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: Halloween special! Who are this fantasy season's best treats (and worst tricks)?
HOWARD BENDER
Having Jonathan Taylor on your fantasy team is like finding the one house back in the cul-de-sac that has full-size candy bars and insists that you take more than one. The most disappointing trick has been Klint Kubiak who typically relies on one running back but has turned the Seattle backfield into a horrendous time-share between Kennth Walker and Zach Chabonnet.
Bender is a longtime veteran of the fantasy sports industry and the 2008 runner-up for People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive. He serves as the Head of Content for FantasyAlarm.com, a weekly columnist for the New York Post and is the host of the award-winning Fantasy Alarm Show on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (M-F 6-8pm ET). You can find him on X, IG and Facebook as @rotobuzzguy and on TikTok as @therealrotobuzzguy.
TOM KESSENICH
Despite a slump heading into the bye, Emeka Egbuka has easily been the biggest treat of 2025. He was WR27 in the NFFC Primetime and prior to his hamstring injury he was an elite WR1 and should've put up a monster Week 7 performance had Baker Mayfield simply played at a competent level. The bye week hopefully will help him and Mayfield resume their rapport and he should regain the elite status he had been showcasing prior to his injury.
Conversely, there seems little question Brian Thomas Jr. has been this season's biggest trick. Drafted in Round 1 he has been a gigantic bust. He's delivered only one 20+ point game and been held in single digits four times. Much of his problems can be traced to Trevor Lawrence's poor QB play and Liam Coen's pedestrian play calling, but Thomas leads all WRs in drops and his attitude clearly needs a massive adjustment coming out of the Jaguars' Week 8 bye. He has all the talent to be an elite player and his problems are easily fixable but chances are the teams that drafted him are already doomed so even if he corrects his issues it's likely far too late to salvage things.
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.
IAN ALLAN
Joe Burrow definitely a caramel apple with a razor blade hidden inside. I thought he was going to be the big thing at quarterback, passing for 40-plus touchdowns. Instead, he got shut down at Cleveland in his one full game and lasted only a quarter in Week 2 -- particularly painful since to land him, teams had to sacrifice at other positions by picking a quarterback early. Elsewhere in my bag, I see a Rashee Rice Krispies treat. He came at a discount, with the knowledge he'd be sitting out six games. But now that he's back, those who were willing to tough it out have their hands and what should be a top-5 receiver for the second half of the season.
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
Javonte Williams is the King-Sized Snickers bar of fantasy football spooky season. The Cowboys star was drafted outside the Top 30 at his position in virtually every league yet ranks as a Top 10 performer on pace for nearly 1,400 rushing yards and 15+ touchdowns. On the other hand, Brian Thomas Jr. is the McIntosh apple of fantasy Halloween. The Jaguars receiver was a consensus Top 15 overall pick this year but ranks outside the Top 40 at his position halfway through the season.
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.
SAM HENDRICKS
Two biggest treats are Patrick Mahomes and Jonathan Taylor. Mahomes was going as the 6th-best QB in most drafts and yet he is the best through week 8 (avg 25 FP) and looks to be getting even better with the addition of his best WR, Rashee Rice. JT went late in the first or early second round (ADP 14) and is 64 FP ahead of fourth-place B Robinson who was drafted first in most leagues. And finally how about a player who is both a Treat and a Trick. None other than Rhamondre Stevenson RB NE. He is scary in a bad way. Three double digit FP games including week 2 via MIA for 21 points and four other games with less than 6 FP. Ouch!
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.
MICHAEL NAZAREK
Treat = Jonathan Taylor, for obvious reasons. Trick = Calvin Ridley. Pretty much worthless, then one big game, and now injured. I'd smash my pumpkin over his head!
Nazarek is the CEO of Fantasy Football Mastermind Inc, celebrating 30 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 $40K in recent seasons of the FFPC High Stakes Main Event. Nazarek can be reached via email at miken@ffmastermind.com.
SCOTT SACHS
Trick: Tua Tagovailoa throws 3 TDs in week 5, then has 6 interceptions in subsequent 2 weeks, can't take his foot out of his mouth, a beleaguered head coach, basically a franchise teetering on the brink, then--boom--throws 4 TDs in a road upset in Atlanta! Treat: Jaxon Smith-Njigba made great strides in 2024, mostly in the slot, then the Seahawks said adios to DK and Lockett, there were concerns over how he'd produce in his new WR1 role, started out steady this season, but now has put up 87 fantasy points his last 3 weeks before Seattle's bye.
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. Follow on X: https://x.com/ffbcoach
SCOTT PIANOWSKI
Jonathan Taylor has been too good to be true, an unreal smash in Round 2. If you run the stats of all running backs in the Super Bowl era over their opening eight games of a season, Taylor's given us the 12th-best fantasy start of all time. Keeping injured players out of the trick category, Ashton Jeanty has been mostly a flop. Failure has many sources, of course -- maybe the Raiders screwed up thinking Pete Carroll and Chip Kelly had one more meaningful act to play. Las Vegas needs to get Jeanty more involved in the passing game.
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
Tyler Warren has been a great rookie to send out each week. (Of course, Daniel Jones has been one of the best undrafted fantasy players of all; lots of nice Colts.) I've also been fortunate to have drafted Emeka Egbuka in a couple of spots, and glad to have Dallas Goedert, as well. As for tricks, well, pick a rookie running back, any rookie running back. Ashton Jeanty has one good week, Omarion Hampton got hurt, TreVeyon Henderson is inexplicably in Mike Vrabel's doghouse for whatever reason. Quinshon Judkins is the lone regular starter and you had to ignore his legal concerns to even draft him. RJ Harvey coming around, but still not actually touching the ball a ton. Eagles wideouts: no comment.
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.