Evan Oscherwitz
Every week during the NFL season, Sports Illustrated Senior Fantasy Analyst Michael Fabiano joins Sports360AZ’s Brad Cesmat to share his insight on building and developing your fantasy team for success.
In our most recent conversation with Michael (Sep. 7) we went over which players fantasy managers should absolutely play in the first week of the regular season, and which ones are best kept on the bench. Here are the most salient moments from that discussion:
Quarterbacks To Play:
“I’m digging on Jalen Hurts this week against Atlanta. I think that’s going to be a high-scoring game. I like him against that bad [Falcons] defense. Ryan Tannehill, sorry Cardinals fans, your defensive backfield has some question marks going into week one. I think Tannehill is a good play. I’m interested to see what that offense looks like with Julio Jones.”
Quarterbacks To Avoid:
“Ben Roethlisberger against the Bills. He’s failed to score more than 13.5 fantasy points in five career games against Buffalo. Jameis Winston, if you’re in a two quarterback league, I get it. It could be a high-scoring game, but it’s a home game for the Saints where they’re playing in Jacksonville because of Hurricane Ida. I know Marquez Callaway has been great but does that translate into the regular season? Time will tell. If I’m in a traditional league, I’m probably keeping Jameis on the bench.”
Running Backs To Play:
James Robinson: 4 100+ yard games in 2020
Most among rookie RBs 👀 pic.twitter.com/yikFv7Nzr6
— PFF (@PFF) September 4, 2021
“James Robinson, Raheem Mostert, I like them this week. Gus Edwards as well. All the Ravens running backs are hurt except for Edwards. They’ve got Tyson Williams behind him on the depth chart and that’s it.”
Running Backs To Avoid:
The @Raiders first official practice ahead of the opener against @Ravens is on Thursday. We'll finally get some official word on injuries. Josh Jacobs not practicing for the second straight day today, so we'll see what's up, if anything, with that.
— Vincent Bonsignore (@VinnyBonsignore) September 7, 2021
“If you don’t have better running backs than Josh Jacobs, you’ve probably got to play him. The matchup against Baltimore is not great. Same thing with D’andre Swift. You’ve probably got to play him assuming he’s active but he missed a lot of the summer with injuries and I just don’t know that he’s going to get a full workload after coming off of a camp and a preseason where he didn’t do that much because he was banged up. Jamaal Williams could be pretty prominent.”
Wide Receivers To Play:
Also, Brandon Aiyuk and Dontae Johnson were running wind sprints on the side of the 49ers practice field. Movement looked unencumbered for both. They're supposedly on track to be full-go Week 1 and that checks out based on what I saw
— David Lombardi (@LombardiHimself) September 2, 2021
“Tee Higgins in what could be a high-scoring game against Minnesota. [The Vikings] defensive backfield still has question marks. Brandon Aiyuk, keep in mind he’s dealing with a hamstring problem, but it looks like he’s going to be good to go. Deebo Samuel in that same game is a good play as well, especially if Aiyuk is a late inactive. I also like Devonta Smith this week as a flex starter in a good matchup.”
Wide Receivers To Avoid:
“Odell Beckham, Jr. Don’t love the matchup [against the Chiefs] and remember – OBJ in Cleveland has averaged 12 fantasy points per game. Kenny Golladay, if active, don’t touch him against Denver. He did nothing in the preseason, he’s hurt, and I just don’t trust that Giants offense. I think they’re going to struggle.”
Tight Ends To Play:
“I like Dallas Goedert and Logan Thomas based on the matchups.”
Tight Ends To Avoid:
“Tight ends are tough. I write about so many players, and I can’t mention (Travis) Kelce, I can’t mention (George) Kittle, I can’t mention (Darren) Waller, I can’t mention (Mark) Andrews, I can’t mention (Kyle) Pitts and I can’t mention (T.J.) Hockenson because they’re all must-starts. So that shrinks my pool of players that I can talk about, but Jared Cook is a guy I’d bench this week, Gerald Everett is a guy I’d bench this week.”
