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 incoming rookie are you most looking forward to seeing this preseason?
JASON WOOD
This is an interesting question because I’m sure many of us are exceedingly excited to see most rookies start their careers. My top pick though is Jayden Daniels, because opinions are divided about his pro prospects, and the Commanders are going through a complete organizational overhaul. We know he can run which provides a fantasy floor, but will he be able to throw across the middle, or make plays outside the pocket when pressured?
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.
MIKE NAZAREK
I'm very interested to see the role of rookie wide receiver Keon Coleman with the Buffalo Bills. I have him in a few dynasty leagues, and hope he quickly becomes the WR1 there. He is certainly talented enough to replace Stefon Diggs in that system.
Nazarek is the CEO of Fantasy Football Mastermind Inc, celebrating 29 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 website, 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 $36K in recent seasons of the FFPC High Stakes Main Event. Nazarek can be reached via email at miken@ffmastermind.com.
DAVID DOREY
The rookie I am most interested in is easily Trey Benson, who was taken by the Cardinals with their 3.02 pick as the second running back drafted -- pretty devalued as a position considering his potential long-term impact. The ex-Seminole brings the prototypical size (6-0, 216 pounds) along with a 4.39 40-time. He's equally as good rushing and receiving and lands on a team that should improve this year. James Conner enters the final year of his contract and has never missed fewer than three or four games per season due to injury. He's a holdover from the previous coaching regime and head coach Jonathan Gannon wants Benson to become the primary back likely sometime this year.
Dorey co-founded The Huddle.com in 1997. He's ranked every player and projected every game for the last 26 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
Keon Coleman. The Bills have the three receivers who look pretty comparable to me — Coleman, Khalil Shakir and Curtis Samuel. I would think they’re hopeful that Coleman (the first pick of the second round) will be a solid contributor for them. If that’s the case, I would think they’d be trying to fast-track him in the preseason. Specifically, is he playing extensively with the first-unit offense? And does he look like a guy who can be counted on for much in his first year? If so, he’ll be the first Buffalo wide receiver I would draft. If not, I more likely would be looking to select Shakir.
Allan co-founded Fantasy Football Index in 1987. Since that time, he’s written and edited most of the content published in the magazines, newsletters and at www.fantasyindex.com. Allan is a member of the FSGA Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame and the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame.
SAM HENDRICKS
Marvin Harrison Jr. is the obvious answer but I will change things up with Rome Odunze. He is paired up with the No. 1 draft pick Caleb Williams. How will they connect? What spot will Odunze play? X, Z, the slot? Will Caleb favor the No. 9 overall pick. How will these two stacks work in 2024 for fantasy football?
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
This is an exceptionally strong rookie class and there are multiple intriguing and promising situations throughout the league. Not many first-year players have been hyped as much as OSU's Marvin Harrison, Jr., drafted by Arizona. The Cardinals were 31st in scoring defense last year, and they don't look much better for 2024. Their talented offense, led by Kyler Murray, features good balance at running back, wide receiver and tight end, but they will find themselves trailing in a number of games. I've seen every one of Harrison's college games, so I'm excited to watch him play in a great fantasy situation this season.
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.
LUKE WILSON
I wish I could justify going with a more subversive answer here, but I just can't: Caleb Williams. It definitely feels like a cop out, especially against the backdrop of this incoming 2024 class of offensive talent that absolutely falls somewhere between 'very good' and 'the 1983 class'. But Williams enters the NFL under a set of circumstances that really feel singular to me. Inadvertently gifted to the Bears by dint of the DJ Moore trade with Carolina last spring, the mere existence of Williams as a potential selection compelled the Bears to basically 'rehome' the divisive-but-gifted Justin Fields to the opportunistic Steelers in March. So not only did the Bears not come by the top pick organically, but this was a roster already deemed to be on the rise and quite possibly 'just a quarterback away' from contention. The additions of Rome Odunze, Keenan Allen and D'Andre Swift has the Bears faithful just about ready to elect Ryan Poles mayor of Chicago.
Love him or doubt him, Williams is immensely talented and arrives to a supporting cast that is historically good for a No. 1 overall pick -- logically he should hit the ground running. I truly cannot remember a rookie quarterback who had the potential to either make a city fall head over heels for him to a degree that would make even Joe Burrow blush, or become shorthand among the fanbase for the final proof that the QB curse of the franchise will endure forevermore, all neatly in the space of his first NFL campaign. For the Bears fans I know so well, let's just hope it's the former.
Wilson is a Fantasy Index contributor who also hosts the FI Podcast and weighs in with fantasy advice regularly in the FI Discord server. He's not the former Seahawks tight end, but he is the proud father of two large boys.
ANDY RICHARDSON
Certainly Caleb Williams (sadly not playing in tonight's Hall of Fame game) and Jayden Daniels leap to mind as the top players at the most important position who will be immediate starters and could change the faces of those franchises. After the bucket of cold water we got from Bryce Young last year, it's hard not to have both excitement and trepidation about these guys. I would mention Jonathon Brooks, but I feel certain the Panthers are going to slow play that one, with him coming off an ACL injury, and I don't know if we'll see him in the preseason or even September. The other guy I'm interested in is Malik Nabers. He goes to a Giants team without much of a passing game but also without much at receiver. Will he immediately be a go-to guy, ala Odell Beckham, or will it just be a frustrating reminder that Daniel Jones isn't very good? The way Nabers is being selected in some early drafts, it seems like a lot of people are expecting the former, and I'm looking forward to finding 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 writes a weekly gambling newsletter, Index Bets, during the NFL season and also previews all the games on Saturdays and writes a wrap-up column on Mondays.
