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: Now that you've had a chance to see all of them, which rookie running back will have the best career?
DAVID DOREY
Tough question since all the rookie backs have underwhelmed so far and partially not their fault since they never had a real offseason/preseason as they should have. D'Andre Swift finally had one decent game and Clyde Edwards-Helaire just got a backfield buddy in LeVeon Bell that won't help his stats. Cam Akers is AWOL. Jonathan Taylor is a tempting answer though I still worry about how much tread is on his tires after that spectacular college career. So I still want Edwards-Helaire. Anyone in that offense is fantasy-relevant. Bell could just be a part-timer. I'd still move all my chips to him.
Dorey co-founded The Huddle.com in 1997. He's ranked every player and projected every game for the last 23 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.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI
This is a great question, and I feel like I changed my mind a few times. Put me down for Jonathan Taylor. I still get the idea Indy is holding him back an eyelash, with an eye toward really unleashing him in the second half. The line is a plus. Frank Reich is one of the most respected minds in the league. And although Taylor wasn't a big pass-catcher in college, he's proven competent in that area this year. With apologies to Edwards-Helaire and Swift (so hard to look away from SEC talent), I'll give this one to the Big 10.
An FSWA award-winning writer (with nominations in four sports) and podcaster, Scott has been with Yahoo Sports since 2008. 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.
JUSTIN ELEFF
I’d say the question is very much premature, what with Frank Reich still deciding how (much) he’ll use Jonathan Taylor, and the answer depends heavily on factors we cannot predict. Here’s one: D’Andre Swift was great on Sunday, and the Lions won. If he’s great a few more times in 2020, does that save Matt Patricia’s job? If so, does Patricia repay the favor by installing some gross version of the Patriots’ divided-labor backfield and partly tanking Swift’s career? The best bet is and always will be the guy who was drafted into the best offense. Clyde Edwards-Helaire may see his own labor divided more than we’d like after Kansas City added LeVeon Bell, but he figures to break back out next year and have a long, rousing career not unlike those of his Andy Reid predecessors, Brian Westbrook and LeSean McCoy. If I have to pick today — and here I am doing it — it’s still Clyde.
Eleff hosts the Fantasy Index Podcast, available in the iTunes Store now. He has worked for Fantasy Index off and on all century.
IAN ALLAN
I wouldn’t go as far as to say that he’ll be the best, but AJ Dillon caught my eye in the Tampa Bay game. The Packers gave him some carries, and they got him on the field early. He’s a big, powerful guy — a tackle-breaker who can punish defenses between the tackles. I think he’s going to be a successful player. I expect they’ll start working him in more consistently as another option behind Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams. He’s different kind of back. Both of those guys are in the final seasons of their rookie contracts, so I’m thinking it’s pretty certain Dillon will be one of the two main backs in Green Bay next year.
Allan co-founded Fantasy Football Index in 1987. He and fellow journalism student Bruce Taylor launched the first newsstand fantasy football magazine as a class project at the University of Washington. For more than three decades, Allan has written and edited most of the content published in the magazines, newsletters and at www.fantasyindex.com. An exhaustive researcher, he may be the only person in the country who has watched at least some of every preseason football game played since the early 1990s. Allan is a member of the FSTA Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame and the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame.
MICHAEL NAZAREK
Jonathan Taylor. The Colts will continue to make him the centerpiece of their offense well into the future, and there is no LeVeon Bell waiting in the wings to steal his job.
Nazarek is the CEO of Fantasy Football Mastermind Inc. His company offers a preseason draft guide, customizable cheat sheets, a multi-use fantasy drafting program including auction values, weekly in-season fantasy newsletters, injury reports and free NFL news (updated daily) at its web site. 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 nearly $30K in recent seasons of the FFPC High Stakes Main Event. www.ffmastermind.com. Nazarek can be reached via email at miken@ffmastermind.com.
ANDY RICHARDSON
I go back and forth. I still like Edwards-Helaire, but Kansas City has continued to add veterans (LeSean McCoy last year, LeVeon Bell this year) to its backfield, making me think they'll always be bringing in some other ballcarrier to mix in. I'm wary of running backs who don't have a passing game role, making me uncertain about Jonathan Taylor (and there's no getting around his lack of production thus far). So I'm going to cast my vote for J.K. Dobbins. It kind of looks like Mark Ingram is toast, and Dobbins has shown more burst than Ingram and definitely has more pass-catching ability than Gus Edwards. It might not happen this year, but at this time in 2021 I think Dobbins will be the clear No. 1 back in a talented offense. I also like D'Andre Swift, again with the element of catching passes a plus.
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 previews all the NFL games on Saturdays and writes a wrap-up column on Mondays during the NFL season.