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Ask the Experts

Who has impressed you most this preseason?

Dotson, Vaughn, Rice among favorites

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 has impressed you most this preseason?

SCOTT PIANOWSKI

Maybe I'm just confirming my priors, but I don't see a big difference between Jahan Dotson and Terry McLaurin. Surprisingly, you can land Dotson four rounds later in most rooms. The two Washington receivers played to a dead heat over the last five weeks of last season, and I suspect Dotson's skill profile makes him more likely to score touchdowns. Dotson has become one of my favorite middle-round targets.

Pianowski has been with Yahoo Sports since 2008, covering a variety of sports. 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. Pianowski was inducted into the FSWA Hall of Fame in 2021.

DAVID DOREY

As hard as it is to read what are essentially backup players for the most part, I do like what we've seen with Cowboys running back Deuce Vaughn. He's too small for an every-down role but the Cowboys head into the season with only Tony Pollard as the primary back and nothing with proven players for other running backs since Ezekiel Elliott left. Rico Dowdle is the likely replacement if Pollard is unable to remain healthy with his first sizable workload, but Vaughn has already shown he deserves a role regardless of the starter. He's been fast and elusive, and can be used in a myriad of different roles. His small size can be an asset in traffic even if it opens him up for injury. The Cowboys are apparently happy with Pollard and the collection of UFDA backs and Vaughn who was a sixth-round pick this year.

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.

JASON WOOD

With so few starters getting any time in games these days, the preseason’s utility has been on the decline as an analytical tool. The most valuable information now is monitoring who doesn't play. But among those who are getting reps, Jaxon Smith-Njigba has stood out. He’s been dominant and is already too good for backup defensive backs to cover.

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.

IAN ALLAN

I typically don’t like to get too invested in rookie receivers (especially those drafted after the first round) until I see something on the field. Rashee Rice on Saturday in Glendale showed me something. The way he torched the Cardinals, I think it’s fair to wonder when he might develop into that team’s best receiver. I like his size (6-1, 204), I like what he does when the ball is in his hands. Particularly on slant patterns; he caught one where he was able to get away from the initial defensive back, then he went right by another in the open field, picking up 25 yards. He seemed to be set up for a similar gain on the first play, but he dropped it (his only blemish or even incompletion on the night). After one catch, he spun away from the back in coverage, picking up another 6 yards. And he had a 38-yard gain down the sideline. Now, all but one of his catches came after Patrick Mahomes had exited, but Rice got my attention. I think Skyy Moore, Kadarius Toney and Marquez Valdes-Scantling will be Kansas City’s starting receivers (at least initially), but they all have different flaws. Toney always gets hurt, MVS is just a deep threat, and I just haven’t seen much out of Moore. I imagine Rice will be rotating in initially, and it might not be long before he’s their best wide receiver. If we’re drafting in a dynasty league today, I would select Rice before all of those guys.

Allan is the senior writer for Fantasy Football Index magazine. He is a member of the FSGA’s Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame and the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame. He is an avid runner, swimmer and cyclist.

SAM HENDRICKS

Jaxon Smith-Njigba has shown great separation skills and put up good numbers in the preseason. Unfortunately he also has to undergo wrist surgery and thus looks out for a few weeks. So I am going to pivot and go with Jimmy Garoppolo. He has stepped into the Raiders offense and shown he is ready to go.

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.

SCOTT SACHS

Jahan Dotson has become one of the top WR2 targets in the league. Scary Terry McLaurin now has a case of turf toe which should result in boosting Dotson's targets, which bodes well for a potential 2023 breakout season from the former Penn State standout. Dotson was good last season as a rookie, but his preseason performance to date bodes well that he'll be even better this year. Factor in that he has a much better OC in Eric Bienemy, Sam Howell is emerging at quarterback, plus the Commanders are solid with their running back situation. Looking to grab as many shares of Dotson as I can.

With 2 perfect seasons and multiple league championships to his credit, Scott Sachs runs Perfect Season Fantasy Football, featuring LIVE Talk & Text Advice. He is a 3-time Winner of the Fantasy Index Experts Auction League, as well as a previous Winner of the Fantasy Index Experts Poll.

MICHAEL NAZAREK

Falcons running back Bijan Robinson's first run was a pure thing of BEAUTY! I want to see more of that, and we will!

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.

ANDY RICHARDSON

I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't think too highly of him when he was drafted, despite the past successes from Purdue quarterbacks (and the fact that my niece actually goes there). But Aidan O'Connell is one of the more impressive rookie passers I've seen in recent preseasons -- accuracy, decisiveness, delivery -- and I think he's going to be a factor in Las Vegas sooner rather than later; as soon as Jimmy G gets hurt, for instance. If there's a Russell Wilson type mid-round quarterback to come out of recent drafts, O'Connell looks like the guy.

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.

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