Eric Sorenson
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Every Wednesday 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 6th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.
How does Arian Foster’s setback shake up your running back rankings? “That is a huge blow. Number one, the list of elite running backs is short already and now you lose Foster for most of the season although reports now have him coming back in Week 10. Once he is out for eight games and then he has the bye so I think Foster is still draft-able if you can draft him and hold him for that amount of time. It’s almost like what happened with Josh Gordon last year. A lot of people drafted him or picked him up off the waiver wire and just sat on him until he came back…Foster is one of the elite running backs in the entire league and fantasy football. This is also an opportunity for fantasy owners to customize their leagues on NFL.com to actually mirror what happens in the league.”
What’s your view of Todd Gurley? “One of the most talented running backs in the entire league. Compared to Marshawn Lynch and Adrian Peterson, two very good comparisons. The key with him is keeping tabs with what’s going on with that knee. He avoided the PUP list so he will not be subject to missing the first six games of the season. Now I still think Tre’ Mason could end up opening the season as the starter but Brad we’re not concerned with who opens it as much as we are concerned with who closes it as the starter. So I think that will happen with Gurley. There will be a handoff there…at some point the Rams are going to utilize him in some sort of featured role. They would have never drafted him so highly if they weren’t going to utilize this guy as the centerpiece of their offense.”
As of now, where do you have Tom Brady coming off the board in most leagues? “You have to figure that Tom Brady is a guy who could end up being, as weird as this sounds, a pretty decent steal in drafts because he’s not going until the 10th round. I can argue Brad that I can draft Tom Brady and no other quarterbacks and play the match-ups in the first four weeks in a 10-team league…I’m not saying I would do this…but I can argue that I can do that, get away with not having Brady for those first four games and then all of a sudden I have one of the elite quarterbacks in the league as my starter for the final 12 games.”
What sort of impact does Michael Floyd’s injury have in Arizona? “Floyd wasn’t really highly touted after he was disappointing last year and I’ve told you Brad, I like John Brown to emerge out of that threesome of wide receivers including Larry Fitzgerald to be the number one fantasy option. Not saying he’s going to be a number one fantasy wide receiver but he could push for number three value…Michael Floyd’s absence in training camp is not going to do him any favors…the battle now is between Brown and Fitzgerald. You know me, I like upside over experience, especially when that experience has seen a decline in his numbers over the last couple years.”
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