Super Bowl 2015: Position-by-Position Fantasy Breakdown for Patriots vs Seahawks

You are probably tired of hearing all the advertisements telling you that the fantasy football season isn’t over yet if you play postseason games, but it will officially be over after the Super Bowl. 

That means the showdown between Tom Brady and the New England Patriots and Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks is your last chance to show off your fantasy football skills before a long offseason. With that in mind, here is a look at a position-by-position fantasy breakdown for the big game.

Quarterbacks

On paper, the showdown between Brady and Wilson is the marquee one of the Super Bowl. After all, no quarterback has ever been to more Super Bowls than Brady, but Wilson is looking for his second consecutive Lombardi Trophy.

A Seahawks win would be something of a passing of the torch. 

Fantasy football discussions always revolve around the raw stats, and Brady finished with 4,109 passing yards and 33 touchdown tosses on the season to Wilson’s 3,475 passing yards and 20 touchdowns. However, Wilson added 849 rushing yards and six scores.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick had nothing but high praise for Wilson, as he told reporters in a conference call:

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Wilson’s just got an instinctiveness, he just knows where people are. It looks like he’s going to get tackled and he doesn’t.

He kind of reminds me of watching [former Cowboys quarterback Roger] Staubach. You think that he doesn’t see them, but he sees them, somehow, just knows they’re there. He has an uncanny sense of awareness of what’s around him, good or bad.

I can’t really define it, I don’t know how you can coach it. It’s just an awareness that all great players have it, he just has it at a higher level.

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Of course, when we are breaking down the fantasy aspect of any game for quarterbacks, the opposing defense also has to be taken into consideration.

The Seahawks were No. 1 in the league against the pass, and Brady isn’t exactly going to make teams pay with his legs. The Patriots, on the other hand, finished 17th against the pass and ninth against the run. It will be interesting to see if Wilson is more dependent on his arm than his legs considering New England is more vulnerable against the pass statistically.

Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Ultimately, you should expect some of both because the Seahawks aren’t going to stray from their run-heavy offensive sets.

As for Brady, he will have to deal with the "Legion of Boom” secondary that will likely at least keep his numbers in check.

Running Backs

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Seattle was the NFL’s top rushing offense, and running back Marshawn Lynch finished with 1,306 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns on the ground. Expect a heavy dose of Beast Mode even though the New England defense is better suited to stop the run than the pass.

If nothing else, Lynch will likely get plenty of carries in an effort to keep Brady on the sidelines, which will lead to a number of fantasy points.

As for New England, it was only 18th in the league in rushing yards but now features LeGarrette Blount as a physical back who can control the tempo of a game by running between the tackles. He torched the Indianapolis Colts for 148 rushing yards and three touchdowns in the AFC Championship Game.

Given how effective Seattle is at stopping the pass, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if the Patriots rode the running game a bit harder than usual.

Seattle allowed more than 100 rushing yards in each of its four losses this season and gave up a combined 267 yards on the ground in the playoffs to the Carolina Panthers and Green Bay Packers. 

Blount may actually be a better fantasy play than many would expect in a game that features weapons like Lynch, Brady and Wilson because New England is smart enough to recognize the best way to beat this lockdown defense is with a pounding rushing attack. More opportunities mean more yards in fantasy football, and Blount will get plenty of those chances.

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends

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Tight end Rob Gronkowski is the most fascinating fantasy option in the entire Super Bowl because he was the NFL’s best tight end with 1,124 receiving yards and 12 touchdown catches but is facing the lethal Seahawks secondary.

Seattle is the best pass defense in the league, but it was only 18th this season against tight ends, per Football Outsiders’ metrics. In theory, Gronkowski should be able to exploit a secondary with numbers like that, but they are partially thrown off by the huge day Antonio Gates had when he scored three touchdowns against the Seahawks.

Hank Gola of the New York Daily News noted that the Seattle defense is actually well suited to stop the tight end:

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Of course, the Seahawks have length, speed and, above all, physicality, at the second level. Normally, they do a very good job defending tight ends within the scheme of their two basic coverages — Cover 1 and Cover 3. Since their corners, Sherman and Byron Maxwell, can play press coverage on the outside in these zone schemes, they can usually have extra people inside. Earl Thomas, who will have a shoulder issue, plays center field in Cover 1 while Kam Chancellor keeps things in front of him and comes downhill at the receiver.

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The question is, what do you trust here? The league’s top tight end is facing the league’s top secondary, but it is a secondary that has been burned by elite tight ends before. Of course, if Seattle focuses too much attention on Gronkowski, it could open up Julian Edelman or Danny Amendola for big fantasy numbers.

Ultimately, Gronkowski is as safe as it comes for tight end options in fantasy football, and you shouldn’t stop trusting him just because Seattle is on the other side.

As for the Seahawks, playing any wide receiver in their offense is risky because the team is so reliant on the run. Nobody topped 1,000 receiving yards on the season, and Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse led the way with 825 receiving yards and 537 receiving yards, respectively.

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The Seahawks will look to control the tempo of the game and keep Brady on the sidelines with a strong rushing attack, which will limit the statistical effectiveness of the receivers. 

Even if the Seahawks win the game, stats are all that matter in fantasy. Steer clear of Seattle’s wide receivers.

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