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 most this postseason?
DAVID DOREY
Cam Akers and it is not even close. When he injured his Achilles last summer, I did research on the history of the injury and how it impacted players. It was not good. There was really no example of a player tearing it and then returning in the same form as before. But -- Akers made it back in a matter of six months. And he did not appear to have any limitations or diminished skills. It's something that bears deeper investigation because he appears to be singularly able to get beyond the injury like it never happened. And yes, I dropped him from my salary cap league after the injury. Amazing.
Dorey co-founded The Huddle.com in 1997. He's ranked every player and projected every game for the last 23 years and is the author of Fantasy Football: The Next Level. David has appeared on numerous radio, television, newspaper and magazines over the last two decades.
MIKE NAZAREK
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is a true QB1 for fantasy football due to his big play over the last half of the season and the playoffs. NO DOUBT.
Nazarek is the CEO of Fantasy Football Mastermind Inc, celebrating 25 years online! His company offers a preseason draft guide, customizable cheat sheets, a multi-use fantasy drafting program including auction values, weekly in-season newsletters, injury reports and free NFL news (updated daily) at its web site, www.ffmastermind.com. 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 nearly $30K in recent seasons of the FFPC High Stakes Main Event. Nazarek can be reached via email at miken@ffmastermind.com.
IAN ALLAN
I really like the way Cam Akers played against Arizona. He ran hard. Prior to the playoffs, I was thinking Akers would compete for carries in 2022 -- that he would be one of a number of backs the Rams might use. Now, he looks to me a lot more like their guy. I think there's a decent chance he posts top-10 running back numbers next year.
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.
SCOTT SACHS
Deebo Samuel is terrific...at everything! I knew he was very good, but he can run, he can catch, he can even pass. Line him up anywhere, he's one of those guys whose position is "Weapon". Oh yeah, Deebo can score as a returner on special teams, too.
Sachs runs Perfect Season Fantasy Football, offering LIVE Talk & Text consulting. He has multiple league championships including 2 perfect seasons. Scott is a past winner of the Fantasy Index Experts Poll and a 2-time winner of the Experts Auction League.
ANDY RICHARDSON
I had planned to ask this question a week ago, but figured I'd get entirely Gabriel Davis answers, with his 4-TD game so fresh in everyone's memory. A week later, I'll still mention Davis -- no way is he buried for another season as the No. 3 or 4 wideout in Buffalo after that blow-up performance. Should be one of the top 2 wide receivers for the Bills next year. Conversely, I don't know what to make of the Kansas City backfield. It was really jarring how Clyde Edwards-Helaire was back-burnered in the AFC Championship game in favor of journeyman Jerick McKinnon. Edwards-Helaire was a first-round pick not too long ago, but Kansas City has gotta be wondering what draft process led them to select him ahead of Jonathan Taylor and D'Andre Swift. Opportunity in a Patrick Mahomes offense is huge for a running back. I have no confidence that CEH will be the one getting those opportunities in 2022.
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.