Fabiano’s Fantasy Focus: Training Camp Edition Volume V

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Every week during the season NFL Network and NFL.com Senior Fantasy Analyst Michael Fabiano joins Sports360AZ.com’s Brad Cesmat to share his insight on building and developing your fantasy team for success.

Here are some hi-lights from our most recent conversation (August 29th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.

Boom or bust: Andy Dalton this season? “To me, neither. Because Any Dalton is going off the board in the 14th or 15th round. So he’s not going to be a bust because you drafted him really late and if he doesn’t play well you just cut him. He to me is closer to a Top 12 quarterback to me than he is in the 15-20 range so if you want to call him a “boom” I guess you could do that. But I kind of like the value because people are not drafting him highly. I know he lost a lot of weapons and we don’t know if Tyler Eifert will be back in Week 4 or Week 6 whatever the case may be but Dalton’s still a pretty good quarterback and I like him late.”

What do you make of Christine Michael through the pre-season up in Seattle? “So I talked to Michael Robinson who’s a good buddy of mine and used to play for the Seahawks and definitely has his ear to the ground in the great Northwest. I’ve talked to him about this because he would know much better than I would. He tells me Thomas Rawls is the guy. You know what, Christine Michael has looked great in the pre-season. Let’s see him do it in the regular season. He looked good at the end of last year and in the playoffs a little bit. Is there a chance he could put a dent in Rawls touches? Sure. Rawls is not a good pass-catcher number one and number two, C.J. Prosise has been banged up and hasn’t really done anything in the pre-season. I still like Rawls. I’d draft him as an RB2. If you’re in a 10-team league he’s probably going to go off the board in the fifth round, sixth-round. Maybe even in the fourth round in a 12-team league. But I’m projecting Rawls to be the leader in that backfield based at least what I’ve heard from Mike [Robinson].”

I drafted Tony Romo…may stream quarterbacks in Week 1-who should I be keeping my eye on? ” Dak Prescott! I know people are going to think I’m insane but when you’re a quarterback that can run with the football and you’re behind a great offensive line with an elite wide receiver and what projects to be a good running back behind you you’re in a good position to succeed…I can promise you right now: when you get to the Week 1 rankings for quarterbacks Prescott is going to be in the Top 12 because of who he’s playing [Giants]. In terms of guys who you’re looking at off the waiver wire who may or may not still be out there it’s pretty tough. Brock Osweiler could be somebody you’re looking to pick up.  They’re playing the Bears and their defense is not very good. Maybe Joe Flacco who’s going up against the Bills…there’s so many good quarterbacks you could pick up and stream guys for as long as you need a quarterback.”

Despite a rough playoff stretch, are you buying Carson Palmer out in Arizona? “In his last 22 [regular season] games under Bruce Arians he’s averaged like 18 fantasy points a game. It’s really good and you can get him middle-to-late rounds in some leagues…the Cardinals have a whole heck of a lot to like from a fantasy perspective.”

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