Tom Brady vs. Saints: Stats, Reaction and Updated 2015 Fantasy Advice

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick had a quick hook for his starting quarterback Saturday, pulling Tom Brady after three drives against the New Orleans Saints.

The four-time Super Bowl champion only got to see nine snaps, so he didn't have much of an opportunity to find his footing before making way for Jimmy Garoppolo. You can view Brady's full stats below:

Comp./Att.	Yards	AVG	TD	INT
2/5	13	2.6	0	0

Recap and Reaction

Each of New England's three drives with Brady on the field ended in a three-and-out. The closest he and the Patriots got to moving the chains was a 3rd-and-3 with eight minutes and 44 seconds left in the first quarter. Brady's pass to Danny Amendola on third down fell incomplete.

As Rich Hill of Pats Pulpit noted, the Patriots offense was missing many of its key pieces:

The Boston Herald's Jeff Howe joked the officials didn't give Brady any help, either:

WEEI's Christopher Price added a lack of first-team regulars has been a factor in both of New England's first two preseason games:

Nick Underhill of the New Orleans Advocate countered that the Saints had reason to be happy with how little Brady did in the game:

ESPN's Ed Werder provided arguably the biggest takeaway from Brady's performance:

It came as little surprise the 38-year-old left so small a footprint on the game. The Patriots need to operate under the assumption Garoppolo will be their starter in Week 1 and should give him the requisite number of preseason snaps as a result.

The second-year quarterback admitted he's learning a lot simply from watching Brady in practice.

"He's unbelievable at preparing week in and week out," said Garoppolo of his teammate, per WEEI's Mike Petraglia. "Being a young guy, you look at that and you know it's a long season. You try to take a little bit of that and try to put it towards your game."

That knowledge only goes so far, though, so New England will likely continue having Garoppolo play the bulk of series over the next two weeks.

Fantasy Outlook

No extreme one way or the other Saturday night would have impacted Brady's fantasy value in a big way. By now, you know exactly what you're getting with the 38-year-old. Maybe he'll start declining a bit in 2015, but you're not going to tell that from a preseason game.

With that said, Brady's fantasy value remains somewhat in flux until U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman makes his ruling in the Deflategate lawsuit. Unless the NFL and NFL Players Association reach a settlement, Berman is aiming for a ruling by Sept. 4, per the Associated Press (via CBS News).

Before you draft a quarterback, you'd like to know whether he's going to miss anywhere from zero to four games. Getting an answer is especially important for a player like Brady, who is worth QB1 status in standard leagues.

Ideally, your draft happens after the lawsuit reaches a resolution. If not, then you'd be wise to gamble on Brady only missing one or two games at the most. In that event, he's still worth valuing as a solid, if unspectacular, starting quarterback.