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 new coaching hire intrigues/concerns you most?
DAVID DOREY
Have to tab the Panthers for the most interesting team/coach to follow. Matt Ruhe (Baylor HC) is the exact sort of college coach that can make a difference -- he knows the types of players that are coming out of college now and has seen success at every level he has coached. Joe Brady (LSU WR coach) is an unknown element but hard to argue with what they did with their offenses for the last several seasons. There are parts to work with in Carolina: Christian McCaffrey of course, but also DJ Moore and Curtis Samuel plus whoever they pick up in free agency and the draft. Whether Cam Newton is there or they bring in someone else, this is a team with tons of fantasy promise.
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.
MICHAEL NEASE
I like the Mike McCarthy hiring as the new head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. He comes from a successful, winning situation in Green Bay and inherits a Cowboys team that is loaded with talent, but has not been able to maximize their potential under Jason Garrett. Assuming that McCarthy can coexist with Jerry Jones, I see this as a great hiring for the Cowboys and their fans. Maybe now the Cowboys can escape the climate of being underachievers year after year.
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
Joe Brady did big things at Louisiana State, with Joe Burrow throwing 60 touchdowns. The team averaged 48 points and 402 passing yards per game. The previous year, LSU averaged 32 points and only 229 passing yards, with just 17 touchdowns. Brady is only 30, but he spent a couple of years in New Orleans. He’s possibly could be the NFL’s next great offensive mind — a Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Sean Payton type guy. I’m not sure what’s going to be around him, but I’m intrigued to see what he might do with Carolina.
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.
SAM HENDRICKS
Washington's Ron Rivera is my choice. Honestly I do not know why. He inherits a broken-down franchise in Washington and an overbearing owner in Dan Snyder. But he is a motivator and if he can turn the team around it will be due to his skills, not a star-studded roster. That and the fact that they play in a dysfunctional East division. This choice may be more a function of the lack of good options in new hires rather than a huge belief in a Rivera rebirth.
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
I really expected Jerry Jones to go the hot young coordinator route, so I'm not sure about the Mike McCarthy hire. McCarthy in Green Bay always struck me as a coach fortunate to have elite quarterbacks his entire tenure. If Cowboys fans thought they were tired of Jason Garrett clapping, wait 'til they see a perplexed McCarthy gazing out over the field like he's waiting for a fish to break the surface. Dak Prescott is a talented guy, but will McCarthy's offense play to his strengths? I'm not sure that one is going to work out.
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.