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 quarterback starter will have the biggest impact the rest of the way?
SAM HENDRICKS
There are quite a few new starters at quarterback for teams. I like Mike White. The Jets quarterback has a firm grip on the job and has a good connection with his wide receivers. He is confident and consistent. And the Jets defense is as tough as they come. All New York needs is a running game. White also has a favorable fantasy playoff schedule: Detroit, Jacksonville and Seattle.
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 30-year fantasy football veteran who participated 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
I'd go with Sam Darnold as he offers more impact for the rest of the season. He returns from his bye to face the Seahawks, Steelers and Lions next. He's connected with DJ Moore and teams tend to play the Panthers looser since they know they can beat them. Darnold will need to pass a lot in the coming weeks.
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.
IAN ALLAN
Tyler Huntley isn’t as good as Lamar Jackson. He doesn’t have the same downfield passing ability. Jackson last year, for example, averaged 3 more yards per completion. He ranked 8th in yards per completion and yards per attempt, while Huntley was down at last. That’s the big difference. But Huntley plays with the same style, and that translates favorably in fantasy scoring. He’s seen significant playing time in 6 games as a pro, and he’s run for at least 40 yards in all of them, with 3 TDs. He averaged 60 rushing yards in his four starts last year. You get a quarterback putting up those kind of rushing numbers, and he tends to be a decent stopgap quarterback.
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.
JASON WOOD
It's tempting to quickly answer Tyler Huntley because we remember a few unexpectedly good games last year at an opportune time. Specifically, Huntley was the No. 2 fantasy quarterback in Weeks 14 and 15, which meant he helped many teams win their playoff matchups. But the truth is Huntley started five games last year, including Weeks 11, 17, and 18. And he was far less impressive in those starts; averaging 186 passing yards, zero touchdowns, one interception, and only 29 rushing yards. So in three of five starts, he wasn't a QB1, yet many will be racing to pick up Huntley to deal with Lamar Jackson's injury. Given the Ravens' woeful receiving corps (worse than last season), that move could backfire. How about Brock Purdy as an alternative? Purdy was thrust into this week's game against a talented Dolphins defense and completed 25-of-37 for 210 yards and two touchdowns. The 49ers are loaded offensively, and we've seen Kyle Shanahan generate excellent offensive output regardless of the pieces.
Wood is Senior Editor at Footballguys.com and has been with the company since its start in 2000. For more than 20 years, Footballguys has provided rankings, projections, and analysis to help fantasy managers dominate their leagues.
ANDY RICHARDSON
I'm thinking Tyler Huntley. With Lamar Jackson having a sprained MCL, I think he'll need to miss more than just one game. (If he were Tom Brady or some other pocket passer, maybe he'd be back sooner, but I can't see them putting him on the field to run this particular offense until he can play his usual game.) Huntley will run a lot, maybe more than Jackson, making up for what he doesn't do as a passer. In my dynasty league, though, I passed up Huntley for Brock Purdy. Just a seventh-round pick and maybe he doesn't amount to anything, but right now I'll say he's as likely to be San Francisco's Week 1 starter next year as anyone else, especially if he pulls a Tom Brady or Nick Foles and leads San Francisco to the Super Bowl, unlikely though it may seem.
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.