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 this season?
JASON WOOD
I'm thankful for many players, but David Montgomery gets the turducken. He was my most targeted player in drafts this year, and he's been essential in my successes. In the weeks he's missed with injury, my units have struggled, further emphasizing how key Montgomery has been to my playoff pushes. While Jahmyr Gibbs is rounding into shape, too, and is arguably the more explosive talent, Montgomery is still thriving as the high-volume workhorse. Some offhandedly compared him to Jamaal Williams when he signed in Detroit, but that was short-sighted. Montgomery is an infinitely more talented player than Williams, which means he's not as reliant on touchdown plunges to have good fantasy weeks.
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.
MIKE NAZAREK
Keenan Allen has proved the naysayers wrong in that a 31-year old can still be an elite producer at wideout and be the WR2 in all of fantasy for 2023!
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.
COLT WILLIAMS
The gift that keeps giving, a true league winner, Puka Nacua. He’s received seven or more targets in every single game this season, something no other receiver can say. Puka is still on pace (1524 yards) to break the rookie receiving record (1455 yards) held by Ja’Marr Chase. Someone you picked up off of waivers in most leagues, as he was going as the wide receiver 90, behind names like Joshua Palmer, Richie James Jr., and my co-host Luke’s favorite, Rashid Shaheed. I’m most thankful for Puka Nacua.
Williams is working towards a degree in economics and statistics at Sonoma State. A United States Air Force veteran, he’s been playing fantasy football since 2012. Follow him on Twitter @_ColtWilliams.
LUKE WILSON
After searching both mind and heart, I think I have to go with young Sam Howell here. If I can get personal for a moment, I was forced to take a mind-boggling risk on this kid in a Fantasy Index superflex dynasty startup draft, taking him in the eighth round to pair with Josh Allen. Context-dependent or not (Jordan Love was the first pick of the fourth round! Kenny Pickett went in the sixth!), it was a crazy gamble that earned me my fair share of snickers. Well who's laughing now! Howell has been nothing short of this year's Geno Smith, going from a 19th-round ADP in August to the QB4 in most leagues that have 4-point passing TDs, and in leagues that give 0.05 points per passing yard he's the QB3! I don't know how sustainable this is (yes his 3,038 yards passing leads the league, but he's throwing it 40 times a game) beyond 2023 but Howell has been a tremendous value for those of us that cheaped out at quarterback in drafts this year, and one more than worthy of our thanks.
Wilson is a Fantasy Index contributor who also hosts the FI Podcast and weighs in with fantasy advice regularly in the FI Discord server. He's not the former Seahawks tight end, but he is the proud father of two large boys.
IAN ALLAN
Heading into any season, you always a list of “your guys” — players you’re higher on than the general consensus. I’m always grateful for those players who then come through and put up the numbers justifying where you ranked them. David Montgomery, Isiah Pacheco and Jake Ferguson were three of those key players this year who came through and did what I was hoping they would do. And for that, I am thankful.
Allan is the senior writer for Fantasy Football Index magazine. He is a member of the FSGA’s Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame and the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame. He is an avid runner, swimmer and cyclist.
SCOTT SACHS
In my Superflex Auction League, my quarterbacks are Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert and Sam Howell. Since we start 2 quarterbacks, I'm very thankful to have that position locked down. Unfortunately, I lost Nick Chubb, so I ended up trading Aiyuk and Collins for Kamara and Ford, so I'm also thankful to have running back covered as both have been solid. If Kamara starts receiving some more goal-line touches, I would really be thankful for that! Happy Thanksgiving to all, may the four games Thursday and Friday be shootouts!
With 2 perfect seasons and multiple league championships to his credit, Scott 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.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI
Amon-Ra St. Brown. He's the most consistent receiver in the league, earning a bunch of targets weekly. The Lions have also turned into an entertaining watch every week. We're always talking about upside in fantasy football, and I get it; we love those crooked numbers, those spike weeks. But when players mix upside with floor, it's especially delightful.
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.
ANDY RICHARDSON
In my biggest money league, I spent $2 on the final waiver run the morning of the season-opener on Puka Nacua. He was the guess to replace Cooper Kupp and be the main beneficiary, but nobody imagined he'd be as productive as he was. He was fantastic for a month, and had more bad weeks than good since Kupp returned, and now Kupp is hurt again. Securing Nacua for cheap (not having to get in a bidding war a week later), especially considering I lost Justin Jefferson early on, is the main reason that team is going to the playoffs. Thank you Puka. Honorable mention: Sam LaPorta.
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.