates  (60-704-8)
  101.6  Visanthe Shiancoe  (42-596-7)
   98.2  Owen Daniels  (70-862-2)
   92.7  John Carlson  (55-627-5)
   90.9  Chris Cooley  (83-849-1)
   87.4  Anthony Fasano  (34-454-7)
   87.4  Greg Olsen  (54-574-5)
   83.8  Zach Miller  (56-778-1)
   82.4  Tony Scheffler  (40-644-3)
   74.4  Kevin Boss  (33-384-6)
   71.5  Dustin Keller  (48-535-3)
   69.4  Heath Miller  (48-514-3)
   68.1  Bo Scaife  (58-561-2)
   63.9  Billy Miller  (45-579-1)
   63.0  David Martin  (31-450-3)
   62.9  Daniel Graham  (32-389-4)
   60.9  Marcedes Lewis  (41-489-2)
   60.8  Kellen Winslow  (43-428-3)
   60.3  Donald Lee  (39-303-5)
   58.3  Todd Heap  (35-403-3)
   52.3  Martellus Bennett  (20-283-4)
   51.7  Jerramy Stevens  (36-397-2)
   48.9  Vernon Davis  (31-369-2)
   48.3  Jeremy Shockey  (50-483-0)
   47.8  L.J. Smith  (37-298-3)
   43.0  Alex Smith  (21-250-3)
   42.7  Desmond Clark  (41-367-1)
   41.1  Robert Royal  (33-351-1)
   32.9  Benjamin Watson  (22-209-2)
   31.7  Alge Crumpler  (24-257-1)
   25.5  Jeff King  (21-195-1)
   19.4  Chris Baker  (21-194-0)
   13.9  Randy McMichael  (11-139-0)
   13.6  Matt Spaeth  (17-136-0)
   12.3  Ben Utecht  (16-123-0)
    7.7  Leonard Pope  (9-77-0)
    2.9  Will Heller  (4-29-0)
    2.6  Ben Hartsock  (3-26-0)
     .0  Eric Johnson  (0-0-0)


Previously in Experts Poll scoring …

Jeffrey Kamys of Doctor Stats won the kickers on Thursday.

Roland Woods of Dynasty Rogues won the defense and special teams on Wednesday.

—Ian Allan

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