Fabiano’s Fantasy Focus: 2020 NFL Draft, Volume I

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

Overall, what is your biggest fantasy takeaway after last weekend’s draft? “Let’s be honest, this draft was not very fantasy-friendly for those of us who want immediate gratification. For dynasty league owners, there’s a lot to like but if you’re drafting in 2020 like most people are, you’re thinking. ‘All the good players are going to teams that are not going to be able to utilize their full fantasy ceiling in year one.'” 

What do you see over here in Arizona about the fantasy side with the Cardinals? “I dig it. I’m glad they didn’t draft CeeDee Lamb because he went [to the Cowboys]! They made the right decision because they’re actually set at wide receiver. So Kyler’s my QB4. David Johnson is now in Houston. Kenyan Drake is the guy. Last year, when he got traded, he was a top three fantasy running back. He had a couple of down weeks but when he was good, he was really, really good. He’s a great fit for that offense when Kliff Kingsbury decides to run. Kingsbury’s offense is going to be conducive to wide receiver success. Nuk is going to be a top three wide receiver. ” 

As expected, there was a big run on wide receivers in the early rounds. Who do you like to have the biggest impact this season? “For me it’s Jerry Jeudy because Courtland Sutton is the number one but he’s going to be the number two and the targets are going to be there. I feel like he is going to be in a really good spot to succeed. Juedy I like a lot…he is my number of guy.  Justin Jefferson is very interesting for me too because he goes to a great spot in Minnesota with Stefon Diggs gone and his 94 targets available. So he should slot right in very quickly behind Adam Thielen as the wide receiver two.”

Of the four first-round quarterbacks – who do you jump on first? “It’s Joe Burrow. Like, there’s no doubt about it. The question marks about Burrow are basically he had one big season. He’s not the best deep ball thrower in the world. He doesn’t have a gigantic cannon of an arm like Dan Marino but he checks all the boxes basically. He’s in a really good offense that Zac Taylor is going to build around him. They drafted Tee Higgins. They should get A.J. Green back. They’re got Tyler Boyd. They have a lot of weapons. I’m not saying he going to be Cam Newton as a rookie but he’s certainly draftable.”

What do you make of Bruce Arians’ overhauled offense in Tampa Bay? “They’ve done great. Honestly, that offense was very fantasy-friendly last season and now it’s going to be even more so because [Tom] Brady’s not going to throw 30 picks. Brady’s got Chris Godwin, he’s got Gronk now. He’s got Mike Evans. Ke’Shawn Vaughn is a player to watch in fantasy. He got drafted out of Vanderbilt. He’s probably going to be the starter over there – ahead of Ronald Jones. At least, that’s what I would project. Maybe it’s a committee but Vaughn is a sneaky sleeper in your fantasy leagues – whether it’s redrafts or dynasty because in that offense he could end up being a really productive player.”