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 3-0 team isn't for real? Which 0-3 team is good?
AARON BLAND
The Broncos have now beaten 3 very bad teams and are going to have a much tougher run with division play coming up; expect a losing streak. I think all 5 of the winless teams will continue to struggle, but the Lions are showing a lot more heart with their new coaching staff. They are going to surprise some teams down the stretch.
Bland, a fanatical fantasy football player since 1992, has been a contributing expert to Fantasy Football Index since 2018 and appears regularly as a guest on the Fantasy Index Podcast. He is the Managing Editor at yourulz.com, a fantasy sports platform launching in 2021 that allows live in-game substitutions in every sport.
MICHAEL NAZAREK
The Broncos have had a very soft schedule to date, so they will begin to lose when they begin to play real teams like BAL, PIT, LV, DAL, LAC and KC twice. On the flip side, the Colts should begin to win some games with MIA, HOU, TEN, and the NYJ on their upcoming schedule.
Nazarek is the CEO of Fantasy Football Mastermind Inc, celebrating 25 years online! His company offers a preseason draft guide, customizable cheat sheets, a multi-use fantasy drafting program including auction values, weekly in-season newsletters, injury reports and free NFL news (updated daily) at its web site, www.ffmastermind.com. 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 nearly $30K in recent seasons of the FFPC High Stakes Main Event. Nazarek can be reached via email at miken@ffmastermind.com.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI
I believe in all of the 3-0 teams to an extent, but the Broncos have benefited from a cushy schedule. At some point they'll revert to being around a league-average team. I don't hold out much hope for the 0-3 teams, but I'll say this about the Lions - they believe in what Dan Campbell has been selling. They play hard, and the Detroit offense focuses on the main playmakers. Detroit won't win a bunch of games, but they'll be surprisingly fantasy-useful in 2021.
An FSWA award-winning writer (with nominations in four sports) and podcaster, Scott has been with Yahoo Sports since 2008. On the rare occasions when the computer is turned off, he enjoys word games, poker, music, film, game theory, and a variety of condiments. He lives in suburban Detroit.
IAN ALLAN
The Broncos are undefeated, but all of their wins have been against teams that are currently winless. They still have flaws. The defense is good, but it’s not a dominating, shutdown group. And there are still limitations with the offense. With the AFC West being a tough division, I think that’s probably still a last-place team when all is said and done. With the winless teams, I believe all of those teams will finish below .500 (and I don’t think any of them will even finish with an 8-9 record). The Colts would be the one team that might pull things together, helped along by four remaining games against Houston and Jacksonville, but the early returns on Carson Wentz haven’t been encouraging.
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.
JUSTIN ELEFF
I can't see the Cardinals holding up in the NFC West, mostly because I have so little faith in Kliff Kingsbury. (Part of me wonders if he even knew a 68-yard field goal try could be returned if it fell short.) Rams and Niners look like the class of that division to me, Cards like a possible Wild Card team that will do something glaringly dumb to sink its season at some point. On the other side, as much as I want to stump for the Colts as clearly the best of these teams, they aren't going anywhere until Carson Wentz remembers all he seems to have forgotten about playing quarterback. Bum ankles or no, he's just very bad right now. So my current lean is that none of the 0-3s will turn all the way around, but give me the Lions -- not because they'll win much, but rather as the MCU movie of football teams: fun to watch even though you never doubt how things will end.
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
All the 3-0 teams look like strong winners for the foreseeable future. The Panthers may falter if McCaffrey is out for a prolonged time but the others have great quarterbacks or a good tandem at running back and look to be winners. On the other hand, the Colts and Giants are both capable of recovering from this terrible 0-3 start. Both have strong running backs and receivers to help their quarterbacks. The Giants also play in the East so they have that going for them. Detroit, Jacksonville and the Jets are all playing for the first pick in the 2022 draft!
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 and 2018.
DAVID DOREY
The 3-0 Broncos are an above-average team with a great defense and a talented backfield. But they started their season against against the Giants (0-3), Jaguars (0-3), and Jets (0-3). Their next three games are against the Ravens, at the Steelers, and Raiders. If they can win those, then sure, they are more than a good team. Beating up winless teams doesn't mean they've arrived quite yet. The winless teams pretty much all belong there and the outlook on their seasons remain fairly bleak. Interesting that they are all rebuilding teams with new offenses other than the Giants whose failure to assemble an offensive line over several years is amazing. The Colts are the best poised team to turn it around and do something this year. They have a great offensive line, solid backfield, and a defense that's oddly dropped a notch. Their schedule has been the Seahawks, Rams, and Titans. Their schedule lightens up later in the season, but their passing offense still struggles and the team has an overall dysfunction so far that is hard to fix.
Dorey co-founded The Huddle.com in 1997. He's ranked every player and projected every game for the last 23 years and is the author of Fantasy Football: The Next Level. David has appeared on numerous radio, television, newspaper and magazines over the last two decades.
SCOTT SACHS
Let's take a look at Denver's 3-0 record to date. They have beaten the Giants, Jags, and Jets, who are a combined 0-9! In comparison to the rest of their division, the Broncos look like the 4th-best team in the AFC West to me going forward. As far as the Colts are concerned, they have too much overall talent to be winless. True, they've had the injury bug, so they need to dig down a bit, starting with this week, and show some character to get the season turned around. In comparing teams in their division, the Titans have some flaws, plus both Jacksonville and Houston are overmatched, so let's not start shoveling dirt on Indy's playoff hopes quite yet.
Sachs runs Perfect Season Fantasy Football, offering LIVE Talk & Text consulting. He has multiple league championships including 2 perfect seasons. Scott is a past winner of the Fantasy Index Experts Poll and a 2-time winner of the Experts Auction League.
ANDY RICHARDSON
Arizona is 3-0, but they look pretty similar to last year's 8-8 club. They'll win some games with Kyler Murray making plays, but they'll lose some with their defense giving them up. I think we'll get signs of their flaws against the Rams this week, and then four of their next five are against the Packers, Browns and 49ers (twice), which is a tough stretch. They could easily be 5-4 at best at that point, playing in one of the league's toughest divisions. Of the 0-3 teams, I don't see any of them finishing with a winning record. The Colts at least have the advantage of playing in a division where 9-8 might take it.
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.