ASK THE EXPERTS appears weekly from training camp through the Super Bowl with answers to a new question being posted Thursday morning. This is our last question of the season. How the guest experts responded when we asked them: What is your preliminary Top 1o (PPR) for the 2023 season?

JASON WOOD

I'll preface my rankings by reminding everyone how much these will change once free agency and the draft get underway. I'll also say that after 20+ years of doing rankings and projections, we (the collective industry) always default to prior year outcomes too much in our preliminary rankings. Meaning most 2023 initial rankings will look a lot like the 2022 year-end outcomes, and history tells us that's absolutely not how things will shake out. So, hopefully, you'll find this list to be quite different from the consensus by design.

1. Christian McCaffrey
2. Kenneth Walker
3. Austin Ekeler
4. Travis Kelce
5. Justin Jefferson
6. Saquon Barkley
7. Breece Hall
8. Bijan Robinson
9. Cooper Kupp
10. JaMarr Chase

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.

IAN ALLAN

As things stand right now, I see a lot of parity. With the running backs, probably Christian McCaffrey No. 1 (this being PPR), with not much difference between another half-dozen guys — Taylor, Harris, Etienne, Barkley, Walker, Ekeler and Jacobs. Breece Hall and Javonte Williams (coming off injuries) could wind up in that group. At wide receiver, probably the two LSU guys — Chase, Jefferson — at the top, with Adams, Hill, Diggs and Lamb not far behind. People don’t like to take quarterbacks early, but I have interest in Mahomes, Burrow, Hurts and Allen. The most clearly defined No. 1 player at his position, I think, will probably will be Travis Kelce. He turns 34 next year, but he catches a lot more balls than almost all of the other tight ends.

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

1. Christian McCaffrey - Did you know that after the trade to the 49ers, CMC produced just two PPR points less than leading RB Austin Ekeler? Yup. His production actually increased from his game play in Carolina as a Panther. There is always the issue of health, but in a run-based offense, CMC should dominate once again in 2023 as the top overall back in PPR formats if healthy.
2. Justin Jefferson - He rocketed to the top of the WR list in 2022, producing a gaudy 128-1809-8 stat line, adding another score and 24 rushing yards. I see no reason why his success won't continue in 2023, as QB Kirk Cousins is expected to return for at least one more season.
3. Austin Ekeler - Ekeler totaled 1,637 yards of offense with 107 catches and a whopping 18 TDs in 2022! He will remain the go-to guy in this offense in 2023, making him a worthy pick as the No. 3 overall fantasy choice in PPR leagues. Why not higher? Well, the addition of OC Kellen Moore could mean a bit more sharing in the running game for Ekeler with other backs, mostly RB Joshua Kelley.
4. JaMarr Chase - Chase is clearly the top dog in a potent Bengals passing game with an elite QB in Joe Burrow. Although he missed 5 games in 2022, his 20.5 PPR PPG average ranked him third behind only Kupp and Jefferson. I see no reason for him to not produce his normal stunning numbers most weeks in 2023.
5. Cooper Kupp - People tend of forget about how good and consistent Kupp was when he played in 2022. Yes, he's coming off tightrope surgery for his ankle injury, but QB Matthew Stafford isn't going anywhere, and Kupp was the No. 2 WR for fantasy through 9 weeks before he got injured. As such, if healthy, he remains a clear top 5 pick.
6. Tyreek Hill - Even though Tua missed significant action in 2022, Hill still finished No. 2 WR overall with a stunning 119-1710-7 stat line, adding another score and 32 yards rushing to his totals. Provided Tua can stay healthy for all of 2023, taking Hill here could actually be a bargain in 2023.
7. Derrick Henry - Yes, Henry just turned 29, but he's coming off another big season with 1936 total yards and 13 scores when he missed only one game (coaches decision). This team remains a run-first unit, and Henry should continue to pound away and produce big numbers again in 2023.
8. Jonathan Taylor - Taylor suffered from a poor O-Line and a nagging ankle injury in 2022, which also required surgery to fix. Although he missed 6 games, he nearly managed to rush for 1,000 yards with 4 scores. He is not an injury-prone back, and should rebound with a better O-Line in a run-oriented offense, keeping him a top-10 pick.
9. Travis Kelce - Simply put, no other TE in the NFL can match the talent and production of Kelce, and it's not close. He topped the No. 2 TE in 2022 (T.J. Hockenson) by 101 PPR points, so drafting Kelce this early gives his owner a huge advantage at TE assuming these PPR leagues require a TE to start.
10. Stefon Diggs - Diggs is the safe pick here for a solid WR1 pick in 2023 PPR leagues due to his consistency and continuity with QB Josh Allen. Oh, his 108-1,429-11 stat line in 2022 isn't bad either.

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.

SCOTT SACHS

1. Justin Jefferson
2. JaMarr Chase
3. Tyreek Hill
4. Cooper Kupp
5. Christian McCaffrey
6. Jonathan Taylor
7. Austin Ekeler
8. Travis Kelce
9. Jalen Hurts
10. Patrick Mahomes

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.

PAUL CHARCHIAN

1. Justin Jefferson
2. Travis Kelce
3. JaMarr Chase
4. Christian McCaffrey
5. Austin Ekeler
6. Jalen Hurts
7. Josh Allen
8. Stefon Diggs
9. Cooper Kupp
10. Tyreek Hill
11. Bijan Robinson
12. Davante Adams

Charchian is the CEO at GuillotineLeagues.com. Guillotine Leagues are a new way to play in which the lowest-scoring team each week gets chopped from the league, and all the players go to the waiver wire. Charchian was inducted into the Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.

DAVID DOREY

1. Christian McCaffrey
2. Justin Jefferson
3. Austin Ekeler
4. Tyreek Hill
5. Josh Jacobs
6. Travis Kelce
7. Saquon Barkley
8. Stefon Diggs
9. Davante Adams
10. Derrick Henry

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.

SAM HENDRICKS

1. Christian McCaffrey
2. Austin Ekeler
3. Jonathan Taylor
4. Justin Jefferson
5. Kenneth Walker
6. Travis Kelce
7. Saquon Barkley
8. JaMarr Chase
9. Cooper Kupp
10. Derrick Henry

Honorable Mention: Josh Jacobs, Davante Adams

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 30-year fantasy football veteran who participated 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 and 2018.

ANDY RICHARDSON

It's going to be an interesting first round next year. Do you select one of the increasingly few feature running backs, or the franchise wide receivers (on the field full-time, and less likely to get hurt)? And where do the difference-making quarterbacks go? In general, I think the top quarterbacks will go in the 2nd, but I think we'll see more early wideouts. So I'll go with the following Top 10.

1. Justin Jefferson
2. JaMarr Chase
3. Christian McCaffrey
4. Austin Ekeler
5. Cooper Kupp
6. Travis Kelce
7. Tyreek Hill
8. Josh Jacobs
9. Jonathan Taylor
10. Davante Adams

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.