Ask the Experts

December 09, 2021

Who will be best in fantasy playoffs?

Taylor, Ekeler and Murray make lists

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 one player would you most like to roster for the fantasy playoffs?

MICHAEL NAZAREK

My pick would be Chargers running back Austin Ekeler over Colts running back Jonathan Taylor just simply because Ekeler has already had his bye and Taylor is not playing this week. The schedule is very attractive for Ekeler down the stretch and he should produce very well over the coming four weeks.

Nazarek is the CEO of Fantasy Football Mastermind Inc, celebrating 25 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 web site, 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 nearly $30K in recent seasons of the FFPC High Stakes Main Event. Nazarek can be reached via email at miken@ffmastermind.com.

SCOTT SACHS

Kyler Murray returned from 4 weeks of no game action and lit it up with 40-plus fantasy points. His 4 TDs included 2 on the ground and 2 through the air, once again reminding the league of his elite talent. Arizona has very good pass/run balance on offense so Murray can spread it around. It should be noted that their upcoming schedule for Weeks 14-17 includes all warm weather or domed venues, so no cold and windy conditions for Murray to contend with. So, with the Fantasy homestretch upon us, I'm putting my money on "Baby Yoda" Kyler Murray, as the Force is strong with this one.

Sachs runs Perfect Season Fantasy Football, offering LIVE Talk & Text consulting. He has multiple league championships including 2 perfect seasons. Scott is a past winner of the Fantasy Index Experts Poll and a 2-time winner of the Experts Auction League.

DAVID DOREY

How could it not be Jonathan Taylor as the 2021 "Guy you have to get". He's the new Derrick Henry, has a moderate to good schedule that ends up at home against the Raiders in Week 17. The 7-6 Colts are sure to be on the hunt for a playoff spot with no chance of sitting players and the offense revolves around Taylor. He's off this week which isn't ideal, but he'll make up for it the rest of the way.

Dorey co-founded The Huddle.com in 1997. He's ranked every player and projected every game for the last 23 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.

IAN ALLAN

I skimmed over the 32 teams. I don’t think there’s an easy answer. I guess I would go with Jonathan Taylor. He’s been very consistent, productive week in and week out against everyone. The Colts have a couple of more difficult games coming up (New England, Arizona) but neither of those teams ranks in the top 15 against the run.

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.

SAM HENDRICKS

Travis Kelce. The Kansas City tight end has some juicy matchups and projects to be head and shoulders over all of the other tight ends by a large margin, 36 points more than the TE6/7 spots and 46 above the TE11/12. Josh Allen only projects a few more than the other quarterbacks. Cooper Kupp is my honorable mention with 26 more than WR6/7.

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 and 2018.

PAUL CHARCHIAN

Here's an unpopular answer: Elijah Mitchell. (If healthy.) His workload has exploded over the past three games, with 26, 32, and 27 touches. If Kyle Shanahan can run the ball, he will run the ball. There are no apparent threats to his every-down role. And best of all, he's got a primrose path through the fantasy playoffs with the easiest schedule of all runners: @Cin, Atl, @Ten, and Hou.

Charchian is the CEO at GuillotineLeagues.com. Guillotine Leagues are a new way to play in which the lowest-scoring team each week gets chopped from the league, and all the players go to the waiver wire. Charchian was inducted into the Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.

ANDY RICHARDSON

I'm going with Cooper Kupp. He's been amazing this season, just a month away from completing one of the all-time wide receiver (and fantasy wide receiver) seasons ever. Week after week he's catching a ton of balls, getting open for big plays and scoring. Tough matchup with Arizona this week, but then Seattle, Minnesota and Baltimore, and those two latter teams have either struggled with wide receivers this year, or in the case of Baltimore lost their starting cornerbacks along the way, which should make things easier for Kupp. Thinking (and hoping) he can keep things going. I'll also mention Tom Brady -- don't love his matchup with Buffalo this week, but his next three are against the Saints (easier to pass on), Panthers and lowly Jets.

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.

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