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 14th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.
Are you buying or selling Willie Snead? “Well you have to be a buyer and you know I loved Brandin Cooks coming into the year. He had a good game last week finally, but Snead’s been the better wide receiver which all of us predicted, right (laughing)? New Orleans has been tough and he’s certainly worth adding, though. There’s no question about it. He is producing—not on the level of Julio Jones or DeAndre Hopkins but he is in the #3 wide receiver conversation, that’s for sure.”
What is your strategy if you own now-injured Jamaal Charles? “You’re going to the waiver wire, hopefully you’ve already done it this week, but Charcandrick West is going to be the most popular name to pick up. He’s actually seen his ownership percentage increase by 20 on NFL.com. Now, Knile Davis is going to see some run as well and we’ve seen Knile Davis come in and play well in the absence of Jamaal Charles in the past, so he’s rosterable as well. But, Andy Reid said [Tuesday] West is closer to Jamaal Charles in terms of his skill-set…West is the way to go but Davis is the secondary pickup if you’re not able to get West.”
Sort out what’s happening in Arizona with Ellington and Chris Johnson. “Chris Johnson has looked really good. Ellington had a good stat line last week but it was all on that [63-yard touchdown run]. Bruce Arians loves to use his veterans, clearly. Chris Johnson has done nothing to lose that top spot on the depth chart so it’s a three-headed backfield committee. We saw David Johnson get goal line work last week, too. It’s kind of hard to expect any one of the three to put up huge stat lines every single week. Right now the pecking order is CJ, Ellington and then David Johnson but Arians typically likes to use one guy as the featured back but maybe he’s going to go away from that now. Maybe CJ2K is going to be the guy who sees early down work and is the “featured back” but Ellington comes in and plays on passing downs and David Johnson comes in near the goal line.”
Who do you like/don’t like at quarterback looking at the Week 6 matchups? “Carson Palmer. In the preseason I said he’d be a great draft bargain. He’s been better than even I thought he was going to be. [Andy] Dalton has been amazing. Dalton has more fantasy points than anybody right now. If you told me that in the preseason…that after five weeks Andy Dalton was your top-scoring fantasy [quarterback] I would seriously question your sanity but it’s true. [Blake] Bortles has been good. I like him this week. I don’t like Cam Newton. He’s averaged fewer than 150 passing yards and one touchdown in three career games in Seattle…you can’t trust him. I don’t trust [Eli] Manning this week. He has not played well historically in Philadelphia. You know Josh McCown has been one of the hottest quarterbacks in fantasy football over the last three weeks? But I’m not playing him against Denver because that defense has been unreal this year.”
What struggling stars are still worth sticking with? “A couple of big names that have not produced that I would still start would be Eddie Lacy and Calvin Johnson. Johnson typically does well against the Bears, especially at home.”
Besides Lacy, what other running backs have caught your attention? “I like T.J. Yeldon and Dion Lewis this week. Carlos Hyde is also a good play at running back…Jeremy Hill is a really tough sell right now, so is Jonathan Stewart. So is Lamar Miller who has really done nothing–along with most of the Dolphins’ offense.”
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