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: Happy Halloween edition! Who is this year's biggest trick...or treat?
DAVID DOREY
I’d have to go with Marvin Jones as my trick. He seems stuck at 50 yards per game and then blows up for 6-101-1 against the Eagles. He’s back! Not so much. Especially the 17 yards in Week 6. So plenty safe to sit him against the Vikings secondary but no, FOUR touchdowns. He’s back! Against the Giants terrible secondary the next week? Four catches for 22 yards. Ouch.
Dorey has been dealing out all the rankings and projections for The Huddle since 1997 and wrote up a preview of every game for the last 21 years. His specialty is schedule strength and he’s been in countless magazines, podcasts, and radio shows. He is the author of Fantasy Football: The Next Level.
JUSTIN ELEFF
Patrick Mahomes remains my forever treat — no one else is as fun to watch, and the constant barrage of 300-and-3 games (occasionally 400-and-4) is nice too. Get well soon, Pat. As for tricks, go with Tevin Coleman. Suffered that ankle thing early in the year, whereupon he was cut in my big league, and I added him immediately. Then I had a roster crunch and had to cut him myself, and he promptly landed on his third team of the year ... where he remained glued to the bench behind Mark Ingram and others, and I’m guessing you can guess what comes next. I was playing the team that used him to cover for Ingram’s bye this past week. I lost by one of the four touchdowns Coleman scored in the biggest NFL game of his life — in no small part because Alvin Kamara is down for me (as is Mahomes, etc., etc.) and I no longer had a Tevin Coleman on hand to cover his absence. TL;DR version: I hate Tevin Coleman. I hate Halloween. I’m not crazy about fantasy football itself right now. And, please, for real, get well soon, Pat.
Eleff hosts the Fantasy Index Podcast, available in the iTunes Store now. He has worked for Fantasy Index off and on all century.
SAM HENDRICKS
Joe Mixon is my trick this year. He always plays yet he is Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde in fantasy points. Last week he scored 17 in London. The week prior he had 4 combined yards! Argggggg! Treat has to be DJ Chark, with 17.88 fantasy points per game. He is the 6th-best wide receiver at the moment in PPR leagues. Another treat is Darren Waller. In 6 games so far he has averaged 19 fantasy points. He is the 2nd-best tight end.
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 25-year fantasy football veteran who participates 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. Follow him at his web site, www.ffguidebook.com.
MICHAEL NAZAREK
The biggest trick has to be Packers wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling. I got so tired of him failing to produce when I start him that I cut him in one FFPC main event team. Another team spent nearly $400 to acquire and start him this past week and he got one catch for 4 yards as his reward! LOL.
Nazarek is the CEO of Fantasy Football Mastermind Inc. His company offers a preseason draft guide, customizable cheat sheets, a multi-use fantasy drafting program including auction values, weekly in-season fantasy newsletters, injury reports and free NFL news (updated daily) at its mobile-friendly web site. 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 in excess of $20K in recent seasons of the FFPC High Stakes Main Event. www.ffmastermind.com. Nazarek can be reached via email at miken@ffmastermind.com.
IAN ALLAN
I think Kenyan Drake and Jaylen Samuels will be full-sized Snickers bars in Week 9. With both teams, I don’t think the other two viable running backs are going to play — David Johnson and Chase Edmonds for Arizona, and James Conner and Benny Snell for the Steelers. Drake and Samuels should be used in full-time type roles, and I think that makes them strong candidates for top 10 numbers. With both backs, they’re not only runners but pass catchers. I would be very comfortable going into Week 9 with Drake and Samuels as my starting running backs.
Allan co-founded Fantasy Football Index in 1987. He and fellow journalism student Bruce Taylor launched the first newsstand fantasy football magazine as a class project at the University of Washington. For more than three decades, Allan has written and edited most of the content published in the magazines, newsletters and at www.fantasyindex.com. An exhaustive researcher, he may be the only person in the country who has watched at least some of every preseason football game played since the early 1990s. Allan is a member of the FSTA Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame and the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame.
ALAN SATTERLEE
I debated on the treat side between all-world Dalvin Cook and late-round sleeper-turned-gold Darren Waller. Let’s go with Dalvin Cook. A favorite of mine since he came into the league, it’s great to be capitalizing on Cook’s huge year this season. He’s been money every single week -- Cook has scored a touchdown in every game except one, and in that game, he piled up 218 yards. On the trick side, I really thought David Montgomery would be more useful this season. After getting burned (again) with Montgomery’s 19-yard clunker in Week 7, I sat him last week only to see Montgomery easily have the best game in his young NFL career with 147 yards, four receptions and a score. Maybe Montgomery’s Week 8 showing will be a sign of things to come.
Satterlee is the Fantasy Football Insider for the Charlotte Observer and is syndicated in a few other newspapers in the southeast. Satterlee first started playing fantasy football in 1990.
MICHAEL NEASE
When we draft players we love them. They are the greatest players in the world. To snag a premier wide receiver like Odell Beckham in the past has been spectacular and makes us want to brag. This year he is looking up the scoring list and seeing 27 other names ahead of his. Picking up DJ Chark on waivers gives you a virtual unknown at draft time who is now over 50 points ahead of Beckham. Drafting Beckham this season has yielded you a cruel trick, as opposed to a treat. Happy Halloween!
Nease is a member of the FSWA and has been playing the game since 1985, while also writing about it since 2001. He is a writer for Big Guy Fantasy Sports. Over the years he has sampled about all the playing scenarios that fantasy football offers, including re-drafter, keeper, dynasty, auction, IDP and salary cap leagues. You can contact Mike at mnease23@yahoo.com anytime and during the football season follow him @mike-insights.
ANDY RICHARDSON
I have Cooper Kupp everywhere. I'm risk-averse with guys coming off injury, but preseason reports were good, and he was the 3rd Ram wideout off the board in most of my leagues, so I took him. He's been great to have in my lineup. Another treat is Darren Waller, who I actually nominated by accident in an auction, got him for a buck as my 2nd tight end, and have started him every week. Biggest trick is either Joe Mixon or maybe Devonta Freeman. I'm guaranteed to start or bench those guys at the wrong time, week after week.
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.