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Ask the Experts

What has been your most pleasant surprise this season?

Jonnu, Bucky earn votes

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: What has been your most pleasant fantasy surprise this season?

DAVID DOREY

For a position that holds so few difference-makers, Jonnu Smith has been a remarkable advantage to own. Miami has never used the tight ends much for receiving for the two previous seasons with HC Mike McDaniel, and even Jaylen Waddle has tailed off sharply this year. But Smith may not have been drafted and ended up on many of my teams from the waiver wire. And he's been as productive and consistent as any other tight end for the last six weeks when he was needed most.

Dorey co-founded The Huddle.com in 1997. He's ranked every player and projected every game for the last 26 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

I drafted Derrick Henry in as many leagues as possible, as I knew he would perform better in 2024 than he did in 2023, but I had no idea he would be RB4 overall through Week 16. He clearly made the right choice signing with the Ravens, and I can see him being nearly as productive next season as he was this season.

Nazarek is the CEO of Fantasy Football Mastermind Inc, celebrating 29 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 website, 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 $36K in recent seasons of the FFPC High Stakes Main Event. Nazarek can be reached via email at miken@ffmastermind.com.

SAM HENDRICKS

Xavier Worthy. The rookie has been a pleasant surprise. I drafted him in the 8th round as my WR4. He has been fantastic the last 3 weeks (fantasy playoffs) averaging 20-plus in my PPR league. I could even say he got me into the playoffs with his last 7 games and his 15.5 FP average carried me. I would love to say it was Baker Mayfield but to be honest I picked him up on waivers after Week 1. So thank you Xavier Worthy! And Merry Merry and Happy Happy!

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.

JASON WOOD

When you’re in as many leagues as I am, you tend to find certain players become a disproportionately high part of your roster percentages. For me this year, the three highest-rostered players were Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, and David Montgomery. I’m inclined to give Montgomery my vote because his ADP was so much cheaper than the other two, but Montgomery got hurt for the key fantasy playoffs. So instead I’ll tip my cap to the two veteran free agents who undoubtedly helped quite a few fantasy managers win their leagues.

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

Here's one for each of the major positions. Bo Nix wasn't even drafted in most leagues, but after a slow first month he's been a really nice option all season. I'm considering using him this week against the Bengals instead of banged-up Josh Allen in a fantasy Super Bowl. He was my third quarterback in a best-ball league I'm currently winning.

We were high on Rachaad White in the preseason, but everywhere I took White I protected that pick with Bucky Irving. Irving has been one of the very best rookie running backs this season, turning Tampa Bay's long-struggling ground game around.

Who figured that Terry McLaurin would have his best season working with a rookie quarterback? McLaurin is annually underrated, even moreso this season.

The correct answer here is Jonnu Smith, but I was not enough of a believer to actually pick him up anywhere. So I will instead go with Tucker Kraft, who has managed to be very good more often than not in Green Bay's crowded receiving corps.

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 writes a weekly gambling newsletter, Index Bets, during the NFL season and also previews all the games on Saturdays and writes a wrap-up column on Mondays.

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