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Ask the Experts

Who has disappointed you most this preseason?

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 player has been the greatest disappointment to you this preseason?

MICHAEL NAZAREK

Washington running back Matt Jones struggled early, and now he's hurt. He may turn things around once the season begins, but it won't be on any of my fantasy teams.

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.

IAN ALLAN

I had high hopes for Miami’s running game. They have a lot of talent on their offensive line, and Adam Gase called a lot of running plays in Chicago last year. But neither Jay Ajayi nor Arian Foster seems to have it. Foster just turned 30 (yesterday, in fact) and is coming off an Achilles injury. He didn’t seem to have the necessary juice in his legs last week. And Ajayi doesn’t look like he’d be anything more than a below-average No. 2 tailback on the vast majority of rosters. I am not optimistic that either of these backs can develop into the top-15 type back I was hoping for.

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

The biggest disappointment is a player we have not yet seen. Wendell Smallwood is a rookie running back for the Eagles who missed the first two games with a quad injury and hasn’t been able to practice much. He’s fallen to #4 on the depth chart behind the ever-injured Ryan Mathews, aged Darren Sproles and now Kenjon Barner who has a career 2.8 YPC on his 34 carries. The situation seems ripe for Smallwood to surprise but he won’t if he never gets healthy.

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

I wouldn't put a ton of stock into two pre-season games, certainly not for any of your early round rankings. For one who has been tumbling down my list, and I may be hitting on an obvious one, but it's Dorial Green-Beckham. I have to admit that I was seeing DGB's upside all off-season but his 2016 prospects have taken a nose drive for sure from where many would have initially ranked him back in the spring. Green-Beckham was no longer wanted on Tennessee, where he looked attractive catching play-action deep throws from Marcus Mariota. Green-Beckham now looks way less attractive on the Eagles catching passes from Sam Bradford (or a journeyman in Chase Daniel or a rookie in Carson Wentz).

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.

SAM HENDRICKS

Mark Sanchez. I blame myself for thinking he could take a Super Bowl team and not mess up. I may have been wrong! After two woeful performances he may actually be the third-string quarterback in Week 1. Paxton Lynch looked better in Week 2 of the preseason. Not hard to do when Sanchez fumbles a couple of times in the red zone. Sanchez will get equal playing time in the Week 3 preseason game, but Trevor Simian will start. He has one last chance to show he can take this talented, run-first, defensively great team forward by NOT turning the ball over!

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.

ANDY RICHARDSON

Well, a lot of different rookies would fit the bill. Remember how "pro-ready" Jared Goff was supposed to be? Carson Wentz also looked lost (expected) but then got hurt. Miami used Day 2 picks on Kenyan Drake and Leonte Carroo and they're nowhere to be found. Paul Perkins has looked overwhelmed, and most damning of all, he's behind Andre Williams. But in terms of veterans and players who aren't hurt, I'll nominate a couple of second-year players: Tevin Coleman (who has looked very ordinary) and Karlos Williams (no explanation necessary).

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.

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