Fantasy Index

Ask the Experts

Which veteran who changed teams interests you most?

A.J. and Kyler the popular choices

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 veteran who changed teams interests you most?

PAT FITZMAURICE

Captain Obvious here, but I'm eager to see what A.J. Brown can do for Drake Maye and the New England passing game. Brown has had six 1,000-yard seasons and has averaged 9.8 yards per target over his career. Maye established himself as one of the best pure passers in the game last season even though he was spreading the ball around to an ensemble cast of pass catchers. Could Maye be even better this season? Could AJB surpass his previous single-season high of 11 touchdowns? It's going to be fun to find out.

Fitzmaurice has been an editor and analyst at FantasyPros since 2021. He won FantasyPros' in-season rankings accuracy contest in 2020.

KEVIN ENGLISH

Kyler Murray, Vikings: I’m not worried about Murray beating out J.J. McCarthy for the starting job. The bigger questions are whether he can maintain his career average of 36.7 rushing yards per game after another injury-disrupted season and how well he’ll fit Kevin O’Connell’s offense. Ultimately, at a mid-round ADP, Murray looks like a low-risk target.

English is a Senior Analyst at DraftSharks.com and has been on staff since 2009. Draft Sharks launched in 1999 as one of the web’s first fantasy football content sites and has evolved to help fantasy managers win with cutting-edge tools for drafting and in-season management.

MICHAEL NAZAREK

I can not wait to see A.J. Brown with Drake Maye as his quarterback! Brown is still very talented and his target share should go up significantly with a better passer targeting him. Really excited here, especially since I have him in a dynasty league.

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 more than $40K in recent seasons of the FFPC High Stakes Main Event. Nazarek can be reached via email at miken@ffmastermind.com.

HOWARD BENDER

How can you not be excited to see how wide receiver Mike Evans fares in his new home in San Francisco? After a streak of 11-straight 1,000-yard seasons came to an end due to injuries last year, I'm excited to see Evans return to action and play in a similar scheme that caters to his strengths as a big play-making wideout. Brock Purdy is also a very reliable quarterback, so feeding Evans with quality targets should only help boost the value and bring us to the start of another streak.

Bender is a highly respected veteran of the fantasy sports and sports betting industry, serving as the Head of Content for Fantasy Alarm. Bender writes a weekly sports column for the New York Post and hosts The Fantasy Alarm Show on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (airing Monday–Friday 6:00–8:00 PM ET and Sundays 10:00–11:00 AM ET). You can connect with him on X, Instagram, and Facebook @rotobuzzguy, and on TikTok @therealrotobuzzguy.

IAN ALLAN

Despite last year's disaster, I am a big fan of Kevin O'Connell. I think he's one of the best few coaches in the league in terms of making quarterbacks look good. So I will be very interested to see what he can do with Kyler Murray. In a draft today, I wouldn't have the guts to select Murray as my starting quarterback, but I'd be very interested in bringing him in to be my No. 2 guy.

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.

TOM KESSENICH

I think most will say A.J. Brown but I'm going to stick in the division and go with DJ Moore. The Bills badly need a WR1 and while I'm skeptical Moore can provide them with a high-impact option at the position coming off a disappointing 2025 season in Chicago, he certainly will be given every opportunity to be Josh Allen's go-to player at WR. Moore isn't going cheap, currently costing a 4th round pick in NFFC drafts so you'll need to pay if you believe in him rising to the occasion in Buffalo. But he's only two years removed from a 1,300-yard season and he has topped 95 receptions each of the past two years. So there is reason for optimism, especially with Allen at QB. I'm definitely intrigued to see if he can bounce back in his new home and working with one of the game's true elite QBs.

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

As tempting as it is to reaffirm my Chris Rodriguez position here, I'll turn to one of the more pragmatic options. A.J. Brown is an obvious and very worthy choice, especially in an offseason somewhat lacking in high profile players changing teams. I put his name forward to lead the league in receiving touchdowns in my Lightning Round submission for the magazine, so clearly I'm a believer that he and Maye make sweet music this fall. But I'll go with Mike Evans. Turning 33 next month, Evans still being able to command over $14M in fully guaranteed cash from the 49ers shows both just how much the league still respects what he can do (Note: That's significantly more money than Keenan Allen and DeAndre Hopkins combined took home last year), and just how determined San Francisco is to make one last go at it with what cumulatively will be the league's oldest offense. A healthy Evans in the system that most reliably creates explosive downfield plays for its inhabitants could be awesome, or the whole thing could burn up in the atmosphere in a flaming ball of Grade 2 hamstring strains before September's up. Either way, should be interesting!

Wilson is a writer and contributor to both Fantasy Football Index magazine and website www.fantasyindex.com, currently answering weekly questions while running the Fantasy Index Mailbag.

TONY HOLM

In the Super Bowl loss to Seattle, it was painfully obvious that New England was missing two components to their team in particular. A quality offensive line and they desperately needed an upgrade at wide receiver for Drake Maye. I’m most excited to see how A.J. Brown performs in a Patriots jersey as New England arguably hasn’t had a receiver of his caliber since Randy Moss.

Holm works for Fantasy Sharks, whose rankings and content can be found at fantasysharks.com.

JASON WOOD

That's easy, it's A.J. Brown. Brown's volatile 2025 was well documented, and despite the narrative that he wasn't himself, he still finished as a WR1. Now he goes to a Patriots team in desperate need of his services, joining a quarterback who led the league in completion rate and yards per attempt last season. On top of that, Brown considers Mike Vrabel a father figure, and will run through walls for him. A motivated Brown with an elite passer is going to shatter expectations.

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.

SCOTT SACHS

There's been a lot of movement this off-season, resulting in an intriguing scenario in the AFC East. A.J. Brown goes to New England and DJ Moore ends up in Buffalo. Chicago went younger at receiver and Philly had tired of Brown's drama. Moore finally gives Buffalo their first legit No. 1 wideout since Stefon Diggs left. Hopefully Josh Allen won't have to keep putting on his Superman cape when the Bills get in trouble. Brown has had a bit of a rocky start in New England. Chemistry with Maye is a work in progress, he dropped a ball and Vrabel yelled at him, tweaked a hammie, and may have a degenerative knee problem, etc. Many are fading Moore and touting Brown this season. I'm going the opposite and taking DJ over A.J. Buffalo has a new stadium, as well, and won't be conceding anything to New England.

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

SCOTT PIANOWSKI

I'm very curious to see what we get from Kyler Murray in Minnesota. Before last season, I was saying that I would follow Kevin O'Connell into a burning building. Okay, the building burned down. But I'm willing to blame most of that on J.J. McCarthy. That said, Murray is undersized for the position and most of what went wrong for him in Arizona, I blame on him. But given the talented infrastructure in Minnesota, maybe a notable comeback is possible.

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

So many. One I'll mention is Chris Rodriguez, who the past couple of years has at times been Washington's best running back (and at other times has been released and not signed by anyone else). There's a path to lead back in Liam Coen's offense, and if Rodriguez doesn't look great this summer, investing in Bhayshul Tuten becomes appealing. Others I'll mention are Jaylen Waddle and DJ Moore in Denver and Buffalo; two of the AFC's best teams a year ago have new No. 1 wideouts, just like the AFC Champion Patriots. Hard not to be intrigued by those guys.

Richardson has been a contributing writer and editor to the Fantasy Football Index magazine and www.fantasyindex.com since 2002. He is responsible for various site features, writes a weekly gambling newsletter, Index Bets, during the NFL season and also previews all the games on Saturdays.

Older
Newer

Fantasy Index