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 (Dec. 21), we discussed how managers should approach their round two playoff matchups. Here is what the Hall-of-Famer had to say:
This Week Is A Bit Of A Rarity In That There Are Still Games From The Previous Week That Have Yet To Be Played. How Should Managers Approach The Two Tuesday Night Games?
Jalen Hurts now in line to start Tuesday night. https://t.co/axhLmSapEB
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 20, 2021
“Antonio Gibson is the only guy to really have any faith in on the Washington side. Terry McLaurin is going to play but the matchup is not great against Darius Slay and the Eagles. On the Philadelphia side, Jalen Hurts is a go. If the postponement of this game benefited anyone, it’s him, because he probably would have been questionable to play this weekend and now he’s not even on the injury report. He should have a good game.
In the Rams-Seahawks game, Matthew Stafford should destroy Seattle’s defense and Cooper Kupp is an obvious start every week. In the backfield, I’m not sure who’s going to be used more between Sony Michel and Darrell Henderson, so hopefully you have both. For Seattle, Tyler Lockett is not going to play because he’s on the Reserve/COVID-19 list, which seems great for D.K. Metcalf, but the Rams got back Jalen Ramsey off the COVID list so that’s not a good matchup for D.K. I don’t like Russell Wilson in this one either.”
Based On What Happened To The Buccaneers Offense After Chris Godwin And Mike Evans Were Injured On Sunday, Would You Consider Benching Tom Brady This Week?
Tom Brady has been shut out for the first time in 15 YEARS 😮
His streak ends at 255 consecutive starts. pic.twitter.com/lDTBdML9Ql
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 20, 2021
“I would not blame anybody for benching Tom Brady this week. The Panthers defense isn’t bad and there are a ton of questions surrounding the health of Tampa Bay’s receivers. Is Mike Evans going to play? We know Chris Godwin isn’t. Is Antonio Brown going to be on a snap count? Did you see what happened on Sunday Night? Without his weapons, Brady was terrible. If you have a quarterback that’s somewhat reliable and has a good matchup, I would not argue with you for benching Tom Brady.”
Let’s Talk Matchups This Week. A Number Of Bad Teams Are Playing Each Other, Which Makes Streaming Defenses and Quarterbacks Tricky. Thoughts On That?
Brandin Echols jumps the route perfectly to tie the game with a Pick-6! @matayo_echols #TakeFlight
📺: #NYJvsMIA on CBS
📱: NFL app pic.twitter.com/RB4TpsjKkG— NFL (@NFL) December 19, 2021
“This week’s schedule stinks for quarterbacks and defenses. Four teams you would target for matchups for quarterbacks and defenses are the Jets, Jaguars, Lions and Falcons, and they’re playing one another this week. Am I starting Trevor Lawrence against the Jets or Zach Wilson against the Jaguars? Nope. Am I trusting Atlanta’s defense against the Lions this week or vice versa? Nope. It’s going to be another difficult week.”
