There’s no fantasy football offseason on NFL.com! Be sure to check out NFL.com/Fantasy for in-depth analysis on all the news that will affect your fantasy team in 2014!
Each week during the season NFL Network and NFL.com Fantasy Football Editor 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 (February 27th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.
What advice would you give to fantasy owners as we enter the spring? “The first thing I would do is keep and update my own rankings. You can get rankings on NFL.com…but it’s always good to keep your own rankings. Player values are going to change and you really should know what teams are releasing or signing players. Keeping tabs on player movement is pretty huge and also keeping tabs on how that player movement is going to effect the depth on the top four positions in fantasy football: quarterback, running back, wide receiver and tight end.”
Where can the greatest impact be made by rookies from a fantasy standpoint, by position? “When you’re talking about rookies, in fantasy, you’re talking about running backs and last year we had several rookie running backs who made an impact. Like Eddie Lacy, Gio Bernard, Zac Stacy just to name a few. So you’re going to be looking at guys this season who end up in spots where they’re go to succeed. So maybe a guy like Carlos Hyde, Jeremy Hill. Bishop Sankey, maybe. Tre Mason out of Auburn. Ka’Deem Carey out of Arizona so depending on where these players go you could see some of these rookies make an impact.”
Do you see any of the off-season coaching movement having a major impact on fantasy values in 2014? “You have to mention Norv Turner. Now, Turner may not have the resume as a head coach but if you look at him as an offensive coordinator he produces players who score fantasy points. Look at Josh Gordon last season. He was fantastic and he did it without a significantly good quarterback under center, also. Now, Cordarrelle Patterson becomes one of the biggest sleeper/breakout candidates in fantasy football for next season. He is going to be a very popular selection in a lot of fantasy drafts as a guy who’s going to outplay his draft position. Adrian Peterson…he’s going to see more passing receptions out of the backfield in Turner’s offense. He wants to get him open in space a little bit more.”
Are you expecting Jay Gruden to jump-start the Redskins offense next season? “Andy Dalton last year finished fifth in fantasy points. Fifth! He was really inconsistent but he had some huge games. Imagine what [Gruden] is going to do for the value of Robert Griffin III? Robert Griffin III could be a great value in fantasy drafts next season. These are some of the things that fantasy owners are going to want to keep tabs on. Not only player movement. Not only the draft. Not only the results of the combine but also coaches, coordinators and their effect on players.”
To hear the rest of the interview click here.
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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.