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 will meet in the AFC and NFC Championship games?
ALAN SATTERLEE
In the NFC, I’ll go with New Orleans vs. the LA Rams. The Rams of course are simply humming and I think this is the Saints year. Drew Brees continues to play at an elite level and the window is closing. I think they take the sting of their fluke loss to Minnesota last year to fuel them for one more Super Bowl win for Brees and the Saints. In the AFC, I’ll go with Kansas City vs. Pittsburgh. The Chiefs of course have an elite offense that gives everyone fits. Ultimately I think Pittsburgh comes out of the AFC as like with New Orleans, the experience here with a future Hall of Fame quarterback in Ben Roethlisberger and the overall talent on the Steelers push forward (plus how great for Pittsburgh to stick to LeVeon Bell and make it to the Super Bowl).
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.
JUSTIN ELEFF
Kansas City beats Pittsburgh in the AFC. The KC defense is much better than it was at the start of the year, and I genuinely believe the offense is unstoppable. Picking the Steelers as the opponent may seem like an overreaction to last Thursday, but it isn’t really about the Steelers at all. I just think the Patriots are not the Patriots anymore. The offense is better with Sony Michel than without him but still not special like in years past, and the defense is a disaster. On the other side of the league I’ll stick to chalk and say the Rams get their rematch with the Saints, but I’m not ready to say who wins, and there are other teams that could worm their way in. One team I just don’t think can escape the NFC is Chicago, which is kind of a shame, because the Bears may be the only team in the league with a real chance of beating Kansas City on a neutral field. That has nothing to do with Matt Nagy. Rather, most defenses are hopeless against most great offenses under the current rules and styles of play, and Chicago might have the only nearly-great defense in the league.
Eleff hosts the Fantasy Index Podcast, available in the iTunes Store now. He has worked for Fantasy Index off and on all century.
IAN ALLAN
On the AFC side, I think we’ll be looking at New England playing (and losing) at Kansas City. The Patriots haven’t been playing well recently, but I think they’ll get healthier and make adjustments, and they’ve long tended to have Pittsburgh’s number. On the NFC side, I think we’ll have the Rams playing at New Orleans.
Allan co-founded Fantasy Football Index in 1987. He and fellow journalism student Bruce Taylor launched the first newsstand fantasy football magazine as a class project at the University of Washington. For more than three decades, Allan has written and edited most of the content published in the magazines, newsletters and at www.fantasyindex.com. An exhaustive researcher, he may be the only person in the country who has watched at least some of every preseason football game played since in the early 1990s. Allan is a member of the FSTA Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame and the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame.
DAVID DOREY
AFC: Chargers at Kansas City. The Pats are fading and having problems on the road. The Chargers don’t win by much, but they win and they have the best defense of the top teams. Kansas City always chokes in the playoffs and it just seems natural for Patrick Mahomes tremendous first year to end with a jaw-dropping loss at home. Kind of like last year. NFC: Rams at Saints. Rams have been the darlings all season and deservedly so. But the Saints were quietly trailing right behind them and flexed their muscle in Week 9 when they met. The Panthers, Bears and Washington are a clear step down from those two NFC leaders.
Dorey is the co-founder and lead NFL analyst for The Huddle and author of Fantasy Football: The Next Level. He has projected and predicted every NFL game and player performance since 1997 and has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, radio and television.
MICHAEL NEASE
Nailing down the four teams playing for the NFC and AFC titles with a couple months to go requires some knowledge, analysis and a huge dose of luck. In the AFC, I will go with the obvious in picking Kansas City, but I will surprise some by choosing the Steelers. Logic tells me to say Patriots, but they are starting to crumble a bit. I cannot believe they will have the team strength to make it through another eight games to be a contender. In the NFC, we don’t have to look much past the Saints and Rams who are playing at a level far above the other 14 teams. My dark horses to sneak in would be the Chargers (AFC) and Bears (NFC), but I don’t see either of them crashing the party this season.
Nease is a member of the FSWA and has been playing the game since 1985, while also writing about it since 2001. He is a writer for Big Guy Fantasy Sports. Over the years he has sampled about all the playing scenarios that fantasy football offers, including re-drafter, keeper, dynasty, auction, IDP and salary cap leagues. You can contact Mike at mnease23@yahoo.com anytime and during the football season follow him @mike-insights.
SAM HENDRICKS
AFC: New England at Kansas City. Kansas City has the best record in the AFC and are in all likelihood the No. 1 seed. Very tough to knock them off in Arrowhead so they advance. And never count out the Pats. They will have to win a few playoff games, one of which will be on the road, but they can overcome anything. Don’t bet against Brady and Belichick. NFC: Green Bay at New Orleans. New Orleans seems pretty unstoppable. Drew Brees knows this may be his last chance at a Super Bowl despite what he says about playing for many more years. The Saints seem to have a sense of purpose and even the defense is playing better. All the elements are there: run game, QB play, WRs to count on and a defense that keeps them close. The Packers, on the other hand, are going to be the team that catches fire late and wins a few in a row to advance deep in the playoffs. Aaron Rodgers may not have as many weapons as Brees does but he has been here before. His experience moves the Pack into the Championship game.
Hendricks is the author of Fantasy Football Guidebook, Fantasy Football Tips and Fantasy Football Basics, all available at ExtraPointPress.com, at all major bookstores, and at Amazon and BN.com. He is a 25-year fantasy football veteran who participates in the National Fantasy Football Championship (NFFC) and finished 7th and 16th overall in the 2008 and 2009 Fantasy Football Players Championship (FFPC). He won the Fantasy Index Open in 2013. Follow him at his web site, www.ffguidebook.com.
MICHAEL NAZAREK
AFC: New England vs. Kansas City. NFC: New Orleans vs. Los Angeles Rams. Why? They are the four best teams in the league.
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.
ANDY RICHARDSON
The AFC playoffs is going to be wild. A lot of flawed defenses, but a lot of quarterbacks who are playing great. A potential field of Brady, Mahomes, Roethlisberger, Rivers, Luck and Watson! Talk about a network's dream come true, and ample proof why quarterbacks are king. I think the Chargers are going to sneak into the championship game in Kansas City, as two teams known for playoff disappointment square off to go to the Super Bowl. Or maybe that's just my hope. In the NFC, it will be a shock if it's not Rams-Saints. The Seahawks and Bears will be in the mix, but no one is winning in New Orleans, and the Rams will find a way to get there too.
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.