Fabiano’s Fantasy Focus Week 12, Volume I

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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 (November 19th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.

Who are some players you like this week, matchup-wise heading into Week 12? “Well, let’s start off, I’ll give you some quarterbacks here you can start. I like Tony Romo this week. If you look at his numbers against the Giants [in his] career, they’re very good. In fact, in his last five games against the Giants in New York…Romo has 14 touchdown passes. I like Jay Cutler this week against the Buccaneers. I told you to start him last week, this week I say keep him in your lineup against the Bucs. Matt Ryan, playing at home [against Cleveland] I do like this matchup. Matt Ryan can struggle but he’s been better at home, typically. In fact he’s got 22 touchdown passes and five interceptions in his last 10 home games against the AFC.”

With the news this week, is Adrian Peterson still worth rostering? “I think at this point you can hang on to him unless there’s a hot free agent that you need to pickup. Say, for example, you’re hurting at running back this week, C.J. Anderson is out there and Peterson is really the only guy you can drop, then you cut ties with him. If you do have that one roster spot where [you] can afford to stash Adrian Peterson much like most people stashed Josh Gordon up to this point, he comes back in Week 12, then you can do that, too. There’s no reason to drop Adrian Peterson if you’re not going to pick up a player who’s going to make an impact for your fantasy team either this week or in the very latest next week so that’s basically the answer.”

Marques Colston has been a fantasy mystery the entire season–is he worth taking a flier on for the stretch run? “So the issue with the Saints passing game is now it looks Brandin Cooks is out for the rest of the season…and definitely out for the remainder of the fantasy season. So people are just reacting and thinking, ‘Well, somebody’s gotta catch passes there.’ So maybe he sees an uptick in targets. This week he’s playing the Ravens. They actually haven’t been that great against wide receivers. Their defensive backfield has been banged up. So, to me, Colston is a three or a flex. I can’t advise starting him with a lot of confidence. He’s one of those players where if you have a team on a bye or you potentially have some injuries at wide receiver, and you’re kinda looking to throw a dart at a board…hit a bullseye, his value is on the rise…at least a little bit because Cooks is no longer in the mix.”

Andre Ellington has battled a foot injury and seen his production slip–are you still high on him? “No question about it. He’s got two things going for him. Number one, he’s in a very good offense and Bruce Arians is a guy who’s a guru with that. Number two, there is no one taking carries from him. You don’t have to worry about a backfield committee. Right now Andre Ellington has more fantasy points than Alfred Morris. Has more fantasy points than LeSean McCoy, Giovani Bernard. You don’t put him in the category as those players but he’s been better than those guys. He doesn’t score a lot of touchdowns…but his combination of running and receivers skills which makes him so dangerous. Currently, he’s already over 1000 yards or, if not, very close to 1000 yards from scrimmage and by the end of the year if you get, for example, 60 catches, 1400-1500 scrimmage yards and six to eight touchdowns from a running back those are pretty good numbers. Especially in a day and age when so many teams are utilizing backfield committees.” 

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