Fabiano’s Fantasy Focus: Week Seven, Volume I

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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 21st) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.

What are your thoughts when it comes to the Cardinals and the David Johnson situation? “The Cardinals are sort of at the center of the fantasy universe because not only did Kliff Kingsbury not tell us about the injury report when it comes to David Johnson, or that Chase Edmonds was going to see the bulk of the back up touches, but that offense against the Giants outside of Chase Edmonds was dreadful and a lot of people were hoping for big things from the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Kyler Murray and David Johnson and didn’t get it. Now, we’re concerned because when you start hearing about teams bringing in players for tryouts like Jay Ajayi and Spencer Ware, that has people sort of reading the team and thinking David Johnson is hurt more than we thought he was.” 

I want to move over to Mahomes, what are you seeing and what are you hearing? “From what I’ve read and heard, it’s all optimistic to the point where people are talking about him missing three games and not many more. It’s a week-to-week thing at this point. If you’re looking to replace him, which you can’t, but looking to get a QB go get Josh Allen, Jacoby Brissett, who played a great game. The good thing is that at the quarterback position, you can replace that position much easier than other positions. It’s gonna be hard to replace Mahomes, I think you’re still starting Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill, not rocket science. But the lesser players like Hardman and Demarcus Robinson..it’s hard to play those guys now.” 

What’s going on with Emmanuel Sanders in Denver? “There’s rumors that he’s on the trading block, which I think is a good thing. The Broncos’ offense is awful. Their running game has had success this year between Lindsey and Freeman, but if you watched that game last week, Joe Flacco is a statue back there. Drew Luck is going to be coming back from IR in the next couple of weeks, but what I’m hearing is that he’s not ready to play in an NFL game. I would seriously be keeping tabs on what you’re hearing about that situation in Denver.”

Melvin Gordon on the goal line. Your thoughts? “The positives are that he’s getting opportunities with the football. They’re trying to get him the football. The bad news is that he’s not doing much. This offense was running far better without him. He’s really hurt his value and the Chargers were a better offensive team without him. They were. Keenan Allen was putting up great numbers, Austin Ekeler, too. They’re playing the Bears this week and they’ve gotten crushed by running backs in their last two games. Ekeler is still the better of those two backs. Hopefully Gordon will turn things around, he is getting opportunities, he’s still knocking the rust off but it hasn’t been good so far.” 

Go into detail about Matt Ryan and the Falcons. “From what I’ve heard it’s not that bad. But they also have a bye in Week 9. This season is lost for Atlanta, their coach is on the hot seat, they’re terrible. You could see a scenario where they decide to rest Matt Ryan this week, then they have a bye in week 9, and play him against the Saints in Week 10. If the Falcons do go with Matt Schaub, pick up the Saints’ defense because he loves throwing the football to the other team.”

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