ASK THE EXPERTS appears weekly from training camp through Super Bowl with answers to a new question being posted Thursday morning. How the guest experts responded when we asked them: Why should people watch preseason football?

DAVID DOREY

The main reason to watch preseason games, aside from it being FOOTBALL, is to get a general sense of what offenses look like for those installing new schemes or employing new players in starting roles for QB, RB or WR. Granted you cannot take away a lot, but it is always good to see a QB complete 70% of his passes or connect on a deep ball with a veteran wideout.

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.

MICHAEL NAZAREK

To see how players are used, and to see how they look. Also, they will know when key injuries strike, if they do, during these non-real games.

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 via email at miken@ffmastermind.com.

BRYAN HOUGH

The main reason to watch from a fantasy prospective is getting a feel for players and seeing a unknown player emerging in the preseason that you can get late in drafts that could be a potential steal and possibly win your league with. A perfect example from last year.....Julius Thomas!

Fantasytitan101.com is in its first year. It is a fantasy football advice site ran by Bryan Hough, a High Stakes player, along with his technical guy Tony Lee. The site offers live draft results from High Stake drafts along with draft strategies, matchups and analysis, real-time cheat sheets, late breaking news, live injury updates, start'em/sit'em, sleepers, busts, breakouts, gut-check picks, best waiver wire options, player projections and rankings and much more!

IAN ALLAN

It’s part of the process, and an important part of the process. In April, May, June, July, we can carefully scout the teams. We can look at ages, trends, new systems and track records of coaches. We can try to decipher whether injuries and other factors affected a player’s production the previous year. But this is all just theory and talk. With preseason games, we’ve got real-life players on the field. We can testing some of our theories. We get to see which players are working with the first-unit offense, and whether they appear to match up with our expectations.

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.

JAMES SELTZER

I am not a huge fan of the preseason, so I don't have a lot to say here. Don't get me wrong, after 6 months without football it's great to see people hitting each other again, I just don't take it too seriously until the season starts. The only real thing I look for in the preseason, from a fantasy perspective, is if there is any indication on who may win a position battle. Other than that, the regular season can't come soon enough.

James Seltzer is a Writer of NFL content for Rotowire.com. Since 1997, RotoWire.com has been one of the leading fantasy sports resources on the web. Seltzer can be found on Twitter @JamesSeltzer975.

MICAH JAMES

I think the average fantasy football owner needs to pay attention to all of the preseason games. Watch at least the first quarter of every game you possibly can. Even though game plans are scaled back during these contests, you can still get a good feeling for offensive styles and which players might be breakout candidates, especially young running backs. Smart observers saw Alfred Morris's talent in 2012 and saw Zac Stacy's ability last season -- players you could have taken with your last draft pick that ended up contributing to many fantasy championships

James, the Fantasy Football MagicMan, currently hosts the weekly FFToolbox Fantasy Football Radio Show. In 2012, the FFMagicMan won the Fantasy Sports Trade Association’s Preseason Accuracy Rankings Challenge, and followed that performance with a Runner-Up finish in 2013. James posts his in-season rankings on the FantasyPros Experts’ rankings every week, and you can find his latest musings at ffmagicman.com. Follow him on Twitter at @FFMagicMan.

SCOTT SACHS

For both the football fan and the fantasy football fan, it is for enjoyment and also for "research". As we all know, the last NFL game played is in early February nowadays, so it's been about 6 months without football. Questions abound: How's my team looking? How are other teams looking? Let's look at rookies, aging vets, new offensive or defensive schemes, etc. Training camps can only reveal so much; it's when the preseason games start that you can start to get a snapshot or inkling of how players are used -- especially in Week 3 of preseason. So, welcome back NFL football -- we have all missed you!

With 2 perfect seasons to his credit, Scott Sachs runs Perfect Season Fantasy Football, featuring LIVE Talk & Text consulting, advice, and opinions. Serving as one of the "Experts" for Fantasy Football Index, was 2011 wire-to-wire winner in Mock Auction Draft League. Also, was named winner of the 2012 Fantasy Football Index Expert's Poll! In 2013 Fantasy Index Leagues, finished No. 2 in Mock Auction, No. 3 in Draft.

SAM HENDRICKS

Position battles and to check on how a new player on a team (whether a free agent add or a rookie) is adapting. Those are the major reasons to watch. Most of the time I just watch the first quarter or on the rare occasion until halftime live. In fact I like to watch the taped games to concentrate on just the plays and not the hype. Look for players who are up and coming. Ignore the 80-yard touchdown passes when a defender fell down and the WR was wide open. Instead look for receivers making incredible catches and runners who gain the extra yards. But don't lose the big picture: the first 10 rounds of your draft are players who are known starters and who will not be playing much beyond the first half. Keep in mind who they are playing against and when. Are they with their own teams first string? Playing with the starters is always a good sign. Are they playing a defensive third string? For example, Andre Williams ran well in the Hall of Fame Game but it was not against the first string Bills defensive line. Is it the first game or the third game (where coaches like to play starters longer and give them a warmup before the regular season)? I feel that the third game is the most important as the first two are for coaches to "practice" and not show anything and the fourth game is to see who will be the 50-53rd man kept. Another thing to look for is the skill level of players returning from injury. I am going to look at Gronk, Arian Foster, Reggie Wayne and Julio Jones to see if they still have it or have lost something due to last year's injuries. One more thing to observe: the new coaches, their schemes and what kind of plays they are calling. Again preseason means nothing so do not read too much into a 4-0 start, but don't be surprised if CIN runs more under OC Hue Jackson and the Giants throw more with Ben McAdoo and his West Coast offense.

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 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 web site, www.ffguidebook.com.

ALAN SATTERLEE

Well, for starters because you love watching football and it is finally here! You have to take preseason action and stats with a grain of salt of course, but it's good to see players in real pads going against competition regardless. Mainly, I like to be on the look out for rookies and players on new teams to see how they are getting worked into the designed game plan. It also can be noteworthy to see who is starting and who is coming in as the first-line reserves. Of course, Week 3 of preseason is typically the dress rehearsal so those stats may be more relevant but remember of course it's just one half of action so don't get too swayed.

Satterlee is Co-Owner and Chief Editor/COO of FantasyFootballWarehouse.com. FFW features comprehensive profiles for all the major 2013 skill-position rookies, its Trading Spaces series, the team Deep Dives, the Speed Bump competition plus draft strategies, rankings, projections and more. FFW runs in tandem with its dynasty site DynastyFootballWarehouse.com.

ANDY RICHARDSON

For me part of the fun of fantasy football is falling in love with certain players, even if I turn out to be wrong. We're a numbers and stats driven business, but to really get excited about a player, I'm looking at how they impress me on the field. I can look at the stats and see that such and such put up great numbers a year ago, but I want to watch somebody zipping through defenders and telling me that this player is going to be special and I want to have him on my team. There's no substitute, in my eyes, for seeing players in action and drafting (or avoiding) accordingly.

Richardson has been a contributor 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.