The Patriots will play on Sunday without Julian Edelman and LeGarrette Blount. That’s a surprise to me. Neither appeared to be hurt last week. They were listed as questionable on the injury report, but that’s routine in New England.
Regardless, let’s do some surgery on the draft board.
QB Tom Brady: Yesterday I thought he was going to put up 300 yards and 2-3 TDs. Now I see him as far more likely to throw just 2 TDs, and I’m docking him 10 yards as well. This moves him down from the No. 3 quarterback to No. 6. I’ve him 6th in all formats.
RB Shane Vereen: When New England beat the Jets in Week 7, it was with Vereen getting the vast majority of playing time at tailback. Stevan Ridley had just gotten hurt and Blount wasn’t even on the team. Vereen carried 11 times for 43 yards and caught 5 passes for 71 yards and 2 TDs. He also caught a touchdown in his last other game against the Jets. I expect he’ll be their main back. (I thought he would be their best guy even earlier in the week, but now with Blount out, it really looks certain). Very easily could go over 40 yards as both a runner and receiver. I’m moving him up from 30th to 20th among running backs. Moves up from 23rd to 9th in the PPR format. He’s staying just the same in TD-only (18th).
RB Jonas Gray: With Blount out, Gray will be the power runner in this game. Not a great matchup for him, though, in that the Jets are really tough up front. I don’t think he’ll play a gigantic role. If the ball winds up on the 1-yard line, he should be the guy who punches it in (but I don’t think that kind of touchdown is likely). Was 73rd running back in TD only yesterday; now he’s 42nd. The 55th and 68th guy in the Y & PPR formats. Brandon Bolden also might get some snaps.
TE Rob Gronkowski: No. 1 tight end yesterday in all formats, and still in that spot. He should now account for a higher amount of the catches, yards and touchdowns, but the size of the pie shrinks, so about the same.
TE Tim Wright: Edelman’s out and the Patriots don’t really have a good third receiver now. There also not as good in the slot, so they could use Wright more. It’s guesswork, though, and as I push around the numbers, I don’t see Wright as being quite promising enough to use in any kind of traditional 12-team league. I’m moving him up only slightly in all formats.
WR Brandon LaFell: With Edelman out, I think they use LaFell a little more than usual. I’m moving him up a few spots (18th to 14th in standard, 20th to 14th in PPR and holding steady in TD-only).
WR Danny Amendola: He takes on the Edelman role. He’ll be their slot guy, giving him a good chance of catching a half dozen passes. So a decent-enough fill-in type guy in a PPR format. But Amendola simply isn’t as good as Edelman. We learned that in the first half of last year (when Amendola underachieved in that role). I’m moving Amendola up to 52nd in standard, 41st in PPR and 48th in TD-only.
WR Brian Tyms: He’s their clear No. 3 receiver now. Aaron Dobson, recall, is on injured reserve. Tyms is used only as a deep threat. He made the team on the strength of playing well in the preseason. If you get lucky, maybe he hits on a bomb. But I don’t see enough potential here to put him in my top 100 receivers.
—Ian Allan