Fabiano's Fantasy Focus Week 1, Volume I

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Each week NFL Network and NFL.com Fantasy Football Editor Michael Fabiano joins Pros2Preps.com’s Brad Cesmat to share his insight on building your fantasy team for success.

Here are some hilights from our most recent conversation with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer as we gear up for the much-anticipated opening of the regular season.

What quarterbacks have favorable match-ups  in Week 1: “Matt Ryan against the New Orleans Saints. Ryan has thrown for 370+ yards in each of his last three and two of his last road starts against the Saints. I mean, he’s been very, very good. Tony Romo has a great matchup against the Giants this week. If you were worried about Robert Griffin III, don’t be. Great matchup against the Eagles.”

Don’t throw Le’Veon Bell into the scrap-heap just yet: “It looks like his return date is coming quicker than we expected. At first we heard it could be six weeks. Now there’s talk he may be back [in Week 2]. Keep Le’Veon Bell. If Le’Veon Bell is available on your waiver wire go out and pick him up now.”

What’s the status of Rob Gronkowski in New England?  “It actually looks pretty good. He’s back playing 11-on-11 in practice. It looks like he’s not going to play this week. Of course, Bill Belichick likes to trick us quite often so you never know. You want to check NFL.com and make sure in fact that Gronk is inactive on Sunday but it looks like he could be active in Week 3. If that’s the case and you drafted him somewhere in the fifth or sixth round, it looks like that decision is going to bear fruit.”

Is there any clarity to the running back situation in Denver? “You know what, long-term I like Montee Ball. I’ve been saying in all off-season, all pre-season. He has the most upside of any running back on that Denver roster bit Ronnie Hillman is the starter right now. Knowshon Moreno is the best pass protector so you’re going to see a committee situation on Thursday night [against Baltimore] and it’s hard to trust any one of the three. If you have to start one of them it would be Montee Ball because of upside, as a flex. Ronnie Hillman is more of a flex in a deeper league. But again, hard to trust. We have to see what happens in this situation and when you hear reports out of Denver that are saying this committee could be a drive-by-drive that’s enough to make fantasy owners absolutely crazy.

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