Fabiano’s Fantasy Focus: Week 16, 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 (December 20th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.

What’s your fantasy take on Ty Montgomery? “Ty Montgomery has been a point of contention for a lot of people because he was listed as a wide receiver, some games he was switched to a running back even before the Packers made a change on their depth chart. Now he’s a running back on NFL.com and if you started him last week there’s a good chance you’re in your championship. If you remember Montgomery had a pretty good stretch that he was ineffective. He really hadn’t done much…then you started to see him get more usage against Seattle and then last week against the Bears. Now he’s got the Vikings and the Vikings’ defense has given up 100 rushing to Frank Gore and two touchdowns to Robert Turbin. So Montgomery is in the flex-starter position, no question this week.”

Who are some quarterbacks you like in Week 16? “Ben Roethlisberger is at home! Guess what, you start him against the Baltimore Ravens. You stick with Cam Newton. Can you believe I have to tell people to start Cam Newton? That’s how crazy things have been this season. Derek Carr’s a good play, so is Philip Rivers.”

Now that we are closing in on the end of 2016, what trends did you see coming out of this season? “The quarterback position I feel like is going to be even more devalued next season. Aaron Rodgers has been great. No one drafted Matt Ryan in the top 50 [laughing]. Andrew Luck’s been pretty good. He’s fourth in fantasy points but no one is going to take him in the top 40 or 50. You are going to see really quarterbacks come off the board later than ever before and that’s how it should be because the position is just so easy to replace. When you go out and start a Matt Moore or an RG III or a Colin Kaepernick and they put up big numbers last week, it’s an interchangeable position.”

Who are some wide receivers to stay away from this weekend? “I’m benching Terrelle Pryor because if you look at Casey Hayward he has been one of the best shutdown corners in the league over the last month. Brandon Marshall: I’d cut him. Jeremy Maclin led the Chiefs in catches and yards and targets last week. I’m not touching him against the Broncos. Steve Smith is another player I would avoid this week, as well.

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