Why Fantasy Football Owners Should Trade for Drew Brees Now

If you’re worried about Drew Brees, I’ll take him off of your hands.

Brees has his fantasy owners up in arms after starting the season by averaging 285 yards and an interception per game with three total touchdowns. What they may not realize is that they’re getting exactly what they signed up for when they targeted the New Orleans Saints QB in their fantasy drafts.

In 2013, he averaged 291 yards, 1.5 passing scores and 1.1 picks per game on the road. The Saints covered 6.86 yards per passing attempt by Brees.

By starting two consecutive games in stadiums that are not his own, No. 9 has provided numbers that are nearly identical to what he put up in similar situations last year.

Meanwhile, he averaged 354 yards and 3.6 total touchdowns while totaling three picks at home.

New Orleans went 3-5 on the road in 2013 and returned home following all but one of its road losses. In those four games, Brees averaged 354.5 passing yards—virtually no different than his normal home output—and added 17 TDs with no interceptions.

He threw at least four in each of those contests. Don’t be surprised if he drops five on the Minnesota Vikings this week; that’s why he should be the No. 1 QB on your board for Week 3. He could also remain there for the rest of the season, with eight of his final 14 games scheduled to take place within the familiar confines of the Superdome.

All eight will take place before Week 17, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Brees also has five prime-time matchups between Week 4 and Week 15, which may not affect his stat lines, but it does give you a little something else to root for on Thursday (one), Sunday (two) and Monday (nights).

Maybe the Brees owner in your league has an underperforming first-round running back; everybody seems to be dealing with at least injury (or suspension) nowadays. Packaging a waiver-wire gem and your current No. 1 QB while asking for Brees may not net you a positive response based on name value alone. People are still pretty attached to the guys they drafted.

But it’s still worth a shot.

Once that one gets rejected—if it doesn’t, great!—then you can put your faith in starting that pickup yourself: Try offering your No. 2 RB or WR and No. 1 QB for Brees and see how that goes.

Jamal calculated all of the above splits himself. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @JCollierD