Better Fantasy Draft Pick: Tom Brady or Jimmy Garoppolo?
Tom Brady may be the greatest quarterback ever. But is he better than Jimmy Garoppolo right now? And should you draft Brady ahead of Garoppolo in fantasy football?
Sports Illustrated's Bell Enright and Ben Heisler invited me on their show to discuss this topic for their recent article.
I told them I believe Brady will have a better season than Garoppolo because Brady plays in a pass-first offense, while Garoppolo plays in a run-first offense. Plus, Brady will throw to great receivers -- Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, O.J. Howard and Rob Gronkowski -- while Garoppolo's No. 1 wide receiver could be a rookie: first-round draft pick Brandon Aiyuk.
But Ben Heisler makes a great point about the value of drafting Garoppolo:
"The fantasy value of Garoppolo going off the board at QB22 or QB23 -- there is so much fantasy value for him. For a guy who threw the ball the second-least amount of times in the NFL according to team passing, he was QB14 a season ago. He was was No. 4 in yards per pass attempt. And now that the defense likely will regress -- we saw this happen with the Chicago Bears a couple seasons ago -- they're going to have to take more chances down the field, especially with George Kittle now being fully healthy, likely being TE1 of fantasy football in 2020, there presents an opportunity for Garoppolo to have more opportunities on play action, take deeper shots down the field, Brandon Aiyuk has now been added to the mix and he has looked incredible so far in 49ers training camp. Then eventually once they get Deebo Samuel back, the offense is going to be clicking."
Heisler convinced me. If I played fantasy football, which I don't, I would wait until the late rounds to take Garoppolo rather than draft Brady early.
What would you do?
