AFC East Breakdown, Handcuffs, Doppler Effect

So watch your words. Literally, we never asked that of Jason. But he doesn't. We ask him not to. Yeah. Please don't let your body talk. That's what it does. AFC East breakdown time. Last year the Patriots finally won the division, guys.

We did it. Underdiles. Well, it is a really difficult division. 11 and 5. It's just, it's such good competition here. You got the Patriots. Oh, man, twice a year they got to go up against those dolphins, jets, and bills. The rest of the division was sub 500. Come on. Miami. Miami was 7 and 9. Buffalo, 6 and 10. The Jets 4 and 12. Obviously the jets, they look up at the dolphins at 7 and 9. They say, hey, we want your head coach.

Right. And they got him. He must be pretty good. So seven and nine's in the cards for the Jets this year. But let's walk through this division. The Patriots dominated it once again. As I said, 11 and 5. We'll take a look at what's happened this off season when we look at these teams. We'll look at who they've gained, who they've lost. We'll look at how they ranked on offense, and then we'll look a little bit at their schedule.

How the season is going to start. Some of the different highlights and question marks around these teams. We'll get you caught up on them. The Patriots, you know Tom Brady is there. This offseason, is there an underrated edition for this team? In your mind? They added Demarius Thomas, Don Trell Inman, Ben Watson at tight end with Rob Grankowski retiring. I've been a big Don Trell Inman fan. I thought he made a big impact in Indianapolis last year on the field.

I think he's the underrated addition to this team. I feel like Dantrell-L-Inwin could very well start with a higher snap count than to kill Harry if things go that way in camp. He could, but it's not going to be long. He could also get cut before the season. Yeah, it could also. It happens a lot with the New England Patriots because they also, look, Demeris Thomas, I don't know how many of us expect him to remain on that team.

I'm not one of them. Not really. And Josh Gordon is the X factor. So talk about that situation for those that have been disconnected from. So Josh Gordon, actually I'm trying to remember. He's not officially suspended as he's on the commissioner's list. Is that correct? Yeah. So he is at a place right now where he can't play, can't participate in football activities. He was suspended again a while back. And now the situation is there's belief that he could.

be back this season, but it's, it's really out of their hands. So when you're talking about the Patriots, you can only focus on the known commodities. I don't think it's a worthwhile endeavor to really go after the, whoever this last option is, is it Enmin, is it Gordon, is it Demarius Thomas? I think you got to focus on. I haven't even mentioned Dorset, who.

What has been on the team for a while now, and they brought him back. Well, you assume he's going to make the roster because he knows that they keep bringing him back. He will make the roster. But we've seen what he adds, which is enough for them, not for fantasy. So for fantasy, I'm saying you've got Julian Edelman. I'm not going to go in on drafting the kill here, even though he was my first ranked player before the draft. Great landing spot, but rookie wide receivers take a little while.

to come into their own. Usually even veteran-wide receivers take a little while to get up to speed on the Patriots offense. So, you know, I don't see a ton of pieces here. This should be a good offense. It should be a good team. They should be winning. You got Sony Michelle, who should be in positive game scripts to run the ball, to score touchdowns. Second-ranked offensive line in football, according to the huddle.

Michelle's going in the back of the fourth round in fantasy drafts. James White is going in the front of the sixth round as of right now. Edelman's a fourth round pick. We've been very vocal about we're above the consensus on Edelman. I'm all in on Edelman in a big way. Yes. And Sony Michelle is very interesting because he carries a lot of risk to me. His upside is massive.

But there is a lot of risk for him, especially going in the fourth round. But that opening schedule, which we try not to emphasize too much, but six of the, here's six of their first eight weeks. Miami, the Jets, Washington, the Giants, the Jets, and Cleveland. I mean, those are, well, Cleveland could be a different scenario this year, but those are games where Sony Michelle should be featured heavily, where you were talking, he's up in the,

18 plus carry category and he's just burning the clock off getting cheap goal line touchdowns. They don't play a playoff team from last year until week nine. Thanks, NFL. So the NFL has rewarded their Super Bowl victory. Ridiculous. With a beautiful schedule. Last year they were the fifth ranked rushing offense speaking to Sonny Michelle, eighth ranked passing offense. Those are both by yards per game. If you're, you know, if you want to talk.

for a moment about Damian Harris and the fact they spent a third round pick on Damian Harris. My argument against that, which I will stand by, is only amplified by that schedule. I don't see road bumps for Sony Michelle's success in this offense for the first eight or nine weeks. I don't think that there is a need or necessity for Damian Harris to fill a major role. I don't think he is proven that he can fill a major role. And Rex Burkhead's still there. James White is still involved.

