Ask the Experts

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

Which training camp battle are you most interested in following?

CORY BONINI

Matt Hasselbeck versus Jake Locker has to be my favorite. I think Locker could have sneaky fantasy value if he were to win the job, as Hass is long in the tooth and is oft-injured. Nate Washington was awesome when Locker was in the lineup last year, but Chris Johnson was terrible. I think both players will be serviceable regardless of the quarterback; Johnson could be better with Hasselbeck, unless Locker makes dramatic leaps in Year 2.

Since 1996, KFFL.com has been combining its award-winning news service with fantasy analysis. KFFL.com offers services including daily news, draft guides and in-season advice. Now 100 percent free, KFFL.com is your destination for fantasy baseball, football and NASCAR cheat sheets, tips, sleepers and much more. KFFL.com has won more than a dozen expert championships and was listed as "One of the 10 essential sports-related online destinations for fans, athletes and fantasy owners" by Time.com. KFFL.com has provided content to USA Today, Yahoo! Sports, and FOXSports.com among many other organizations.

MIKE NAZAREK

The Arizona Cardinals starting QB battle is most interesting. I believe Kevin Kolb will win the job if he can stay healthy. If not, John Skelton hasn't proven to be consistent enough to help the team win and Larry Fitzgerald's numbers could be better and more consistent with Kolb at the helm.

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 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. For more info go to www.ffmastermind.com. Nazarek can be reached at miken@ffmastermind.com.

DAVID DOREY

I am most interested in Kansas City not so much as a camp battle per se, but to see if Jamaal Charles is healthy and back to form and how well Peyton Hillis is integrated into the offense. There has been major points in that backfield in the past and there could be again. That all depends on the health of Charles and the use of Hillis.

Dorey is the co-founder and lead NFL analyst for The Huddle and author of Fantasy Football: The Next Level. He has projected and predicted every NFL game and player performance since 1997 and has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, radio and television.

TONY HOLM

The Aaron Rodgers and Graham Harrell competition in training camp should be interesting to watch. Though I give a slight edge to that Rodgers guy. For me the areas of interest are what happens in the Panthers backfield between DeAngelo Williams, Jonathan Stewart and Mike Tolbert. He who shines brightest will be in for a big year. The Patriots backfield also has interest. Most have Stevan Ridley as the heir apparent but Bill Belichick is as unpredictable as Mike Shanahan when it comes to RBs and the ultimate Patriots starter may ultimately not even be anyone that's been mentioned yet as a candidate for the job.

Fantasy Sharks provides free fantasy football projections, rankings and analysis from over 40 fantasy contributors from writers to radio hosts to social media. Fantasy Sharks is open year round, servicing the fantasy football community since 2002. Full IDP coverage and rankings for dynasty leagues too. See all the new team assistance tools, in their 11th year of development at FantasySharks.com.

LOUIS TRANQUILLI

this may sound crazy but I am most interested in the Arizona Cardinals QB battle. There are fantasy football stars to be made in this offense and one of the two QBs has serious sleeper value. The winner also holds a ton of weight on his right shoulder in the form of Larry Fitzgerald's fantasy value. I also believe there will be a second WR to emerge from this offense worth owning. This QB battle goes to (I hope) John Skelton, who looked good to finish 2011, but we all know Kevin Kolb is making more money. No matter, the winner will give us fantasy points.

BFDFANTASYfootball.com is now in its 9th season of providing hard core fantasy football advice. Born out of the High Stakes games BFD has featured hundreds of draft reviews for subscribers. Our focus on advice designed to help players understand more of what's going on behind the scenes has made the BFD Coaching Tree one of the must read articles of the year, every year. Subscribers get hardcore advice that is worth using in their leagues.

IAN ALLAN

New England’s running backs. The Patriots have a high-powered offense and run the ball more than you might think. Over the last three years, they’ve scored more rushing touchdowns than any other team. I believe Stevan Ridley or Shane Vereen will be one of the most undervalued players in fantasy drafts this year.

Allan is the senior writer for Fantasy Football Index. He's been in that role since 1987, generating most of the player rankings and analysis for that publication. His work can be seen in Fantasy Football Index magazine, and also at www.fantasyindex.com.

SCOTT SACHS

The most jumbled up situation may be the RB situation in SF. The cast of characters include high-mileage Frank Gore, college burner LaMichael James, possible 3rd down back Kendall Hunter, and the lumbering Brandon Jacobs. I just can't see Gore giving up his starter role without a fight. Sure he's battered and pieced together, but there's no questioning his toughness. With an impressive defense, and a scatter-shot passing game--the addition of Randy Moss not withstanding--the 49ers may turn into the dreaded RBBC approach as they will run, run, run. In Denver, I will be curious to see which of the Bronco WRs click the best with P-Manning, as he looks to conjure up some mile-high mojo. Honorable mention--and certainly the juiciest battle--goes to the J-E-T-S maddeningly muddled QB derby between the privileged Sanchez & the anointed Tebow, which will certainly make good viewing all season long!

Sachs runs Perfect Season Fantasy Football, offering live personal advice from training camps through the Super Bowl. His 20-plus years of fantasy football experience includes his league’s only perfect season, as well as a wire-to-wire championship in Fantasy Index's 2011 Mock Auction Draft League. Visit "The Coach" at his website: perfectseasonffb.com and follow him on Twitter: at http://twitter.com/#!/ffbcoach.

