You may be good at fantasy football, but you aren't as good as David Wilde of Mukwonago, Wis. For the second year in a row, Wilde has earned his way into the Fantasy Football Index experts panel by finishing atop an all-comers contest of skill.
In 2018 Wilde finished first overall in our 17-week Fantasy Index Blackout contest. That earned him a spot in the Experts Draft in last year's Fantasy Football Index magazine.
He pulled off an even more difficult task in 2019, defeating all comers in our Fantasy Index Open rankings contest -- and in the process earning a huge, spectacular trophy from Affordable Trophies. They have partnered with us on this competition for years.
The top 2 finishers in this competition earn berths in the Experts Poll that will be published in the 2020 edition of Fantasy Football Index, competing against 18 industry experts. That’s Wilde, and that’s Mike Erickson of Riverton, Utah.
Only three contestants finished within 1 percent of Wilde's score. Of those, Jay Harding of Oregon City, Ore. was previously a professional fantasy analyst and appeared in our magazine's experts poll several times. We've published the top 50 overall at the bottom of this post, and you can see every entry by signing into the product are of the website and then clicking the link for the 2019 Fantasy Index Open.
Scoring system: We invited readers to rank their top 20 players at each fantasy position (QB, RB, WR, TE, PK and D/ST) using the PPR scoring system. Entries were due before kickoff of the Hall of Fame game on August 8, 2019. We received 485 entries.
After the season, we multiplied each NFL player's fantasy production by the ranking assigned to him by the reader. The higher a player was ranked by the reader, the more he counted toward the reader's Fantasy Index Open score. For instance, points scored by 1st-ranked players are multiplied by 25, 2nd-ranked players' point totals are multiplied by 24, 3rd-ranked players' point totals are multiplied by 23, and so forth. The 20th-ranked players' scores are multiplied by 6.
As an example, Wilde ranked Deshaun Watson first among quarterbacks. Watson scored 389.5 fantasy points, so his value to Wilde was 9,735 points (25 x 389.5).
A few years back, we used a scoring multiplier scale of 20 to 1 (rather than 25 to 6) but in that system, players ranked in the teens don’t tend to count enough. If you smartly hit on a 18th-ranked running back or wide receiver, it didn’t seem to mater. We’ve also tried a 30 to 11 scale, but we’re using 25-6 for now.
Injuries are immensely important in this kind of competition. Andrew Luck, who was the No. 2 ranked quarterback in our magazine's experts poll, announced his retirement on August 24 -- 16 days after Fantasy Index Open entries were due. Wilde helped himself by ranking Luck relatively low -- 14th. He was lower than many on Ben Roethlisberger, who barely played, ranking him 17th. And he was high on Jameis Winston (5th), who scored 426.45 points (we don't subtract points for interceptions). Wilde was also higher than most on Lamar Jackson (15th).
Wilde finished 17th out of 485 at quarterback, and that was significant, because that's the highest scoring position in the Fantasy Index Open. The top 6 finishers this year all ranked in the top 20 in scoring at the quarterback position. Wilde finished in the top 5 percent at quarterback, tight end and kicker. He was top 10 percent at wide receiver and defense. His running back score was just a little above average, which is important when you think about the meaning of these rankings. More on that below.
| David Wilde's overall scores | ||
|---|---|---|
| Position | Rk | Score |
| Quarterback | 17 | 94,637 |
| Running Back | 190 | 74,251 |
| Wide Receiver | 43 | 67,639 |
| Tight End | 19 | 44,050 |
| Kicker | 7 | 32,251 |
| Defense/Special Teams | 42 | 33,450 |
| Total | 1 | 346,278 |
Overall the quarterbacks score much higher than players at other positions. So -- with the exception of Christian McCaffrey, who had a freak year -- if you ranked any given quarterback unusually high, your score got a bigger boost than if you had the same good fortune with a running back. Lamar Jackson was not the top scorer overall, but he was still almost 100 points better than the highest scoring WR.
| Fantasy points scored by the top-scoring players at each position | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| QB | Lamar Jackson | BAL | 462.95 |
| RB | Christian McCaffrey | CAR | 471.20 |
| WR | Michael Thomas | NO | 374.60 |
| TE | Travis Kelce | KC | 256.30 |
| PK | Harrison Butker | KC | 147.00 |
| ST | Patriots | NE | 163.00 |
In the next table, you can see that the No. 2 QB outscored the No. 2 RB by more than 107 points. That really shows what a freak year McCaffrey had.
| Fantasy points scored by the second-highest scoring players at each position | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| QB | Jameis Winston | TB | 426.45 |
| RB | Aaron Jones | GB | 318.80 |
| WR | Chris Godwin | TB | 276.10 |
| TE | Darren Waller | OAK | 223.00 |
| PK | Wil Lutz | NO | 144.00 |
| ST | Steelers | PIT | 154.00 |
And the scoring advantage between top quarterbacks continued to the 10th ranking position and beyond.
| Fantasy points scored by tenth-highest scoring players at each position | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| QB | Jared Goff | LAR | 335.90 |
| RB | Joe Mixon | CIN | 225.40 |
| WR | Robert Woods | LAR | 232.90 |
| TE | Greg Olsen | CAR | 123.70 |
| PK | Jason Myers | SEA | 109.00 |
| ST | Seahawks | SEA | 110.00 |
McCaffrey excepted, quarterbacks score far more fantasy points, so if you put them in the right order in the Fantasy Index Open scoring system, you can really pull away from the field.
