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 no-name wide receivers are for real?
DAVID DOREY
He came out of nowhere but Cameron Meredith steps into a starting role after Kevin White was placed on injured reserve. Brian Hoyer has three straight 300-yard games and the Bears are going to need to throw every week thanks to their less-than-elite defense. Alshon Jeffery always takes the most attention from the secondary and Eddie Royal plays a big role from the slot but Meredith benefits from being in the right place at the right time.
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.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI
I'm excited about Cameron Meredith. Big kid, hasn't been playing receiver that long - he was quarterback for two years in college. He already has some rapport built up with Brian Hoyer, and I think that's important - it sure looks like Hoyer is taking this job and running with it. And Alshon Jeffery hasn't looked 100 percent for a while.
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.
MICHAEL NAZAREK
Tyrell Williams is a true talent, so I predict he will be starting for the Chargers for the rest of 2016 and into 2017.
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 like Meredith and Williams. I think they’re both worthy of roster spots in typical 12-team leagues. They’re similar players. Both worked their way into the league as undrafted free agents a year ago. They’ve been around — they’ve been working hard on their games and learning their teams’ offenses. They’re both bigger guys, making them friendly targets for quarterbacks. I expect they’ll both start all of the remaining games this year, and those are both teams that can pass the ball some. With Meredith, I think he’ll be better than Kevin White. He’s not quite as physically talented, but he knows the offense better and has a stronger route-running background.
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
Cameron Meredith seems to have taken over the role of WR2 in Chicago now that Kevin White is injured again and likely out for the season. With Eddie Royal and Alshon Jeffery both nursing injuries Meredith may not have a ton of competition for the majority of balls. And...both those WRs have a history of injuries so the stars are aligned for a big year for the converted QB from Illinois State. Grab him off of waivers if you can.
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.
ALAN SATTERLEE
To me, the cream of the crop of the recent breakout wide receivers is Cameron Meredith. A former quarterback initially at Illinois State, Meredith looks to have slipped though the cracks going undrafted in 2015. He has tremendous size to speed, and really looks the part. Meredith also is instantly slotted for a starring role with Kevin White now on IR. I like to be aggressive at times and depending on your rules around waivers (i.e., if you can bid zero going forward to still make moves), I would consider going all-in on waiver dollars this week to lock down potentially an instant starter on your team.
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.
ANDY RICHARDSON
Both Meredith and Williams look good to me as capable starters in offenses that will need to pass a lot. I am also intrigued by Adam Thielen in Minnesota. They're giving snaps to a bunch of different wideouts, but he's their slot receiver and Stefon Diggs may be playing hurt, so there could be more looks for Thielen going forward. Finally, I like Jeremy Butler, who the Jets just added; I think he can be a factor there as a possible No. 3.
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.