Fabiano’s Fantasy Focus: Week 15, Volume I

Whether you’re a first timer or an experienced fantasy football veteran, NFL.com has the league for you. Set up your FREE and customizable league on NFL.com today!

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 13th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.

With the fantasy playoffs here, what’s your overall advice when setting lineups this weekend? “There’s always going to be difficult lineup decisions that you have to make. You’re going to stick with your studs for the most part. Unless your stud is Mike Evans and maybe you’re considering benching him because he hasn’t been so great. But there are so many players who have been picked up off the waiver wire who are extremely startable. Maybe not must-starts but extremely startable. So if you’re looking for a wide receiver, Devin Funchess is a guy who comes to mind. He’s been tremendous. Josh Gordon is a guy who has been very good. Marquis Goodwin has been tremendous for the Niners. He’s been getting a lot of targets with Jimmy Garoppolo taking over there.”

Initial thoughts on Aaron Rodgers being cleared to play this week for the Packers? “First thing is, if you had paid attention to the news over the last three weeks and picked up Rodgers, potentially you’ve got one heck of a replacement for Carson Wentz. I’m getting a lot of questions on my Twitter feed, “Should I play him?” At this point, I think there’s only probably two quarterbacks I’d play over him: Russell Wilson and Tom Brady. Maybe Cam Newton because I like the matchup against the Packers ironically enough. Rodgers is a guy who averaged over 21 fantasy points a game when he played a full game earlier this season. If you don’t play Aaron Rodgers this week and he goes off and scores 25 points you’re going to be kicking yourself the entire rest of the winter.”

Who are some other good quarterback plays in Week 15? “If you’re looking for a quarterback this week, you’re probably looking at Blake Bortles who has a good matchup and has been a Top 10 quarterback for three-straight weeks. Also, Case Keenum is a good play against the Bengals who actually made Mitchell Trubisky look like an NFL quarterback last week.”

Where are you on Nick Foles stepping in for Wentz? “He is certainly a capable quarterback. Remember, back in 2013 this guy had 27 touchdowns and two interceptions. He was one of the best quarterbacks in the league and in fantasy football, too. Now I’m not saying he’s going to re-claim that status but they are not going to change the offense and he has a lot of options in Philadelphia. Zach Ertz has cleared concussion protocol so he’ll be back and the Giants offer up a really good match-up. They offer up over 20 fantasy points to quarterbacks on their home field so I would absolutely stream Nick Foles if I were desperate at the quarterback position.” 

Need to start one: Brandin Cooks or Jordy Nelson? “Jordy Nelson. He’s back. Get him in your lineup.” 

For more, click here.