The Patriots’ wide receiver group of Jakobi Meyers, DeVante Parker, Nelson Agholor, Kendrick Bourne and Tyquan Thornton (when he returns from injury) may prove to be perfectly solid in real life football.
In the world of fantasy football, though, managers are apparently expecting very little from New England’s wideouts.
Where do Patriots rank in the AFC?
On both ESPN and Yahoo, the Patriots are currently the only one of the NFL’s 32 teams to not have a single wide receiver getting drafted in the top 50 at the position.
On ESPN, Meyers is the highest-drafted Pats receiver with an average draft position of 139, 51st among wide receivers. Parker is next at 162 overall and 60th among receivers. On Yahoo, Parker is going 61st among wide receivers while Meyers is even lower at 69th.
The team with next-lowest top-drafted receiver is the Giants, who have Kadarius Toney going 46th at the position on ESPN and 47th on Yahoo.
We won’t pretend that the Patriots’ passing game is going to be some fantasy juggernaut, but there is a decent chance multiple Patriots outperform their average draft positions.
Last season, for example, Bourne finished as the No. 30 wide receiver in half-PPR (points per reception) leagues and Meyers was just behind him at 33. At worst, that means they were perfectly fine bench/bye week fill-in options.
It's also worth noting that Parker was the 11th-best fantasy wide receiver back in 2019 when he had 1,202 yards and nine touchdowns with the Dolphins. He hasn't close to that level since, though, in large part because he's been unable to stay healthy.
The arguable undervaluing extends to the rest of the Pats’ passing game, too. Mac Jones finished as the No. 18 quarterback in fantasy last season as a rookie, but is going 22nd among QBs on ESPN and 20th on Yahoo this year. Either way, he’s probably not on the radar in standard one-QB leagues, but would be in two-QB or superflex leagues.
Hunter Henry, meanwhile, was the No. 9 tight end in fantasy last season, but is currently being drafted 13th at the position on ESPN and 15th on Yahoo.
Of course, the arguments in favor of avoiding the entire Patriots passing game in fantasy is that Josh McDaniels has been replaced by Matt Patricia and Joe Judge and it just didn’t look good at all in preseason games and joint practices.
If you’re not a believer that Bill Belichick can get things on track by the season-opener next Sunday, then staying far away in your fantasy drafts (if you haven’t had yours yet) makes all the sense in the world.
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