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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 (November 27th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.
Are you surprised by how Andrew Luck has come back so strong? “He’s awesome! His offensive line is playing out of its mind. He has seven-straight games on NFL.com where he has scored between 21.2 and something like 23.9 points. His floor and ceiling are the same. It’s unreal! I get it, he’s playing the Jaguars’ defense on the road but the Jags’ defense stinks. They’re bad. That’s one of the biggest surprises in fantasy football. This was a defense people were drafting inside of the top 10 rounds and now they’re waiver wire fodder.”
What quarterback do you like moving forward: Jameis Winston or Kirk Cousins? “I would be playing the matchups to be quite honest with you. This week, I’d go Winston. Here’s a crazy stat for you: if you combine the fantasy points Ryan Fitzpatrick and Jameis Winston have scored combined this year, they’re a QB2 behind Patrick Mahomes. That’s insane! These guys throw picks left and right but the yardage and touchdowns have really helped both of these quarterbacks. I like Winston this week over Cousins but I’d be playing the matchups each week.”
Can play one this week: Doug Martin or LaGarrette Blount? “I’m going to go Doug Martin. I don’t like the matchup for LaGarrette this week and when you look at the Rams, you could see game script going completely sideways for LaGarrette. Rams get up big, Lions have to throw the football in the second half, LaGarrette doesn’t get much burn. So I’d go with Doug Martin who has a better matchup. His point totals haven’t been great but Doug Martin’s looked pretty decent. Look at the tape. He doesn’t look like a guy who’s almost 30 years-old.”
Do you think James Conner is starting to slow down a bit? “I mean, I don’t know a lot of people that have a better third running back than James Conner and yeah, I’ve missed Le’Veon Bell. The last two games. Conner had that dropped touchdown pass where he would have guaranteed to get into the end zone against Jacksonville. That cost you points. Then this past week he had that fumble after a nice catch-and-run. He’s been frustrating. Then you go back and look at what Le’Veon Bell did the second half of last season, he was ridiculous. I don’t think people have another running back for me to say, ‘Yeah, go ahead and sit James Conner.’ If you have Aaron Jones, well, that’s a different tale.”
I’ve got Nuke Hopkins and Josh Gordon as my starters. Should I be looking to upgrade before the playoffs? “You’re looking at the waiver wire because in most leagues, maybe this league is different, the trade deadline has passed. But when you look at the wide receiver position off of the wire, D.J. Morris probably already gone. Curtis Samuel could potentially be out there. Josh Reynolds may be out there and it’s always nice to have shares in the Rams. I don’t know if any of those wide receivers are going to be better than what you have in Josh Gordon as your number two.”
Pick two: Matt Breida, Tevin Coleman, Jordan Howard, Tariq Cohen. “I’ll tell you one thing, Jordan Howard is on my “do not play” list unless I’m desperate because for three-straight weeks he’s done nothing. So Breida and Cohen because he’s been under-the-radar good and he’s the Bears’ running back you want.”
Can we expect more good things from Kenny Golladay in Detroit? “Keep playing him. Lots of targets. Marvin Jones just went on IR. They traded Golden Tate. They have nothing in the passing game other than Golladay. Also keep in mind, I know Aqib Talib will be back for the Rams and their defense is getting better but this is a team that can give it up as well as we saw in the Monday night game against the Chiefs. Again, game script. I think Detroit is going to be throwing the ball a lot in the second half so Golladay, by volume alone, is a very solid play.”
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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.