That's arguably a flaw in the scoring system, because unless you play in a league where teams start two quarterbacks, then it's more important to be right at running back, where the pickings are slimmer -- even though the players may score fewer points.
Consider: The 10th ranked quarterback scored 72.6 percent as many fantasy points as the No. 1 player at the position. It may be unwise to compare running backs to McCaffrey's freak year -- the No. 10 running back scored only 47.8 percent of McCaffrey's points -- but No. 10 Joe Mixon scored 70.7 percent of the points scored by No. 2 Aaron Jones. That's comparable to the gap at quarterback, but remember! It's more important to look 20 deep at running back, vs. 10 deep at quarterback.
| How did the No. 10 players compare to the No. 1 players? | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Top player | Pts | 10th player | Pts | Pct |
| QB | Lamar Jackson | 462.95 | Jared Goff | 335.90 | 72.6 |
| RB | Christian McCaffrey | 471.20 | Joe Mixon | 225.40 | 47.8 |
| WR | Michael Thomas | 374.60 | Robert Woods | 232.90 | 62.2 |
| TE | Travis Kelce | 256.30 | Greg Olsen | 123.70 | 48.3 |
| ST | Patriots | 163.00 | Seahawks | 110.00 | 67.5 |
| PK | Harrison Butker | 147.00 | Jason Myers | 109.00 | 74.1 |
This isn't meant to diminish Wilde's results. Who's to say he didn't hack the game and figure out that quarterback is the most important position, devoting most of his effort to those rankings? He exploited the scoring system and outwitted 484 competitors. That's good enough to earn him a giant trophy and a spot in the experts poll published in the 2020 edition of Fantasy Football Index magazine.
| 2019 Fantasy Index Open results - 50 highest overall scores | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Owner | Hometown | Score |
| 1 | David Wilde | Mukwonago, Wis. | 346,278 |
| 2 | Mike Erickson | Riverton, Utah | 344,947 |
| 3 | Jay Harding | Oregon City, Ore. | 343,492 |
| 4 | John Ruppe | Fort Myers, Fla. | 343,078 |
| 5 | Bill Wisor | Ocean View, Del. | 342,227 |
| 6 | Kenneth Jones | Aurora, Colo. | 341,877 |
| 7 | Vernon Jones | Marriottsville, Md. | 341,671 |
| 8 | Jeremy Wise | San Jose, Calif. | 341,641 |
| 9 | Dan Bowman | Liberty, Mo. | 340,746 |
| 10 | Stewart Kuehne | Redmond, Wash. | 340,545 |
| 11 | Tom Deskovitz | South Lyon, Mich. | 340,363 |
| 12 | Todd Washburn | Pleasant Prairie, Wis. | 339,594 |
| 13 | Bruce Alwine | Havertown, Pa. | 339,257 |
| 14 | Travis Perry | Coeburn, Va. | 339,182 |
| 15 | John Smith | Willow Grove, Pa. | 339,089 |
| 16 | Chris Hertzberg | Austin, Texas | 339,075 |
| 17 | Scott Liles | Mountain Home, Ark. | 338,971 |
| 18 | Doug Snoap | Apopka, Fla. | 338,931 |
| 19 | Jeremy Schwartz | Edison, N.J. | 338,841 |
| 20 | Brett Watts | Clover, S.C. | 338,723 |
| 21 | Steve Lantvit | Lisle, Ill. | 338,670 |
| 22 | Dave Renstrom | Apple Valley, Minn. | 338,510 |
| 23 | Mike Ferre | Peoria, Ill. | 338,392 |
| 24 | Gary Allen | Hanahan, S.C. | 338,352 |
| 25 | Mike Miazga | Mississauga, Ontario, Canada | 338,331 |
| 26 | Daniel Hayden | Kansas City, Mo. | 338,320 |
| 27 | Todd Voorhees | Chula Vista, Calif. | 338,201 |
| 28 | James Kovac | Elgin, Ill. | 338,113 |
| 29 | Mark Christie | Fairport, N.Y. | 338,050 |
| 30 | Joe Barber | Saint Clair Shores, Mich. | 338,028 |
| 31 | Barry St Peter | Pittsfield, Mass. | 337,588 |
| 32 | Jim Coventry | Unknown | 337,550 |
| 33 | Ryan Deal | West Mifflin, Pa. | 337,510 |
| 34 | Mike Balliet | Milton, Pa. | 337,469 |
| 35 | Jeff Cooper | Arlington, Va. | 337,380 |
| 36 | Rob McCay | Madisonville, Ky. | 337,302 |
| 37 | Christopher Bowen | Louisville, Ky. | 337,295 |
| 38 | Daniel MacDonald | Torrance, Calif. | 337,277 |
| 39 | Robert Gawlas | Mountain Top, Pa. | 337,253 |
| 40 | Chris Weber | Appleton, Wis. | 337,240 |
| 41 | Greg Banes | Lake Mills, Wis. | 337,238 |
| 42 | Don Pavelka | Plainview, Minn. | 337,202 |
| 43 | John Macho | Elko New Mrkt, Minn. | 337,167 |
| 44 | Dan Harken | Royal Oak, Mich. | 337,087 |
| 45 | Darren Castillo | Placentia, Calif. | 337,066 |
| 46 | Todd Blinn | Obetz, Ohio | 337,013 |
| 47 | Frank Petrulla | Brick, N.J. | 337,007 |
| 48 | Paul Owers | Lake Worth, Fla. | 336,998 |
| 49 | Larry Holmes | Netarts, Ore. | 336,981 |
| 50 | Miguel Tames | Miami, Fla. | 336,966 |