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 slow starter will turn things around the rest of the way?
JASON WOOD
The wide receiver position is littered with two-week disappointments that should be on everyone's buy-low lists, including Ja'Marr Chase, DJ Moore, Garrett Wilson, Terry McLaurin, and Brandon Aiyuk. You could pick any of these guys and make a strong case for positive regression. Since you asked for one, I'll zero in on Wilson, who hasn't quite connected with Aaron Rodgers yet but Rodgers has publicly acknowledged the need to target Wilson more going forward. Considering what WIlson accomplished with a hodgepodge of quarterbacks in prior seasons, there's no reason to think he won't deliver on his WR1 ADP as the season gets rolling.
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
Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin will get on the same page as rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels and become a solid fantasy WR3 in 2024... very soon.
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
Heavy variance comes standard with most wide receivers, so it's not surprising to see some big names off to slow starts. I think the world expects Ja'Marr Chase to go off against that lousy Washington secondary, and Chris Olave is too talented not to pop with New Orleans soon. I also firmly believe Tank Dell will end the season as Houston's No. 2 receiver; they're getting him manufactured touches and he's been a little bit unlucky on a couple of shot plays. I trust that offense and I trust Dell.
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
I haven’t lost any confidence in Garrett Wilson. I think he’s still going to be the guy for Aaron Rodgers, particularly in the red zone. I think he’s a talent, and I’m expecting him to be a top-10 receiver for the duration.
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.
LUKE WILSON
I gotta go with DJ Moore here. Obviously it has not been pretty for the Bears offense so far, and their struggles overall are not likely to abate just yet. But Moore is absolutely one of the best in the business right now, and his 27.3% target share thus far has quickly put to rest all of the silly concerns we had about the pecking order; 8-12 targets a week from any QB is going to mean good things, even if they're coming from a struggling Caleb Williams. And if that weren't enough, Moore's upcoming schedule is so good it's stupid: Colts are a solid matchup; the Rams in week 4 even better; the Panthers, the Jaguars, the Commanders, Minnesota twice, Detroit twice. Moore is set up for a WR1 performance the rest of the way... as long as Shane Waldron doesn't stand in his way.
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.
DAVID DOREY
There are so, so, so many slow starters this year, but the most glaring to me is Travis Kelce with his 4 catches for 39 yards from his first two games combined. The tight ends are almost all underperforming compared to 2023, and the season is long and bound to change. The success of Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy will continue to impact how secondaries prepare to face them, and that will help reduce the focus that Travis has attracted. It is a weird year so far, but Kelce will step up and better reward his fantasy coaches than his current No. 27 ranking.
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.
KEN HOLIZNA
The slow starter player I want to highlight is someone who is killing most of my 2024 TEP fantasy leagues. For most people this may be low-lying fruit, but not for me. For many years I have avoided the shiny new toy, then Kyle Pitts changed that for me. Well how did that go??!! Last year I refused to buy into Sam LaPorta even though many factors said otherwise. I was on the wrong side again. Well this year three of the top 5, 2024 draft ranking tight ends are ranked between 13-26 going into week 3. I am confident that Sam LaPorta will turn things around soon. Him and Jared Goff both sat out the preseason. This is the reason that a lot of the top quarterback-receiver combos are behind in season projections. The emergence of Jameson Williams has caused some concern, but there are still plenty of targets to go around. Detroit can’t continue to target Amon-Ra St. Brown 19 times a game (you could tell he was spent after this week's game) and Goff’s pace for a 9 TD season won’t continue. The tight end position has been generally disappointing this year along with quarterbacks. This is all going to be corrected after the superstars get their preseason in this first couple of weeks of the regular. I believe teams are going to have to rethink not playing their starters as a unit during the preseason. Continue to link your ship to LaPorta, he will start cruising soon.
Holizna is a 29-year fantasy football enthusiast and founder of Faith-Family-Fantasy Football in 2019, a family-friendly, faith-based, G-rated fantasy football platform. Rankings contributor to the 2023 Fantasy Index magazine. Find him on Twitter @holihandicapper
ANDY RICHARDSON
So many candidates. I want to say Dallas Goedert, but I'm concerned it might be wishful thinking, my confidence is shaken somewhat. Instead I will go with Rachaad White. He's been pretty disappointing so far, picked up a minor groin injury last week, and most of the fantasy world seems to want to make Bucky Irving happen. But I can't believe the White who was a top-5 PPR back last year is just gone. They've opened against one defense incapable of covering wide receivers in Washington and another that really stuffs the run in Detroit. Assuming health, things should get better for White very quickly, probably against Denver this week.
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.
