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 veteran are you most looking forward to seeing with their new team?
DAVID DOREY
Joe Mixon in Houston should be fascinating. He lands in an offense that should have one of the elite passers for 2024 and that backs up the defense. He comes from Cincinnati where they typically ranked in the bottom three for running back carries. Mixon is an accomplished rusher and receiver -- something that the Texans haven't relied on much from their backfield, but Mixon gives them that option to what should be a high-powered passing attack. Mixon should absorb plenty of goal-line rushes and give a bigger boost to the offense than Devin Singletary or Dameon Pierce has in the last couple of seasons.
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.
MIKE NAZAREK
Keenan Allen in Chicago is in a very interesting spot. Will Allen be the fantasy stud we've all seen in the past or will a lack of overall targets slow him down to become more of a WR2/WR3 for fantasy? Time will tell! One thing is certain, he will no longer be the WR1 for his own team, that role belongs to DJ Moore.
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.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI
I'm excited to see if Kirk Cousins is the quarterback Atlanta needs to unlock its group of talented skill players. It's also nice that Arthur Smith is long gone, he obviously was part of the problem.
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.
IAN ALLAN
My hunch is that Diontae Johnson is going to be the best wide receiver in Carolina. I think he’s going to better than Adam Thielen, and I don’t think Carolina’s two young receivers (Jonathan Mingo, Xavier Legette) are on his level yet. I like that Johnson's in a contract year. So I would like to see him come out with the first unit in these practice games, catching a few passes early and looking like he’s going to be a key cog in their offense. The Panthers, I think, will be improved. That can’t really be any worse, of course, but I like the new coaching staff, and I like that Bryce Young has now been around for a year.
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
There are so many to choose from, and are going to be fun to watch. Kirk Cousins, Saquon Barkley, Aaron Jones and Stefon Diggs are just a few to spring to mind. But I am most looking forward to seeing if and how Justin Fields does in Pittsburgh. The kid was a 1st round pick in 2021. His problem in his first three years were sacks. He needs to get a quicker read and release. He also has to beat out Russell Wilson, but he has been taking full advantage of Wilson's recent calf injury. If he can get on the field, reduce his sack rate with the weapons he now has, this could be a turnaround season. That would be exciting to watch and bet on.
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
The obvious choice is Saquon Barkley, now in Philadelphia. His situation is a complete 180 from New York. Now he has an elite QB, an excellent offensive line, plus a strong defense. The Eagles should be leading in a number of their games, too, so they won't be abandoning the run as often as less talented teams. He should easily be a top 5 producer or better. Jerry Jeudy has a chance to shift his career trajectory upward with Cleveland, as they will be more pass happy with Chubb's uncertain return. The Browns face a number of the best quarterbacks on their very challenging schedule, so footballs should be flying in Cleveland. An interesting sleeper is J.K. Dobbins, now with the Chargers. A beast when healthy, and LA is going to be much more run-oriented with plenty of carries to go around.
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
So many great options here: Stefon Diggs in Houston, Saquon's Philly homecoming. Even Russell Wilson is going to be pretty interesting to watch as he tries for a Kurt Warner-esque second act in Pittsburgh. But for me it's gotta be Derrick Henry. Already one of the most prolific runners the game has ever seen (Henry has been in the league for eight seasons - no running back ahead of him on the all-time rushing list had fewer than nine seasons of NFL service), Henry gracefully parted ways with the transitioning Titans and immediately landed with a Ravens team that came up just shy of a Super Bowl berth in January. Henry probably took a below market deal to be a Raven, too: Henry's 2-yr, $16 million contract with the Ravens pays him the same per year as the deal that D'Andre Swift got from the Bears, and less per year than Rhamondre Stevenson is now making. He is Canton-bound, and the only box that's left for him to check on his illustrious career is hoisting a Lombardi as the confetti falls. Playing in a top-flight offense for the first time since 2020, Henry's poised to benefit from being less of a focal point of opposing defenses in Baltimore than perhaps ever before. King Henry thundering through overwhelmed front sevens for another 1,500-yard season would look pretty good in purple.
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.
JASON WOOD
We had an incredibly busy offseason in terms of fantasy-relevant players changing teams, most notably at the running back position. My choice here is Saquon Barkley. Barkley has been an elite fantasy contributor despite playing with one of the NFL's worst offensive lines for most of his career and now gets to run behind one of the league's best lines. And while quarterback Jalen Hurts is a touchdown threat, it's important to note that Eagles running backs have averaged 369 carries for 1,723 yards (4.7 per carry) and nine rushing touchdowns in their own right. Barkley should be in the hunt for offensive player of the year alongside Christian McCaffrey, CeeDee Lamb, Tyreek Hill, and Breece Hall.
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 find myself most intrigued by the running backs -- almost all of them. Aaron Jones finished strong for the Packers; how might he fare in Minnesota? His replacement in Green Bay, Josh Jacobs, has long been a favorite of mine; I'm interested to see how that works out. Joe Mixon going to Houston is a guy I expect to have on a team or two. And then there's the Kirk Cousins move to Atlanta; they're paying him a ton and counting on him to dramatically elevate their passing game, yet they hedged a little or at least shortened his tenure, presumably, by drafting Michael Penix 8th overall. Few of these answers will materialize in the exhibition season, of course, so we'll probably need to wait for what will be a fascinating Week 1.
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.