This contest was played under CBS Sports Football Pick'em under the pool called Rochester Challenge. We add to that the bowl game/NCAA Championship Game results in website www.rtsports.com. If you do not play the bowl contest, you don't get any points at all for those games. After a four-year drought, I was able to win the contest by holding off a hard charge from John Folts. As is the case virtually every year, our NFL picks only winner beats most experts who do this for a living. The CBS Sports experts seem to do better as a team than others I can find, so I included them. Everyone can check out their NFL picks against the big boy experts below. The Bowl Game part of our contest was a tie between Greg Kallner and Billy Rochester. They got 23 correct out of 42 bowl games played, including the National Championship Game. Bowl games have gotten extremely hard to pick. Most of the numbers just below involve NFL picks, but our contest winner is based on all picks in both NFL and college games. Those numbers, as usual, are at the very bottom. So, here are the numbers.
Here are the final NFL standings for this year including playoffs. (Tie games count as incorrect picks.) Normally, you have to pick every regular season week except for one or two to be included. If you didn’t pick a week, you received a point total for the week that was one less than the lowest point total for that week.
Rick 190-95 66.7%
Chris S 183-102 64.2%
Michael O 182-103 63.9%
John 181-104 63.5%
Billy 176-109 61.8%
Greg 176-109 61.8%
Karl 175-110 61.4%
Chris W 165-120 57.9%
Jacob 164-121 57.5%
Here is the all-time NFL record for one season.
Draftman Rick in 2005 was 196-71 73.4%
Here are the NFL standings for all previous years for the three guys who I kept stats for over the years. (No stats for 2011)
Rick 3891-2030 (22 years) 65.7%
Chris S 2684-1496 (approx. 16 years) 64.2% (Chris stopped playing after week 12 of 2005 and resumed in week 4 of 2013.)
Billy 3753-2168 (22 years) 63.4%
Here is how people who do this for a living did. (No stats for 2011)
This list comes from Inside The NFL (Now on CW) or CBS’s The NFL Today.
Cris Collinsworth Retired Last 10 years 1722-923 65.1%
Warren Sapp Retired Last 3 years 503-273 64.8%
Ray Lewis 46.1% against the spread in 2022
Julian Edelman 49.1% against the spread in 2022
Brandon Marshall 46.8% against the spread in 2022
Dan Marino Retired Regular seasons only for 2012 and 2013. 7 year total 1181-666 63.9%
Cris Carter Retired Last 5 years 853-482 63.9%
Bill Cowher Unable to get after 2017. Might not pick full seasons now. Previous 6 years 980-556 63.8%
Phil Simms No straight up picks this year (49.1% against the spread in 2022) Last 7 years 1345-766 63.7% Could not get 2014, 2015, 2018 or after 2020.
Boomer Esiason Unable to get after 2017. Might not pick full seasons now. Previous 6 years 981-577 63.0%
Shannon Sharpe Retired Regular seasons only. Last 2 years 320-192 62.5%
Bob Costas Retired Last 5 years 830-505 62.2%
CBS Sports Expert Picks Team
Jared Dubin 189-96 66.3%
Tyler Sullivan 184-101 64.6%
Jamey Eisenberg 183-102 64.2%
Dave Richard 182-103 63.9%
Pete Prisco 175-110 61.4%
Will Brinson 171-114 60.0%
John Breech 170-115 59.6%
Ryan Wilson 169-116 59.3%
Pro Football Weekly usually had 9 guys who pick all the games for the whole year plus a "Consensus" of the 9 guys' picks, but the magazine went bankrupt after 2012 after about 40 years. Some of them were very good, but our winner beat all of them most of the time.
USA Today staff made picks online this year and omitted Week 1. No picks for 2021.
Tyler Dragon 178-91 66.2% Last 2 years 354-199 64.0%
Jarrett Bell 174-95 64.7% Last 10 years 1699-990 63.2%
Victoria Hernandez 172-97 63.9% First year
Chris Bumbaca 166-103 61.7% Last 2 years 338-183 64.9%
Lorenzo Reyes 163-106 60.6% Last 8 years 1376-779 63.9%
Nate Davis 160-109 59.5% Last 9 years 1549-873 64.0%
Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz 159-110 59.1% First year
Also, Rob Maaddi is the Associated Press lead NFL writer. His picks are in USA Today 175-110 61.4% Last 2 years 356-213 62.6%
The Spartanburg Herald-Journal often carried the NFL picks for this person from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch but didn’t carry anyone since 2012...
Dan Caesar - St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He has not picked since 2013. Last 5 years 861-474 64.5%
ESPN had 10 NFL “experts” who picked the games. Many of them were straight trash. The two tied at the top were good and were Mike Clay and Eric Moody 183-102 64.2%.
Here are totals from our College picks this year. This includes the 180 games on the website, and 42 bowl games/NCAA Championship Game. Not everyone picked the bowl games. Unpicked bowl games count as a loss.
Billy 169-53 76.1%
John 167-55 75.2%
Chris S 163-59 73.4%
Rick 162-60 73.0%
Greg 161-61 72.5%
Michael O 158-64 71.2%
Karl 157-65 70.7%
Chris W 137-85 61.7% No bowl picks
Jacob 136-86 61.3% No bowl picks
Total NFL plus College for this year. (Contest Winner) Note: Number correct wins the contest, not percentage. So, if you miss picks, it hurts you.
Rick 352-155 69.4%
John 348-159 68.6%
Chris S 346-161 68.2%
Billy 345-162 68.0%
Michael O 340-167 67.1%
Greg 337-170 66.5%
Karl 332-175 65.5%
Chris W 302-205 59.6%
Jacob 300-207 59.2%
Contest Winners by Year (2001 through 2004 was NFL only. 2005 to the present is NFL and College.)
2001 - Chris Sturgill
2002 - Chris Sturgill
2003 - Josh Page
2004 - Rick Anderson
2005 - Rick Anderson
2006 - Josh Page
2007 - Rick Anderson
2008 - Rick Anderson
2009 - Rick Anderson
2010 - Josh Page
2011 - Josh Page
2012 - Rick Anderson
2013 - Rick Anderson
2014 - Billy Rochester
2015 - Anthony Cancer
2016 - Rick Anderson
2017 - Rick Anderson
2018 - Rick Anderson
2019 - Billy Rochester
2020 - Greg Kallner
2021 - Chris Sturgill
2022 - Billy Rochester
2023 - Rick Anderson
May God always be your number 1 draft pick!
Draftman Rick
Rick rocked those NFL picks. Phew! There is always next year! 😁 Congratulations!
GREAT job Rick!
Pick Jesus!