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: Which player are you most thankful for this season?
ALAN SATTERLEE
I’m most thankful for Lamar Jackson. We are enjoying our 29th year of fantasy football, dating back to custom scoring we created off the Miller Lite handbook if some of you can remember that nearly three decades ago. I already had Kyler Murray, but then also added Lamar Jackson at the 11.01 spot and I am very thankful I did, especially in a league with big rushing stats for the quarterback position. Jackson is simply electrifying, he’s so exciting to watch. Can he even be slowed down? It sure doesn’t look like it right now.
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.
DAVID DOREY
The player that I am most thankful for is DJ Chark! I drafted him on almost every team in August and while he had a few dud games, he's been a difference-maker that came for a very cheap price. Chark already scored 8 touchdowns and topped 100 yards in three games. Sure, Christian McCaffrey is great but he never made it past the third draft pick in any of my leagues. Picking up a relatively unknown wideout is the final rounds of a draft and watching him become the No. 5 wide receiver is what all that work in the summer is about.
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.
IAN ALLAN
Good quarterbacks drive the game. If all 32 teams were starting guys like Jeff Driskel, Mitchell Trubisky and Mason Rudolph, nobody would watch. So I’m thankful for the signal callers that get us to sit up and pay attention, and we’re blessed with a nice batch of new young stars that are coming along, with Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson and Lamar Jackson leading the way.
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.
MICHAEL NAZAREK
Christian McCaffrey has won me a lot of $$$$ in the FFPC main event this season after I drafted him in the No. 2 position of my league. Very happy that the No. 1 team took Saquon Barkley first.
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.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI
For about two months, the answer was Austin Hooper, the easiest profit play at tight end. Since then, it's been Sam Darnold, who's taken off since the Jets decided to run the plays that their quarterback actually likes. What a concept. Being fully healthy doesn't hurt, either. If you can't get your hands on Darnold, consider a trade for Robby Anderson, who is finally rounding into form.
Pianowski has been playing fantasy football for over 20 years and writing about it for 18. He joined Yahoo! Sports in 2008 and has been blogging 24/7 on RotoArcade.com ever since.
SCOTT SACHS
While I expected Christian McCaffrey to be the No. 1 RB in fantasy, Mark Ingram has really shined. Freed from the dreaded running back by committee in New Orleans, he has easily performed as a top-5 back to date in the Ravens run-dominated offense. Baltimore has a much tougher schedule going forward, but so far so good.
Sachs runs Perfect Season Fantasy Football, offering LIVE Talk & Text consulting. He has multiple league championships including two perfect seasons. Sachs is a past winner of the Fantasy Index Experts Poll and a 2-time winner of the Experts Auction League.
JUSTIN ELEFF
Patrick Mahomes got hurt. Nick Chubb is great but I can never love a running back; the better one is for me, the more I worry that injury and heartbreak are one snap away. Mike Evans and Amari Cooper do what they were supposed to do most weeks, then disappear at what seem to be the very most inopportune moments. We all knew who the top three tight ends were in 2019, and we were all wrong. But there is a guy I drafted in several places who has been my rock — or more to the point who keeps pounding the rock for me, week after week, game after game. In a fantasy season that spins wildly around me, Justin Tucker, you are my North Star. Thank you.
Eleff hosts the Fantasy Index Podcast, available in the iTunes Store now. He has worked for Fantasy Index off and on all century.
MICHAEL NEASE
Christian McCaffrey is the player I am most thankful for this season. I cannot recall in my 35 seasons of playing fantasy football any player that you can plug into the lineup each and every week and average 30 points. He has scored 20+ points in 10 of 11 weeks thus far, about as consistent as any running back can be. Many players were touted as the top prospect back when we drafted last summer. He has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is indeed the No. 1 RB in the entire NFL. So on this Thanksgiving, as we celebrate a great day with our families and Tom Turkey, let us pause as we wolf down a gala holiday meal and raise a turkey leg to honor the man on his way to becoming a legend, Christian McCaffrey.
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
Not too long ago I'd have said either Cooper Kupp or Austin Hooper, but injuries etc. ended that. So for me it's Chris Godwin, who has yes been overshadowed by Mike Evans in a couple of games, but has been very good most of the season -- with the occasional huge, matchup-winning type of week. Thanks for being there all season, Chris.
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.