Tom Brady Is Out. What Now?

With the season-changing news that New England Patriots' QB Tom Brady is out for the 2008 season, fantasy footballers are forced to analyze what they think will happen to the offensive games plans for the team now that Matt Cassel will be running the offense.  The first thing they will do is regret taking a QB in the 1st round.  The second thing will be regret taking WR Randy Moss ahead of RBs like Marshawn Lynch, Frank Gore, Micheal Turner, etc.

But that is the easy I-told-you-so from someone who didn't do either.  What is more important is what to do going forward.  Moss is still a top tier WR, but no one should expect more than 10-12 TDs now.

Wes Welker may keep his PPR status, but I'd expect him to drop a little, too.  The drop may be enough to make him a double-digit round value and not the 4th-6th round value that he was given pre-Brady injury.

Where I see a big boost is to the running game and TE.  I don't expect to see the Pats try to do something it is no longer capable of doing - throwing all day long.  Instead, I expect to see a shift to a power running game.  This means RB Laurence Maroney may finally see his expected value realized.

Additionally, I can see an inexperienced QB like Cassel having to rely more on dump-off passes.  This helps the RBs and TEs who serve as safety valves.

We will see on Sunday when the biggest story of Week Two (for fantasy) unfolds on the field.