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Ask the Experts

Who are the Fantasy MVP and Bust of the Year?

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: Who are the fantasy MVP and Bust of the Year?

MIKE NAZAREK

LeVeon Bell is my fantasy MVP, since he averaged the highest point total per week for a RB playing all 16 games. It came as a surprise since LeGarrette Blount was expected to cut significantly into his production. Adrian Peterson is my bust of the year simply because he was a first round pick and played only one game due to his trouble with the law. No one saw that coming, and he didn't have a clear-cut backup to take over as a handcuff, as both RB Jerick McKinnon and RB Matt Asiata at times produced well in his absence.

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.

SAM HENDRICKS

MVP is Ben Roethlisberger, the 3rd best QB in 2014, just 11 FP behind Aaron Rodgers (Andrew Luck tops all QBs this year). You could have had Big Ben in the 12-14th round and had top 3 QB production. That makes him a great value play and puts him ahead of other great 2014 performers like Luck, Matt Forte and Antonio Brown who went in the first and second rounds of most fantasy drafts. Bust of the year has to be Adrian Peterson. A top five overall pick who gave owners nothing in return. At least with Ray Rice you knew you were taking a chance when you drafted him in the 4th-6th round. With AP you got slammed with no notice. Fortunately, I only had him in one league this year and unfortunately it was a draft and forget league-which is the worst possible scenario since I could not even add Matt Asiata or Jerick McKinnon.

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

The Fantasy MVP to me is a no-brainer: Odell Beckham Jr. I play in three leagues and in two of them the champion is awarded to the team with the most fantasy points -- and both teams had ODB on their roster. Out of nowhere he rained down fantasy points at a rate really no one had ever done as a rookie (not even Randy Moss) -- he was a massive addition to the fantasy total and from a guy likely taken at the end of drafts or added off the waiver wire. Over the last nine weeks, Beckham was the #1 wide receiver and it wasn't even close -- in fact, Beckham was 35% better than even the 2nd-best WR over that time frame Antonio Brown. For the Bust of the Year there are many candidates. Those that took Adrian Peterson -- and perhaps #1 overall -- will be screaming he is the guy. However, those were extenuating circumstances and in terms of "bust" I will go with Montee Ball. We all saw what C.J. Anderson did in this offense down the stretch (from Week 10 on, he was the #1 fantasy running back) and most who drafted Ball expected the former Doak Walker Award winner to do some of that. Nope. Ball was a major bust -- who was significantly out-performed by Ronnie Hillman as well and everyone else given a shot in Denver. Ball's 2014 total just a paltry 234 yards and he averaged a Trent Richardson-like 3.1 yards per carry.

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.

IAN ALLAN

In hindsight, the No. 1 overall pick in fantasy leagues should have been DeMarco Murray or LeVeon Bell (depending on scoring system). If you look at their production relative to other running backs, there’s a bigger difference when with the top performers at the other positions — Andrew Luck, Antonio Brown and Rob Gronkowski. For Bust Of The Year, it’s got to be Montee Ball. He failed to put up good numbers, even while everything was set up around for him to excel (he was in a great offense, with Peyton Manning keeping defenses on their heels). After Ball got hurt, both Ronnie Hillman and C.J. Anderson put up outstanding numbers in the same offense.

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.

DAVID DOREY

Fantasy MVP – Andrew Luck hands down. The Bust of the year – Adrian Peterson with a special nod towards Montee Ball.

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

For me personally the MVP was Eddie Lacy. For about three weeks he was a bust, then proceeded to score and put up close to 100 total yards week after week. In my standard league, he was a star, albeit not at the LeVeon Bell level. Jordy Nelson and Dez Bryant also deserve mention. For bust it's either Montee Ball or Doug Martin, two first-round picks with ample opportunity who simply flopped from Day One and killed the teams that drafted them. Adrian Peterson, sure, but at least you didn't put him in your lineup for a month.

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.

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