Ask the Experts

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

Which preseason surgery (Manning, McGahee), suspension (Smith, Marshall), or contract squabble (Boldin, Jackson) involving a major player has most affected your rankings?

CHRIS LISS

I'd be most concerned about McGahee -- he's not going to lose his job just because he missed camp, but if he's even a half-step slow in his return, Ray Rice has shown he's ready to play.

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LOUIS TRANQUILLI

Willis McGahee went from my top 10 down to a RB 3 ranking in the 20s. I love Cam Cameron's ability to get guys in the right position to succeed, but the knee along with reports that Willis showed up out of shape make me nervous he will see more time on the sidelines. He's still a solid No. 2 back IF you want to roll the dice, but the risk has increased exponentially.

Louis Tranquilli is the founder and the primary "brains" (if you stretch it) of BFDFANTASYfootball.com. BFD is about giving advice to players from a player. Lou's been a highly successful owner in many high stakes contests. BFD is giving away 50 fantasy football teams in 2008.

SAM HENDRICKS

Suspensions are easy, factor in how many games they miss and move on. Injuries are tougher because of the recovery time. Holdouts though, that is where I get nervous, because you have no idea when it will be resolved. I also think long preseason holdouts lead to injuries in the regular season. So up until last week I would have said Steven Jackson’s hold out. However, lately Peyton Manning’s swelling has me concerned. I have him clinging to QB 4 ranking by a thread and that will affect R. Wayne, M. Harrison, A. Gonzalez, D. Clark and Vinatieri. After seeing Jim Sorgi (Peyton’s backup) not play this past week, I suspect he was saved for opening day or worse. IND has a bye early in week 4. Anyone else see Peyton return to the field at Houston (week 5)?

Hendricks is the author of Fantasy Football Guidebook and the recently released Fantasy Football Almanac 2008 which are both available at his website, www.ffguidebook.com, at all major bookstores, and at www.amazon.com. He is an 18-year fantasy football veteran who regularly participates in the World Championship of Fantasy Football (WCOFF) and will participate this year in the inaugural season of the Fantasy Football Players Championship (FFPC).

IAN ALLAN

I’ll go with the Manning injury, because it affects not only him but all of those other blue-chip players as well – Wayne, Harrison, Clark, Addai and Gonzalez. I believe that Manning will play in the opener, but I think it’s not realistic to expect him to step in and play at his tip-top level right away, not after missing almost all of training camp. It’s going to take him some time to get his timing squared away.

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.

DAVID DOREY

For TheHuddle.com, it’s been the preseason surgery on Willis McGahee that has combined with his poor worth ethic and general displeasure by the coaching staff. McGahee was brought in last year to reinvigorate the rushing game and he merely replicated exactly what Jamal Lewis had been doing (while Lewis was reinvigorating himself in Cleveland). Throw in Ray Rice who looks like the next Maurice Jones-Drew and McGahee has fallen to No. 22 in our rankings while Rice has risen to 34th. .

Dorey is the co-founder and Senior NFL Analyst at The Huddle since 1997. He has produced award winning rankings and has projected the fantasy stats for every game over the last 13 years. David produces the bulk of The Huddle rankings and his “Predictions and Projections” breaks down every single NFL game every week through the Super Bowl. You can find more about David at TheHuddle.com.

JEFFREY KAMYS

Tough call, they have all taken a little hit, even though the Jackson's holdout is resolved he is not going to have enough PT to really be in snyc once the season starts. Further we have seen it a million times, a guy holds out and rushes to get back and boom he is injured early. In our book Jackson takes the biggest hit right now.

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 email to webmaster@docstats.com.

BOB HECK

The Willis McGahee injury concerns us the most and we were down on him before the injury. For starters, McGahee showed up to camp out of shape (he didn’t participate in voluntary OTAs which irritated coaches) and then sat out most of camp with nagging ailments. On the arthroscopic surgery – this is the same left knee McGahee obliterated in the National Championship game back in 2003 so we worry this will linger. Conversely rookie RB Ray Rice has played like a star with his first team reps. As a senior at Rutgers last year, Rice eclipsed the 2,000 yard mark (2,012 yards) and tasted paydirt 24 times. Rice looks and plays a lot like Maurice Jones-Drew and we expect he will cut into McGahee’s time even if he has no serious complications coming back from the surgery.

Heck is a founding partner at Dynasty Rogues, a fantasy football website filled with football enthusiasts, run by football enthusiasts. The company provides year-round dynasty and redraft fantasy football coverage and analysis, including Dynasty Rogues Radio and the Rogues Forum. The site can be reached at www.dynastyrogues.com.

MIKE NAZAREK

We've been pretty steady across the board on all these players, dropping them only a few slots here and there, but I'd have to say that the hit Willis McGahee took when he underwent knee surgery was the most significant. Backup rookie Ray Rice has had a great camp, and looks more than ready to take over the job, so if McGahee isn't ready or struggles upon his return, Rice could grab that starting job and never give it up.

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

SCOTT ENDSLEY

Of course we're watching all situations closely. The Manning injury has just recently gotten us more concerned. If this truly were no big deal as we were all led to believe he'd have been back sooner. If we don't hear something more positive soon he'll move down on our rankings as it's likely he'll miss at least one game. McGahee is also learning a new offense and is getting pushed by Rice so we have started to inch him down in our rankings. We are big fans of a healthy McGahee but right now there isn't one. With reports of Jackson returning to camp as we write this that's behind us, he's got time to get in game shape still. Boldin has a big mouth and we'd like to see some fire on the field that may raise his game if he takes the revolutionary stance of proving his worth on the field for another year. The suspensions had the biggest impact on our player rankings (at least so far) because the are easy to do the math on, we just reduce our projections on the number of games missed with some adjustment for the opponents they would have faced.

Endsley is co-owner and a senior fantasy football consultant for FantasyDraftEdge.com offering customizable fantasy football cheat sheets and professional VIP advice all season long. For more info, go to www.fantasydraftedge.com.

ANDY RICHARDSON

For me it’s Anquan Boldin, a player who I figured would be happy with a new contract by now, and instead seems to be as unhappy as any player since, I dunno, Terrell Owens his second year in Philadelphia. Tough to see him giving his all, playing through pain – and this is a guy who tends to get banged-up a lot – and being the same player he’s been in previous years. His value is too similar to too many other wideouts; I just can’t see myself taking him in any drafts this year. So, he’s too low in my eyes to find his way onto any of my teams.

Richardson has been a columnist and contributor to the Fantasy Football Index magazine and web site for the past seven 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. His A DAY OF FOOTBALL wrap-up column appears Mondays during the NFL season. For more information go to www.fantasyindex.com.

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