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: Which player should fantasy teams be looking to "sell high" on?
MICHAEL NAZAREK
Chargers WR Eddie Royal. He's scored FOUR TIMES in the past two weeks. He did this last season and disappeared in the second half of the season. SELL HIGH now before his bottom drops out!
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.
JAMES SELTZER
DeMarco Murray is the obvious name here. Murray has been, by far, the best running back in the league through four games. How good has Murray been? His 534 rushing yards are 156 yards more than the next best total in the league - Le'Veon Bell's 378. Furthermore, Murray is on pace to set the all-time single season rushing record, and has scored at least one touchdown in every game this season. While I believe that Murray is a very, very, good running back, his value will never be as high as it is right now. Murray is currently the best player in fantasy. He is also someone who has averaged just under 11 games played per season through his first three years in the league. Add in the fact that Murray is on pace for an absurd 396 carries this season, and it seems obvious to assume that Murray will not play 16 games this season. Sell high now, while his value is at it's peak, or risk losing Murray for multiple weeks at some point this season.
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.
DAVID DOREY
DeMarco Murray has rushed 99 times for 534 yards and five touchdowns plus added nine catches for 68 yards. For the year, that extrapolates out to 396 carries for 2136 yards and 20 touchdowns plus 36 receptions for 272 yards. Only six runners in history have rushed that many times. No one has ever rushed for that many yards. Murray has only averaged 154 carries during his three previous NFL seasons and never more than 217. So basically he is on track for nearly double the workload that he has ever had. He lasted until the third round in 2011 because he was injury prone at Oklahoma. Oh, and he’s missed between two and six games every season despite the lower workloads.
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.
SCOTT SACHS
I would sell high on Eric Decker after his Week 4 output. He is still not the same guy as he was in Denver, plus his ongoing hamstring problems combined with the NYJ QB issues are a recipe for disaster. Even if the J-E-T-S switch to Vick, the most Decker can aspire to is inconsistent. Honorable mention goes to Vincent Jackson. He is the epitome of inconsistency, plus the Bucs have QB issues of their own.
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.
ALAN SATTERLEE
I will tee up two few running backs that I think are good sell-high candidates. I think Ahmad Bradshaw is a good sell high, mainly as I am worried about him being able to stay healthy and Bradshaw is currently the #3 running back in PPR scoring (he won’t finish the season that high). The other would be to quickly capitalize off the 3-TD game Matt Asiata had this week. Asiata was the No. 1 fantasy running back this week and someone will overpay. Jerick McKinnon closed out the Vikings’ game this week and he is far more dynamic than Asiata. Even if McKinnon doesn’t take over the top job, this will be a full-blown timeshare and Asiata’s value will never be higher.
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.
SAM HENDRICKS
Matt Asiata seems like a great sell high candidate after coming off a 3 TD romp over ATL. Expect the rookie Jerick McKinnon to takeover a much bigger role in MIN the next few weeks and finish well ahead of the plodding between-the-tackles runner Asiata. McKinnon is great in space and Teddy Bridgewater will get him plenty of opportunities to add to his 135 yard week 4.
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.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI
I wish all of my players wanted to be great as badly as Steve Smith does, but it's a good time to sell him. He is 35, after all. He doesn't have the type of profile and body type that leads to a lot of touchdowns -- remember, he had just eight scores in 2012-2013 combined. One of his touchdowns against Carolina was a stone fluke, a deflected pass intended for someone else. And Joe Flacco certainly is not a star-maker quarterback. I doubt there was much of a Smith market in early September, but there might be one now. See what's out there.
Pianowski has been playing fantasy football for 20 years and writing about it for 17. He joined Yahoo! Sports in 2008 and has been blogging 24/7 on RotoArcade.com ever since.
ANDY RICHARDSON
I'm looking at players on bad teams who are going to gradually see the seasons start slipping away and being less productive because of it. Delanie Walker has had a great start for Tennessee, but I think they will go off the rails before long, and he won't produce as well. Another one is Alfred Morris, who is a great back who becomes useless when his team falls behind, and that will be the case for Washington in most of their games the rest of the way.
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.