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 NFL trade do you wish would happen?
ALAN SATTERLEE
LeVeon Bell, and really it makes a lot of sense. While James Conner isn’t at Bell’s talent level he has proven that he can get the job done, averaging 118 yards per scrimmage per game with seven scores in six games -- nothing wrong with that. Conner also has won over the fans, while bringing back Bell conversely could arguably be a bad thing for team culture (though Bell’s talent probably overrides that ultimately). But Pittsburgh can get by with Conner and why not get something for Bell before he presumably walks after this season, and why not ship off a guy who disrespected the Steelers’ organization by not being there. Where to? It would seem like the Jets would make a lot of sense. They have the cap room, they are competitive at 3-3 and Bell would be a good fit for a big market like New York, helping the Jets to raise their marquee in a town with Saquon Barkley on the Giants. For us Conner owners, we’ve already received so much return on his draft spot but a full season of Conner as the starter in Pittsburgh would be time for celebration should Bell be traded. I do think we will probably see some trades come through prior to the NFL trade deadline which could be exciting.
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.
MICHAEL NAZAREK
The Eagles should reacquire LeSean McCoy to help their inconsistent running game. It's an easy choice and the Bills should get a solid mid-round pick for him, something they can use to help with their rebuild.
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.
DAVID DOREY
The Cowboys are in dire need of an actual receiver (ignore Week 6 vs. JAC) and the Raiders are shopping around Amari Cooper. There are any number of receivers that the Cowboys could use, but Cooper has the deep strike ability that is lacking in the DAL offense. He’s an obviously inconsistent receiver but the Cowboys needs are deep.
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.
MIKE NEASE
The Bears adapted the highly potent Kansas City offense and added many key offensive players to help make the transition successful. Coupled with two second-year players, Mitchell Trubisky and Tarik Cohen, the plan is working and the offense is much improved and getting better each week. But Jordan Howard seems lost in this new system. In his first two seasons he put up extraordinary rushing statistics. I believe that the Bears should trade him to a team like San Francisco in return for draft choices, to recoup some early-mid-round picks to bolster future drafts weakened by the Mack trade.
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.
IAN ALLAN
I would prefer to see LeVeon Bell get traded. There’s too much bad blood between him and the Steelers — give him a fresh start somewhere else. I don’t want to see him share time with James Conner. Ideally there would be some kind of a deal with the Eagles. But I don’t think it’s something that’s seriously being considered. I don’t think Philadelphia is looking to make that kind of an investment in a player for half a season. I think they’re trying to get by with the tag-team of backs they have in house. Wendell Smallwood and Corey Clement aren’t big names, but they know that offense.
Allan co-founded Fantasy Football Index in 1987. He and fellow journalism student Bruce Taylor launched the first newsstand fantasy football magazine as a class project at the University of Washington. For more than three decades, Allan has written and edited most of the content published in the magazines, newsletters and at www.fantasyindex.com. An exhaustive researcher, he may be the only person in the country who has watched at least some of every preseason football game played since in the early 1990s. Allan is a member of the FSTA Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame and the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame.
SCOTT SACHS
Odell Beckham to the Browns would be awesome. Cleveland's receiving corps is a MASH unit. Additionally, they are among the league leaders in dropped passes. Baker Mayfield had multiple potential TDs hit receivers in the hands against the Chargers last week. The Giants aren't going anywhere this season, especially with coaching retread Pat Shurmur at the helm. They're a last-place team with or without OBJ.
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.
JUSTIN ELEFF
A LeVeon Bell deal would make both the NFL and fantasy leagues more interesting, but then again so would Bell returning and staying put (I drafted James Conner as a speculation in one league despite having passed on Bell for Zeke Elliott earlier; losing a bunch of Conner touches to Bell now would hurt, obviously). But the guy I really want to see traded is Austin Ekeler, my pick as the best of the current RB2s. Not that the Chargers aren’t getting him numbers anyway, but adding Ekeler to the running backs room might do wonders for any of the pass-first teams that don’t yet have an Alvin Kamara type — Oakland, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Tampa Bay, etc.
Eleff hosts the Fantasy Index Podcast, available in the iTunes Store now. He has worked for Fantasy Index off and on all century.
SAM HENDRICKS
Two answers. First is I personally want Dez Bryant to get signed by someone. I know it is not a trade but this is a wish list right. I have picked Dez as a late round flyer or $1 auction flyer in numerous leagues. It is Week 7. I need to cut bait or else with him. So yes I want Dez Bryant to either get added by a team or promise that he is not going to play in 2018 so I can move on with my roster. Now back to the real question. Sorry for the rant. LeVeon Bell from the Steelers to Washington. Pittsburgh has James Connor and he is doing great. They are not going to have Bell next year so why not try and get something now for him. Likely landing spots...a few: PHI, TB and WAS come to mind. Teams the Steelers will not have to face in the playoffs. AP and Chris Thompson are banged up, Guice is out for the season and believe it or not Washington is in the hunt for the NFC East. Pay the man, Daniel Snyder!
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.
ANDY RICHARDSON
Selfishly I'd like to see Amari Cooper traded. I have him on a couple of teams and obviously he's useless in Oakland right now. Not Gruden's guy or whatever. Ship him out and get him on a team that might make him a viable part of the passing game. And then it's clear that LeVeon Bell should be elsewhere. Pittsburgh can do just fine with James Conner, and there are certainly teams that could use a guy like Bell. If he shows up and stays put, it's going to be make for two running backs that it will be risky to start, rather than two great fantasy options.
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.