Sports360AZ

Fabiano’s Fantasy Focus: 2016 Off-Season, Volume I

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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 (March 15th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.

What move jumped out to you most from a fantasy perspective the past couple weeks? “Lamar Miller moving on to Houston. I think that’s a great move for his fantasy value. He was actually a Top 10 fantasy back last season but he was really inconsistent and that kind of shows how unreliable and thin the fantasy position has become. Now he moves to Houston where they want to run the football. He had 47 catches last year. He’s still young (25 years old) and he was really underutilized last year in South Beach. If he is the featured back which he should be…I have him ranked sixth among running backs right now. I really do think that Lamar Miller is going to worth a late first, early second-round pick this upcoming season.”

Staying in Houston–what do you make of Brock Osweiler? “Quarterback is so deep–I don’t even have Osweiler rated in my Top 20. That might change but I really haven’t seen enough from him. Everyone talks about the game he played against New England–that was certainly his best career wise. Will he be drafted in some leagues as a QB2? Sure. But I see him more as a guy who could be useful as a daily fantasy option, as someone who be used as a match-up based starter…Osweiler certainly moving into a good situation…but do I see Osweiler breaking out and becoming a Top 10 fantasy quarterback? I’m not so sure about that.”

Do you believe whoever Denver lands as their starting quarterback is pretty much a plug-and-play guy? “Maybe (Colin) Kaepernick. Maybe (Ryan) Fitzpatrick. Listen, I’m not a fan of Mark Sanchez. I’m just not. Could he go into Denver and be a match-up based starter? Sure. Is he somebody I’m going to target in my drafts? No. I’m actually more concerned about the players around whoever the quarterback is in Denver. How does this effect Demaryius Thomas? How does this effect Emmanuel Sanders?”

How does DeMarco Murray fit in Tennessee? “This was a very good fantasy trade. DeMarco goes from Philadelphia were he was a disaster to Tennessee where they’re going to be improving their offensive line and could be taking one with the first overall pick. (Murray’s) the guy. Fantasy owners like what? Featured backs. So, he’s not going to be the number one fantasy running back like he was in Dallas in 2014 but can he be nice RB2? No question about that.

How about Murray’s replacement with the Eagles Ryan Mathews? “He looks like he’ll be the featured back in Philadelphia which adds depth to the position…you’re looking at a situation now where Ryan Mathews and DeMarco Murray are both on the RB2 radar. Murray having a little more value. Now, who knows if the Eagles keep Mathews, try to trade him. Maybe they draft Ezekiel Elliott in the first round and that throws a monkey wrench in everything. You have to understand that was a good trade for both Murray and Mathews.”

 

A Valley native, Eric has had a passion for the Arizona sports scene since an early age. He has covered some of the biggest events including Super Bowls, national championships and the NBA and MLB playoffs in his near 20 years in local media.

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