Eric Sorenson
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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 (October 28th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.
What does adding Kenyan Drake do to the crowded, yet injured, Cardinals’ backfield? “I don’t know what’s going on with David Johnson now? Is his injury worse than the Cardinals led on? Chase Edmonds, how badly is hamstring injured? Obviously, he won’t play this week they have a short week. Here’s the problem: the Cardinals have the Niners in two of their next three games and the Niners are not a team you want to start a running back against. Drake may have been dropped in some leagues or people may still have him on their rosters just sort of waiting to see what would happen with the trade scenarios. But he’s not a guy you can play with any kind of confidence. He’s got San Francisco Thursday night, then you’ve got the Bucs so that’s a good matchup. Then you’ve got San Francisco again before a bye week. So, if you have Drake, he is really risky start in two of the next three weeks assuming David Johnson or Chase Edmonds doesn’t come back.”
With the 49ers being so dominant defensively, how much fantasy impact does that carry for their upcoming opponents? “Anyone who plays the Niners, if I can fade them, I will. That’s what my strategy was last week with Carolina. The only guy that did anything was Christian McCaffrey and that guy will put up 20 fantasy points on the ’85 Bears. That’s how good he is. So, I don’t want to play Kyler [Murray]. Larry Fitzgerald has disappeared the fantasy landscape. I mean, he hasn’t done anything in the last few weeks. Maybe play Christian Kirk on a flex if you have guys on bye but it’s really hard to trust anybody, regardless of what the team is, when they’re going up against the San Francisco 49ers right now.”
There are quite a few good wide receivers on bye this week. Who are some potential waiver names that could be plug and play options? “Tyrelle Williams got dropped in a lot of leagues because he missed time but he’s scored a touchdown in every game he’s played in so I’d see if he’s available. You could also go see and look if Chris Conley is available. Dede Westbrook got hurt and Conley has had two good games in a row including Sunday. He had a monster contest there against the Jets. Jamison Crowder could be out there-speaking of the Jets. I get it, Sam Darnold has looked really bad, but they’re playing the Dolphins and if there’s ever going to be a get-right game for any player or any team, it’s playing the Miami Dolphins.”
Where does New England’s defense stack up against some of the best fantasy groups of all time? The best ever. It’s not even close…it’s been bananas good. We can only go back and look at fantasy points to 2000. I’ve had our NFL fantasy researchers look up the stats. This is the best defensive start ever in fantasy football and it’s not even close. This defense is giving you double-digit points every single week. Not only double-digit points. They’re giving you 18-plus points every single week. Now the schedule is going to get a little tougher down the stretch and they have had the advantage of some really easy matchups over the first eight weeks. This defense isn’t the MVP because of Christian McCaffrey but I can make an argument the Patriots are number two.”
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