Drew Brees Fantasy Outlook Downgrades Saints Offense With Teddy Bridgewater at QB After Injury

A Week 2 rematch of the 2018 NFC Championship game has already had plenty of drama, and it doesn't have much to do with the scoreboard.

Drew Brees Injury

Drew Brees suffered an apparent hand injury late in the first quarter against the Los Angeles Rams, and was replaced at quarterback by Teddy Bridgewater. Going from Brees to Bridgewater will likely prove to be a big downgrade for the fantasy football value of everyone in the New Orleans Saints' offense.

Brees has thrown for at least 30 touchdowns in 10 of his last 11 seasons with the Saints, and has thrown for at least 4,000 yards in all but one of his seasons in New Orleans. With Brees leading the offense, the Saints have supported elite fantasy football producers with players like Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas both being drafted in the first round of most 2019 fantasy football drafts.

If Brees misses any extended time, this is a major blow to all of the Saints' skill-position players.

Bridgewater hasn't started multiple games in a season since the 2015 season, before he suffered a career-threatening leg injury, and even in that season (his only full year as a starter), he managed only 14 touchdowns and 3,231 passing yards — numbers Brees has eclipsed every year since 2005.

With Bridgewater at the helm, Kamara and Thomas could fall out of the RB1/WR1 range, even though they'll remain every-week starters. However, both players' fantasy ceilings will be much lower than they were with Brees. Jared Cook, Latavius Murray and Ted Ginn Jr. could fall off the fantasy map without Brees under center.

Any time you lose a future Hall of Fame QB, it's a instant downgrade to the players around him, meaning we can only hope for a quick recovery for Brees in order to recoup the fantasy value of these Saints players.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.