Ask the Experts
Posted Aug. 16 at 05:02 AM
ASK THE EXPERTS appears weekly with answers to a new question being posted Thursday morning. How the guest experts responded when we asked them:
With one week of preseason games complete, pick one player who's already changed your previous opinion of him, for good or for bad.
NICHOLAS MINNIX
Had my doubts about how quickly Andrew Luck would put his stamp on the Colts' offense and, consequently, wondered how much owners who've been so high on him in fantasy drafts would regret putting that kind of stock in him. Granted, he was running a vanilla offense at home against the Rams, but no rookie should make it look that easy. His intelligence will make taking the next steps that much simpler, relatively speaking. Don't get me wrong: I'm not ready to draft him as a QB1 or anything, but I'd be pretty comfortable with him as my fantasy backup. The effect his impressive debut has on my interest in his targets is going to be much greater, though. Austin Collie is severely underdrafted. I think he's an eighth- or ninth-rounder. The rapport he's developed with Luck, his move to the outside and Reggie Wayne's age mean that Collie could lead this team in receiving, if he stays healthy.
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.
IAN ALLAN
James Starks looks very ordinary for the Packers. Dropped a pass, lost a fumble and didn’t make anyone miss. I think he’ll get beat out by Cedric Benson. It will be a one-two punch there, but I think Starks will be the No. 2 guy.
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.
KEVIN NELSON
My opinion has changed in the positive direction for Andrew Luck. I was stubborn on Cam Newton's development with what I was seeing last year, and I won't allow the same thing to happen again. Coming in as a rookie, with no weapons that seemed very exciting, Luck seemed poised to be destined for a decent season with a lot of glimpses into a potentially great future. Well, that future may be sooner for fantasy purposes than I wanted to give credit for. 188 yards an 2 touchdowns in limited action, preseason or not, was impressive. I'm not saying he jumped up into a QB1 level or anything, but I certainly see him now as a quality back up with immense upside. The kid has been anointed for years as the next big thing for a reason, and gave no reason to believe otherwise in his first action. He won't run like Cam did but he could certainly eclipse his passing marks. This positive outlook can be applied to most of the Colts players. This might be a team full of potential sleepers.
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.
LOUIS TRANQUILLI
Willis McGahee of the Broncos. I had him ranked pretty low initially but after seeing how quick he looked in the first pre season game and how well Manning threw the football, I'm on board with Willis as a decent #2 RB for FF purposes.
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.
SAM HENDRICKS
Chad Johnson without a doubt. I thought he had a good chance of making a comeback with Miami due to their limited options at WR. Early indications out of camp were positive. So much for good karma and the hope that “Ocho Stinko” could be a great deep sleeper in 2012.
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.
SCOTT SACHS
I was adopting a wait-and-see attitude on Colts RB Downtown Donald Brown, the recipient of A-Luck's first pro passing TD. He looks fast and injury-free, plus looks entrenched as their every-down back, finally free of the dreaded RBBC with Addai being jettisoned. Still feel the same about Michael Vick--to me, he remains undisciplined, unreliable, injury-prone, and therefore undraftable.
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.
MIKE NAZAREK
It appears that the Colts got the real deal when they drafted QB Andrew Luck. He'll be rising in my player rankings this week for sure after his first week two-TD performance.
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
One player I changed on has nothing to do with the games. Cedric Benson is no superstar, but he’ll be playing on a team stocked with them. The Packers are not going to give him 300 carries and maybe not even 200 carries but he’ll be around for any short touchdowns. He’s still the best RB they have had in a while… which is sort of sad..
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.
ANDY RICHARDSON
In the offseason we heard a lot about Raiders fifth-rounder Juron Criner making plays, and then, later, a little about undrafted Rod Streater. If you saw Monday's Raiders-Cowboys game, there was Criner letting an easy pass clang off his hands and Streater zipping all over the field making plays. A couple of weeks ago I threw a last-round pick at Criner in a draft. Today I'd throw that same pick at Streater, who looks like he has starter potential -- long-term, certainly, and maybe even this season.
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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Posted by Blane Williams | Aug. 17 at 07:46 AM
would it be insane to draft AP in the 12 spot
Posted by Andrew Napoli | Aug. 17 at 08:28 AM
I play in a league that uses Team QBs. Can you provide the top 24 TQBs and the average points per game? We get 4 pts for a thrown TD and -1 pts per INT, .05 per pass yard and .1 per rushing yd.
Posted by ANDY RICHARDSON | Aug. 17 at 11:50 AM
Andrew, somewhere on our main page and also our Facebook page, Ian Allan recently posted his numbers for team passing offense for this season. That should give you a good go-by. Green Bay was first, I believe. Blane, I think expecting feature-back status from a guy 9 months removed from a torn ACL and MCL is unreasonable, so I would not select Peterson that early.
Posted by Donald R. Houck III | Aug. 17 at 03:30 PM
I play in a keeper league and fortunately for me I ended last year with Drew Brees, Ray Rice and Arian Foster. I was just looking for some guidance on who I should pursue this year. I saw on one of the write ups on the Texans about their lack of fullback and how that may affect Foster. I thought he was the clear keep, but as my draft approaches I am starting to second guess. Any information would be appreciated. Thanks guys and good luck this year.
Posted by Rick Stark | Aug. 17 at 04:36 PM
I'd trade yoy any 3 on my tram for Brees, Rice + Foster. You're "golden".
Posted by ERIC INGERICK | Aug. 17 at 05:02 PM
Keeper League with the following: Brees $60 & Stafford $15, McCoy, Bradshaw, & Charles combined $64, Antonio Brown & Steve Smith combined $27, Jimmy Graham $12 - all with $22 left to spend on my 5 reserves, K, and D (and future keepers whose salary jumps by $5 each year thru 3 seasons...Brees in his 3rd year and Stafford in his second.) I know Brees is over-priced, but by less than the discounts on the rest for sure. Flex is allowed to be a QB in a QB friendly scoring league. Thinking about throwing Brees back and going for Ryan at about $25 to afford Megatron, and still have $17 for 4 reserves,a K, and a D. What do you think?
Posted by Donald R. Houck III | Aug. 18 at 09:22 PM
I can only keep one player (I should have stated that in my original post) so my question is: Who of those three would be the best to keep in 2012?
Posted by MIKE BERMINGHAM | Aug. 23 at 03:54 AM
12 team ppr league.ALL TD's =6pt's who should be the 1st player taken in the draft?
Posted by Steven Howard | Aug. 25 at 08:17 AM
You should select Arian Foster with your #1 pick overall. He runs and catches and puts up sick numbers every year. Make sure you get Ben Tate though as your handcuff.