Fabiano’s Fantasy Focus: Week Eight, Volume II

Every summer leading into and throughout the NFL season, Sports Illustrated and SI.com Senior Fantasy Analyst Michael Fabiano joins Sports360AZ.com to share his insight on building and developing your fantasy team for success.

Here are some highlights from our most recent conversation (October 27th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.

Is Justin Herbert just too good not to play moving forward? “He’s been so good. Holy cow. I’ll tell ya, I didn’t love him coming out of college. I really didn’t. I’ve even talked to folks who are in the scouting business…and they were like, ‘There’s something missing.’ Guess what? Whatever the hell was missing is there now because he’s been unreal! He led the Chargers in rushing, too last week and that matchup was pretty good against Jacksonville last week. So, I’m not starting him over Mahomes, Lamar Jackson or Kyler Murray or Rusell Wilson but I gotta tell you, this guy is going to be hard to bench considering how well he’s playing. He’s giving you [added value] with his legs, too. That is extremely valuable in fantasy.”

Is the Cole Beasley we’ve seen the Cole Beasley we can now expect? “Cole Beasley – you want to talk about the Rodney Dangerfield’s of wide receivers. 12 targets, 11 catches, 112 yards and over 22 fantasy points. He’s scored at least 12 fantasy points in five of his last six games. He’s had nearly 40 combined fantasy points in his last two games. He’s got the Patriots this week.”

Looking ahead, do you think Kenyan Drake will get his starting job with the Cardinals considering the production we’ve seen from Chase Edmonds? “I wouldn’t be surprised if not. If he does get it back, I would also consider that the snaps and touches and that gap between the two would probably shrink. But Edmonds has to go out there and prove he can be the number one guy and he’s going to have that opportunity now.”

With Odell Beckham now out in Cleveland, who is going to get OBJ’s targets? “You would think Jarvis Landry would see an uptick in his targets although OBJ wasn’t getting targeted a ton in that offense so keep that in mind. He was getting four or five targets a game. Rashard Higgins is also going to be an add. He had six targets for 100 yards. 17 points last week and they have the Raiders coming up in Week Eight so Higgins will see a little bit of an uptick in targets, as well. You could also talk about the tight ends, too.” 

Any final thoughts as we roll into Week Eight? “Number one, I would make sure that I remember that big names don’t equate to big points. So it may seem weird to drop Julian Edelman but he hasn’t done anything. It may seem weird to drop Cam Newton but he hasn’t done anything. So try and forget about the names or lack there of and base your decisions off of production, right? Like Cole Beasley. He’s not the biggest name, right? He’s been very good. He’s on a great floor and nobody is playing him. He was available in far more than 50 percent of leagues on ESPN. Just because he isn’t a big name, doesn’t mean you can’t play him. I think people need to keep that in mind. One other thing, too. Any Cowboys that you can trade and get something for, you may as well do it. Zeke is in trouble. If Ben DiNucci is starting, the Cowboys are in trouble. Even with Andy Dalton, they’re going to stack the line of scrimmage and the line of scrimmage is banged up right now.”  

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