Ask the Experts

ASK THE EXPERTS appears weekly, with answers to a new question being posted every Thursday morning. How the guest experts responded when we asked them:

MIKE NAZAREK

I believe I was one of a very few fantasy experts that ranked Reggie Wayne as the No. 1 WR. He may not have bested Randy Moss, but did end up No. 2 in that category. As for my worst, I'll admit that I didn't feel Jamal Lewis was a top-20 RB, much less a top-10 RB.

Nazarek is the CEO of Fantasy Football Mastermind Inc. His company offers an online rookie draft kit, preseason draft guide, customizable cheat sheets, a fantasy auction drafting program, weekly in-season fantasy newsletters, injury reports and free NFL news (updated daily) at its web site. He is the reigning three-peat champion of the SI.com Experts Fantasy League. He is also a nationally published writer in several fantasy magazines and a columnist for SI.com. For more info go to http://www.ffmastermind.com. Nazarek can be reached at 702-568-7118 or miken@ffmastermind.com.

DAVID DOREY

My best predictions were insisting that Tom Brady was the quarterback to get this year and ranking both Owens and Moss highly. Hard to say what my worst is since mostly that has to do with injury situations but probably the most painful was ranking Ronnie Brown highly, having him do little for two weeks and then explode only to be lost for the season. Looked pretty smart up until that knee injury!

Dorey is the co-founder of TheHuddle.com and the lead NFL analyst. He has been projecting players and predicting games since 1997 and has also authored the book Fantasy Football: The Next Level which is available at all major bookstores and at Amazon.com. Dorey is one of the top prognosticators in the Fantasy Football Index Experts Poll every year and won it in 2005.

STEVEN LASSAN

Looking back at preseason predictions is always interesting, especially when you get to what you got right or wrong from the 2007 season. I think we were expecting a bounce back season from Seattle running back Shaun Alexander and that didnʼt pan out. Additionally, our site thought Washington receiver Santana Moss would have a top 25-30 fantasy season and he didnʼt work out either. In terms of the best predictions, our site predicted a down year for Maurice Jones-Drew and wasn't high on Tennessee quarterback Vince Young. Young has yet to show much progression in his passing skills and until he does, he will not be an elite fantasy signal-caller.

Lassan is a senior staff writer for Pro Fantasy Sports. For more info, visit the websites www.profantasysports.com and www.fswa.org.

JEFFREY KAMYS

Well the worst of the year were injury picks, guys like Rudi Johnson, LJ, Shaun Alexander, Javon Walker, Steven Jackson were busts on some level. Marvin Harrison can no longer be counted on as Mr. Reliable. One guy that was not injured but we had higher expectations for going into the year was Reggie Brown. On the good side, we had Frank Gore lower than most, ranked the Packers D fairly high and we had Romo near the top of the heap at QB.

Kamys is president of Dr. Stats Fantasy Sports. His company, via the web, offers player news, injury reports, cheat sheets, projections, weekly matchups, statistics, and a customized team tracker. Dr. Stats Fantasy Sports also e-mails preseason newsletters and reports throughout the season. For more info visit www.docstats.com or send e-mail to webmaster@docstats.com.

IAN ALLAN

I had Randy Moss way too low on my draft board. I figured the Patriots would have about 30 TD passes, and he’d catch about a third of them (tops), for 10 TDs. I saw that as kind of his best-case situation. And that one kind of blew up on me. My best pick was probably T.J. Houshmandzadeh. I’m not sure why, but we had him a lot higher than most people. Maybe they figured he was just the second-fiddle guy there behind Chad Johnson or whatever. But looking at the numbers of the last two years (in which Houshmandzadeh missed a few games with minor injuries), we were confident he was going to be an elite receiver, and he went on to have a terrific year, particularly in the points-per-reception format.

Allan is the senior writer for Fantasy Football Index magazine. He’s also one of the main content contributors for that company’s website, www.fantasyindex.com. His IAN ALLAN’S MAILBAG column is posted on Fridays.

PATRICK GLEESING

Best was Brady, Moss and Peterson, obviously. Not so obvious was being chided for taking Engram in the fantasy mock auction (New Seahawk record for yards). Worst is easy; Harrison, Smith, Delhomme, Henry, etc. The lesson of the year is to try to stay in the middle for career and age. You can't predict injuries, but, there are many indicators that should be paid more attention to, like off-season surgeries (Harrison) and the time it takes to come back from knee injuries (expect McNabb to explode next year).

Gleesing is the owner of and senior writer for fantasyfootballdrafthub.com. He can be reached at patrick@fantasyfootballdrafthub.com.

SCOTT ENDSLEY

Our absolute best without question was warning people against taking Larry Johnson, we had him rated lower from the beginning than nearly every expert. We also had Marshawn Lynch rated very high. On the bad side, we were hit hard by injuries with top rated skill players, but that's out of our control of course and hits everybody. We had Carson Palmer rated too high and the Bears defense at No. 1 was not a good idea at all.

Endsley is co-owner and a senior fantasy football consultant for FantasyDraftEdge.com. For more info, go to www.fantasydraftedge.com.

CORY BONINI

Heading into the regular season we labeled Jaguars running back Fred Taylor and Cowboys tight end Jason Witten as undervalued players. We were just as accurate with our assessments of Titans quarterback Vince Young, Saints running back Reggie Bush, the Chicago Bears defensive team and the Baltimore Ravens defensive team, all being tabbed as overvalued. Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer, while having a solid year with 26 touchdowns and setting a career high in yardage, disappointed with 20 interceptions thrown. Our worst predictions had to be placing the overvalued tag on Packers wide receiver Greg Jennings, Saints receiver Marques Colston and Browns tight end Kellen Winslow. Then again, who pegged the Browns to be an offensive juggernaut? We deemed Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers, Cowboys running back Julius Jones and Patriots wideout Donte Stallworth all as undervalued, which wasn't the right call, in hindsight. It was a solid year for our projections, but there is always room for improvement, of course.

KFFL offers football as well as baseball content and has captured over a dozen expert league championships. Founded in 1996, this company offers daily news, preseason draft guides, player rankings, sleepers, busts, weekly newsletters and more. KFFL also provides fantasy content to various organizations including SportsTicker and Yahoo! Sports. For more information, visit www.kffl.com .

ANDY RICHARDSON

I liked both of the top rookie runners, Adrian Peterson and Marshawn Lynch, and wasn't worried about the committee situations both were going into. I was pretty high on Drew Brees and Marques Colston, as well, who turned it on after a slow start. On the other hand, I was pretty high on Frank Gore and underestimated how the quarterback situation in San Francisco might hurt him. And I was definitely too high on another Saint who never did turn it around: Reggie Bush.

Richardson has been a columnist and contributor to the Fantasy Football Index magazine and web site for the past six years. His responsibilities include team defense and IDP projections, as well as various site features. He has run the magazine's annual draft and auction leagues since their inception. Other writing credits have included FFToday.com and football coverage for newspapers in Colorado and Florida. For more information go to www.fantasyindex.com.

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