The Antonio Brown saga reached another obscene level on Saturday. After likely being suspended, then starting Week 1, then leaking a conversation between himself and Jon Gruden, the Raiders finally released the psychotic wideout. Just hours after his release, someone called ‘Master Tes’ announced that the Patriots and Brown were close to signing a deal, which essentially broke the internet. It was soon confirmed by Adam Schefter and his agent, Drew Rosenhaus that the Patriots were indeed signing Brown to a 1-year deal, worth up to $15m with a $9m signing bonus. The diva receiver did everything in his power to get out of Oakland and he was rewarded by getting signed to the Patriots loaded roster, with their eye on Lombardi No. 7.
It was just a few weeks ago when the Patriots’ receiver depth chart was the weak link of their roster. Not so fast my friend. In just the last three weeks, Josh Gordon was reinstated, Julian Edelman was activated off the NFI list and Demaryius Thomas turned back the clock during their fourth preseason game. Adding one of the top receivers in the game just makes this offense downright scary and borderline unstoppable.
From a brief fantasy perspective, Tom Brady will now be top-five rest-of-season quarterback at age 42. Even though he’s in the always scary Patriots RBBC, Sony Michel now drips in 15-plus touchdown upside. Although Edelman and Gordon will likely lose a decent chunk of targets, they’re going to be going up against the opposition’s CB2s and CB3s now — which is just frightening and it could mean added yardage and touchdown numbers.
When it comes to AB, he’s going to get hit with a slight fantasy downgrade from what he potentially had with the Raiders. Sure, the surrounding talent rises significantly in New England, but he will no longer be the Alpha Target Hog in this loaded offense. He likely won’t see the 150+ targets that we projected for him under Gruden.
Buckle up, because this Patriots’ offense will rival their record-breaking 2007 attack.
