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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 9th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.
Do you like Christian Kirk as an add this week if he’s available? “Yeah, it looks like they’re a little rookie-to-rookie thing going on out there with Josh Rosen and Christian and to be quite honest with you, as great as Larry Fitzgerald has been in his career, he’s not healthy right now. He’s not getting the job done and Christian Kirk has put up 16 fantasy points or more in two of his last three games. So, if you need a wide receiver, tough matchup this week in Minnesota, but game script could potentially help the Cardinals and their wide receiver this week so Kirk is certainly worth an add off the waiver wire.”
With Jay Ajayi now out for the Eagles, what do you make of Philly’s backfield situation? “I think it’s going to be a committee situation. There was one game earlier in the season where Ajayi missed the game and it was actually Corey Clement who out-touched Wendell Smallwood. Now with that being said, Smallwood’s looked good the last couple weeks while Clement’s been out. But if we know anything with Doug Petersen, he likes to use backfield committees, so this is a coin toss for me. It could be Clement some weeks, it could be Smallwood some weeks. At least it’s two guys and not three with Ajayi out for the season but I really do feel like that could be a hot hand situation so, regardless, both of those guys need to be picked up in fantasy leagues.”
Is Patrick Mahomes merely scratching the surface right now on his fantasy potential? “Well, the system just bodes extremely well for him under Andy Reid. Andy Reid, he’s got a lot of fans in fantasy football this season with what he’s doing with that offense. Mahomes, it’s so much fun to watch this kid throw the ball. He can throw the ball 50, 60, 70 yards downfield and doesn’t make it look like it takes him any effort to throw it that far. He’s been great and he’s basically match-up proof. I get it the Jaguars were a tough matchup last week…but he doesn’t have to face the Jags every week. He’s got the Patriots this week. Then he’s got upcoming matchups against Cincinnati. Denver’s defense isn’t that good this season. You’ve got the Cardinals coming up. You’ve got a matchup against the Raiders later in the season. There are going to be a lot of games where Patrick Mahomes is going to put up a lot of fantasy points and if you were smart enough to draft Mahomes as your QB2, that means you probably have another QB that could be Drew Brees, could be Ben Roethlisberger. I mean, it could be Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady. I’d be trying to make a trade. Whatever offer is best because you don’t need two elite quarterbacks on your roster.”
With the Saints and Lions on byes this week, who are some other wide receivers who make sense on the waiver wire? “We talked about Christian Kirk already. He is a player I do feel who is going to continue to put up numbers. Now there’s a kid in Green Bay, Marquez Valdez-Scantling, if Geromino Allison doesn’t play this week, this rookie is going to be valuable against the 49ers. You have to keep tabs on the status of Geronimo Allison. You have to keep tabs on the health of Randall Cobb, as well because if those guys are going to be out once again than you’re potentially looking at a flex starter there and with Aaron Rodgers throwing him the football, listen, MVS could be as good as anybody out there being a flex this week. Robby Anderson finally broke out of his shell and had a big game last week, he’s another potential waiver wire pickup. A guy you could potentially plug in.”
Through the first five weeks, which fantasy defense has surprised you the most? “I guess it would have to be the Jets because they’re second in points right now but most of their points came in that one week [against the Lions]. They’ve been decent. I don’t like their matchup this week against the Colts. The Bears have been tremendous. The Browns have been good. They’ve been inconsistent but they’ve been good. The Steelers have given up a lot of points but right now they’re fourth in fantasy points.”
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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.