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 has changed your opinion, for good or ill, the most this postseason?
SAM HENDRICKS
Ryan Tannehill has impressed me the most. Maybe not fantasy-wise but just as a comeback kind of thing. Him leading the Titans to the AFC Championship has been fun to watch. I hope to see him play in Miami again...this time in the Super Bowl in a few short weeks!
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
After watching so many athletic quarterbacks do their thing these couple of weeks, it would really concern me if my NFL team had an immobile quarterback. Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers; those guys are very close to the end. You need somebody who can extend plays and threaten a defense multiple ways. Evolve or get left behind.
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
One player who has not really changed my opinion, but reinforced it is Aaron Rodgers. He is no longer a sexy QB choice in fantasy football, but he is as gutsy and skillful at controlling a game, especially in crunch time as the game winds down, as any quarterback playing. With a strong running back tandem in Jones and Williams, as well as a top wide receiver in Davante Adams, he makes do with mediocre at best players at the other skill positions. It seems like most games this season and again Sunday against the Seahawks, the Packers were on the verge of losing in the final minutes. As he has done all year, Rodgers carried his team to another win. Rodgers is a true leader and a darn good quarterback. He is a winner. That's what playing any game is all about.
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
Derrick Henry. I have always thought of him as a good back — one of the league’s 10 best runners, but a liability in the passing game. He’s better than that. He’s up there with the top few guys in the top tier. Over the past two months, he’s been the best running back in the league, powering the Titans to a lot of notable wins. They beat Kansas City in the regular season, and they’ve won back-to-back playoff games on the road against New England and Baltimore. He was their key player in all of those games. He’s going to be a free agent in the offseason, and with what he’s accomplished, he deserves to be the league’s highest-paid running back. I’m not saying he’s the first running back I would pick if I were building an NFL franchise. Saquon Barkley is younger and more versatile. Christian McCaffrey, Ezekiel Elliott and Dalvin Cook would be part of that discussion. But at the quarterback position, whenever a top tier guy comes up, he gets to be the highest-paid. Matthew Stafford, Matt Ryan, Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, Kirk Cousins and Jared Goff all signed record-breaking contracts.
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.
DAVID DOREY
The player that changed my opinion the most is Raheem Mostert. He was bothered by cramps in the Divisional Round but that was later in the game. Just when it appears that the 49ers settle on a primary back, Tevin Coleman pops up with 22 carries for 105 yards and two touchdowns. Mostert settled for 12 runs for 58 yards. It illustrates that the offense will always mix in three backs in San Francisco and there is no such thing as a reliable back there. Throw in Matt Breida and this is a backfield that fantasy loves and hates and loves and hates....
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 had thought A.J. Brown was a talented young receiver, but the last two games have shown he's actually a useless bust. Kidding! I've been really impressed by DK Metcalf. Yes he had a great rookie season, and yes the Eagles secondary had issues this season. But the way he dominated in that contest, and then did as well as the offense let him do at Green Bay (underutilizing him, really), was awfully impressive for a young, raw talent who supposedly had a limited route tree and ability to contribute. It won't surprise me at all if he's Russell Wilson's No. 1 wideout next season, and a guy to look at in fantasy drafts as maybe 2020's version of Kenny Golladay or Chris Godwin. His future looks very bright.
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.