Fabiano’s Fantasy Focus: Week Five, Vol. I – How To Address Tight End Injuries

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 (Oct. 5), we mused about the recent wave of injuries to starting tight ends and how fantasy managers should best approach the situation at that position. Here is the Hall-of-Famer’s advice:

There Were Some Injuries At Tight End This Week, Most Notably To George Kittle. Who Might A Suitable Replacement Be?

“This is something that we dealt with last year with Kittle, where he missed half of the season due to injuries. Unfortunately, you have to play George Kittle if you have him. If he’s active, you have to play him. There are some options this week that you can get off of the waiver wire – Dawson Knox in Buffalo and Dalton Schultz from the Cowboys. Tyler Conklin could be floating out there, Cameron Brate as well because Gronkowski is going to miss some time. There are some options at tight end.”

As We’ve Discussed Before, The League Seems To Be Moving More And More Towards Running Back Tandems, But Derrick Henry Is Still Getting 30 Carries A Game. Are You Concerned He’ll Wear Down?

“They’re going to kill him. He’s on pace for 480 carries. I am afraid that they are going to run this guy into the ground by the middle of the season. He’s carrying the ball way too much. I know he’s a big, giant monster of a man but he’s had so many carries in the last couple of years. Here’s the problem – the Titans are not that good of a team, so they have to lean on Derrick Henry to be in games. I really am concerned. If you have Henry, make sure you have Jeremy McNichols on your bench just in case.”

Let’s Play A Game Of Start Or Sit With CeeDee Lamb and Devonta Smith. Who Plays?

“I’d be sitting Devonta Smith. I know that CeeDee had a bad game last week. I don’t care, he’ll bounce back. The Cowboys have the Giants this week and New York’s defense is not very good against the pass. I loved CeeDee coming into the season and I still think he’s going to have a great year, but here’s the thing – the Cowboys are actually leading in games this year, which means they’re leaning on the run in the second half. They aren’t throwing the ball a ton, but I still think CeeDee will bounce back.”