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 intrigues you most?
SAM HENDRICKS
Everything about the Raiders. They have the first pick in the draft. They need a coach. They play in Las Vegas. They have talent -- Maxx Crosby, Ashton Jeanty, Brock Bowers. What's not to be intrigued by? How about Mike Tomlin signs with Las Vegas and they take Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza with the top pick. Or do they trade down with the NYJ or AZ or CLE or MIA or PIT or .... Things that make you go hmmmph.
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.
JASON WOOD
The NFL coaching situation quickly evolved from historically muted to historically wild, thanks to John Harbaugh being fired in Baltimore and subsequent dominoes falling. I cover the coaching changes around the league for our site, and every year we have nearly 50% of the offensive and defensive coordinators replaced, on top of the head coaching hires that get the most attention. The average NFL play-caller has less than three seasons of experience in their current role, which has a direct impact on our ability to accurately forecast fantasy projections. We should pay particular attention to who takes over in Baltimore (Lamar Jackson), Washington (Jayden Daniels), New York (Jaxson Dart), and possibly Buffalo (Josh Allen) if Joe Brady gets a head coaching position and Philadelphia (Jalen Hurts) since they've fired Kevin Patullo.
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.
IAN ALLAN
I will double down on Minnesota. I think Kevin O'Connell is one of the great offensive coaches. I think he can turn most acceptable quarterbacks into something statistically special. Whoever is starting at quarterback for the Vikings, I'm interested. Possibly that's J.J. McCarthy. But with him coming off a terrible second season, O'Connell indicates that there will be another viable possibility heading to camp. I'll be curious to see who they settle on as that second guy. Aaron Rodgers, if rumors are to be believed, was interested in Minnesota last year.
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.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI
I'm curious to see where Malik Willis winds up. The Green Bay offense didn't look much worse with him as a starter the past couple of years, and now he can go to a team that needs a new guy. He's had time to learn the game, he has mobility, he can make pretty much all the throws. We need as many capable NFL starters as we can get.
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.
SCOTT SACHS
There are currently 9 openings for head coaches in the NFL. How each team is conducting their searches has been a mix of fascinating, predictable, mysterious, comical, etc. So much drama crammed into a very short time frame. Who is going to be the first team to make that initial hire? It's looking like Harbaugh to the Giants. Some candidates almost every team likes, namely Stefanski. Some are pretty young like Udinski and Scheelhaase, but are gaining traction. Others have barely gotten mentioned like Saleh, McCarthy. A few are puzzling like Pitcher, Shula. Some are not available yet, notably Kubiak, while others may have to settle for a coordinator role, probably McDaniel. The playoffs are exciting, to be sure, but the coaching carousel is full of intrigue.
With 2 perfect seasons and multiple league championships to his credit, 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: https://x.com/ffbcoach
ANDY RICHARDSON
It's a broad topic, but the quarterback moves around the league will be the most compelling. Running down the list of teams, somewhere between a quarter and a third of the teams (I count 10) don't know who their Week 1 starter will be. There will be rookies, veterans changing teams, and reclamation projects. Will Jacoby Brissett and Jameis Winston get chances? Will Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson be back? What about iffy youngsters like J.J. McCarthy and Michael Penix? So many values around the league will depend on whether some team thinks old guys like Kirk Cousins and young guys like Shedeur Sanders are viable in 2026. It should be entertaining to watch.
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.