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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 9th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.
What match-up do you really want to stay away from in Week 1? “You want an unbelievable stat on Jay Cutler? The Green Bay Packers are his kryptonite. 11 career games against Green Bay: 11 touchdowns, 23 giveaways. He’s thrown for over 280 yards just once and has just seven touchdowns in his last five games against the Packers overall. That is not good.”
How about Cam Newton going up against the Jags? “Cam Newton is someone that worries me a little this week. If you look at the Jaguars and what they did against quarterbacks on their home field last year, they were tough. They were really tough. This was a team that surrendered one or fewer touchdown passes in six of their eight home games last year. So Cam, without Kelvin Benjamin, to me is a bit of a concern.”
Which wide receivers have poor match ups? “Brandon Marshall. Anytime a wide receiver, who isn’t elite, is going up against Joe Haden that will concern me and Marshall is no longer catching passes from Joe Haden, that would concern me. Sammy Watkins has been dealing with a little bit of an injury and a tough matchup against the Colts. Same thing goes for Vincent Jackson in terms of the Titans. They allowed just one touchdown catch in six of eight road games last year.”
What are you hearing on Todd Gurley’s health? “Todd Gurley is not playing this week and Ian Rapoport our NFL media insider is suggesting that he could be out for the first three or four weeks which means you might not see him until the beginning of October or at some point…which means you should sit on him, stash him because when he comes back I would guess that the Rams are going to utilize him quite a bit. They took him highly in the 2015 draft and didn’t take him highly to keep him on the sideline.”
Think John Brown can build on his solid rookie fantasy season in Arizona? “John Brown is my favorite Cardinals’ wide receiver. I have not been able to get him in any leagues because it’s a hype machine with this kid. [Larry] Fitzgerald…he’s not even getting drafted in some leagues which is amazing…people are that down on him. But John Brown is the first Cardinals’ wide receiver I would draft. He’s got a great connection going on there with Carson Palmer. He could be like a DeSean Jackson-type from a statistical perspective where he’s not going to catch 80 balls but he could catch 60 and give you 900-1000 yards and 6-8 touchdowns because he is so good in the vertical passing game. He’s going to hit a lot of home runs.”
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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.