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Ask the Experts

Who is your favorite late-round sleeper?

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: Who is your favorite late-round sleeper?

SAM HENDRICKS

I will give you three (one at each position). Javorius Allen, Marquise Goodwin free agent Gary Barnidge. All are going undrafted in many 12-team 20-round leagues. You can get them in the late rounds easy. Allen has been arguably the best running back in Baltimore. I know Terrance West and Danny Woodhead have the top roles locked, but we are talking sleepers right. Draft him and hope for the home run. Goodwin has the speed to take the top off of defenses. San Francisco may surprise some people this year with their style of offense under Hoyer. Goodwin is going to be streaky but good on the weeks you hit with him. Finally Barnidge is a stash and pray possible top-10 TE depending on where he lands. Draft him and wait it out for the first five weeks to see if and where he goes. Now I have just given up all my deep sleepers before the Labor Day drafts!

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 won the Fantasy Index Open in 2013. Follow him at his web site, www.ffguidebook.com.

MICHAEL NAZAREK

Rookie Kenny Golladay for the Lions is a big red-zone threat. His 2-TD game earlier this preseason brought him a lot of attention, but his ADP has settled since. I've drafted him in one league and would like to continue that trend in a few more. He has nice upside if the team uses him right.

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 newly re-designed 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. He's also won in excess of $20K in recent seasons of the FFPC High Stakes Main Event. www.ffmastermind.com. Nazarek can be reached via email at miken@ffmastermind.com.

L.A. HALE

James Conner is the late-round gem that I am targeting in all of my leagues. LeVeon Bell has had difficulties staying on the field due to injuries and suspensions (games played each year - 13, 16, 6, 12); and will be a soft tissue injury risk after missing camp due to a contract stalemate. Steeler backup running backs have flourished in their dynamic offense; Conner is a talented rookie that can handle a heavy workload and could potentially put up RB1 numbers in Bell’s absence.

L.A. Hale is the Founder and President of Fantasy Gives, a 501c3 charitable organization that provides financial support to non-profit groups through fantasy sports.

IAN ALLAN

I was very impressed by what Robby Anderson did in the Jets’ first preseason game. He caught a couple of short balls, and he ran by the defense and made a really good adjustment on a bomb, making an over-the-outside catch for a 53-yard gain. A year ago he was just an undrafted free agent, forcing his way onto the roster when he kept catching long passes downfield. He’s been working on his game, and I think he’s for real. I’m confident he’ll be their best wide receiver. That’s a lesser team, of course, and they’ll probably start three different quarterbacks. There will be weeks that you can’t use Anderson in your lineup. But he looks promising enough that I’d like to have him as a depth receiver. I think I might be able to latch onto some big games with him.

Allan is a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame. A co-founder of Fantasy Football Index in 1987, he generates most of the writing, player rankings and analysis for that publication. His work can be seen in Fantasy Football Index magazine and also at www.fantasyindex.com.

SCOTT PIANOWSKI

I'm collecting a lot of Cameron Brate this summer. He's not much of a blocker, and at the tight end position that's a feature, not a bug. Look for O.J. Howard to struggle in his first year, like most rookie tight ends. Brate can keep most of his 2016 breakout stats.

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.

ALAN SATTERLEE

Not that’s it a late-round (though it’s timely) but one player I was taking in the 9th round seemingly everywhere was Kareem Hunt (including the Fanex and Fanex Analysis drafts), but those days are now long gone. No disrespect to Spencer Ware and real-life injuries, but from a fantasy perspective I was really hoping to land Hunt in the 8th and 9th round this year. In terms of late-round guys, I am going to nab Alvin Kamara every chance I get -- Kamara is a game-changing talent and Mark Ingram gets hurt every year. Kamara’s draft price is all over the map (I’ve seen him go anywhere from the 12th to 16th rounds). Like Hunt, another running back that could turn gold in an instant is Samaje Perine and he will be a major target. Really late, I’ve been able to get Taylor Gabriel and Travis Benjamin with near the final picks of drafts. Neither has WR1 upside but both are solid depth who will pay off very handsomely given their price.

Satterlee is the Fantasy Football Insider for the Charlotte Observer and is syndicated in a few other newspapers in the southeast. Satterlee first started playing fantasy football in 1990.

ANDY RICHARDSON

One is Taywan Taylor in Tennessee. Why should anyone assume that Corey Davis is going to do anything this year? Seems like Taylor is the rookie most likely to have an early role, and a big one if Eric Decker gets hurt (which seems at least plausible). I'm throwing late-rounders at Jamaal Williams in Green Bay, too. I like Ty Montgomery, but it's a position where guys get hurt all the time and nobody seems particularly interested in adding the clear handcuff running back in Green Bay. Happy to take him in the final rounds.

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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