The Patriot’s are one of the best teams in the NFL and without a doubt the best run organization so far this century and with that usually comes good fantasy football production. It’s no secret that better teams usually produce better fantasy players. However, in the case of the Patriots, there’s a lot of uncertainty week to week when predicting Patriot’s player’s fantasy production.
Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski are the exceptions to this, however.
Tom Brady is the best quarterback of our generation and debatably the best quarterback of all time. Tom Brady has posted 250+ point fantasy seasons dating all the way back to 2007, the only season he didn’t was 2008 where he only played one game. He’s consistently one of the best fantasy options from a QB standpoint so he’s an exception to the article.
Rob Gronkowski is also an exception to the inconsistency in New England, however, he does have his own inconsistency’s that aren’t related to team play, Gronkowski hasn’t played 16 games in a season since 2011, while some of that has been for a multitude of reasons whether it be injuries, suspensions or simply rest going into the playoffs. For the most part, however, he’s been one of the best tight ends in football since joining the league.
Where the inconsistency lies on a week to week basis for fantasy owners and Patriot’s player is who exactly is going to get the ball? There’s no workhorse in the backfield, there’s no dominant pass catcher that takes up a huge percentage of targets. So far throughout the first two weeks of the NFL season, James White, one of their running backs leads the team in targets with 21.62%.
Target Share
James White, RB. 16 targets, 21.62%.
Phillip Dorsett, WR, 14 targets, 18.92%
Rob Gronkowski, TE, 13 targets, 17.57%
Chris Hogan, WR, 11 targets, 14.86%
As we can see, the target share percent in New England is even, which is great as an offense because it means they have multiple threats, but it’s hard as a fantasy football player to predict who’s going to make the most of their small target share. Add Josh Gordon and Julian Edelman into the mix and we really have an offense that while they might be one of the best in the league, it’ll be impossible from week to week to figure out who to start and sit.
Patriot’s players are worth rostering and by Week 5 they’ll have six, seven players that you can start on a week to week basis that can probably produce you points, however, predicting who’s going to get the ball and in which situation will be difficult.
Right now, as I see it, if you have Brady, Gronkowski, Gordon, Michel, White, Hogan, Edelman or Burkhead on your roster, nobody can judge you as there are good reasons for all of them, however, that’s a lot of people to spread in an offense in the NFL.
Roster New England players, but beware of potential fickle numbers as there are lots of players that can get the ball and make plays.
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