Fantasy Football: The Only Reason To Care About The Brady-NFL Saga

Bryan Altman, CBS Local Sports

Admit it - you're sick and tired of hearing about deflated footballs. You're so sick of it that you don't really care if they decide to punish Tom Brady by sending him into orbit for the first 12 games of the NFL season or whatever kind of punishment he ends up with for maybe, kind of, sort of, deflating footballs. Or not. Whatever. 

Point being, you don't care. I'm a Jets fan and I'm finding it really hard to care at this point. Brady has made every Sunday of my life for the last 15 years (minus that one glorious playoff game in 2010-11) a living hell. But honestly, any joy I've derived from watching him and the Patriots organization squirm is pretty much gone. Now we all just want to know exactly what is happening to Brady. Is he sitting four games? Is he starting the season and then maybe being punished in the middle of it if the courts rule against him? Basically, we want to know how this affects the thing that will consume us from September through December: How will this affect our fantasy football teams?

Do we draft Brady? How does this affect the quarterback rankings? Will Gronk still Gronk?

Well, we spoke with fantasy sports experts Marc Malusis (WFAN 660) and Editor-In-Chief of Fantasy Football Sports Guide, Scott Gramling to get some perspective on the matter. 

Guys, Brady is easily a top five QB when he's playing. So do you draft Brady at his normal spot and live with the consequences? Or do you stay far far away from the four-time Super Bowl Champion.

Malusis: I look at Brady as a guy that I'm going to probably look for in the middle rounds. But if that's the case you need a strong backup quarterback as well. Not sure how the whole court case will play out. We don't know for sure if he's playing in Week 1 and it's possible that the case wraps up quickly and that he misses games in the middle of the season too. If I get Brady, I need a backup.

Gramling: Let me put it this way, I would bump him down a bit, but it's only because now I feel like I can get him later. There's no reason, the average draft position (for Brady) might have been sixth or seventh round in a lot of leagues, I had him going into the season as the number 6 quarterback. I had him behind Rodgers, Luck, Brees, Russell Wilson and Peyton Manning. So if he was still available in the sixth I would've taken him, now I'd probably wait til the 8th. 

And is that regardless of how this situation plays out? Depending on how it all goes down, do you worry about something being handed down in the middle of the season? Does that affect how you draft him? 

Malusis: I don’t know when - beginning of the season, middle of the season, end of the season - either way, I think he serves four games. His appeal just won't hold up. I think he's still a mid-round pick either way you look at it.

Gramling: I think if you're getting him that late, relatively speaking, in the 8th, I think you are getting the right value there if he only plays 12 games. The extra four games become gravy. 

Can Jimmy Garoppolo pull a Tom Brady on Tom Brady?

Gramling: No. I do not... I pretty emphatically do not think so. But I do think, I will say this, with the right match-up....If I drafted Brady, you gotta take Garoppolo, you take him later. It's such a fluid situation, if we knew for sure that Brady was going to be out the first four weeks, which we don't know for sure and in fact that seems like quite an unlikely scenario. It seems at this point if he's going to miss four games it's going to come down in the middle of the season, or honestly the way the courts work in this country the first four games of 2016. I would draft the same way you do with running back, handcuff a starter with his backup. I would look the same way at Brady and Garoppolo. Because I don't think Garoppolo will be taken unless they have Brady. You take Brady in the 8th, you take Garoppolo in the 3rd to last round before you take your kicker and at least there you have your backup. I would draft my backup QB earlier than I otherwise would.

Malusis: I definitely wouldn't even draft Garoppolo. I know Matt Cassel went 10-5 when Brady was out with his ACL injury but he's not a guy I’d back him up with. I would look at a guy somewhere in the No.15-20 quarterback range. Would definitely lean on the schedule, take a look at who potentially has an easy schedule and who might have the best possible matchup and go with that.

What about other New England players, like Rob Gronkowski, I think we're used to looking at him like a top tier option...

Gramling: Yeah absolutely, I think, what I would project as being the big difference would be....I think it's more the margin guys who would suffer. I think Garoppolo would be more comfortable throwing to Gronk and Edelman, Gronk because he's such a big target and Edelman because he's a good possession receiver. I think LaFell is the one whose fantasy value gets knocked down a bit. 

Malusis: I don’t think Gronk’s draft stock gets affected, he's such a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses. To be honest you or I could play quarterback and we’d be able to find him.

Edelman is interesting though since he's really been the security blanket for Brady, that can probably affect Edelman's production. He might not catch 80-90 passes and might miss out on those 105 yard games with a TD. Most interesting thing will be timing. When does Brady serve the suspension? Either way, it definitely won’t affect Gronk.

Any predictions on how this whole thing plays out? 

Gramling: Yeah, I have 100 percent faith in the U.S. constitution and the fact that this penalty is downright unconstitutional and that he will play all 16 games this year and for however many years he wants to play. 

Malusis: I’m still stunned that we’re sitting here and it’s playing out six months later. If he fell on the sword after it all came out we’re not sitting here. While I don’t think NFL wants to go out of the way to disgrace or dishonor the face of NFL, and arguably the best quarterback of all time, I still think he serves four games at some point.

Scott, how about a prediction for his stat line? 

Gramling: I'll give you this, I'll give you very specific numbers and this is how it's printed in our magazine: 4,343 yards passing, 31 touchdowns, 10 interceptions and 1 rushing touchdown and if you need to know, 55 rushing yards. 

So there you have it, stat line and all. Drafting Brady is a risky proposition, but 31 touchdowns and 4,300-plus yards can make or break any team this coming season. For reference those stats would have put Brady 8th in the league in yards and tied for 8th in TD's last season.  Best be looking at No. 12 and the rest of the Patriots once your draft comes along after all. 

Bryan Altman is, for some reason, an unabashed fan of the Rangers, Jets and Mets. If he absolutely had to pick a basketball team it would be the Knicks, but he’d gladly trade them for just one championship for either of his other three teams.

Questions or comments? Feel free to follow Bryan on Twitter or send him an email. 

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• NFL
• Fantasy Football