{"id":72532,"date":"2019-09-08T08:03:04","date_gmt":"2019-09-08T12:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/?p=72532"},"modified":"2019-09-08T08:06:52","modified_gmt":"2019-09-08T12:06:52","slug":"antonio-brown-fantasy-football-outlook-tom-brady-new-england-patriots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2019\/09\/08\/antonio-brown-fantasy-football-outlook-tom-brady-new-england-patriots\/","title":{"rendered":"Antonio Brown Fantasy Football Outlook With Tom Brady, New England Patriots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=BrowAn04,BrowAn01&amp;search=Antonio+Brown&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Antonio Brown<\/a><\/strong> successfully escaped football purgatory with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/raiders\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oakland Raiders<\/a> to latch on with the defending Super Bowl champion <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/patriots\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New England Patriots<\/a>. Brown is one of the most talented receivers in the league and was one of the best fantasy football weapons over the past six seasons. However, Brown\u2019s fantasy stock dropped in the offseason due to his new surrounding and dip in quarterback play. Now that he\u2019s in New England, what should you expect from Antonio Brown in fantasy football?<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Fantasy Football: Antonio Brown Outlook With Tom Brady, New England Patriots<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Say what you will about Antonio Brown the person, but Antonio Brown the football player is one of the most dynamic and explosive players in the league. He\u2019s not eligible to play in Week One, but he should be out on the field in Week Two. He\u2019s going to see his share of targets, but how heavily will New England utilize their newest weapon?<\/p>\n<h3>Pass Game Usage<\/h3>\n<p>The New England Patriots have a false reputation as a run-first team. In the opinion of the masses, New England turned to their running game and first-round pick <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/MichSo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sony Michel<\/a><\/strong> to take some pressure off <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BradTo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tom Brady<\/a><\/strong>. In reality, that narrative couldn\u2019t be further from the truth. The Patriots had the 24<sup>th<\/sup>-highest rushing rate on early-down situations in close games. For better or worse, this team still lives and dies by the right arm of Tom Brady. Brady is better than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/R\/RoetBe00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Ben Roethlisberger<\/strong><\/a>, so theoretically Brown has a higher ceiling in New England than he did in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A few select NFL teams, 2018<\/p>\n<p>Total rush rank vs. rush rate rank on early downs in close-game situations<\/p>\n<p>Patriots: 3rd, 24th<br \/>Texans: 4th, 16th<br \/>Saints: 5th, 25th <br \/>Bears: 7th, 19th<br \/>Rams: 8th, 22nd<br \/>Cowboys: 10th, 17th<br \/>Colts: 17th, 29th<br \/>Chiefs: 23rd, 31st<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/RjG2iN9d8w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/RjG2iN9d8w<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Bureau of Human-Bovine Cultural Affairs (@CowboysStats) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CowboysStats\/status\/1164891266162810880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 23, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Patriots are going to throw the ball, and Antonio Brown should see a large share of the targets. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/E\/EdelJu00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Julian Edelman<\/a><\/strong> is going to see the largest target share, but the second spot is completely up for grabs. Learning New England\u2019s system on the fly isn\u2019t easy, but history shows it can be done. Last year, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/G\/GordJo02.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Josh Gordon<\/a><\/strong> arrived in Foxboro early in the season after missing essentially four years of football. Despite the unfavorable situation, Gordon managed to record 40 receptions for 720 yards and three touchdowns in 11 games. Some players struggle to pick up New England\u2019s system, but Brady will throw you the ball if you understand coverages and do what he expects.<\/p>\n<p>Say what you will about Antonio Brown as a person, but Antonio Brown is a smart football player. Brown turned himself into one of the NFL\u2019s elite players thanks to his work ethic and high football IQ. Brady and Brown have a <a href=\"https:\/\/boston.cbslocal.com\/2019\/09\/08\/tom-brady-julian-edelman-love-antonio-brown-signing-instagram\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">documented respect<\/a> for each other\u2019s game, so these two should develop chemistry rather quickly. Put simply, he\u2019s going to be a featured part of one of the best offenses in the NFL.<\/p>\n<h3>When Can You Start Antonio Brown in Fantasy Football?<\/h3>\n<p>Antonio Brown is going to be a big part of the offense, but it might not happen overnight. If we\u2019re using Josh Gordon as precedent, it\u2019s worth noting that Gordon sat out Week Three before seeing a reduced snap count in Weeks Four and Five. This three-week timeline is probably a worst-case scenario for Brown, as Gordon needed to not only learn the offense but also get into football shape. Chances are, Brown\u2019s going to see a partial workload in Week Two before taking a full share of the snaps in Week Three.<\/p>\n<p>The Patriots always adapt to the strength of their roster, which means New England is going to run a lot of three-receiver sets once Brown\u2019s fully acclimated in the offense. With <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/G\/GronRo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rob Gronkowski<\/a><\/strong> gone, the Patriots essentially won\u2019t use a tight end for anything other than blocking. Brown, Edelman, and Gordon should be the target leaders in the offense, and Brady throws the ball enough to keep every player relevant for fantasy purposes. That said, if anyone takes a dip, it\u2019s going to be Gordon.<\/p>\n<p>You should probably keep Antonio Brown on the bench in Week Two. New England probably won\u2019t give him a full workload that quickly, and the Patriots are facing off against the Dolphins. The Patriots should blow Miami out of the water, which means they\u2019re going to run the ball once the game is out of hand. You can start Brown in Week Three and expect a WR1 performance on a weekly basis.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Antonio Brown is now a member of the New England Patriots, but what does his arrival in New England mean for his fantasy football outlook?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":72477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[59,54,2,5],"tags":[138,153,294,61,507,666,38,40,400,3645,331],"class_list":["post-72532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fantasy","category-editorials","category-featured","category-patriots","tag-antonio-brown","tag-ben-roethlisberger","tag-fantasy-football","tag-football","tag-josh-gordon","tag-julian-edelman","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-nfl","tag-rob-gronkowski","tag-sony-michel","tag-tom-brady"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}