Fabiano’s Fantasy Focus: 2017 Pre-Season, Volume II

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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 (August 1st) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.

Have to ask you about Jay Cutler to start with. What, if any, is his fantasy value in Miami? “I have him right on the borderline of like a QB2, QB3. He had a pretty good season on the field playing under Adam Gase in Chicago which was two years ago. But he was 20th in fantasy points among quarterbacks so the statistics, when they count, didn’t really move the needle from a fantasy perspective. So what you’re looking at with Cutler is, probably not going to get drafted in a 10-team league. He probably will get drafted as a QB2 in a 12-team league and likely to be drafted, I would say, in one of the last three rounds. That’s best-case scenario.”

If you were drafting late, would you take a chance on him? “I would. There’s a lot of leagues out there where you start two QB’s. He’s definitely going to be starting in those leagues. If you are in a league that has a super flex, that is another league where he will be drafted. But in a standard 10-team league, he’s probably not going to be taken. If he is, it will be in one of the last three rounds.”

PPR league pick one: Melvin Gordon, LeSean McCoy, or Devonta Freeman. “McCoy. McCoy is McCoy. He’s one of the best running backs in fantasy football in an offense that is going to run the ball a lot. I mean, you look at the Bills’ rushing attack last year, Shady McCoy was clearly the man but Mike Gillislee scored eight touchdowns behind him. Gillislee now in New England. McCoy is ranked fourth right now among running backs on my big board behind the big three of David Johnson, Le’Veon Bell and Ezekiel Elliott. That’s why I go McCoy. It’s close. Melvin Gordon is clearly a very good option, especially since the Chargers didn’t really add much at the running back position so he’s going to be the featured guy there but Shady is still my pick between those three.”

Brandin Cooks or Amari Cooper?  “I’m going Cooper. People might question that because Cooper has had an issue with his touchdowns ceiling. He has not been very prolific as a touchdown scorer but Brandin Cooks, there’s so many mouths to feed in New England, I think his ceiling took a hit. In New Orleans, he was a Top 10 wide receiver based on fantasy points. I think this year he falls more in to the wide receiver two category, whereas Cooper has a little higher ceiling so I’m going to go with him but those two are really close in value.”  

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