You talk about standalone value, draftable value. It's Sony. It's James White. It's not Damien Harris. I agree that James White has his role carved out. Whoever the first down, you know, back is, whoever the goal line back, that's not James White. He's going to possibly be in in a package near the goal line. So I like him as a standalone value. And look, if Sony's healthy, I think Sony will provide a value in the fourth. The questionable player from the Patriots that I...

am fine taking a shot on is Damien Harris because what we weren't able to see last year, which it seems by the actions of the Patriots is what they wanted. They wanted to have a three-headed backfield. They wanted to have Rex Burkhead involved. They did well when Burkhead was out there. That ate into Sony Michelle's work. And so they went out and instead of saying, hey, Rex, get healthy, they spent a high capital pick on a quality running back.

who because Sony Michelle has undergone recently another knee scope, and those are minor. Those aren't huge things. It's not going to keep them out from the season or anything like that. But it has kept them out of the OTAs, where Damien Harris has gone on and impressed. People have said he's caught onto the system really well. So to me, I think that the fact that they spent the Capitol and he's impressed in OTAs says he will have the Rex Burkhead role that disappeared last year with record.

Rex Burkhead's injury. I'm willing to completely buy in on that entire narrative with more information. That's where I'm at. I'm willing to, I need to wait and see a little bit more for me to be that excited about it. But I get what you're saying. A couple of questions about this offense before we transition away from them. How does the offense change without Rob Grankowski as a fundamental part of it, both for

the targets, where they shift in the offense, and also just to Tom Brady, look, it's been a while since Brady's carried the load for your fantasy team. But he has been a very startable quarterback, especially on certain weeks for the past couple of years. What does this mean for Brady? What does it mean for the other targets in the offense with Gronk out? Not much, really. I mean, I know that Gronk probably played.

a bigger factor on the field than we can quantify other than using the numbers and everything. But last year, in only 13 games, 72 targets. I mean, that's not the level of influence and production that you expect from Gronk when he was healthy. It's like Brady had a year to taper off of his Gronk. So I don't think it's.

tremendously different than last year. And if Ben Watson, after he comes back from his suspension, ends up around that 70 target mark, that's not surprising. And so it's not a huge change. The one place that I think it has a huge change, you know, we've said we're all in on Julian Edelman.

That's a big reason why. I mean, you look at the games that Edelman has played in with Gronk, without Gronk, and I go back to 2016 because that was a time where they lost them for a significant chunk. They had a team that resembles this current roster. That was the Lageret Blunt monster year of Sony's that type. Look, Lageret Blunt was better with Gronk on the field for half the season, worse without him. That's the Sony. Edelman was, he went from 11 points a game.

with Gronk on the field to 17 points a game when Gronk was gone. So Edelman is the beneficiary here. And when it comes to Tom Brady, don't draft him. Look, if you're out there, don't draft Tom Brady. If you're in a two quarterback league, sure, but he's not the name. I mean, he's the goat. He's the greatest quarterback of all time. But for fantasy football purposes, eight out of the last 10 weeks, he didn't even finish as a quarterback one. So he hurt you.

The vast majority of time. They want to run the football and they want to run it more this year than even last year when they were fifth. Do you pass on drafting taking a shot on Nikiel Harry due to the kind of rookie, the slow rookie onloading in this office? Yes. I generally don't draft any rookie wide receivers in a redraft league. But where it could go right for Nikiel Harry is he is.

a baby version of Gronk's production where he's not heavily targeted, but he scores a bunch of touchdown. So imagine Mike Williams from last year, which when it hits, you're very happy that you started him, but I think it's going to be rough for...

Harry to catch up to that offensive system. Yeah, I mean, as of right now, wide receivers that are going behind Nikiel Harry. So, I mean, you can definitely draft them on average behind Nikil Harry. Marvin Jones, Larry Fitzgerald, Cortland Sutton, those type of players where I would prefer all of them over Nikiel. Rookie Nikiel. Last two things real quick with the Patriots. Number one, Ben Watson is their starting tight in. He has suspended to begin the year.

Matt LaCost should have that role in the interim. No, thank you. No thank you. No, thank you, Zach Sudfeld. Would you rather have Sonny Michelle in the fourth or James White in the sixth than a half-point league? Sony. James White. Tiebreaker, Andy. Sony. I'll go with Sony. Ha-ha. Hey, before we move over to the next. Before we move to the next Miami Dolphins.

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