Fabiano’s Fantasy Focus: Week 5, 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 (October 4th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.

I’m guessing it’s a no-brainer to start Tom Brady this week, right? “Start him (laughing)! That’s it. He’s going to come back salty. He’s got a good matchup. Outside of a hurricane going through Cleveland and there could be some bad weather going up the east coast there. There’s no way Tom Brady is on my bench in his first game back. This is what you’ve been waiting for. You’ve been waiting for him to come back and make an impact for you so you’d have to have a pretty elite quarterback on your roster along side Tom Brady to even think about benching him.”

Last week you suggested Terrelle Pryor would be hot on the waiver wire and he certainly was. Who’s catching your eye this week? “Steve Smith is actually a good pickup now. He was coming back from that Achilles (injury) and started slow but now he’s back and is going to see more targets. [Mike] Wallace is sort of seeing fewer. Pryor, he’s a great pick up now! Think about it, when you picked him up, initially that was with Josh Gordon coming back. Josh Gordon is gone now so Pryor is the number one wide receiver at least for the next several weeks until Corey Coleman comes back.”

Is Carson Palmer, with his injury concern and inconsistency so far in 2016, still worth rostering? “It depends on your alternatives to be quite honest with you. That’s what it always depends on. If you’ve got a guy like Joe Flacco, that’s somebody I told people to play next week. He’s got a good matchup this week. I’ve been telling people to pick up Dak Prescott forever. He’s got a good matchup this week as Cincinnati hasn’t been great against quarterbacks. Carson Wentz you can pick up off the waiver wire. He’s playing Detroit…it depends on your alternatives but I don’t know if I’m starting Carson Palmer this week and I’ve been a guy who’s defended him in the past because he’s played very well and he’s been really consistent but this year you’re starting to see some inconsistency and I don’t like to see that from a fantasy standpoint.”

Start two of three in my PPR league: John Brown, DeAndre Hopkins, Zach Ertz? “Well, I’m probably starting Zach Ertz because it’s a great matchup and then I’m starting Hopkins over Brown but boy, he’s got a bad matchup this week against Minnesota. John Brown came out and had a big game, no question about it but I have concerns with him if Carson Palmer’s not the quarterback this week.”

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