Drew Brees injury: Fantasy football impact on Alvin Kamara, Michael Thomas, Teddy Bridgewater
Drew Brees is out for around six weeks with a thumb injury. Here's what you need to know about its Fantasy impact.
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Drew Brees has been an elite Fantasy quarterback for the better part of the last two decades. He's also been extremely reliable, so a potential absence of six weeks or more is entirely new territory for football fans.
No position in sports is as important as the NFL quarterback and the loss of an elite signal-caller like Drew Brees can be a devastating blow for any team. It will also be a huge loss for Fantasy football players who were expecting another 16 starts of excellence out of Brees.
Now that we know that Brees is going to miss a significant portion of the 2019 NFL season, it's important to asses how his absence could affect the rest of the New Orleans skill position group.
As witnessed by his solid-but-unspectacular numbers in relief of Brees in Week 2, Teddy Bridgewater can do a solid job filling in but there will be a steep decline for the passing game. In fact, it wouldn't even be a shock to see Taysom Hill play a significant role as a gadget player and possibly even take a good portion of snaps under center. We'll get a better feel for that in Week 3 as the Saints take on the Seattle Seahawks as 4.5-point underdogs in the latest NFL odds.
Regardless of how this plays out with Bridgewater and Hill at quarterback, it's going to have a negative impact on the pass catchers.
While Michael Thomas remains a weekly must-start, he's going to see fewer targets and his ceiling will be significantly lowered by a scaled-back playbook. Also, without the threat of Brees exploiting defensive lapses, Thomas will command even more double teams.
The news is worse for Ted Ginn, who failed to even be targeted in Week 2. While Bridgewater has a strong enough arm, Ginn can't be expected to see enough targets to be anything more than a weekly dart throw in extremely deep Fantasy leagues.
Ditto for the rest of the Saints' receiving corps. Tre'quan Smith is averaging over 61% of the club's offensive snaps but has only accounted for 75 yards and suffered a leg injury against the Rams.
Reserve wideouts Keith Kirkwood, Austin Carr, and Deonte Harris have combined to account for (-7) yards this season and those numbers aren't going to improve much with backup quarterbacks in the lineup.
It's possible TE Jared Cook actually benefits for the quarterback change, as we often see when a new signal-caller is trying to grow more comfortable in an offense. Cook actually drew seven targets in Los Angeles but made little impact. While he should remain a solid source of targets and receptions, Cook's upside is obviously capped with Bridgewater under center, but he remains a top-12 weekly Fantasy option.
RB Alvin Kamara only caught one ball in Week 2, which is a huge concern for his overall Fantasy value and DFS upside. Kamara was mostly bottled up on the ground and was unable to build up in rapport with Bridgewater. Sean Payton excels at designing plays to get Kamara into space but without Brees in the lineup, Kamara could be neutralized- especially as a pass-catcher.
The Saints do boast a strong offensive line, so it's fair to assume we'll see a lot more runs. That should benefit Latavius Murray, who averaged over seven yards per carry and scored in Week 1. Murray could more-or-less split rushing attempts with Kamara, which would put him on the weekly RB3/flex radar.
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Written by Jody Smith
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