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Each 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 20) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.
What advice would you give on drafting Cleveland’s Josh Gordon? “Well, honestly Brad, you can’t draft him until the later rounds because he’s going to be suspended for some period of time whether it’s four games, eight games or an entire season and you can’t go into a draft not knowing if you’re not going to have a guy for an entire season and use, say, one of your first eight picks on him. It’s a late-round flier situation if he gets eight games then it will be worth it. If it’s 12, then you’re just putting him back on the waiver wire. Despite the fact that he was so good last year, until we really know something concrete about what the suspension is I just can’t waste a pick on him until the late rounds.”
Do you put much stock in not only new head coaches, but offensive coordinators as well in draft preparation? “Absolutely. The presence of Norv Turner in Minnesota is huge in fantasy! Not only for Kyle Rudolph and Adrian Peterson but also for Cordarrelle Patterson. Hue Jackson in Cincinnati, right? They’re going to run the ball. Hue Jackson is the only coordinator where Darren McFadden had a big, monster season under. You have to remember that. You look at the situation in Dallas with Scott Linehan. Linehan threw the ball a ton of times in Detroit with Matthew Stafford. Linehan has coached Calvin Johnson, Torry Holt, Randy Moss now he’s got Dez Bryant. You have to look at that stuff, Brad.”
What players will you be keeping a close eye on in the all-important third pre-season games? “Trent Richardson. He hasn’t looked good so far. You want to see if he can turn it around. C.J. Spiller. I’m going to be particularly watching guys who are either struggling so far or coming off of injuries. Does Arian Foster play this week? That could be something to look out for because we haven’t seen him yet. And players who have some upside, like a Bishop Sankey for example. How is he going to look this week. You either want to look at players who are going to be great draft bargains based on struggling last year or the fact that they’re coming off of injuries or younger guys to see where they sort of fit into the scope of their team’s offenses.”
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Eric Sorenson
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.