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 offseason storyline interests you the most?
MIKE NAZAREK
The Pittsburgh Steelers offense. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers, rookie running back Kaleb Johnson, wide receiver DK Metcalf, and tight end Jonnu Smith are all new and now playing together. Can they be more effective and productive than the stunted Steelers offense from 2024? It will be very interesting to watch regardless!
Nazarek is the CEO of Fantasy Football Mastermind Inc, celebrating 30 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 $40K in recent seasons of the FFPC High Stakes Main Event. Nazarek can be reached via email at miken@ffmastermind.com.
IAN ALLAN
I'm very interested in getting a peek at those young quarterbacks in the NFC North, Caleb Williams and J.J. McCarthy. They've got high-level coaches working with them. The last few years suggest Kevin O'Connell can take any quarterback with a pulse and generate top-15 numbers. That has me wondering whether McCarthy is the quarterback to be snapping up about a dozen QBs into a draft. With Williams, he took a ton of sacks last year, trying to do too much, but he'll be running a new offense, and with a lot of new players around him. Ben Johnson put together prolific offenses in Detroit.
Allan co-founded Fantasy Football Index in 1987. He is a member of the FSGA Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame and the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame.
JASON WOOD
These days training camp isn't as illuminating as it used to be, because the majority of teams understandably show next to nothing in preseason contests. But the team I'm most interested in right now are the 49ers, because Christian McCaffrey practicing regularly will lock him in as a first-round pick in any draft, and we have plenty of questions about how the wide receiver pecking order is going to shake out.
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.
JODY SMITH
I'm really interested in watching how Denver's backfield plays out. Running backs in Sean Payton's offense have been conducive to fantasy production for years. Payton-coached teams have finished top-4 in targets to running backs in nine of the last 10 seasons. The only year they failed to be inside the top 4 was last year, where they dipped to 8th (101 targets). RJ Harvey is just the fourth running back that Payton has selected in a draft ahead of Day Three. The others, Reggie Bush, Mark Ingram, and Alvin Kamara, turned out to be fantasy stars. The signing of J.K. Dobbins complicates Harvey's ascension, but doesn't rule out Denver fielding a pair of quality options. I'll be monitoring their usage throughout the preseason.
Smith is the editor-in-chief at FullTime Fantasy who is known for compiling some of fantasy football’s most accurate rankings. He has over 15 years of experience in the industry, which includes a stint on the sidelines covering the Houston Texans.
TOM KESSENICH
The Indianapolis Colts' quarterback situation is one of the situations I'm going to be watching throughout training camp with keen interest. Personally, I do not believe either Daniel Jones or Anthony Richardson are above-average NFL quarterbacks so I believe ultimately this is a losing predicament for Indy. But if I'm wrong and one of these players can produce merely adequate production there is a wealth of undervalued talent in the passing game, led by Michael Pittman, who could emerge as valuable fantasy players and potentially far exceed their current ADPs.
Kessenich is the Director of High Stakes Contests for SportsHub Games. He runs the NFFC, NFBC and NFBKC and is a fantasy sports Hall of Fame inductee.
LUKE WILSON
I'm tempted to say the Cowboys, but as I can feel the flame of my team fandom flickering back to life I'll have to recuse myself from talking about them here. How about the Raiders? In a league where head coaches and GMs just keep getting younger, the Raiders are going against the grain in a pretty big way: They bring in a thrice-fired retread head coach in Pete Carroll, who hilariously gets another shot when Bill Belichick couldn't even though he was Belichick's predecessor in New England. Carroll brings in Chip Kelly, who flamed out in spectacular fashion in his two previous NFL stints; they trade for a 34-year old bridge quarterback in Geno Smith. And oh by the way, Tom Brady is now involved as micro-owner and shadow GM. The new-look Raiders are trying to be competitive right away in the ultra tough AFC West. This experiment may fail spectacularly, but at least the Raiders are really trying something to avoid being the division punching bag again this fall.
Of course I'm also a sucker for schadenfreude, and it sure feels like that's what will soon be on offer in Miami. Multiple beat writers close to the team have begun openly suggesting 2025 may be Tua Tagovailoa's last season as a Dolphin, with the unspoken addendum being '... as the team fires everybody higher on the org chart than the concessions stand'. Few teams need a hot start more than does this fourth iteration of the Mike McDaniel Dolphins.
Wilson is a frequent contributor on the Fantasy Index website, and is one of many knowledgeable voices in the Fantasy Index Discord server. He also co-hosts Drinkin' Dynasty, a new beer-themed fantasy podcast.
SCOTT SACHS
This season should be another wild one, despite the perpetual dysfunction of my hometown Cleveland Browns. One Super Bowl championship before I die is looking increasingly unlikely.
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. Follow on X: a href="https://x.com/ffbcoach" target=_new>https://x.com/ffbcoach
SCOTT PIANOWSKI
I'm going to watch the Patriots closely. Drake Maye kept his head above water last year despite mediocre support; now, he has some help. And the Josh McDaniels rehiring was a smart move -- he seems like one of those guys who is miscast as a head coach but shrewd as a coordinator. I want to see who Maye seems to be clicking with, and judge if New England is deserving of being a trendy rebound candidate.
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.
ANDY RICHARDSON
You have to be drawn to the new coaching staffs. How will the Bears look with Ben Johnson running the show, and the Patriots with Mike Vrabel? And how about the Lions, with a brand-new coaching staff on both sides of the ball working under Dan Campbell? But two teams I've been knocking some this preseason for their moves have the same coaching staffs: San Francisco, and Pittsburgh. The personnel moves by these teams, to me, are largely negatives. I'm not sure San Francisco is serious about competing, while the Steelers got older at wide receiver, tight end and quarterback for some reason. I'm interested to see if I'm right or wrong in questioning these teams' approaches to the offseason.
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.