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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 (September 25th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.
What does your gut tell you about the quarterback situation in Tampa? “I do think Jameis Winston will get the job back sooner rather than later. I mean, if you look at what Fitzpatrick has done, it’s great. He played the Saints in Week One, their defense is trash. We all thought it was going to be good and it’s not. He played the Steelers on Monday night. Let’s be honest, their defense is trash. It’s not good. The only good defense he’s faced is Philadelphia and he did well against them but the Eagles are typically better on their home field than they are on the road so it’s lined up for Fitzpatrick to put up big numbers. Let’s see if he can do it in Chicago. If he can do it against the Bears than I think we’re talking about something.”
Three weeks in, where are you on Le’Veon Bell now? “Dude, you can’t do anything but just wait. You can’t drop him. I wouldn’t drop him. If someone in my league dropped him I’d pick him up in a second. But we’ve heard some rumors that potentially a trade could be in the works. Maybe that’s the best case scenario because I truly believe he’s not coming back until the second half of the season and he’s going to save his free agent status for 2019 by coming back late. At that point, what are you getting? He hasn’t played football in a while. He’s doing a lot of social media at this point but not doing a lot in terms of football. So it’s a bad situation all around and the best case scenario for fantasy fans who have both Bell and [James] Conner, is that he’s traded and you get two running backs and one of them is elite.”
If Bell is traded, what team makes the most sense from a fantasy perspective? “There’s been talk about maybe the Jets. I would love to see him go to the Colts. I think that would be a great fit for him. I don’t think that’s going to happen but who knows. I think that would be my fantasy preference. But there’s really nothing you can do right now with Le’Veon Bell. You just have to sit and wait and unfortunately that’s probably going to be a long-term absence.
Is it time to think about trading David Johnson? “What are you going to get for him? Anyone who makes a trade offer to you is trying to buy low. You took D.J. probably with a top five pick. I don’t imagine someone would give you fair market value for David Johnson right now. Like if someone offered me Christian McCaffrey or Saquon Barkley I would do it in a second but people aren’t going to offer you Christian McCaffrey or Saquon Barkley. They’re gunna low-ball you. You’re going to start getting Isaiah Crowell offers. So, at this point, you can see what’s out there but I’d expect you’re not going to get much for him.”
Can you make any sense out of the Green Bay backfield? “What the heck is going on there? Aaron Jones comes back and he is the better back when you compare him to Jamal Williams. Ty Montgomery is going to be the pass-catching back but we have no idea what’s going on there and it’s too bad because there’s a great match-up coming up against Buffalo. But can you start Aaron Jones or Jamal Williams with any kind of confidence this week because you don’t know what the snap percentage is going to be. You don’t know what the touch share is going to be so that’s a situation to watch.”
What other fantasy storyline is really catching your eye this weekend? “Royce Freeman. He did the job against the Ravens last week but Phillip Lindsay was kicked out of the game for throwing punches and I want know if Freeman is going to see more touches moving against the Chiefs? That is a great matchup and something I want to watch.”
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Eric Sorenson
A Valley native, Eric has had a passion for the Arizona sports scene since an early age. He has covered some of the biggest events including Super Bowls, national championships and the NBA and MLB playoffs in his near 20 years in local media.