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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 (December 3rd) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.
Give me a few skill players who have good match ups in Week 14: “I like Jay Cutler. I know he’s been bad in the last few weeks but I do like him. I like Russell Wilson. I think he’s a must-start in Philadelphia because the Eagles can’t stop quarterbacks this year. Moving over to the running back position I love Rashad Jennings. Great matchup there against the Titans. Isaiah Crowell. Didn’t play last week because of the matchup but this week he plays the Colts and that’s a good matchup…guys to fit into [your] flex. Joique Bell fits that. Chris Ivory. Kenny Stills is another guy that has been hot recently and he has a good matchup. Odell Beckham has been on fire–a good PPR starter last week. Kelvin Benjamin six touchdowns on the road this year and he’s playing the Saints-a very good matchup. There are quite a few players out there that are not necessarily must-starts or elite names that you can use in your flex as your third wide receiver for example and based on the matchup hopefully they can give you some production.”
With Brian Hoyer being named the starter over Johnny Manziel in Cleveland-would you play him this week? “No. Not in the fantasy playoffs. It’s not that it’s a bad matchup but there are better options out there.”
Are you buying the hype on Stedman Bailey? “No, I need to see more than a couple of games. Listen, I like what he’s done in the stat sheets recently but I need to see a little bit more. Certainly worth a roster spot in 12-team leagues, 14-team leagues but I’m not throwing him right into my starting lineup in the first week of the playoffs.”
What players are “fool’s gold” so-to-speak heading into the first week of the playoffs in most leagues? “Look at what Ryan Fitzpatrick did last week, six touchdowns. You think I’m going to start Ryan Fitzpatrick on my fantasy football team? That’s not going to happen. You go back and look at some of the bigger performances last week: Colt McCoy had a really big game. Maybe he’s a matchup-based starter if my quarterback position is not very strong but I’m not going into the playoffs saying, ‘oh man, Colt McCoy is my guy.’ You have to remember teams and players are not as bad as their worst game and not as good as their best game…most of the players who have been solid throughout the year, this is the time that you have to play them. This is playoff time. This is do-or-die here so I want to have my best starting lineup possible.”
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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.