Fabiano’s Fantasy Focus: Week 13, Volume II

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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 (November 29th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.

Are you high on Jimmy Garoppolo making his starting debut with the 49ers? “Garoppolo is certainly rosterable in deeper leagues and in super flex, two quarterback leagues. He’s a better option than the Niners have put out there in a while, let’s put it that way. I don’t know if he’s going to come out and be the world beater that his mentor Tom Brady is and has been throughout most of his career. But Garoppolo, based on the matchup, could be a sneaky play at some point during the rest of the season. I’m very interested to see how he comes out and performs as the starter for the Niners. We all know they made a pretty big investment in him.”

Is Oakland one of the better defensive plays this week? “The Raiders defense is very streamable this week. In fact, one of our researchers here found that right now Gino Smith is the best matchup for a fantasy defense. Defenses in his career have averaged almost 11 points against him. The Raiders defense is coming off a pretty decent performance last week against Denver. Their defense didn’t play bad from a fantasy perspective.”

Ravens or Raiders defense this week? “That’s a tough one. I’m probably going to go Baltimore there. They’re really good. I get that the Lions have a good offense but the Lions on the road, playing outdoors, not as spectacular as they are inside the comforts of a dome. So take the Ravens there but it’s close.”

With the fantasy playoffs just around the corner, what teams or players have favorable match-ups coming down the stretch?  “The Bills have a very good strength of schedule which is why I told a lot of people to add Tyrod Taylor. Try to trade for LeSean McCoy. The Chargers have a very good schedule coming down the stretch. The Titans, outside of this weekend, have a very good schedule down the stretch. At wide receiver, the Dolphins and Raiders have very good schedules. The Eagles have a very good schedule for running backs. The problem is, who is going to get the ball?”

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