• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Ask the Experts

ASK THE EXPERTS appears weekly, with answers to a new question being posted every Thursday morning. How the guest experts responded when we asked them:

Many fantasy leagues conclude their seasons in week 16, under the idea that top players will be held out of often-meaningless week 17 games. Do you agree or disagree with this approach?

WILLIAM DEL PILAR

To be frank, I've come to accept the 16-week season, as it's become the norm. However, I feel it's the copout rule. I believe if you want to play fantasy football, a 17-week schedule is just as appropriate. Build your team from top to bottom, and odds are you'll prove you're the best. That stated, I also believe total points leagues show who the best players are and not head-to-head leagues. I'm in the minority on this one, but hey, you play to win!

KFFL offers football as well as baseball content and has captured over a dozen expert league championships. Founded in 1996, this company offers daily news, preseason draft guides, player rankings, sleepers, busts, weekly newsletters and more. KFFL also provides fantasy content to various organizations including SportsTicker and Yahoo! Sports. For more information, visit www.kffl.com .

BRIAN SWAW

I agree with playing the playoffs in weeks 15 and 16 and not 17. Each and every year NFL teams that have already locked up their playoff spot rest their starters during week 17 and to be playing for your Super Bowl that week is not true measure of who the best team is. This year will be a little different with the Patriots trying to go undefeated and will be throwing all of their starters out there but will the Colts, Steelers or Cowboys, I don’t think so. Playoffs and Super Bowl are best determined in weeks 14-16 of the regular season especially when you have Peyton Manning and Company.

Swaw is senior writer and owner of GameTimeDecisions.net and the co-host of two fantasy football radio shows for ESPN AM 1000 in Chicago -- Fantasy Football Island and Fantasy Expert. He has been a keynote speaker for the FSTA and several fantasy football conventions with the likes of John Clayton, Chris Mortensen, Sean Salisbury and Mark Schlereth. For more info, visit www.gametimedecisions.net.

MIKE NAZAREK

I wholeheartedly AGREE! There's nothing worse than riding players like QB Peyton Manning and RB LaDainian Tomlinson in past years all the way to your league final only to have them SIT so they don't risk needless injury. All the leagues I participate in have their Fantasy Bowl in week 16, and it should be that way for ALL leagues.

Nazarek is the CEO of Fantasy Football Mastermind Inc. His company offers an online rookie draft kit, preseason draft guide, customizable cheat sheets, a fantasy auction drafting program, weekly in-season fantasy newsletters, injury reports and free NFL news (updated daily) at its web site. He is the reigning three-peat champion of the SI.com Experts Fantasy League. He is also a nationally published writer in several fantasy magazines and a columnist for SI.com. For more info go to http://www.ffmastermind.com. Nazarek can be reached at 702-568-7118 or miken@ffmastermind.com.

PATRICK GLEESING

We love fantasy football and skipping one game, depriving ourselves of playing a GAME, each season, is not something we want to do. Besides, the last games add a wildcard factor that needs to be adjusted for like any other week's unique matchups. There are whiners out there who are crying because their awesome player that dominated and dragged them into a championship game is sitting to rest for the NFL playoffs, but, they simply need to be prepared for this and draft, waiver-wire and strategize accordingly.

Gleesing is the owner of and senior writer for fantasyfootballdrafthub.com. He can be reached at patrick@fantasyfootballdrafthub.com.

IAN ALLAN

I don’t like using week 17. Too many players — key guys who have gotten teams to championship games — tend to be sitting out.

Allan is the senior writer for Fantasy Football Index magazine. He’s also one of the main content contributors for that company’s website, www.fantasyindex.com. His IAN ALLAN’S MAILBAG column is posted on Fridays.

