Fantasy Football News

2006 Fantasy Football - New England Patriots

07/22/2006

2006 Fantasy Football Preview
by Erick Chi
fflcommish.com staff writer

New England

New England has been an institution lately. This modern day dynasty's fan's war cry is "DISRESPECT" but I think plenty of respect has been paid to this team over the last few years. They have plenty of talent and an excellent head coach. The last few years they've been playing with a mix and match, rag-tag defensive secondary and still scheme, practice and play their butts off to victory. However, Team Billy B. has taken another hit with the defection of wunderkind Eric Mangini to the N.Y. Jets. Over the past few years, Charlie Weis has left for Notre Dame, Romeo Crennel for Cleveland and now Mangini. Belichick's new defensive number 1 is whiz Dean Pees. A big part of New England's success has been securing some superstar talent while coaching the hell out of the rest of the team and getting them to buy into the system and outplay their individual talent into a collective success. No one doubts Belichick as a master of all that is football, but can his team persevere through all of the coaching defections and off-season upheaval?

Quarterback

Tom Brady. There isn't much more that needs to be said. Although T. Tom Terrific won't put up the greatest fantasy football league statistics, he will do something that is almost as important: win…all the time. This guy just wins. In football he's got 3 superbowl rings. In his off-field life, he models, dates a beautiful actress, makes awful Visa commercials and does things like hosting Saturday Night Live. He's golden. The only problem is if he goes down with injury or spends any time out of the game for any reason. New England area favorite Doug Flutie has taken his drop kicking prowess and retired to focus on Flutie Flakes and playing in the rock band he's in with his brother. The number 2 on the Patriots is Matt Cassel. Cassel is a career backup, even in college, and hasn't really thrown many game passes since being a starter in high school. The Patriots staff must have seen something in him to draft him and he seems capable of holding down the fort, but didn't display anything flashy when he received some playing time last season. The drop off between number one Tom Terrific and number two Cassel is significant. Behind Cassel are Todd Mortenson and Corey Bramlet. Let's hope Brady doesn't get hurt.

Grade: A-

Running Backs

Sleeper Alert! Although Corey Dillon has been a great back in the past and had some monster games in Cincy and has been pretty good in NE, he's starting to show his mileage. He's getting more brittle and he's having less ability to move the pile and get those extra yards. In comes Laurence Maroney. At Minnesota last season, the offense was pretty one-sided and defenses could key in on the running game. However, the biggest success of Minny last season was it's running game and Maroney was the heart and soul. He's got pretty good speed and the ability to make people miss, but he's also strong, tough and able to move the pile and rack up the yards after contact. He'll be forced to run against some decent defenses in the AFC East, but should still see a good amount of success. With Dillon, Maroney won't be asked to carry the entire load, something that rookie RB's are often asked to do and then they run out of gas or get injured around week 10. Both Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown had excellent rookie years, but Brown dealt with less injuries as he had Ricky Williams to help shoulder the load. They can keep giving Dillon carries while they ease Maroney into the offense and get him up to speed.

Grade: B+

Wide Receivers

Here's a question mark. Sure we've got Superbowl MVP Deion Branch, but we don't really have any standouts at receiver. In the off-season the Pats signed on San Diego's second fiddle Reche Caldwell and drafted Chad Jackson out of Florida. Caldwell has some skills, but he hasn't proven himself to be an upper echelon receiver. Jackson showed plenty of skills at Florida. He showed not only a propensity for catching the ball and scoring touchdowns, but he also proved a threat as a runner out of the backfield on reverses. Rookie receivers generally don't have overwhelming success in their first year, but Jackson should be a cornerstone of New England's receiving corps in the future. In addition we've got utility man Troy Brown, maybe now more famous for filling in as a defensive back last season. He's good for a few receptions and some yardage, but in reality he is a he doesn't contribute a whole lot as a wideout, especially when it comes to your fantasy football league. Overall there isn't much prospect here to find a number one WR fantasy football-wise. Branch is probably going to put up respectable numbers, but another thing to take into account is the way that Brady spreads the ball around. No one receiver is relied upon all the time meaning that no one receiver is going to consistently get the ball thrown to them. Wait until the middle of the draft for Branch and if they perform in camp Jackson and maybe Caldwell would be worth taking a flyer on.

Grade: C

Tight Ends

Off-season trade rumors for Daniel Graham ran rampant in the last few weeks, but it looks as though he'll be a part of the Patriots for at least one more season. In lieu of the trade rumors, Graham has developed into a pretty decent receiver, and has vastly improved his blocking skills. Graham's counter-part Ben Watson isn't too shabby either. Both of them had a respectable amount of receptions yardage and touchdowns (3 and 4 respectively) last season. The only thing holding them back, again, is Brady's penchant for passing the ball around. That's great for actual NFL success, but it's not always great for fantasy football stats. New England also drafted David Thomas out of Texas in the third round of the draft this year. Former team Captain Thomas was the career receptions leader for Texas and has a chance to develop into a decent receiver, but probably won't get a great chance to display his talent this season with the talent ahead of him on the depth chart. This group is pretty darn talented and has a moderate amount of fantasy value, especially with Watson coming on strong last season with his 4 TD's, but with no one emerging as a true number one option, an extra receiver would probably have more value than any of these tight ends.

Grade: C+

Kicker

Bad news. Maybe the most clutch kicker of our generation was let go by New England this offseason. Adam Vinetieri is gone and one of the most trustworthy placekickers is gone for good. He signed with the Colts and left the Pats looking to find a replacement (good luck!). In the draft this year, much to the surprise of all the draft pundits, New England jumped early and drafted Stephen Gostkowski out of Memphis in the fourth round. Although he had a pretty successful collegiate career, Gostkowski won't be the stable scoring option that Vinetieri is. Rookie kickers don't often fare that well and even when successful aren't going to make anyone forget about tried and true veterans. In addition to Gostkowski, the Patriots also signed Martin Gramatica. Unfortunately he hasn't been "Automatica" for years and is six seasons removed from his lone ProBowl appearance. The Patriots kicking game doesn't look good and unless Gostkowski proves to be even better than previous rookie kickers like Nate Kaeding or Mike Nugent, they will struggle when trying for field goals.

Grade: D

Erick Chi is a staff writer for fflcommish.com, the most flexible fantasy football league manager available for your fantasy football leagues needs.