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 2nd half of the fantasy season's MVP?
TOM KESSENICH
Christian McCaffrey is gearing up for a big stretch run. He's now RB1 in fantasy, averaging nearly 26 points per game. His playoff schedule is set up for him to dominate the final weeks of the season:
Week 15: vs. Tennessee Week 16: at Indianapolis Week 17: vs. Chicago
Barring injury, CMC is going to be the 2025 second-half MVP in fantasy football.
Kessenich is the Director of High Stakes Contests for SportsHub Games. He runs the NFFC, NFBC and NFBKC and is a fantasy sports Hall of Fame inductee.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI
Lamar Jackson is set up to have a monster second half. Derrick Henry hasn’t been as effective this year, and the schedule lines up nicely, including two Cincinnati games and a Jets matchup. Although the Ravens are just 3-5, they’re the betting favorite to win the AFC North. If that happens, Jackson probably drove them there.
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.
IAN ALLAN
I think it's Jonathan Taylor's year. They've got it rolling pretty good. He's on pace for 2,102 run-rec yards and 26 touchdowns. He's gobbling up the yards, and they're scoring more of their touchdowns on runs rather than passes. He's got four games left against the Seahawks, Texans (twice) and Kansas City, but I'm thinking he'll be the Offensive MVP this year.
Allan co-founded Fantasy Football Index in 1987. He is a member of the FSGA Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame and the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame.
JASON WOOD
I'll give you two choices, and neither will shock you. At receiver, Ja'Marr Chase can hang onto his preseason WR1 ranking. Joe Flacco has stunned everyone by not only keeping the Bengals offense humming, but somehow making it even more pass-heavy than when Joe Burrow was under center. Cincinnati’s receivers also have the second-easiest remaining schedule, with a string of favorable matchups from Week 13 through 17.
At running back, the nod goes to Saquon Barkley. Despite the Eagles sitting atop the NFC as the current No. 1 seed, Barkley had been one of the bigger disappointments among early-round fantasy picks. He finally delivered a vintage performance two weeks ago before the Eagles bye. Fortunately for his managers, Philadelphia has an easy remaining schedule. You can reasonably expect offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo to stay committed to a run-heavy approach the rest of the way, since that is the clearest formula for the team to succeed.
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
The Eagles offense has been erratic this year, but it's had its moments, and I think it will have a lot more of them in the second half. Part of it is that the NFC East right now has three bad defenses, and the Eagles get to play three games against the Cowboys and Commanders. They also face the Bears (another defense bleeding yards and points) and Detroit, in what should be a high-scoring affair. Their other games (Chargers, Raiders and the Bills) could also be a pair of shootouts and a blowout. Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley -- I believe it will be nice having those guys on your side the rest of the way.
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.