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: With trade deadlines approaching in many fantasy leagues, which lightly regarded player should be targeted in trades?
JOSHUA SIMMONS
Demaryius Thomas seems to me an excellent player to target in trades, due to the obvious abnormality of how many targets and receptions he has accumulated versus how few touchdowns. And due also to the turnabout of his offense now that Manning's out and Osweiler's in. Now certainly it is possible that things stay about the same or even get worse, for Demaryius and other key Broncos. Not a bad risk/reward scenario considering how disappointing the players around Peyton Manning have been though, right?
Simmons has been a contributor for FantasySharks.com since 2007. His responsibilities include dynasty rankings, weekly projections-driven content and staff representation in various leagues.
MICHAEL NAZAREK
Stevie Johnson. After Malcom Floyd (shoulder) went down a week ago, Johnson should be the de facto No. 1 wide receiver for the San Diego Chargers moving forward.
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.
ALAN SATTERLEE
Drew Brees and players on the Saints in general would be good targets in trades. Brees might be tough to land after 7 TDs back in Week 8 but he does come off his worst game of the season with just 209 yards passing and 2 TDs last week and Brees is now on a bye so someone might bite to fill the short-term gap. Brees has nothing but dome and warm weather games down the stretch -- five of the Saints' final six games are in a dome, with the other one being at Tampa. The kicker though is the extremely juicy match-ups during the fantasy playoff weeks in Weeks 15 and 16. Brees gets the Lions at home in Week 15 (Detroit gives up the 3rd-most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks) and then the Jaguars at home in Week 16 (Jacksonville gives up the 6th-most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks).
Satterlee is a co-owner and senior writer for Dynasty Football Warehouse. DFW is comprehensive site covering dynasty, redraft, IDP and Daily formats. DFW has a large writing crew with many people from the DFW community contributing to the insights and discussion. Alan is also the Fantasy Football Insider for the Charlotte Observer and is syndicated in a few other newspapers in the southeast.
SCOTT SACHS
Washington RB Matt Jones ran wild last week, and if he can overcome his frequent fumbling woes, he should be a very nice addition to fantasy rosters. Yes, Alfred Morris is still getting touches in this timeshare arrangement, but Jones has shown a nose for the endzone when healthy and not committing turnovers. The Redskins aren't going away anytime soon, as their division features no runaway leader as of yet. In addition to MJs contributions this past week, Kirk Cousins had a career day, Jordan Reed seems healthy, plus their Defense, especially at home, has been improved this year. As far as an Honorable Mention, Johnny Football was just named the rest of the year starter for my lowly Browns. Cleveland has no running game, the NFL's worst Defense, and will be probably be trailing in every game they play, so Manziel will be chucking the rock around 40 times each week. Don't need to trade for him, he's probably a waiver pick-up in over 90% of the leagues out there.
With two perfect seasons to his credit, Sachs runs Perfect Season Fantasy Football, featuring LIVE Talk & Text Consulting & Advice. He was the 2011 winner of Fantasy Index's Experts Auction league, as well as the winner of the 2012 Experts Poll. In 2013, he finished 2nd in the Auction and 3rd in the Draft league; in 2014, 3rd in the Auction league.
ANDY RICHARDSON
I kind of like Latavius Murray. He hasn't had many big games, but I see one coming in Detroit on Sunday. He's in Tennessee next week, which also looks good, and should also be good in key playoff games in Week 15 and 16, home against Green Bay and San Diego.
Richardson has been a contributing writer 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.