Eric Sorenson
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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 10th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.
Biggest news of the day: Adrian Peterson dealt to Arizona. What’s the fantasy impact moving forward? “It’s most beneficial to Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara because they’ve clearly been the two guys the Saints have been using in that backfield. Now Peterson goes from a situation where he was barely even seeing the football to where he instantly becomes a starter for the Cardinals. With that being said, please keep in mind that Adrian Peterson is a 32-year-old running back who is now going to be playing behind an offensive line that has allowed the fewest yards-per-contact in the NFL. That’s not good. I don’t see him coming in and being the Adrian Peterson from three years ago. When he was the number one player in fantasy football.”
Is Peterson worth adding/rostering in most leagues? “Absolutely he is. Is he a starter week-in and week-out? No, he’s a matchup-based option and until I see some production on a regular basis, which we haven’t seen from Peterson in quite some time, I can’t go out and tell people to pick him up and start him. I do think Andre Ellington will continue to be that pass-catching back. He’s really gained a lot of steam in PPR leagues over the past few weeks. I’m not sure Bruce Arians is going to use Peterson as a complete, featured back. I do think Ellington is still going to see his touches in the passing game.”
Are even you blown away by the rapid fantasy success of DeShaun Watson down in Houston? “Well, I mean, I did tweet on August 1st, that if there was a quarterback who would be this year’s Dak Prescott, it would be DeShaun Watson. But to this level? No one predicted that. He’s been tremendous.”
With Odell Beckham, Jr. out for the season, what direction are steering fantasy owners who had him? “Number one, I wish him the best. That was hard to watch. I really felt bad for him. You can’t replace him. He was one of the three or four best wide receivers in fantasy football. He has been ever since he’s come into the NFL. It’s tough when you have to talk about fantasy football after a guy suffers such a gruesome injury but this is what I do. Will Fuller comes to mind as a potential waiver wire pickup. Jaron Brown, who Cardinals’ fans know very well and who has averaged around nine targets a game since Week 2. He is someone who you can pick up off the waiver wire. Nelson Agholor is another player. Devin Funchess is someone to pick up if you’re sticking with the G-men. I don’t think Sterling Shepard is available in most leagues. You are going to be hard-pressed to replace someone as good as Odell Beckham, Jr.”
After the small sample size you saw on MNF, is Mitchell Trubisky worth rostering? “Well, you’d have to be in a very deep league or a dynasty league and in dynasty leagues he’s already owned for the most part so bad matchup coming up against the Ravens. Not somebody I’m looking at right now. The quarterback position is so deep. It really is. When Jared Goff is putting up good numbers, although he didn’t last week, but he’s had 18+ fantasy points in two of the last three games. The position is so ridiculously deep, at some point if this continues, you are going to see fantasy owners not even draft a quarterback. Once you get past the first five or six players, some people may just wait and pick one off the waiver wire because you can really stream that position.”
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