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 will be the MVP of the fantasy playoffs?
KEN HOLIZNA
This is a tough question. There are so many possibilities, but just like the NFL, quarterbacks are kings in fantasy also. If you have a top-7 QB you are very happy, if not you are pulling your hair out every week. I like Dak Prescott. Because of Dak there is a lot of crow to eat with the fantasy ranking industry this year. Dak did not make it in the top 10 of most draft rankings and is currently 2nd in fantasy QB scoring up to this point. He has a great playoff schedule and should be in shootouts with good offensive teams with subpar defenses every week of the playoffs. Those who drafted Dak at his bargain price are most likely in the playoffs and know what I’m talking about. Those who didn’t draft him let’s give Dak some just deserves. My honorable mention is Brock Purdy, who has a pretty good schedule but more importantly he and his team are on a mission to finish what they couldn’t do last year after Purdy got hurt in the playoffs. They are healthy, loaded with weapons, and firing on all cylinders right now. More egg in the face of industry rankers ((including me) who couldn’t even get Purdy in the top 20. His unknown injury recovery was a major scare in his low ranking.
Holizna is a 29-year fantasy football enthusiast and founder of Faith-Family-Fantasy Football in 2019, a family-friendly, faith-based, G-rated fantasy football platform. Rankings contributor to the 2023 Fantasy Index magazine. Find him on Twitter @holihandicapper
LUKE WILSON
Foregoing the obvious, right answers of Christian McCaffrey and/or Tyreek Hill in favor of slightly more interesting guys, think I'm gonna hedge a bit and go with DeVon Achane and Trey McBride. McBride went from dynasty stash to a set & forget (his week 14 bye notwithstanding) play at the oft-vexing tight end spot. With no natural predators in his target food chain and an almost-too-good-to-be-true @Chicago/@Philadelphia finish, McBride is poised to be this year's George Kittle in terms of December tight end heroics (although so is George Kittle). And as for Achane, I've had an inkling the Dolphins may have sort of 'kid gloved' his knee injury in an effort to save him for the stretch run, and his 20-touch outburst against the Commanders has only emboldened this theory. The matchups aren't ideal but I just so do not care -- I believe he is on Mike McDaniel's fantasy team. Achane is poised to strike fear in the hearts of opponents far and wide in the fantasy playoffs.
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.
SCOTT SACHS
Hard to not choose Christian McCaffrey. Amongst an embarrassment of fantasy riches in San Francisco, Run CMC has been piling up the points -- at times he's like having 2 players. With 9 wins, SF is likely to play their starters to the end to try to get home field advantage, as they are packed in a tight NFC race with Dallas, Philly, and Detroit.
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.
DAVID DOREY
One of the best fantasy players down the stretch? Somewhat surprisingly compared to the start of the season, but Dak Prescott is situated to be a difference maker down the stretch. The Cowboys rushing offense is quietly terrible now and three of his next four games are all against the weaker secondaries and yet opponents that will be competitive and force Dallas to throw -- PHI, @BUF, and DET. The only one that isn't one of the most generous secondaries ae the Dolphins in Week 16 at Miami and they too will force the Cowboys to pass.
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 really like the way things are queued up for the Rams. They’ve got Washington and New Orleans in Weeks 15-16, and both of those games are at home. I think that offense will dramatically outperform what it usually does in those games. Matthew Stafford, Kyren Williams, Cooper Kupp, Puka Nacua and even Mason Crosby. I think those guys are going to be helping with key production in those weeks.
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 PIANOWSKI
I'm excited for what Josh Allen is likely to do. The next three Buffalo games could easily be shootouts, and then I expect they'll clobber the hapless Patriots in a revenge game in Week 17. I also expect Allen to run a little bit more aggressively (perhaps even recklessly) going forward, as there's no margin for error with this 6-6 Bills team. Often that full-throttle style is a playoff hook (leave it all on the field, you have months to recover), but right now Buffalo is essentially facing elimination games.
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.
JASON WOOD
It may be a boring answer, but the choice likely comes from the San Franciso 49ers roster. The 49ers face Seattle, Arizona, Baltimore, and Washington down the stretch. While the Ravens matchup is difficult on paper, the 49ers mauled both the Eagles and Cowboys -- two contenders with strong defenses. And the other three matchups are like taking candy from babies. Given this schedule, Quarterback Brock Purdy could overtake Jalen Hurts for league MVP, but his hyper-efficiency likely keeps him from being a fantasy MVP. Christian McCaffrey is the No. 1 fantasy RB through 13 weeks, and his schedule gets easier down the stretch. If he's not the fantasy MVP, it would be shocking particularly because he's been so consistently good this year it stands to reason quite a few teams with CMC on their rosters are playoff bound.
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.
ANDY RICHARDSON
I want to say Tyreek Hill, because I believe the Dolphins are going to go all-out to get him over 2,000 yards. Unfortunately, the schedule is quite rough for him in Weeks 15-17 -- Jets, Cowboys, Ravens. The Dallas game may be a shootout, but the others will not be. But how about a couple of Texans, C.J. Stroud and Nico Collins? In Weeks 15 and 17, they face the Titans, who are soft against both the run and the pass. In Week 16, they host Seattle, which has also been struggling defensively. Tank Dell is out for the year, so Collins should have some big games, and Stroud will too.
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.