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 struggling performer will NOT turn things around the rest of the way?
MATT PRICE
Derrick Henry. Dion Lewis is not only the better pass catcher, he's also better between the tackles.
Price is a Senior Writer for Dynasty League Football. He also hosts the DLF Dynasty Podcast and the Dynasty Game Night podcast. DLF was started in 2006 to provide the first dynasty-focused website to a small niche community of dynasty players. The site continues to be one of the leading sources of analysis, rankings and projections to that same growing community.
SCOTT SACHS
Leonard Fournette and Dalvin Cook are having a hard time staying on the field this season. Their hamstring injuries are hamstringing both them and their owners as they have become week-to-week options. Hamstrings tend to linger and can only really heal with rest, and that is an impossible scenario for an NFL running back. If you haven't drafted their handcuffs, you need to have another reliable option at the position.
With two perfect seasons and multiple league championships to his credit, Scott Sachs runs Perfect Season Fantasy Football, featuring live talk and text advice. Scott won the 2011 and 2016 Fantasy Index Experts Auction league, plus he was the winner of the 2012 Fantasy Index Experts Poll.
MIKE NEASE
One can understand how an injury can knock out a top player, but in Russell Wilson’s case, the Seahawks are having a disappointing start to their season. Very little is working for them, either offensively, or defensively. They are 2-3, already three games behind the Rams. So far, he is the 23rd-ranked quarterback, averaging a scant 19 PPG. He could do better, but in a league of high-scoring quarterbacks, he is having a barely adequate start to the season. I just discussed this with one of my readers. He tried to trade Wilson and got no takers whatsoever. I do not see a sudden turnaround in Wilson.
Nease is a member of the FSWA and has been playing the game since 1985, while also writing about it since 2001. He is a writer for Big Guy Fantasy Sports. Over the years he has sampled about all the playing scenarios that fantasy football offers, including re-drafter, keeper, dynasty, auction, IDP and salary cap leagues. You can contact Mike at mnease23@yahoo.com anytime and during the football season follow him @mikeinsights.
DAVID DOREY
So many, so many. Marquise Goodwin had such a great upside coming into the season but already started slowly. Now that Garoppolo is gone, there’s no reason to keep him. Or Marlon Mack, Kelvin Benjamin, non-Elliott Cowboys, DeVante Parker…
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.
MATT SCHAUF
I’m all done with Chris Hogan and would drop him for a more useful wide receiver. But if we’re focusing on assets that are still tradable, I’d be selling David Johnson right now off his TD production over the past 2 weeks and continued name value. Larger carry totals have masked continued poor efficiency. He has finished 4 straight games short of 3.7 yards per rush and sits at 3.3 for the year. On the receiving side, he has tallied just 13 total targets since a 9-target opener. And the offense doesn’t look capable of supporting rebounds on either front. Johnson’s 12.4% target share over the past 4 weeks is solid for a RB. What’s not solid is an Arizona offense that will continue moving slowly, scoring little and trailing often.
Schauf is a senior analyst with DraftSharks.com. He has been covering fantasy football since 2002, producing content for outlets such as Sporting News, Rotoworld, Athlon and Football Diehards before landing with DS. Draft Sharks has been online since 1999 and is a 4-time winner in the FSTA’s annual fantasy football projections accuracy contests.
ALAN SATTERLEE
Two of the bigger busts to me come in at wide receiver with Chris Hogan (I sure didn’t see that coming) and Larry Fitzgerald (this one I wanted no part of). Hogan weighs in as WR64 and I have to admit that it seems hard to imagine Hogan will return anything consistently meaningful going forward. I’d wait for a big game and then try to move him -- and this week actually could be that game at home against a Kansas City defense allowing 343 passing yards per game (2nd-most). Fitzgerald has been even worse at WR72. At age 35, it looks like Fitzgerald has hit the wall. I’m not sure you can get a lot for him at this point, but I’d ship Fitzgerald for anything I can get. I’ll add a third player to the mix with running back Devonta Freeman who has just 14.1 fantasy points in two games. Freeman has a good chance to find the end-zone this week against a defense allowing a league-high 34.8 points per game, then I’d pounce to move him. Atlanta’s backfield has turned into a three-headed monster with Ito Smith also getting snaps.
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.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI
Unless your team has hit all the green lights -- 5-0 start, loaded at most positions - I won't play the waiting game with Leonard Fournette. The Jaguars might be better off without Fournette, anyway; T.J. Yeldon has been an adequate replacement. Fournette was hurt regularly at LSU and that's followed in the NFL, with a laundry list of maladies. Injury Optimism is one of the worst leaks a fantasy owner can have.
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.
ANDY RICHARDSON
Amari Cooper. Expecting any kind of consistency from either him or the Raiders offense is clearly naive. What's the point in starting a player who has no offensive role, at all, in half of his games? I see things getting worse for the Raiders not better; only a matter of time before the players totally tune out Jon Gruden. I know he has a 10-year contract, but I'm not going to be surprised if he ends up resigning and returning to the booth before next season, then somebody else comes in and blows this team up.
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.