Fabiano’s Fantasy Focus: 2016 Training Camp, Volume III

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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 (July 27th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.

Are you all-in on the David Johnson hype after his impressive rookie season in Arizona? “Yes…they had a screening here in LA for the “All or Nothing” series on Amazon and I got a chance to meet David. He is such a nice dude, so easy to root for. Now I’m texting him saying, ‘hey man…you’re like a top 5 pick in fantasy.’ If you look at the numbers he put up once he took over for Chris Johnson, they were great. He had that one huge 40-point game against Philadelphia so the numbers might be a little bit skewed but he was very good.”

With Johnson it probably helps there won’t be a “backfield by committee” with the Cards, right? “Bruce Arians is one of my favorite coaches because he doesn’t mess around with our fantasy backfields. He likes to use one running back. So David Johnson is a first-round pick. I know there’s a little risk involved because he’s got a small sample size but I was impressed with that sample size.”

Where do you see Eddie Lacy going in most mock drafts? “I’ve seen Eddie Lacy drafted as high as the end of the second-round and I think that’s too high. I love that he’s gotten back in shape. He’s dropped 20 pounds which is good. He’s down to like 240 [pounds]. In his previous two years he was really good from a fantasy perspective–top 10 running back. But I don’t know if I trust him enough to take him in the second round.”

What about Demaryius Thomas in Denver? “He should probably go in the fourth round. People are still drafting him a bit based on name value. He is not going to be a number one wide receiver based on fantasy points with Mark Sanchez throwing him the football. You know I’m not a huge Sanchez fan. I’m sure he’s a great guy but in fantasy football he’s not good. He’s never had a 1,000-yard receiver. He’s never had a receiver score more than eight touchdowns in a season. If you take Thomas as a two in the fourth round then I think you’re ok.”

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