Ask the Experts

ASK THE EXPERTS appears weekly with answers to a new question being posted Thursday morning. How the guest experts responded when we asked them:

Which player has helped or hurt his 2012 fantasy stock the most during the postseason?

LOUIS TRANQUILLI

Demaryius Thomas of the Denver Broncos. He's tearing it up with the human shotgun of QBs Tim Tebow throwing to him. With any kind of accurate throwing by Tebow in the future ( or whoever is playing QB in Denver) Demaryius proved he belongs. The dude is a house and looks to be the real deal...

Tranquilli is the founder of BFDFANTASYfootball.com. This is the eighth season BFD will be offering advice. In 2010 their subscribers won over $500,000 in High Stakes Fantasy football events.

SAM HENDRICKS

Two WRs: Hakeem Nicks and Marques Colston. Both finished in the top 15 in PPR leagues for the regular season, but they missed a few games. Their playoff performances so far (13-280-4 for Nicks; 16-256-1 for Colston) will boost them into the top 10 for 2012.

Hendricks is the author of Fantasy Football Guidebook, Fantasy Football Tips and Fantasy Football Basics, all available at his website, www.ffguidebook.com, at all major bookstores, and at www.amazon.com. He is a 20-year fantasy football veteran who regularly participates in the World Championship of Fantasy Football (WCOFF), National Fantasy Football Championship (NFFC) and finished 7th and 16th overall (out of 228 competitors) in the 2008 and 2009 Fantasy Football Players Championship (FFPC).

PRETZEL MAY

I would probably say Hakeem Nicks. With the way Victor Cruz played this year a lot of people probably did not notice that Hakeem Nicks had almost 1200 yards and 7 TDs. Averaging 140 yards and 2 TDs per game in the playoffs is sure making people remember who the #1 WR in New York is.

The May brothers have more than 16 years of combined fantasy football experience and are the co-founders of FantasyDraftMaster.com. The cornerstone of FDM is the UberRank which is a revolutionary approach to the traditional fantasy football cheat sheet. FantasyDraftMaster.com also offers insightful and humorous commentary on football happenings as well as recommendations on waiver wire pickups, line up submissions and weekly pick em' pools. For more info, visit www.fantasydraftmaster.com or email us at info@fantasydraftmaster.com.

IAN ALLAN

Demaryius Thomas, I think, has confirmed he’s a No. 1 receiver. He was good the last month of the season, and he followed that up with two good postseason games. He’s had some injury problems his first two years, but he’s huge, he’s fast, and he’s shown he can make some plays. In his last seven games, he caught 35 passes for 745 yards and 4 TDs. That’s an average of 5 catches for 106 yards per game. They also have Eric Decker there, and he’s a competent starting receiver, but I’m comfortable at this point moving ahead with Thomas as that team’s clear go-to receiver for 2012 season. I imagine he’ll be a top 15 or 20 receiver on draft boards this summer.

Allan is the senior writer for Fantasy Football Index. He's been in that role since 1987, generating most of the player rankings and analysis for that publication. His work can be seen in Fantasy Football Index magazine, and also at www.fantasyindex.com.

MICHAEL NAZAREK

Giants WR Hakeem Nicks with four scores has made fantasy owners take note that he's still the No. 1 WR for the Giants when the game counts the most.

Nazarek is the CEO of Fantasy Football Mastermind Inc. His company offers an online rookie draft kit, preseason draft guide, customizable cheat sheets, fantasy drafting programs including auction values, weekly in-season fantasy newsletters, injury reports and free NFL news (updated daily) at its web site. He has been playing fantasy football since 1988 and is a four-peat champion of the SI.com Experts Fantasy League, a nationally published writer in several fantasy magazines and a former columnist for SI.com. For more info go to www.ffmastermind.com. Nazarek can be reached at miken@ffmastermind.com.

JEFFREY KAMYS

I think people see Ben Roethlisberger on the decline, he is at that stage where Favre was in his career in his early 30's, when Favre was heavy and a bit out of shape. Big Ben needs to become little ben in the offseason and get into better shape.

Kamys is president of Dr. Stats Fantasy Sports. His company, via the web, offers player news, injury reports, cheat sheets, projections, weekly matchups, statistics, and a customized team tracker. Dr. Stats Fantasy Sports also e-mails preseason newsletters and reports throughout the season. For more info visit www.docstats.com or send email to webmaster@docstats.com.

ALAN SATTERLEE

Demaryius Thomas has helped himself the most. If people were sleeping on his strong performance to end 2011, they couldn’t have missed the big playoff highlight where Thomas took the first play from scrimmage in overtime against the Steelers 80 yards to the house to keep the Tebow magic alive. With just 4 receptions, Thomas totaled 204 yards in that game. He was a beast down the stretch, averaging 106 YPG over the final seven games. Thomas has more injury risk than the average Joe but he’ll be the team’s #1 WR and has a ton of upside.

Dynasty Rogues is the fantasy football information site run by fantasy football enthusiasts for fantasy football enthusiasts. The site includes a year-round approach to analyzing football information for those in dynasty and redraft leagues. Dynasty Rogues were the 2008 Champion of the Fantasy Index Experts' Competition.

ANDY RICHARDSON

A couple of guys who stand out for me are Andre Johnson and Vernon Davis. Johnson will no doubt be avoided by many next year after being hurt all season, but in two playoff games he showed he's a steady 7-8 catch, 100-yard guy when he's on the field, even with a lesser quarterback. As for Davis, he kind of got forgotten with the huge years of other tight ends, but I have to think San Francisco will remember what a weapon he can be when he's involved in the passing game. As for hurt, I didn't like seeing Ray Rice get stuffed at the goal line a couple of times last week. I'd like to see him have a good game at New England, or Baltimore could think about returning to the days of using a goal-line back next season.

Richardson has been a columnist and contributor to the Fantasy Football Index magazine and web site for the past ten years. His responsibilities include team defense and IDP projections and various site features, and he has run the magazine's annual draft and auction leagues since their inception. He previews all the NFL games on Saturdays and writes a wrap-up column on Mondays during the NFL season.

New this season! We'll post the weekly question on Facebook, and the best reader answers will get included in the column. Here are this week's reader winners:

KEVIN WEAKLAND

Well Eli and his band of receivers have been upping their fantasy stock for the future all year long, but if you're talking about a player that made himself go up a few notches for next year's draft I'd have to say V. Davis has helped his stock the most. As far as hurting his stock during the playoffs goes I'd nominate Rashard Mendenhall simply because he couldn't show up.

ROBERT HADDAD

Rashard Mendenhall may be done here in the Burgh. Isaac Redman is a bull. And we've been a passing team for a while now. Redman will do well with limited carries.

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