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: There are a ton of teams on bye the next two weeks. Who are some good fill-ins?
JASON WOOD
Audric Estime is the clear choice. Javonte Williams (one carry) and Jaleel McLaughlin (two carries) combined for only three carries against Kansas City, while Estime had 14 carries and played nearly 50% of the snaps. He’s widely available on most platforms and should be the top waiver option in most leagues this week. Estime is a compact, powerful runner from Notre Dame who may lack explosiveness but fits well into Sean Payton’s zone-blocking system. Although injuries set him back in early training camp and the regular season, he’s steadily regained the coaches’ confidence and could be a valuable asset for teams in need of a boost at tailback.
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
Over the next two weeks, there are a number of tight ends that will be out -- Trey McBride, Ja'Tavion Sanders, Cade Otton, Kyle Pitts, Dalton Kincaid, Evan Engram, and Taysom Hill. One consideration who should be available is Will Dissly of the Chargers who is not going to win your games single-handedly but can keep you afloat for two weeks. Over his last four games, he has averaged five catches per game and around 40 yards. Plus, he'll have home games against the Bengals and Ravens -- two of the worst defenses against the position.
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
I’d be looking at the Dallas-Washington game. Noah Brown and Zach Ertz are marginal players, but I think they’re available in some leagues. And I’d have an eye on Broncos-Raiders. Some of those modest Denver contributors should be available — Devaughn Vele, Jaleel McLaughlin, and maybe Javonte Williams just shook free (with Audric Estime emerging). With there being a shallower pool of talent, some of these players might grade out as the best of what’s available in one of the next two weeks.
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.
MICHAEL NAZAREK
Broncos rookie running back Audric Estime could be a full workload back by the time Week 12 comes around, since he's expected to see even more work this week.
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.
ANDY RICHARDSON
This week is especially tough for me since in one league I've been starting both Bucs running backs, and they're on their bye. Not much out there on waivers, but I settled on a pair of Hail Mary type options. The Cowboys are playing on Monday Night football. Just maybe they'll give some work to Ezekiel Elliott, with last week proving they need to limit how much Cooper Rush passes it. Negative is that Houston doesn't allow many rushing scores, but Elliott could/may get a few extra carries this week. The other desperation pick up is Tyler Goodson for the Colts. Desperate times, desperate measures. The Colts will be emphasizing the ground game against the Jets, and Goodson will be catching a few balls as the change-of-pace to Jonathan Taylor. Hopefully one winds up in the end zone. For another position, Davis Allen of the Rams has emerged as their favored tight end, and the Rams are facing a Patriots defense much softer than they looked against a hapless Bears offense last week. Anthony Richardson faces that defense a couple of weeks from now, and I'll be interested in starting him when that happens, too.
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.