ASK THE EXPERTS appears weekly from training camp through the Super Bowl with answers to a new question being posted Thursday morning. How the guest experts responded when we asked them: Which veteran on a new team are you most interested in watching this preseason?
DAVID DOREY
Easily it is Lamar Miller in Miami with a chance to take the next step as a running back. He left the No. 32 team for running back carries in 2015 for the team that ranked No. 1 in that metric. The Dolphins always capped him around 250 carries per year – that won’t happen in Houston.
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.
ALAN SATTERLEE
Arian Foster will be an important fantasy solve but I don't think he will play much in the preseason. I want to see Chris Hogan lined up in preseason Patriot games and see his targets. Hogan is getting paid major money this season on cap hit and I think he could be a big part of the game plan (I think he could out stat Julian Edelman actually. At receiver, I also want to see how Mike Wallace plays and how he is targeted. Who I don't want to see tee off in preseason is Coby Fleener or Dwayne Allen, both of whom I think fire up big this season now that they are apart and I don't want to see their ADP rise.
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.
JUSTIN ELEFF
Martellus Bennett, now of the Patriots. Maybe this is cheating, but picking Bennett is my way of saying I want to see both how New England will use its tight ends this season (is Gronk back to being half of a mostly full-time duo, with Bennett in the role that yielded 910 yards and 7 TDs of afterthought stats for Aaron Hernandez in 2011?) and how ready Jimmy Garoppolo is to fill in for Tom Brady at the start of the year, and then perhaps to take over for good in a season or two. It isn't yet clear if the Pats will play Brady in the preseason, and there may also be differences in how the offense looks -- how it tries to move the ball -- with one QB or the other. Bennett is interesting to me on his own, but he's also a guy I'm zooming in on for purposes of gathering as much information as possible about the unusual opportunity New England may present in 2016. Brady will still be available much later than usual in a lot of drafts; I kind of like the idea of getting him for 11 or 12 games on the cheap.
Eleff hosts the Fantasy Index Podcast, available in the iTunes Store now. He has worked for Fantasy Index off and on all century.
IAN ALLAN
I would like to get a peek at how Lamar Miller fits into Houston’s offense. Miller is a talented back, but he was always underused in Miami, averaging about 13 carries per game. I think they’ll use him more in Houston, and I think that will be one of the better running game. The Texans ranked 5th in rushing in 2014. Last year they went pass crazy in the first half of the year. But in the second half of the season, when they were winning games, it was with the defense and the ground game leading the way. They ranked 7th in rushing in their final eight games. If Miller is anything close to what they think he is, he will be a top-10 back.
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.
SAM HENDRICKS
Matt Forte and Lamar Miller. Both were top-10 running backs in 2014 and 2015 (Forte in 2013 too!). Now Miller has been jumping up the rankings (currently a top-5 RB) and Forte hangs steady at RB10. Both offer some upside if drafted a little later than their current ADP (Miller 2.01 and Forte 3.10). The six years of age and NFL work difference represent a round and a half of ADP change. In standard leagues that difference is even smaller. These two are worth watching and observing to determine if their respective teams use them as projected.
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 25 year fantasy football veteran who participates in the National Fantasy Football Championship (NFFC) and finished 7th and 16th overall in the 2008 and 2009 Fantasy Football Players Championship (FFPC). He is drafting live in the FFPC in Vegas this year. He won the Fantasy Index Open in 2013. Follow him at his web site, www.ffguidebook.com.
MICHAEL NAZAREK
I want to see if veteran Mark Sanchez can take advantage of the huge opportunity he is getting in Denver to lock down the starting job and actually become a decent fantasy producer for owners who take a flyer on him in their 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.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI
I've already acquired a chunk of Chris Ivory in my early drafts, feeling he should be at least the committee chair in the Jacksonville backfield. I'd like to see some confirmation that the Jags indeed like him as much as I do. I'm also curious how the Patriots are going to deploy new TE Martellus Bennett, not that they're the type of team that will reveal much in the preseason.
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.
JODY SMITH
There wasn't a lot of premium veteran player movements this offseason, but the one that I'll be keeping the closest eye on is right here in Houston with new Texans quarterback Brock Osweiler. Although fellow free agent acquisition Lamar Miller is probably the most glamorous veteran to change teams, Osweiler's development will have a direct impact on several early-round fantasy picks. If the new Texans signal-caller can live up to the huge contract Rick Smith signed him to, the Texans could become a dangerous offense with a potential superstar running back in Lamar Miller and another top-5 season from DeAndre Hopkins. The Texans also invested a lot of draft capital in surrounding Osweiler with speedy new skill position players, including first-round wideout Will Fuller, third-round wideout Braxton Miller and fifth-round running back Tyler Ervin. Staying abreast of how the Texans look throughout the preseason could lead to some valuable mid-to-late round sleepers. If Osweiler struggles, it could mean Hopkins and Miller are set to disappoint as they struggle to thrive in an offense potentially hampered by poor quarterback play. With so much money invested in their prized free agent, there's no chance that O'Brien is going to look to another quarterback to rally his offense like he did in 2015.
Smith the co-owner of Gridironexperts and a member of the FSWA. Jody was named the Most Accurate Fantasy Football Expert by Fantasypros in 2012 and will be attending Houston Texans training camp starting July 31.
L'ROY ANTHONY HALE
The veteran I am most interested in watching is Martellus Bennett. The Patriots finally have the complimentary receiving tight end they have coveted since Aaron Hernandez. Having Rob Gronkowski and Bennett stretching the middle of the field is going to be a nightmare task for opposing secondaries. The talented TE duo will make Jimmy Garoppolo’s task of holding down the fort much easier and Tom Brady should post big numbers when he returns from his 4-game suspension.
Hale is the Founder and President of www.Fantasy Gives, a 501c3 charitable organization that provides financial support to non-profit groups through fantasy sports.
ANDY RICHARDSON
Two that stand out are Matt Forte with the Jets and DeMarco Murray with the Titans. Forte is a consummate pro who could be a workhorse with the Jets -- I think he has another good year left in him, and won't necessarily be replaced in passing situations by Bilal Powell. And it's easy to dump on Murray, but it might take Derrick Henry a little while to pick things up, so Murray could have a surprisingly productive year with the Titans.
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.