The Santonio Holmes & Brandon Marshall Trades: Fantasy Impact

Two big NFL trades will impact the fantasy football season of many NFL players. Santonio Holmes and Brandon Marshall have new NFL teams. In addition to Holmes and Marshall, numerous players from the Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh Steelers, Denver Broncos, and New York Jets will be impacted in your fantasy football draft.

Let’s start with the Santonio Holmes trade. Santonio Holmes joins a New York Jets offense that will look a lot different than it did last season. Led by Thomas Jones, the Jets were a heavy running offense that sprinkled in Mark Sanchez as needed. Jones is gone this season as he departed for Kansas City. The New York Jets are a team I tend to stay away from when it comes to fantasy football. That could change with the addition of Santonio Holmes.

The addition of Holmes gives Mark Sanchez another weapon. Holmes joins a wide receivers corps that includes Jerricho Cotchery and Braylon Edwards. This threesome has the potential to be explosive. The question is whether Rex Ryan will trust Mark Sanchez enough to let him throw down field. I think Sanchez’s value only goes up slightly. I need to see more from Sanchez before I am ready to make him a Top 15 fantasy quarterback. Having Holmes is going to be nice, but he needs to make the right decisions in the process.

Braylon Edwards will see the biggest drop off here. Edwards was the lone vertical threat that the Jets had last season. I still think Edwards will see some big opportunities when defenses double team Santonio Holmes, but the ball is going to be spread around way too much for my tastes.

I still like Dustin Keller as a steady, #2 tight end. Sanchez and Keller had some great moments last season, but they were inconsistent. I can envision the sneaky tight end getting open while the defense is glued to either Holmes or Edwards. I don’t love him, but I like him as a bye week filler or potential trade bait.

The biggest question mark here is how the Pittsburgh Steelers will be impacted. Holmes only had five touchdowns last season. Hines Ward has been Ben Roethlisberger’s go-to guy. I do think Ward’s numbers will drop now that defenses can key in on him and not worry about Holmes.

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