Does A.J. Brown's fantasy value improve after the trade to the Patriots?
Yahoo Sports fantasy analysts Matt Harmon and Justin Boone break down the fantasy impact AJ Brown will have on the New England Patriots offense for the 2026 season. Check out the full conversation on the "Yahoo Fantasy Forecast" - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Even though we all knew it was coming, I've still somehow talked about it way too much over the last three days.
So I am really curious, and I think the people are probably much more curious, to hear what you think about this deal and what it means from all sides in fantasy.
But let's start first on the Patriots side with A.J.
Brown.
What do you think about this?
I'm cautiously optimistic, I think is probably the right way to put it, at least for redraft anyway.
I think dynasty, and this might be controversial, but I think in dynasty this might be an opportunity to try to sell him high.
Mm-hmm.
He is an older receiver.
He's gonna be 29 this year.
Depending where your team is at, if you're a contender this season, maybe a hang.
But if you're not, or if you don't feel like you have all the pieces you need on your squad, I think this is an opportunity to move him, 'cause I don't know how much he does have left in the tank.
I think he could have one really good year, and right now I'm ranking him as such.
I still have him ranked as a low-end wide receiver one.
I think he could come through in a big way.
I think he's the kind of guy who's gonna be motivated with the fresh start, wanna show everybody that last year, and really the last couple seasons, were just kind of blips on the radar, and he still does have enough left in the tank that he is one of the top wideouts.
But I don't think we're talking about him as an elite guy anymore.
I think he is gonna fall into this offense into a role that they really needed to fill.
And it's not that he's the same kind of receiver as Stefon Diggs, but he can be that alpha that they need.
He can be that receiver for Drake May, and he's getting a big-time quarterback upgrade in terms of the fact that Drake May is a much better downfield passer.
Drake May is gonna take more shots downfield.
I think that's gonna do well for Brown.
But there's a lot of question marks here, too, Harmon.
Like I think last year during the season we were talking about this guy, was he even the best receiver on his team still?
That DeVonta Smith- was the better fantasy play, at least for some of those weeks in the second half of the season.
There's some concerns about potentially his knee.
Is that gonna be an issue moving forward, or is that just other teams that didn't get the deal done throwing that out there as perhaps a reason why they didn't ultimately get that deal done?
So I think there's some reasons to be concerned in terms of his age, i- in terms of, you know, the injury, that sort of thing, but he's gonna get a lot of volume in this offense.
And like I said, I do still think he has enough left in the tank to step in there and put up really good numbers.
I think it's unfortunate for the rest of the pass catchers in New England, 'cause I think Romeo Doubs, I did not have high hopes.
I did not think we were gonna end the off-season with him as the number one receiver in that offense.
But this just pushes him back down to the role that we have been used to him serving in, in Green Bay, right, with the Packers, and that's a wide receiver four flex, kind of a, a boom or bust type guy.
He'll have his games where he finds the end zone a couple times, but week to week not really gonna be that excited to have him in my lineup as a consistent starter.
so I think And past that, there's not much in this receiver corps other than Hunter Henry, who himself is kind of like a high-end tight end too.
So in terms of all those guys, I'm not really interested in them for fantasy.
I will draft A.J.
Brown
