ASK THE EXPERTS appears weekly from training camp through the Super Bowl with answers to a new question being posted Thursday morning. How the guest experts responded when we asked them: Who should be the top pick in a playoff fantasy league?

JUSTIN ELEFF

You want the best fantasy player on the team that will play the most games, which means you want either the best fantasy player on the Patriots (all factors including position scarcity considered, probably Gronk) or to get lucky betting on how the NFC will play out. Blend my season-long affinity for the Rams with what we saw from him the last two times he took the field in 2017 and I am gaga for Todd Gurley right now.

Eleff hosts the Fantasy Index Podcast, available in the iTunes Store now. He has worked for Fantasy Index off and on all century.

ALAN SATTERLEE

Typically I would advocate almost always focusing on someone with a bye in Week 1 of the playoffs. That would put Tom Brady and LeVeon Bell in play. However, Todd Gurley has been simply so amazing it has to be him in my book. I could see a case for Alvin Kamara as well, as the Saints could certainly run the table. He won’t be considered this high, but I also would be quick to take a gamble on Ben Roethlisberger. Pittsburgh has an elite enough defense to slow down New England while Roethlisberger has been the number one quarterback down the stretch (from weeks 11-16). It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to see Roethlisberger lead the Steelers to a Super Bowl win and retire as champ. It certainly would be a fantastic ending to a Hall of Fame career.

Satterlee is the Fantasy Football Insider for the Charlotte Observer and is syndicated in a few other newspapers in the southeast. Satterlee first started playing fantasy football in 1990.

IAN ALLAN

Formats vary, but in a general sense, I think Tom Brady makes the most sense. The Patriots look like by far the safest choice to play in the Super Bowl game. They’re the most likely team to play three games, and he’s the guy there who stirs the drink. The entire offense tends to revolve around him. On the NFC side, I see a lot of parity. The Eagles are the No. 1 seed, but I can’t see them winning two games with Nick Foles starting at quarterback. More likely, I think it will be Minnesota, New Orleans or Los Angeles representing that conference. The Saints and Rams both have some potential to play in four games, which is particularly important in some formats. New Orleans very easily could begin the playoffs with wins against Carolina and Philadelphia, putting them only one win away from being a four-game team. If it plays out that way, then Drew Brees and Alvin Kamara will be the key players that people should have built around. If the Rams can figure out a way to win at Minnesota next week (after also beating Atlanta), then Todd Gurley will likely be the most productive postseason player.

Allan is a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame. A co-founder of Fantasy Football Index in 1987, he generates most of the writing, 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

LeVeon Bell. He's healthy and is an elite fantasy back on a team with the best chance to make it to the big game.

Nazarek is the CEO of Fantasy Football Mastermind Inc. His company offers a preseason draft guide, customizable cheat sheets, a multi-use fantasy drafting program including auction values, weekly in-season fantasy newsletters, injury reports and free NFL news (updated daily) at its newly re-designed 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. He's also won in excess of $20K in recent seasons of the FFPC High Stakes Main Event. www.ffmastermind.com. Nazarek can be reached via email at miken@ffmastermind.com.

SCOTT PIANOWSKI

If it's a league that doubles up on quarterbacks, you have to go that route. They score too many points, and you need multiple games. I'd start with Tom Brady and work on a Patriots stack, with the Saints and Rams not far behind. If it's a more traditional format, stick with those Patriots, Rams, and Saints, and focus on one of their running backs -- Dion Lewis (quietly awesome down the stretch), Todd Gurley, Alvin Kamara, and (a little lower) Mark Ingram. Given that I strongly expect the Saints to cruise this week and I'd make them a favorite in Philly if it came to that, Kamara is the slight preference on the top of my standard board. But in two-QB, please, get those quarterbacks.

Pianowski has been playing fantasy football for 20 years and writing about it for 17. He joined Yahoo! Sports in 2008 and has been blogging 24/7 on RotoArcade.com ever since.

ANDY RICHARDSON

You want to get difference-makers -- guys who will give you a huge advantage over everyone else at the position in terms of either scoring potential or number of games played. So I think it has to be either Tom Brady, who seems very likely to lead his team to the Super Bowl (and probably have a couple of favorable matchups with either Kansas City or Tennessee and Pittsburgh to get there) or Todd Gurley, who will be the best running back playing this week, and if the Rams can get by Minnesota will play four games. The same logic applies to Alvin Kamara -- I think the Saints are very likely to play three games at least -- but unlike Gurley he's sharing the workload. Forget what I said about Brady; you can find another quarterback who will do fine. Take Gurley or Kamara and don't look back.

Richardson has been a contributing writer and editor to the Fantasy Football Index magazine and www.fantasyindex.com since 2002. His responsibilities include team defense and IDP projections and various site features, and he has run the magazine's annual experts 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.