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 are you most thankful for?
JASON WOOD
As a lifelong Eagles fan, the answer is easily Jalen Hurts. Not only is he becoming a franchise quarterback before our very eyes, he’s also on a short list for fantasy MVP given his mid-round cost yet elite top-3 production. Quarterback production is at a decade low, yet Hurts is far surpassing preseason projections. As I take a bite of my turkey and stuffing, I’ll be thankful for #1.
Wood is Senior Editor at Footballguys.com and has been with the company since its start in 2000. For more than 20 years, Footballguys has provided rankings, projections, and analysis to help fantasy managers dominate their leagues.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI
I wish I had more of the "right answers" on my teams; I keep scouring my rosters and I can't find Travis Kelce or Geno Smith anywhere. I do have Ken Walker, but only on one team. So my thankful call out will go to Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill, who I traded for - out of desperation - in September. Tagovailoa had a concussion scare, but he's come back strong. Hill might win the Offensive Player of the Year; he simply cannot be covered (running mate Jaylen Waddle is also a monster). In a season where so many passing games are shipwrecked, Miami has become a destination offense.
Pianowski has been with Yahoo Sports since 2008, covering a variety of sports. On the rare occasions when the computer is turned off, he enjoys word games, poker, music, film, game theory, and a variety of condiments. He lives in suburban Detroit. Pianowski was inducted into the FSWA Hall of Fame in 2021.
SCOTT SACHS
As a long-suffering Browns fan, Nick Chubb is the easy answer. Other than last week against Buffalo, Chubb has been racking up yardage as usual, but now he's added TDs. And not only is he a top-3 producer at running back, but he is a 5-star person, personally as well as professionally. During Cleveland's year of massive distraction and underperformance, Chubb has been an incredible example of class. Thank you Nick Chubb, and Happy Thanksgiving to all of Fantasy Index Nation!
With 2 perfect seasons and multiple league championships to his credit, Sachs runs Perfect Season Fantasy Football, featuring LIVE Talk & Text Advice. He is a 3-time Winner of the Fantasy Index Experts Auction League, as well as a previous Winner of the Fantasy Index Experts Poll.
DAVID DOREY
I kept drafting Jamaal Williams as my RB3 or RB4 last summer in the hopes that he would still offer fantasy value even when D'Andre Swift cough-bust-cough would be the primary back. Williams leads the NFL with 12 touchdowns and is an every-week stater for me and just scored three times against the Giants on Sunday. He's had five games with at least two touchdowns. I am very thankful for Mr. Williams.
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.
IAN ALLAN
I am thankful for elite quarterbacks. It’s a quarterback-driven game. Those are the guy who make the TV sets turn on. If you’re watching teams quarterbacked by guys like Andy Dalton, Marcus Mariota, Zack Wilson and Baker Mayfield, there’s always going to be a limit on how compelling the contest will be. You want to see those top quarterbacks doing their thing, pulling the strings for the weapons around them. Seems like we have about eight right now who are playing at the highest level. Mahomes, Allen, Herbert, Burrow, Jackson, Brady, Hurts and Tagovailoa. There are other active quarterbacks who’ve been in this group in the past, but I think those eight make up the top tier right now.
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.
MIKE NAZAREK
Austin Ekeler. Why? He's the No. 1 fantasy running back and do-everything player for fantasy this season!
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.
ANDY RICHARDSON
It's got to be Jalen Hurts, who I drafted late in a 6-point TD pass league, after waiting a bit too long. I knew he'd run a lot, but never did I imagine he'd also throw 15 touchdowns in 10 games, giving him 23 total -- right up there near or with the big guns (Mahomes, Allen, Burrow) all drafted much earlier. I also, and I've talked about this before, need to mention Josh Jacobs, who's been my best running back and was routinely available in the 5th or 6th round. Running backs don't often get paid these days, but he'll have a hot free agent market I think. As an aside, my answer would have been Travis Kelce if I had the foresight to draft him anywhere -- what a monster he's been.
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.