Tom Brady will be hitting free agency at age 42. How does this impact the New England Patriots in terms of fantasy football?
With the New England Patriots being eliminated from the AFC playoffs on Saturday night by the Tennessee Titans, that means Tom Brady has played his last game before hitting his unrestricted free agency. The 42-year-old quarterback is a six-time Super Bowl champion, but may not play another game for the Patriots. How does his free agency impact fantasy teams?
The Fantasy Footballers have you covered on this, as they discussed this very topic on Tuesday’s episode. Jason Moore believes firmly that Brady will be back in New England, but certainly has his reservations about the cast around him in Foxborough. Who can be trusted in fantasy football early next season with Brady coming back for Year No. 21 in the NFL?
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Admittedly, it’s not a great group to work with. You can trust Julian Edelman until he breaks down physically. Maybe N’Keal Harry bounces back after an underwhelming rookie year out of Arizona State? But the real issue here is you can’t trust anybody in the running game because the passing game is so important in creating space for the Patriots’ tailbacks to run through.
If there is one Patriots running back you can trust in fantasy football entering 2020, it would have to be James White. This is because he’s a great receiver out of the backfield and has no problem finding pay dirt in goal-line situations. After that, it gets pretty bleak pretty fast if you’re New England.
While Moore doesn’t believe the dynasty is dead so to speak, it’s hard to find value in skill-position players who are on the Patriots because the offense was so lackluster in 2019. This team got as far as it did by playing great defense, a soft schedule and winning a crummy division. Though the Buffalo Bills made the AFC playoffs, they didn’t win their AFC Wild Card game either on Saturday.
Ultimately, if Brady comes back, you can trust a wide receiver or two and James White at running back, but nobody else at this point when it comes to fantasy. Should Brady leave for another NFL franchise, then you can just forget about playing Patriots players in fantasy football. Things are about to get rough in New England if Brady peaces out.