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Every Wednesday 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 (July 22nd) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.
What is your strategy, right now as we speak, with Tom Brady? “Brady is a situation that you can use to your advantage. Now he’s not Peyton Manning 2013 or Aaron Rodgers or Andrew Luck but he’s still pretty good. Even though he started last year poorly he was still in the top 10 in fantasy points among quarterbacks. He’s gunna drop because right now he’s suspended for four games…you get Tony Romo between rounds eight and 10 and still get Tom Brady in the ninth or 10th-round. What I like to do is go after the running backs and wide receivers early…once I get to round eight to 10 I’m probably going to take two quarterbacks in those three rounds because I can still get two number one’s…use Brady’s suspension to your advantage. I’m telling you right now you’re going to thrilled that you did if, after four games if that’s what the suspension is, you have Tom Brady for Week Five through the rest of the year. It’s almost like picking up the best free-agent. You just sit on him for four weeks.”
Expect continued success for Frank Gore in Indianapolis? “Like him a lot. I know he’s 32 and I know that typically running backs break down but he’s like the energizer bunny. Every year we bury him and every year he’s like Beatrix Kiddo in ‘Kill Bill, Part 2″ and just climbs out of the grave and I like the fact that he is going to see a lot, a lot fewer stacked lines of scrimmage because you can’t do that against Andrew Luck. Andrew Luck will absolutely destroy you. He is a good fit for the offense. I think he is going to be the featured back. Maybe you’re going to see a little Boom Herron in there, maybe a little Josh Robinson…I have [Gore] as an RB2. Now clearly there’s some risk there because of his age and because of his work load at the NFL level but there’s a lot to like there…I have him ranked at 14 at running back right now.”
Rookie wide receiver you’re most excited about? “Amari Cooper. I mean, that one’s easy. You know there’s a trend typically of the player that everyone is most excited about in terms of first-year players not being the number one fantasy player. We saw that last year a lot of people were excited about Bishop Sankey and it was Jeremy Hill at running back so sometimes these things are a little difficult to predict but everything I have heard and everything I have seen about Cooper: comparing him to Torry Holt. A guy who can stretch the field. A great route runner who’s got great hands and great speed and he has a quarterback. I like Derek Carr. You’re not looking at the same sort of average/mediocre quarterback in Oakland anymore so [Cooper] is certainly someone moving up draft boards. No question about that.”
How early have you seen him go in drafts thus far? “I’ve seen him go in the fourth and fifth-rounds. Fourth-round of a 12-team league, fifth-round of a ten-team league and that’s right around where he should go. I wouldn’t be comfortable drafting him really any higher than that.”
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Eric Sorenson
A Valley native, Eric has had a passion for the Arizona sports scene since an early age. He has covered some of the biggest events including Super Bowls, national championships and the NBA and MLB playoffs in his near 20 years in local media.