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: It's Championship Week in many fantasy leagues. Who will be the Fantasy Super Bowl MVP?
SAM HENDRICKS
Christian McCaffrey. I wish I had him in every league I played in. He would have gotten me to the playoffs in some where I drafted in the middle or tail end of the draft. It's fantasy, right, I can dream he was still there. In others he would have advanced me to the Championship game where I drafted Barkley first. And he will lead me to a win in the Championship (said with the right accent) this week with 3 TDs, 10 catches and 150 combined yards.
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.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI
I'm glad I have Adrian Peterson on a bunch of teams. Washington never abandons the run, no matter the game situation, and the Giants come at the perfect time. Peterson has double-digit carries in eight of nine games, and he’s scored in three straight weeks. The Giants defense is a good draw, too. Forget about the age and focus on the tape and the efficiency (4.3 YPC). Peterson’s tank is far from empty, and he’s well-spotted to produce again.
Pianowski has been playing fantasy football for over 20 years and writing about it for 18. He joined Yahoo! Sports in 2008 and has been blogging 24/7 on RotoArcade.com ever since.
MICHAEL NEASE
I have a shot at winning both the FanEx Experts' Auction League, as well as the FanEx Analysis Draft best-ball league. In my drafts last summer, I targeted a player that I thought would be a difference-maker, Christian McCaffrey. At 29.7 points per game, he has delivered big-time. He is averaging more than eight points more than any other running back. Other prodigious players that will make their owners winners are quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson and Michael Thomas. There are plenty of other fantasy football heroes this season. These are just four of my favorites. Arguments can certainly be made for many players that have stepped up and put us into position to win championships. The best part about our game is that as the season winds down, the 2020 season is about to start.
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.
IAN ALLAN
Jacob Hollister looks like he could be one of the key waiver wire guys of the season. He wasn’t even on an NFL roster in September. He’s developed into a decent pass-catching tight end for the Seahawks. Now, as luck would have it, Seattle is at home against the worst pass defense in the league. Arizona has allowed more passing yards and passing touchdowns than any other team. And a bunch of that production has gone to tight ends. The Cardinals have actually allowed more touchdowns to tight ends (15) than wide receivers (14). Hollister could/should have a good game, potentially being the difference-making element in a lot of key fantasy games this week.
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 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
Lamar Jackson. He's dominated the quarterback position for fantasy, and you could have gotten him fairly late in your draft. Honorable mention to my personal MVP goes to Christian McCaffrey, whom led my team in the FFPC Main Event to a league title. He cost me the 2nd overall pick, but was well worth it!
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 mobile-friendly 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.
DAVID DOREY
Christian McCaffrey will be the most common player in fantasy championships and I'd be shocked if it was anyone else. In a PPR league, there have only been four running backs in NFL history with more fantasy points in a season. McCaffrey currently has 414.1 with two games to go. That is a pace to end with 473 points which would be one point less than 2006 LaDainian Tomlinson as the all-time high mark. He just laid down 37.5 on Sunday. It's like he gave you 25 extra points every week. If anyone had McCaffrey and missed their playoffs, they must have had rampant injury problems with the rest of their roster.
Dorey has been dealing out all the rankings and projections for The Huddle since 1997 and wrote up a preview of every game for the last 21 years. His specialty is schedule strength and he’s been in countless magazines, podcasts, and radio shows. He is the author of Fantasy Football: The Next Level.
ANDY RICHARDSON
I know quarterbacks win most of the actual Super Bowl MVP awards, but sometimes a lesser light steps up in the big game to win, ala Larry Brown or Desmond Howard. I'm not saying that will happen in Week 16 Super Bowls, but let's look at a few good candidates. How often are you able to pull the No. 1 receiver in the league's top passing offense off of waivers in the final weeks of the season? This year you could have with Breshad Perriman, who should be very good this week. Another possibility is Mike Boone, who just might be starting for the Vikings in a home game with a Packers team that has been suspect against the run in many games. I could see one of these guys leading a fantasy team to a championship this week. If you want a bigger name, George Kittle, who's destroyed the Rams throughout his career.
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.