Eric Sorenson
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Each week NFL Network and NFL.com Fantasy Football Editor Michael Fabiano joins Pros2Preps.com’s Brad Cesmat to share his insight on building your fantasy team for success.
Here are some hi-lights from our most recent conversation with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.
What’s the impact of Percy Harvin’s injury in Seattle? “Right now Percy Harvin’s not draftable. Who knows if he’s going to be back this season and if he is he’s probably not going to be back until right around the fantasy playoffs so if that happens a couple weeks before, you’ll pick him up off the waiver wire and stash him and see what happens. The big impact for me is with Golden Tate…I think Golden Tate becomes more of an option in fantasy leagues [behind Sydney Rice], as does Doug Baldwin.”
How does Harvin’s injury impact Russell Wilson fantasy value? “This is going to hurt Russell Wilson’s ceiling. We saw him put up Top 10 fantasy numbers from the quarterback position last year and I thought he’d improve coming into 2013 because of the addition of Percy Harvin because he’s such a playmaker, but that ceiling is gone so Russell Wilson’s going to drop a few spots. Not out of the Top 10 but right now, all things being equal, I’d rather have Robert Griffin III. I’d rather have Matt Ryan. Just because they added Percy Harvin didn’t mean they weren’t going to be a run-first team.”
Does Vernon Davis getting reps at wide receiver escalate his draft stock as a tight end? “Vernon Davis is a top five tight end right now. Maybe it’s because the tight end position has taken a few bumps this offseason considering [Rob] Gronkowski’s health status, Aaron Hernandez no longer in the mix, Dennis Pitta no longer in the mix and other guys like Antonio Gates and Brent Celek really dropping off the radar. Davis, by default, is a top five guy and the fact that he’s lining up at receiver and will likely be the top target for Colin Kaepernick, clearly that’s going to increase his value…if he can get back to the [old] Vernon Davis that would be fantastic for the tight end position. I wouldn’t draft him thinking I’m getting a guaranteed superstar tight end because the last two years there’s been some question marks.”
What’s best advice you’d give if you’re in the first year of a keeper league? “Keeper leagues are so different from one year to the next. In a keeper league, you’re really drafting like it’s in a seasonal league except you’re looking at youth a little bit closer. So you don’t want to draft a guy like Sidney Rice when you can get a younger wide receiver at the position with similar value. Say, like a T.Y. Hilton. You don’t want to give up value for youth. You still want to build from the running back position, the wide receiver position. You can still get good quarterbacks in the middle rounds. I’ve seen guys like Matthew Stafford and Tony Romo come off the board after round eight, round nine. I’ve seen Stafford go in round 11 which is ridiculous.”
What’s the downside of playing in a two quarterback flex league? “The quarterback position is going to be coming off the board much quicker because it only makes sense to try to get a quarterback as your flex starter because your quarterback is going to score more points than most positions just based on the nature of the position. If I can play a QB and a flex starter it is a two-QB league because I’m going to want to draft two quarterbacks. If you’re in a 10-team league and everyone’s drafting two quarterbacks, those quarterbacks are going to come off the board a lot faster. I don’t like having a quarterback in a flex spot. I’d rather have the running back, wide receiver and tight end because it’s almost going to overvalue the quarterback position.”
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