Thursday, June 13, 2013

Fantasy Analysis: New England Patriots

Welcome back football fans. Yesterday we took a break, because sometimes we need a break. Anyways, today I’ll be looking at the New England Patriots. Now if you've been paying attention to football news you’ll know the Patriots just signed Tim Tebow. Tebow obviously has no fantasy relevance but we believe in Tebow here at Fantasy Sparks so I wanted to give him a mention. And now let’s begin.

Tom Brady: I could provide you with a bunch of statistics saying why Tom Brady is a top 3 QB like how he’s thrown 109 TDs over the past 3 years with only 24 INTs and a completion percentage of no less than 63 percent. But I won’t do that, because let’s be serious it’s Tom Brady. Draft him early.

Stevan Ridley, Brandon Bolden, Shane Vareen: Stevan Ridley will get the bulk of the carries out of this backfield and many looks at the goal line. He’s a low end RB1 but a great RB2. As for Bolden, he had one good game against Buffalo, showing that he does have talent, or that Buffalo has a crappy defense. Regardless Bolden never did much else due to Ridley’s emergence and his own injuries. I wouldn't recommend him. Vareen was better but not by much, however he did actually show ability to catch the ball out of the backfield or split out wide. He could be one to watch with Welker and Lloyd gone.

Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez: Gronkowski missed 5 games last season but still put up staggering numbers while he was healthy he put up 790 yards and 11 TDs. That averages out to 72 yards a game and a TD. If he played all 16 games he would have ended with 1150 yards and 17 TDs. But he may miss up to the first four weeks after his surgery, so expect his stock to fall. Hernandez meanwhile missed 6 games but had less impressive numbers. Nevertheless he’s a solid TE but he’s the second best TE on his team. Combined with his health issues you may want to look elsewhere.

Danny Amendola and every other New England receiver: I’m going to be honest, I had to do extra research to find out who was playing receiver for the Pats after Amendola. Allow me to list them for you: Julian Edelman, Donald Jones, Kamar Aiken, Michael Jenkins, Aaron Dobson, Josh Boyce, Andre Holmes. If you’re like me you've heard of three of these guys and none of them inspire confidence. At this point we don’t even know which receivers will make the 53 man roster, so we will watch for it and get back to you about that. Instead have this piece of advice: don’t draft a New England receiver except Welker. Well Welker is gone now and has been replaced with Amendola. So if it’s not Amendola I don’t recommend it. However Amendola has a history of injuries, so be watchful of the other receivers. Particularly Dobson who was drafted in the second round to be the deep threat the Patriots have lacked since Randy Moss, so expectations will be higher for him.

Stephen Gostkowski: He led all kickers in points last year. He’ll likely be up there again.


And that’s all I have. In short, Brady will get his, we aren't sure about everyone else. Be sure to leave a comment offering your opinion, whether you agree or disagree. Until next time, Best wishes.

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