u/drkelemnt

Hello all.

Some of you may have read my recent Man vs. Machine series, where I compared players with similar expected 2026 ADPs against each other, and looked at which one I’d choose, which one the computer would choose, and which one the community preferred in each matchup, should both be available when drafting.

Across the 4 articles, and 24 comparisons, the polls drew 5011 total votes. Despite the community voters siding with my choices more often than the computer, it wasn't exactly a runaway victory:

• Community sided with my pick 9 times
• Community sided with computer pick 7 times
• There were also 8 occasions where both me and the Computer selected the same player
  • 7/8 of those the Community sided with me and the Computer. The only matchup where the community went against both was Ashton Jeanty vs De'Von Achane.

Bracket recap

Bracket	Polls	Total votes	Agreed w/ me*	Agreed w/ Computer*
Photo Finishes (50-52%)	2	504	2	1
Solid Leans (53-59%)	10	2,145	5	6
Clear Favorites (60-69%)	11	2,131	8	6
Full Smash (70%+)	1	231	1	1
Total	24	5,011	16	14

*Agreed-with totals include the “Both” results.

Photo Finishes (50-52%)

Community result	Total votes	Jake (me)	Computer	Community aligned with
51% prefer Brock Bowers over Trey McBride	321	Bowers	McBride	Jake only
52% prefer Javonte Williams over Josh Jacobs	183	Williams	Williams	Both

To the surprise of no-one, the Bowers vs. McBride matchup was definitely the closest vote. Not only did it have the most votes but it was also decided by the smallest margin. Up until very recently this was essentially gridlocked at a 50% split but a few late Bowers votes give him the slender victory. Javonte also narrowly got the nod ahead of Jacobs, with the community siding with me on both of these comparisons.

Solid Leans (53-59%)

Community result	Total votes	Jake	Computer	Community aligned with
53% prefer Amon-Ra St. Brown over Malik Nabers	184	Nabers	St. Brown	Computer only
53% prefer Romeo Doubs over Parker Washington	173	Doubs	Washington	Jake only
54% prefer Zay Flowers over Marvin Harrison Jr.	216	Harrison Jr.	Flowers	Computer only
54% prefer Ashton Jeanty over De'Von Achane	235	Achane	Achane	Neither
55% prefer Sam LaPorta over Oronde Gadsden II	245	LaPorta	Gadsden	Jake only
56% prefer George Pickens over Emeka Egbuka	239	Egbuka	Pickens	Computer only
57% prefer Jaylen Waddle over Jameson Williams	128	Waddle	Waddle	Both
58% prefer Ladd McConkey over Rashee Rice	144	McConkey	McConkey	Both
58% prefer Kyle Pitts over Isaiah Likely	255	Likely	Pitts	Computer only
59% prefer Tucker Kraft over Harold Fannin Jr.	326	Kraft	Fannin Jr.	Jake only

Nabers vs. ARSB matchup was the most volatile. Nabers led the way for some time but Sun God pulled away in the end. In truth, you wouldn't go too far wrong with either of them. The one that personally surprised me the most in this grouping is Achane Vs Jeanty. I'm all in on Achane as a fantasy asset, even with the offense that's around him, but it's clear a lot of people still have faith that Jeanty's ceiling is above his as he won the vote, albeit by a slim margin of 4%. I like Jeanty, and I think the Raiders should be a far better offense in 2026 than this previous season (shouldn't be hard to improve considering how poor it was in 2025) but Achane has been an absolute fantasy work horse since entering the league and his 2025 season, where he didn't have a game under 12 fantasy points, deserves credit imo. The only one on here that I feel deserves an asterisk is the Rice vs McConkey vote. It was one of the first to be listed in the series and a large chunk of the votes came in prior to the news breaking that Rice wouldn’t be facing a suspension from the league. I think had the voting started after that Rice likely would've won the vote but it would still have likely been close regardless.

Clear Favorites (60-69%)

Community result	Total votes	Jake	Computer	Community aligned with
61% prefer Drake London over Tet McMillan	171	London	McMillan	Jake only
61% prefer Jayden Higgins over Matthew Golden	126	Golden	Higgins	Computer only
61% prefer Kenneth Walker III over Chase Brown	216	Walker III	Brown	Jake only
62% prefer DJ Moore over Alec Pierce	193	Moore	Pierce	Jake only
62% prefer Colston Loveland over Tyler Warren	338	Loveland	Warren	Jake only
62% prefer AJ Barner over Mason Taylor	185	Barner	Taylor	Jake only
64% prefer Chris Olave over Garrett Wilson	144	Olave	Olave	Both
65% prefer Quinshon Judkins over TreVeyon Henderson	201	Henderson	Judkins	Computer only
66% prefer Cam Skattebo over Tyler Allgeier	170	Skattebo	Skattebo	Both
69% prefer Wan'Dale Robinson over Jakobi Meyers	167	Robinson	Robinson	Both
69% prefer Breece Hall over Bucky Irving	220	Irving	Hall	Computer only

Not too many surprises here, though almost 70% siding with Breece over Bucky is not what I expected or how I personally viewed the comparison. This says to me that Bucky is firmly sitting in "buy low" territory, as it isn't like Breece's price is at an all time high right now. 65% taking Judkins over Henderson is also a surprising one to me. Henderson is in the far superior offense, and he flashed enough during his rookie year for me to be relatively bullish on his prospects, though FWIW I think Judkins is going to be fine too.

Full Smash (70%+)

Community result	Total votes	Jake	Computer	Community aligned with
71% prefer Justin Jefferson over CeeDee Lamb	231	Jefferson	Jefferson	Both

I expected Jettas to win this one, though I didn't expect it to be by the widest spread of the bunch. Both are coming off down years (compared to their previous bodies of work) so I guess it makes sense the majority would lean with Jettas. Both look primed to bounce back in 2026 though imo.

It was a fun experiment to run, and thanks to everyone that participated in the voting.

If you enjoyed the voting aspect of the series, we have just released our seasonal update on the site and with it we have opened up Rank, Draft, Trade and Lineup wires that you can nominate, and vote on. A very brief breakdown:

• Rank Wire
  • Live, community consensus player rankings across various formats and scoring types
  • Dynasty & Redraft, with STD/PPR/HalfPPR base scoring + SF / TEP multipliers
  • Select the format and scoring, and then vote on rolling player comparisons. Each vote cast impacts the involved player scores in that format, and the rankings will move with the consensus
  • The more votes cast = the more stability the rankings will have
• Draft Wire
  • Set your league format and scoring and then select 2-3 players to be voted on
  • Other users will then vote on which player they would draft out of the selected players
  • You can track votes received live and once the wire closes all users can search through previous wire results
• Trade Wire
  • Once again, set league format and scoring and then build a trade proposal with 2 or 3 way trades
  • Other users then vote on which side they think wins the trade, or if they perceive it was a "fair trade"
• Lineup Wire
  • Similar to the above, pick 2-3 players, and other users will vote on who they would Start, and therefore who they would Sit
  • Not really relevant for right now as we are a way off from the season but it's also live for our other sports which are currently in season

All free to use. Unlike the article series where you could vote without registering, you will need to sign up for a free account to utilize the wires. This is simply because it's easier to keep track of votes, monitor abuse, and we also have plans to roll out a community leaderboard at some stage once more votes have been collated.

They've only just been rolled out so it'll take some time for data to start stabilizing but if anyone does want to give the wires a try, you can do so here:

FPTrack.com

To anyone that didn't participate in the voting, do you have any strong leans from the comparisons above? Anyone going against consensus? Curious!

Thanks once again all, have a good one!