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: What has been your most pleasant surprise from the fantasy season so far?
ALAN SATTERLEE
For me, one of the most pleasant surprises has been the play of Mohamad Sanu who I drafted in two of my three leagues late. I drafted Sanu thinking maybe he could have value while Marvin Jones was out, but thinking maybe Jones doesn't come back. That's exactly what has happened, and in the meantime Sanu has completely outperformed expectations. Sanu is averaging 5.4 receptions per game and 70.8 yards per game, a pace for a very solid 86/1133/10 season. In PPR scoring, Sanu is ranked as the No. 14 wide receiver, but in the high-performance scoring format we use in one of my leagues Sanu is ranked as the 6th best wide receiver through Week 6. With Marvin Jones out for the season, Sanu is locked in as a starter and there is no reason to think his performance will decline. Sanu has saved my team on a team where I overpaid for Cordarrelle Patterson (who I thought would be a high-end No. 3 receiver), instead I will start Sanu and he is becoming a significant edge and very pleasant surprise indeed as my #3 receiver. Briefly, a second player has been DeMarco Murray who I imagine may get press on this one from other experts. In one league, I was "bummed" to have to take Murray in the second round when I got sniped on my top choices. So glad that happened now!
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
It is great to see some RBs who many thought were done, return to glory. Marshawn Lynch, Ahmad Bradshaw and Fred Jackson are currently enjoying a renaissance. Lynch was a first round pick and then sank to the second and finally third round after all of the Christine Michael hype, contract talks, false allegations and injury concerns. Fred Jackson fell to RB40 in many cases-although I had him higher. Philip Rivers and Jay Cutler were both high on my QB rankings and have impressed too! Lets not talk about unpleasant surprises.
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.
MICAH JAMES
Hmmm...lots of surprises for sure but the question asks for "most pleasant" fantasy surprise so I'll answer from a personal standpoint -- Julius Thomas. I targeted Orange Julius in a bunch of my drafts this season because I felt he was ready to take the next step toward elite status. Through five games (Denver already having their bye week) he hasn't disappointed, returning over 20 points per game in PPR formats. He has been somewhat touchdown-dependent, but in that offense being the top Red Zone target is a pretty reliable role and I'm glad that my early draft capital has paid off so far.
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.
MICHAEL NAZAREK
Colts RB Ahmad Bradshaw has pretty much caught a TD pass in nearly every game this season. He's a solid No. 2 fantasy running back, a player I drafted in the latter rounds of most of my fantasy drafts this summer.
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
Prior to his injury, this answer would have been Rashad Jennings, as Jennings has finally proven, this season, that he can be a legitimate RB1 when healthy. But since Jennings is out, I will go with Steve Smith Sr. I thought Smith was done when Carolina decided to let him leave for Baltimore. However, to the surprise of many, Smith is having one of his best starts to a season in his career, and he is doing it at the tender age of 35. Smith is currently top 10, in the NFL, in both receptions and receiving yards, and is on pace for double digit touchdowns. In fact, Smith's current pace of 93+ catches, 1,528 yards, and 10+ touchdowns, would represent the second-best performance of his career in each category. With this being Smith's 14th season in the league, that would be an unbelievable accomplishment, and certainly worthy of being considered one of the top fantasy surprises of the season, so far.
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
My biggest surprise (although not "pleasant") has been the number of injuries and missed games among the top 20 players. Injuries are always a part of the game and cold starts happen but the depth of them across the board have been amazing. We have hardly lost any players through the first six weeks but instead are faced with great inconsistencies. For running backs, Jamaal Charles, Adrian Peterson, Montee Ball and Doug Martin have missed time. LeSean McCoy, Eddie Lacy and Le’Veon Bell have started slowly. Calvin Johnson, A.J. Green and Brandon Marshall missed time. Now even Jimmy Graham will be out a few weeks. You cannot approach your fantasy team the same way in any given week.
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
Philip Rivers got his career back on track a year ago, but based on the way that team played in the second half of the season, leaning on the ground game, I think most expected the Chargers to be a run-based team again. Instead Rivers has been one of the NFL's and fantasy football's best quarterbacks. As I do almost every year, I drafted him as my backup quarterback in many leagues -- he's a guy who fits the criteria of capable and in no danger of losing his job. On all of those teams, he's gone from backup to starter, and continues to put up good numbers.
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.