Tom Brady owners received a pleasant surprise Thursday
In case you are just waking up, we have some breaking news. After months of dragging out one of the most baffling incidents in recent memory, Federal judge Richard M. Berman has overturned Tom Brady‘s four-game suspension. We have already suffered through enough talk of “Deflate Gate,” so let’s move on to the impact of this decision.
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This year’s Super Bowl champion is back and will (conceivably) be playing in all 16 games this season. If you already had your draft and were able to take Brady in a late round you got yourself a steal. If you have pending drafts you will now have to pay full price for what could be a top-tier fantasy quarterback. According to Fantasy Football Calculator, just yesterday Brady was being selected towards the end of the seventh round as the QB9. Andrew Luck, Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Russell Wilson, Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Ryan, and Tony Romo were all selected ahead of him. That should change today, and we can expect Brady to now be drafted a few rounds earlier. I would not argue against drafting him after Drew Brees.
The experts with rank updates today currently have Tom Brady at QB7 according to our consensus rankings. I cannot tell you exactly where Brady will end up once every expert updates, but it should be in the QB5 to QB7 range. The Patriots are coming off of a Super Bowl win with their high-powered offense essentially intact with the exception of an injured Brandon LaFell. Entering his 16th season, Brady is coming off an excellent season of 373 completions, 4,109 yards, and 33 touchdowns to just nine interceptions. His go-to target, Rob Gronkowski, is coming off another thousand-yard season with 12 touchdowns. Veteran receiver Julian Edelman could have had the best season of his career last year, but in 14 games still notched 92 receptions, 972 yards, and five total touchdowns.
The New England Patriots have one of the best quarterbacks in the National Football League and arguably the best coach on the planet. They also tend to play with a bit of a chip on their shoulder. We should now consider this chip to be a boulder after the offseason shenanigans Roger Goodell has subjected them to. Expect Tom Brady to play with vengeance and for his coach to pile it on. The entire Patriots organization is angry about this mess and their play will show it. Brady was already an elite quarterback, but a vilified Brady could be a scary one.
As previously mentioned, the window to draft him on the cheap officially closed with the overturning of the four-game suspension. His price may be too high for those who tend to wait on a quarterback, but he is a virtual lock to return value regardless of where you draft him.
The lifting of the suspension not only warrants consideration for Brady to be in the top five conversation but it also warrants consideration as a daily fantasy play Week 1 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, whose defense was ranked in the bottom half last season. This figures to be a high-scoring game and his $7,700 cost on Draft Kings may be the cheapest you will be able to play him this season. Even if Brady gets off to a “slow” start, reminiscent of 2014, he will still be a quarterback you should be targeting on draft day and in your daily leagues.
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Jen Ryan is a correspondent at FantasyPros. Click here for her archive and feel free to reach her and talk all things fantasy @FFdeJENerate!
