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 next year's Comeback Player of the Year?
SAM HENDRICKS
My potential list: QB Trey Lance, RB Breece Hall, RB Jonathan Taylor, WR Michael Thomas, TE Darren Waller and TE Kyle Pitts. Final answer....Michael Thomas. He was a top-15 wide receiver through Week 3 before his dislocated toe injury. He had returned to his great form and was playing out of the slot and other positions.
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.
JASON WOOD
Trey Lance comes to mind. In a world where Brock Purdy can play like Tom Brady, it stands to reason the 49ers could be a juggernaut if Lance is healthy and half the player Kyle Shanahan thinks he is.
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.
DAVID DOREY
Would love to say Breece Hall but he didn't play long enough to have a "comeback." I'm going with Javonte Williams since the Broncos should be different -- and better -- in 2023. They'll have a new coach, but the roster doesn't need to be rebuilt from scratch. Williams will step back into the primary role and reward drafters.
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.
ANDY RICHARDSON
It's a difficult question because it involves a player who either got hurt early or really disappointed in 2022, and we tend to throw those players out with the trash while emptying our minds in the offseason. But I'll go with one of two possibilities at quarterback. Lamar Jackson missed the last six games, and if we're being honest he didn't play well after Week 4 or so. I think he's back in Baltimore and the skill players around him could not possibly be as terrible as they were this year. An even longer shot is Russell Wilson. He'll be back in Denver, and the coaching can only be improved. I know quarterbacks who excel in advanced years are rare, but I can't believe it's over for Wilson at 34 years old.
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.