Antonio Brown is going to make an impact on this offense but just how much of an impact will he have?
Does he still have "it"?
Antonio Brown last played a football game on September 15th, 2019. It's been more than a year since he stepped on the field. On social media, it has appeared that he has kept up a pretty good training regiment week after week, but training and live games are very different. Personally I'm going to have to see him on the football field to believe that he still has the talent at age 32.
How long will it last?
Antonio Brown pretty much lost his mind last season after being let go by the Patriots. Multiple police reports, some crazy social media posts, and a lot of off the field buzz, AB has been relatively quiet the past few months. I have not heard much about him until the past week where it was initially rumored that he was going to the Seahawks. Bruce Arians is a very good coach who has been in football for more than 40 years, so he has the experience to keep him in line. As long as he has his head on straight, he should be fine and able to play out the season as long as his body is in football shape and no injuries occur.
Will he have fantasy value?
AB was a top 10 fantasy wide receiver for a handful of years over the past decade. The #1 WR in fantasy for a couple of years there until Juju began to take over some of the work which seems crazy now since Juju has been struggling. However, AB still may have that it-factor, but he did not go into the most fantasy-friendly landing spot. Sure it's a good offense, but Brady loves to spread the ball around and this team is loaded with weapons. Mike Evans and Chris Godwin will continue to be Brady's top 2 targets, as they have a good relationship established, despite Godwin missing a couple of weeks. Rob Gronkowski, Scotty Miller, Ronald Jones, Leonard Fournette, and Lesean McCoy will get their respective target shares as well. So AB will not get a huge target share to begin with, but he still has the talent to establish a role in this offense.
How will he impact the Bucs offense?
Antonio Brown will take away some targets from the two main guys on this offense. Unfortunately, I think this will impact Chris Godwin more than it will Evans. Godwin is more of the possession receiver who racks up targets, while Evans has been the mainstay as Brady's red zone guy. Both will take a hit to the target share department, but both should stay as top 20 fantasy options no doubt. However, I think this means that Gronk will be the 4th passing option on this team moving forward. He was already struggling to outperform his counterpart Cameron Brate the past couple of weeks. Now with Brown taking up some of the slot routes also, Gronk will be a desperation TE play where you're hoping he finds the endzone. However, with Evans as the main target down there, I don't think there will be many of those.
The Biggest beneficiary here is Tom Brady. He's been somewhat inconsistent this season and currently sits at QB9 (in 6 point passing TD leagues). He has one huge game of 5 passing TDs and 42 fantasy points helping to inflate his numbers a bit. However, he also has 3 duds of less than 20 fantasy points. He's still a solid option, but the addition of Antonio Brown will just take that to the next level. Godwin and Evans have not been the healthiest this season, but with them both at full strength now and a healthy AB incoming week 9. Brady could make his way into that top 5 Fantasy QB conversation.
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