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: Which player, for good or ill, has changed your opinion most of him this postseason?
SCOTT SACHS
I saw every college game for Michael Thomas at The Ohio State University, so I know that he is really good. His recent NFL experience has also been really good, but in the playoffs so far, Thomas has really elevated to elite status. The truly great offensive players can excel even when their opponent knows they're going to get the ball. Sunday's game epitomized that for Thomas, especially in the second half. Going into a 2019 fantasy draft, how many wide receivers are going to be rated above him? Not sure there's anyone right now.
With two perfect seasons and multiple league championships to his credit, Sachs runs Perfect Season Fantasy Football, featuring live talk and text advice. Sachs won the 2011 and 2016 Fantasy Index Experts Auction league, plus he was the winner of the 2012 Fantasy Index Experts Poll.
IAN ALLAN
C.J. Anderson has played well enough that I think he’ll have a role somewhere in 2019. I don’t think he’ll be a starter. He’s not fast enough, and he looks like he’s out of shape — he looks heavy. But Anderson is a veteran who knows what he’s doing. The Broncos relied on him a few years back when they won the Super Bowl. And while he seems older, he’s only 27. In a game Saturday featuring two of the best backs in the league, he was the most impressive runner on the field — on that night, he was more impressive than Todd Gurley and Ezekiel Elliott. I liked the way he was finishing his runs, knocking people backwards. I would expect the Rams will attempt to re-sign him, bringing him back to be their No. 2 back. Maybe Malcolm Brown or John Kelly grows into that role, but if I had to guess today, I would say it’s more likely to be Anderson.
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.
MICHAEL NAZAREK
C.J. Anderson's late season run was not a fluke. When healthy with a solid offensive line, he is still a real fantasy threat, as evidenced by his playoff game this past weekend. It should be interesting to see if the Rams re- sign him in the offseason, but someone definitely should regardless.
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.
SAM HENDRICKS
Rob Gronkowski looks old. I knew he was not the same old Gronk, but the playoff game this week where the PATS ruled and he had one catch was eye-opening. Retirement next year for him? If he plays next year is he a Top-5 TE? Top-10? Now watch him go out and score 2 TDs and have 10 catches and over 100 yards against Kansas City.
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.
ANDY RICHARDSON
Strangely, it's Nick Foles. While he was very impressive last postseason, I gave most of the credit to the team around him and the coaching staff. But after knocking off Chicago and (should have) winning in New Orleans, it's clear that he's a pretty good quarterback. Somebody's going to pay him a lot of money in the offseason -- maybe Jacksonville, maybe another quarterback needy team. And if it's a team with the right coaches to take advantage of his skills, he should give that franchise some solid play, and produce some fantasy-relevant receivers, 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.