Cashing Out | August 22, 2026 | Hour 2

**SPEAKER_1** (0:07)
Welcome back to Cashing Out, here on VSiN, the sports betting network.

**Scott Seidenberg** (0:15)
Scott Seidenberg back here with you. This is Cashing Out here on VSiN, the sports betting network, always on Twitter at scottsonair and at VSiN live. I promise those of you watching on the VSiN watch app, we will get a new intro that doesn't say Austin Swedelson for Saturday Nights. But in the meantime, you can look at his beautiful face before you see my beautiful face come your way here on these Saturday Night Shows. It's been an incredible weekend here in Las Vegas. Draft Nation put together an incredible event with the National Fantasy Football Draft Weekend. Fantasy football party is going on at Stadium Swim. So many drafts, including celebrities, fantasy football experts and analysts, and my next guest in studio, you know him well. He's one of the best when it comes to fantasy football, the great Michael Fabiano from Si Fantasy, Locked On Dynasty, the Fantasy Football Forecast. Everywhere you see this guy, he's handing out winners when it comes to fantasy football and season long props. Fabs, appreciate you joining us here on Houston. It was a year ago, you sat in this very chair, and I said, give me a best bet for the season, Fabs. I said, you've been doing all your fantasy drafts, give me your best bet for the season, and you said my best bet by far is Saquon Barkley under his rushing prop. And that was a rocking chair winner for you.

**Michael Fabiano** (1:26)
So congratulations, nice and easy.

**Scott Seidenberg** (1:29)
Do we think it goes the opposite way this year? What are your thoughts on Saquon and the Philadelphia Eagles?

**Michael Fabiano** (1:34)
I think the good news now is that the price tag, if you're talking fantasy football, is not nearly what it was last year with Saquon Barkley, but you can get Brom in the second round at this point, so there's less risk there. I still see him as basically a low RB1, maybe a high RB2, depending on what your draft strategy is, if you're going after two running backs in the first couple of rounds.
I would expect that he'll have numbers similar to what he had last year. I don't know that Barkley is going to get back to an elite level, though, from a fantasy football perspective. You know, we were talking before we came on, Sean Manion, they want to have a lot of under center plays with Jalen Hurts, and that Saquon Barkley has been better when the quarterback is under center rather than in the shotgun, so that could benefit him. But there's a lot of things that we don't know about this offense. What's it going to look like under Manion? What's it going to look like without AJ Brown? Devontae Smith is the number one guy. Devontae Smith has been hurt a lot this summer. What's going on with these injuries, bro?
It is like the Santa Clara electric substations have just gone all the way across the country, and they're jacking everybody up. I'm telling you right now, this August has been the most hectic August I can remember for updating my player rankings.

**Scott Seidenberg** (2:43)
Wow.

**Michael Fabiano** (2:43)
Because legit, every single week, Luther Burden is out, Mecha Boog has got a toe. Devontae Smith has a problem. My God, what's going on? We already know Pierce All is going to be out for the season.
I don't know what has happened with all that. I cannot remember a summer with so many injuries, especially including dudes who don't even play in the preseason. It's been wild.

**Scott Seidenberg** (3:05)
I think that's the issue though, because I think what we've seen is, and I talked about this before, the preseason has completely changed. We know it's not just the change in the three-week schedule, but teams are now having more joint practices. And it's not just one day of joint practices, they're doing three days, they're doing a whole week of joint practices. And we know coaches get more out of these joint practices than they do a preseason game.
So you're seeing these players not play in the preseason. And I think over the years, we've seen less and less hitting in practice, right? We've seen less and less practice time. And I think it's actually led to more injuries as opposed to what the NFL wants to see, which is less injuries. Because as we know, and anybody will tell you, there's a difference between being in shape and being in football shape. Players need to play football. They need to get hit. They need to cut. They need to move on the field and get tackled and go make plays in order to get their bodies ready for the NFL season. And early on the preseason, they're not ready. And that's why we're seeing these injuries.