STEVEN LASSAN

I can see both sides of the approach and I've gone back and forth on how I feel about it. If I was in a keeper league and we had to choose a couple of players to keep for next season, I would probably be against having week 17 count in my fantasy league -- especially since I may have to hold onto a player who may not play in a meaningless game and could not drop him to add someone who may play a full game. However, if I am in a redraft league, there is some strategy involved trying to get the best possible lineup -- after all, isn't that what fantasy football is all about? Although playing fantasy games in week 17 isn't a popular choice, week 16 can also see its share of players sit out games and this could be a real problem as well. In the fantasy leagues that I participate in, all but one use week 17 in the season standings, which makes me lean with the option of using all games in the regular season in fantasy football -- but I wouldn't argue with anyone who said week 16 should be the final week of fantasy football playoffs.

Lassan is a senior staff writer for Pro Fantasy Sports. For more info, visit the websites www.profantasysports.com and www.fswa.org.

SCOTT ENDSLEY

We absolutely agree with ending the fantasy season early; week 17 in the NFL is a disgrace and there is nothing worse than working hard all year with your team only to have your players watching the last game of the year.

Endsley is co-owner and a senior fantasy football consultant for FantasyDraftEdge.com. For more info, go to www.fantasydraftedge.com.

DAVID DOREY

A fantasy league should always conclude with week 16 – no question. To use the final week of the season is to place the outcome of championships in jeopardy of being determined purely by the luck of the draw as to who has players being rested for the playoffs and not going to the owner who has best drafted and managed his team for the entire year. Fantasy leagues must end in week 16 – using week 17 is just throwing too much random luck into the championship.

Dorey is the co-founder of TheHuddle.com and the lead NFL analyst. He has been projecting players and predicting games since 1997 and has also authored the book Fantasy Football: The Next Level which is available at all major bookstores and at Amazon.com. Dorey is one of the top prognosticators in the Fantasy Football Index Experts Poll every year and won it in 2005.

CARL WEATHERFORD

For most standard leagues it is sensible to discard the final week of the season, omit it from the fantasy record and schedule, save for special circumstances. Special circumstances may include cumulative point leagues and best ball leagues or you may want to play around with the final week, invent something fun. Otherwise I’m all for omitting a week when many fantasy starters will be sidelined for different reasons.

Weatherford is owner/editor of www.coachbox.com, a fantasy football news and advice community online since 1997. Weatherford was author of the directory and technical editor for IDG Book’s Fantasy Sports Online For Dummies. He has been participating in magazine and expert panels since 1997 and has played fantasy football for over 20 years.

JEFFREY KAMYS

I agree with this approach, because it happens every year, guys sit in the final week of the season to avoid potential injury. This year you can see that the Packers a team that has been a bit dinged as of late will easily have the No. 2 spot locked up in the NFC in 2 weeks and Dallas is essentially a game and a half ahead of the Packers so if they win out, they will rest key guys as well. So in week 17 you could likely have Romo, TO, Favre and Donald Driver potentially resting some of those games. I don't know about your leagues, but in the ones I am in if you have Romo and or TO and Favre you have a chance to be playing in the playoffs this year.

Kamys is president of Dr. Stats Fantasy Sports. His company, via the web, offers player news, injury reports, cheat sheets, projections, weekly matchups, statistics, and a customized team tracker. Dr. Stats Fantasy Sports also e-mails preseason newsletters and reports throughout the season. For more info visit www.docstats.com or send e-mail to webmaster@docstats.com.

ANDY RICHARDSON

I have mixed feelings. Week 17 is a joke, but if everyone faces the same risk, you can strategize accordingly. And these days -- including this year, most likely -- a lot of owners will face these problems in week 16, too. There will definitely be some teams whose playoff position is fixed after week 15, and maybe guys like Tony Romo and, yes, the Colts are rested. That said, it's a bigger issue in week 17 so I guess the week 16 Super Bowl is here to stay.

Richardson has been a columnist and contributor to the Fantasy Football Index magazine and web site for the past six years. His responsibilities include team defense and IDP projections, as well as various site features. He has run the magazine's annual draft and auction leagues since their inception. Other writing credits have included FFToday.com and football coverage for newspapers in Colorado and Florida. For more information go to www.fantasyindex.com.

• Comments [3]

Readers' Comments

Add a Comment

Already a registered user? Please sign in to add comments.

To add comments, you must become a registered user of our site. To register, please click here.