Cory Bonini of USA Today Fantasy Sports becomes the first double dipper in this year’s Experts Poll. He won the defense category earlier, and he’s back on top in the all-important running backs category.
Bonini finished with almost 1,000 more points than Tony Holm of Fantasy Sharks (who was also 2nd behind Bonini in defenses).
Another Sharks writer, Mike Nease, finished 3rd in this category.
This was a position littered with injuries and underachievers, of course. Bonini’s best decision was the calculated gamble to leave Arian Foster off his list entirely. Most of the others put Foster in their top 10. Foster missed most of the year, and that one paid off handsomely.
Bonini also created some value by being higher than most on Lamar Miller and Jeremy Hill, while being lower than most on LeVeon Bell and DeMarco Murray. He went with Adrian Peterson as his No. 1 back over guys like Eddie Lacy and Jamaal Charles, which also helped.
| EXPERTS POLL (running backs) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rk | Analyst | Points |
| 1. | Cory Bonini | 41,276 |
| 2. | Tony Holm | 40,308 |
| 3. | Mike Nease | 40,140 |
| 4. | Alan Satterlee | 39,977 |
| 5. | Lenny Pappano | 39,641 |
| 6. | David Dorey | 39,620 |
| 7. | Jay Harding | 39,374 |
| 8. | L.A. Hale | 39,331 |
| 9. | Bryan Hough | 39,315 |
| 10. | Scott Pianowski | 39,290 |
| 11. | Bob Henry | 39,178 |
| 12. | Sam Hendricks | 38,704 |
| 13. | Todd Voorhees | 38,684 |
| 14. | Mike Clay | 38,525 |
| 15. | Chris Liss | 38,286 |
| 16. | Pete Owers | 37,963 |
| 17. | Michael Nazarek | 37,927 |
| 18. | Micah James | 37,850 |
| 19. | Scott Sachs | 37,455 |
| 20. | Paul Charchian | 37,012 |
On the overall board, L.A. Hale remains at the top of the heap with one position left to score (quarterbacks). Chris Liss, Jay Harding and Alan Satterlee aren’t far behind.
| EXPERTS POLL, overall | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | analyst | RB | WR | TE | PK | Def | Points |
| 1. | L.A. Hale | 8 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 16 | 181,119 |
| 2. | Chris Liss | 15 | 6 | 11 | 1 | 10 | 180,030 |
| 3. | Jay Harding | 7 | 15 | 1 | 12 | 12 | 179,750 |
| 4. | Alan Satterlee | 4 | 2 | 15 | 15 | 11 | 179,550 |
| 5. | Sam Hendricks | 12 | 7 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 179,450 |
| 6. | Lenny Pappano | 5 | 10 | 5 | 17 | 7 | 179,176 |
| 7. | Scott Pianowski | 10 | 14 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 179,165 |
| 8. | Bob Henry | 11 | 8 | 12 | 10 | 3 | 178,896 |
| 9. | Bryan Hough | 9 | 4 | 16 | 4 | 14 | 178,788 |
| 10. | Cory Bonini | 1 | 18 | 18 | 16 | 1 | 178,786 |
| 11. | Paul Charchian | 20 | 9 | 2 | 11 | 4 | 178,314 |
| 12. | Michael Nazarek | 17 | 11 | 4 | 8 | 13 | 178,231 |
| 13. | David Dorey | 6 | 17 | 9 | 3 | 19 | 178,047 |
| 14. | Tony Holm | 2 | 5 | 17 | 20 | 2 | 177,595 |
| 15. | Mike Nease | 3 | 12 | 13 | 19 | 5 | 177,428 |
| 16. | Mike Clay | 14 | 13 | 8 | 14 | 15 | 177,171 |
| 17. | Pete Owers | 16 | 16 | 10 | 7 | 18 | 176,657 |
| 18. | Micah James | 18 | 1 | 20 | 18 | 8 | 175,652 |
| 19. | Todd Voorhees | 13 | 19 | 14 | 2 | 17 | 175,501 |
| 20. | Scott Sachs | 19 | 20 | 19 | 6 | 20 | 171,174 |
—Ian Allan