Announcing the winner of the 3rd annual Roster Prediction Contest!

We began a long journey together back on 2 May when the first UDFA profile of 2019 was published. The series got off to a fast start, because the second profile published featured Steven Sims Jr., the wide receiver and returner from Kansas. The profile was rather bullish on the undersized but speedy former Jayhawk, and — as we are all probably aware — Sims was the only 2019 UDFA to make the 53-man roster for the season opener against the Eagles.

From early May to late-August, Hogs Haven published about eighteen UDFA profiles — with the Redkins churning the bottom of the roster in mid-May, some appeared after the player had already been cut, and a few players were gone before we could even get around to watching their film.

Having made the effort to keep Hogs Haven readers informed about each undrafted free agent as he was signed, it seemed like a good idea to hold a contest to see who could do the best job of predicting the eventual roster status of 18 late-round draft picks and college undrafted free agents.

The 2nd annual contest in 2018 had attracted 35 entrants.

This year’s contest — possibly due to the improved automated entry system designed by Bryan Stabbe — saw a dramatic increase in the number of entrants to 64!!

The winner of the inaugural 2017 prediction contest, Redspin, was one of the more than 5 dozen entrants, and he did damned well, outscoring 62 others to finish in second place. Unfortunately, last year’s winner, Juve Duran! did not defend his title.

No matter. The competition was fierce.

The winner

The winner of the 3rd annual Roster Prediction Contest (2019) is Vincent Rossmeier, who scored an impressive total of 67 points, correctly predicting the status of 15 out of 18 players. Vincent was one of only 5 entrants to correctly predict that UDFA Steven Sims would wind up on the Redskins roster. His only misses were on Donald Parham, Blake Hance and Austin Maloata.

So, on behalf of all the readers and contributors here at Hog’s Haven, I’d like to extend my cogratulations to Vincent for demonstrating his deep understanding of the bottom of the Redskins roster.

As has been true of each annual winner, Vincent Rossmeier will, in perpetuity, be entitled to add the following claim to his signature line:

“Roster Contest Champion, 2019”

Let it be known in every corner of the land, from this day forth, that Vincent Rossmeier is the Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and Roster Prophet Extraordinaire of Hogs Haven!

The contest and results

Entrants had to predict one of three outcomes for each player:

• He made the team (the final 53-man roster)
• He was put onto the Redskins practice squad; or
• He was cut

Entrants earned points for correct predictions, but were penalized for incorrect predictions by losing points.

The winning entry was determined by looking at the status of the 18 players at 5pm EDT on Thursday, 5 September 2019.

Here’s what actually happened to the 20 players in question:

Congratulations to Vincent on his win, and to the rest of the entrants on well-thought out and high-scoring entries. The overall accuracy of the entries is a testament to a fan base who is extremely knowledgeable about the relative unknowns at the bottom of the Redskins roster in 2019. Truly arcane knowledge!

Here is the list of the top-scoring entrants

I want to thank everyone who participated. I hope everyone enjoyed the contest and will return next year when we will update the prize to be even bigger and better by changing the year to 2020!

Enjoy the regular season, and HTTR!!!