SAM HENDRICKS

SEATTLE. And I really do not have to clarify with any one position because almost every FF spot will be a competition. The biggest will be at RB. Will Marshawn Lynch be suspended and if so, how many games? My guess is 6-8. With a 14 August court date, he could be missing for the first half of the season, in which case, who handles the RB duties? Most are penciling in Robert Turbin, the rookie RB from Utah State who is said to have a running style similar to Lynch. Kregg Lumpkin and Tyrell Sutton could give him a “run” for his money. Leon Washington is another deep sleeper I like with the last pick of the draft. Other position battles include Matt Flynn and Tarvaris Jackson at QB and Kellen Winslow and Zach Miller in a lesser struggle for starting TE. SEA is a team in upheaval but whoever wins these battles could be fantasy gold.

Hendricks is the author of Fantasy Football Guidebook, Fantasy Football Tips and Fantasy Football Basics, all available at www.ExtraPointPress.com, at all major bookstores, and at Amazon and BN.com. He is a 20-plus year fantasy football veteran who regularly participates in the National Fantasy Football Championship (NFFC) and finished 7th and 16th overall (out of 228 competitors) in the 2008 and 2009 Fantasy Football Players Championship (FFPC). Follow him at his website, www.ffguidebook.com.

ALAN SATTERLEE

The Mark Sanchez / Tim Tebow show in New York will be fun to watch and this will likely be entertaining throughout the season, although we suspect Sanchez to start and Tebow to eventually take over (especially after a brutal schedule to start the season for the Jets). However, we'll go with the QB battle in Tennessee between veteran Matt Hasselbeck (soon to be 37 years old) and 2nd-year Jake Locker (who Tennessee selected with the 8th pick of the draft last year). If Locker wins the starting job, he will be a nice QB sleeper and add to a deep pool of solid No. 2 QBs in this year's draft (and if he doesn't win it, Locker is a great draft-late stash for when he eventually takes over). In limited play as a rookie Locker looked very dynamic compiling a 99.4 QB rating throwing 4 TDs to zero INTs and added a score on the ground. Locker has solid arm strength mixed with exceptional athletic ability (his 4.50 40-Yard Dash at the Combine surpassed Cam Newton’s time).

Dynasty Rogues is the fantasy football information site run by fantasy football enthusiasts for fantasy football enthusiasts. The site includes a year-round approach to analyzing football information for those in dynasty and redraft leagues. Dynasty Rogues won the 2008 Fantasy Index Experts Poll.

KEVIN NELSON

I am most interested in the progress of the Tampa Bay starting running back situation. LeGarrette Blount was brought on by a previous coaching staff and will be battling a 1st round draft choice by the current staff. Doug Martin is a Ray Rice clone and has the potential for a big fantasy year if he is able to garner the majority of backfield work. Blount has a lot of holes in his game and I will be interested to see whether he puts up a fight and holds Martin off for awhile, or if he crumbles early and gives way from day 1.

FFBLife.com is a company started by fantasy football lovers, for fantasy football lovers. With rankings, forums, latest news and advice, mobile applications, draft tools, social networking and more; Fantasy Football Life solely exists to reach the goal of providing all fantasy football players with everything they need. Nelson is editor-in-chief of FFBLife.com and the Fantasy Football Draft Guide, providing rankings, advice and articles for the company.

SCOTT PIANOWSKI

I want to see what happens in a number of backfields, specifically in Buffalo (where Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller have a turf war going) and Arizona (where no one really trusts Beanie Wells - can Ryan Williams give him a run?). Switching positions, if Jake Locker gets the call in Tennessee, I'll be adding him to my sleeper list.

Pianowski has been playing fantasy football for 18 years and writing about it for 15. He joined Yahoo! Sports in 2008 and has been blogging 24/7 on RotoArcade.com ever since.

LENNY PAPPANO

There are a few juicy ones, but I think Tampa Bay has a very intriguing battle at RB where LeGarrette Blount could lose his starting spot to rookie Doug Martin. Blount has been productive, but he's a head case with a horrible work ethic. Martin is the complete package and I wouldn't be shocked if he was the starter on opening day.

Pappano is a veteran of the fantasy sports industry. He founded DraftSharks.com in 1999, then co-founded the World Championship of Fantasy Football in 2002. Pappano is also an original board member of the Fantasy Writers Association. He and his crew at DraftSharks.com have won numerous expert leagues, expert polls and fantasy football awards.

ANDY RICHARDSON

It seems like there are more this year than normal, either because teams are playing things close to the vest or because they have a lot of players of similar talent at some key positions. Loathe though I am to focus on anything relating to Mike Shanahan, I am very interested in the battles for starting running back and No. 2 wide receiver, since I think both players will be significant fantasy performers -- in the case of running back, possibly a top-10 guy. Tim Hightower is the favorite to start, but I'm not going near him in drafts; I will take my chances with the more talented Roy Helu, and hope he wins the job sooner rather than later (say, August). And then at wideout you've got Pierre Garcon and either Santana Moss, Josh Morgan, or Leonard Hankerson. I'm not a believer in Morgan, so it looks like a battle between the vet and the youngster. One to watch if Robert Griffin is as good as most believe he can be.

Richardson has been a columnist and contributor to the Fantasy Football Index magazine and web site for more than ten years. His responsibilities include team defense and IDP projections and various site features, and he has run the magazine's annual 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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