Fabiano’s Fantasy Focus: 2018 Off-Season, 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 (May 7th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.

You talked about the strength of this rookie running back class. How do you see these players coming off draft boards? “Beyond Sequon Barkley who’s likely a first-round pick in re-drafts, he was actually my first-round pick in this mock I talked about, you’ve also got Rashaad Penny who goes to Seattle and looks to be the favorite for a featured role there. Despite their offensive line woes, touches will be plentiful for him there. You’re looking at a guy like Ronald Jones in Tampa Bay who released Doug Martin and had a void in their backfield. You’ve got Darius Guice who dropped to the Redskins and who I project to be their starter with Chris Thompson being the back-up, change-of-pace back who potentially could give you 50 catches out of the backfield. Just those guys alone are going to warrant to Top 50 picks.”

Speaking of rookies, what are your thoughts on Christian Kirk out here in Arizona? “Watch out for Christian Kirk. You’ve got some question marks behind Larry Fitzgerald. You’ve got J.J. Nelson, you’ve got Brice Butler. Christian Kirk could potentially come in there, fit into the system in the slot and give you 50 catches as a rookie which is pretty good.”

Is Josh Rosen a draftable option in bigger leagues? “I like Josh Rosen a lot but the position is so ridiculously deep around the league, especially when you have DeShaun Watson coming back from the ACL. Fantasy owners know at this point they’re not drafting quarterbacks until the middle-to-late rounds and they’re still getting excellent value. I don’t see Sam Bradford being drafted. I do see Josh Rosen getting starts as a rookie either because Sam Bradford is going to be ineffective at times or he’s going to suffer some sort of injury.” 

 Who will be the first free-agent signee we’ll see coming off draft boards later this summer?  “Wow, you’ve got so many big names who changed teams. Allen Robinson is going to be in the mix. Clearly, when you see his move to the Chicago Bears he could end up being one of the top 50 picks overall from a fantasy perspective. Obviously, Kirk Cousins is going to be one of the first quarterbacks picked. But even in this draft I’m doing now, you’re seeing quarterbacks left on the board late. I believe my eighth-round pick was Tom Brady.”

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