In case you missed it (and how could you), we recently unveiled the results of our 2013 accuracy competition. The honor of “Most Accurate Expert” went to Jordan Tozzi (Legion Report), who took down over 120 of the fantasy industry’s top pundits. Tozzi won the accuracy title in just his first year participating in the competition. It’s safe to say we’ll be inviting him back for a second go-around next season.
With the season officially in the books, we thought it would be interesting to run quick interviews with the experts (like Tozzi) that helped lead many owners to titles this season. We’ll learn more about the pundits, their sites, and how they produce their player projections and rankings. First up in the series is this year’s accuracy champ…
Q1: Can you tell us a little about your site, Legion Report, and how you got started in the fantasy business?
Legion Report was founded by brothers Michael and Jordan Tozzi. Along with being involved in the Fantasy Football World, we also provide Fantasy Basketball and Fantasy Baseball Advice. A lot of what makes us who we are, is that we try to connect with our audience in giving personal advice along with trade evaluations. We have always been involved in Fantasy Sports and decided to launch our website in 2012. It started as a part-time hobby as Michael Tozzi is a Commercial Real Estate Agent and Jordan Tozzi is a Pilot. However, we both quickly learned the amount of work that needed to go into it, in order to be serious contenders in the fantasy business.
Q2: Can you briefly describe your process for coming up with your player projections/rankings?
A lot of football and even more research. We’re not going to give away our secret formulas, but all we can recommend is paying attention to new articles and updates provided on our website. If you are dedicated about it and are up-to-date on news, strategies and tendencies – you are heading in the right direction. Much of what we do is factored on risk along with the specific defense or offense that an individual is squaring up against, along with how his team/offense is performing. Teams are cyclical throughout the season and it is important to pay attention to those trends. There is always a certain aspect of “gut feelings” that come into play that are unexplainable. Our rankings change often throughout the week. First, we start with an initial draft then begin to modify and strategize throughout the entire week. On average, we usually release about four updates per week with the final ranking coming on Sunday before kickoff. In 2013, we felt that the RB position was the most difficult to gauge on a weekly basis. Not as much at the top, but when you get into timeshare situations is where it gets sticky. The Fred Jackson/CJ Spiller situations are nightmares to give great advice on.
Q3: Now that you’ve reached “celebrity” status as 2013′s Most Accurate Expert, what is one piece of advice you’d give to aspiring fantasy writers?
Be prepared for long hours of research on all media platforms if you’re serious about it. Our dream is to be involved with a major television network and we hope that our expertise is evident to those in decision making positions. As we noted above, if you are dedicated about it and are up-to-date on news, strategies and tendencies – you are heading in the right direction.
Q4: If you had to pick the fantasy writer atop your must-read list, who would it be?
We rely on the up-to-date news provided by Rotoworld. It is beneficial to have a site such as that, which provides a hub for an abundance of information from virtually every beat reporter out there. As far as a specific writer, Patrick Daugherty from Rotoworld and Jamey Eisenberg from CBS Sports are gamers; we appreciate their information. John Halpin from FOX Sports offers a great and informative radio show as well. Lastly, we’re always tuned into ESPN for the Matthew Berry updates.
Q5: I know it’s early for this discussion, but off the top of your head, name one “sleeper” for next year and tell us why he’ll surprise us.
Rueben Randle. With Hakeem Nicks likely gone, Randle fills in nicely for the NYG as the new WR2. This is a guy that a ton of fantasy experts will talk about for months-and-months. Deservingly so. We don’t believe he will slide under the radar in drafts for next year, but feel he will see a phenomenal jump in production.