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 will be 2020's Comeback Player of the Year?
MICHAEL NAZAREK
A.J. Green. When healthy, he is still an elite receiver. That said, he must sign with the right team under the right circumstances where he can become the clear No. 1 wide receiver. Which team is that? Good question, but it's not likely the Bengals.
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 mobile-friendly 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.
MICHAEL NEASE
JuJu Smith-Schuster was a huge disappointment in 2019. He averaged only 9.6 points, missing several games and being too injured to be effective in many others. That placed him at No. 61 in wide receiver scoring points per game, ranking him at about a low WR5 level. In 2018 he averaged 18.7 points, which made him the No. 9 scorer. Because of that, as well as Antonio Brown's departure, he seemed to be a surefire WR1 going into this season. With Pittsburgh's overall offensive injury woes and those incurred by Smith-Schuster himself, I view him as a 2020 WR1. You might even see him slip a bit in your draft and get him at a slightly lower cost than he is worth.
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 @mike-insights.
IAN ALLAN
I’m not sure where David Johnson will be playing. He’s got a base salary of $10.2 million, and I don’t think there’s any chance the Cardinals will want to pay him that. He’ll either be traded or released. He’ll land somewhere, and I expect his new employer will look to utilize him heavily. With Johnson’s run-catch ability, he’s a candidate for top-10 running back numbers.
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 the early 1990s. Allan is a member of the FSTA Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame and the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame.
DAVID DOREY
Baker Mayfield. Yes, I am serious. He was great as a rookie but then faced a brutal schedule in 2019 -- worst in the league. This year he'll have Odell Beckham healthy from the sports hernia that he's dealt with all year. He has a schedule that has him facing the AFC North, and then also the NFL East and AFC South. He'll bounce back and he'll be available for drafting as a backup in most leagues. He threw for 3,725 yards and 27 TDs as a rookie which set the rookie TD record. He gets a new coach and a chance for a do-over for his career.
Dorey has been dealing out all the rankings and projections for The Huddle since 1997 and wrote up a preview of every game for the last 21 years. His specialty is schedule strength and he’s been in countless magazines, podcasts, and radio shows. He is the author of Fantasy Football: The Next Level.
ANDY RICHARDSON
LeVeon Bell put up over 1,200 total yards last year so maybe he doesn't qualify, but no one would dispute he had a disappointing season: just 3.2 yards per carry and only 4 touchdowns. But he stayed healthy, and at 27 years old I think he has some good football left in him. The Jets will move him to a new team, and that franchise won't be as contemptuous of what he can bring to an offense as Adam Gase. Bell should be more like his Pittsburgh days next season, wherever that may be.
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.