Week 5 Fantasy Football Busts: Lower Your Expectations for Tom Brady

Not everybody loves Tom Brady, but I think we can take it for granted that three groups of people will always love him. They are New England Patriots fans, women and fantasy football owners.

Of the three, I'll wager that fantasy football owners love Brady the most. He is a gift that keeps on giving, and he has won championships for many owners over the years.

This is because Brady is not only consistent, but consistently amazing. As such, one would assume that he'll be his typical self when the Pats host the New York Jets on Sunday.

But hold your horses. Believe it or not, there are reasons to believe that Brady will not be at his best against the Jets.

The first and foremost of these is that the Jets defense tends to be death on quarterbacks. In the NFL, only one team has allowed fewer passing yards than the Jets have, and they have only allowed two passing touchdowns. They have balanced those with six interceptions.

As a result, you won't be surprised to hear that the Jets have given up fewer fantasy points to quarterbacks than any team in the league.

Furthermore, it's worth noting that Brady has had his struggles against the Jets lately. In Week 2 of the 2010 season, the Jets picked Brady off twice and held him to 248 yards passing. Later on in the playoffs, Brady looked like he didn't really know what to do against the Jets, and he ended up needing 45 passing attempts to notch 299 yards passing.

Because he's Tom Brady, it's safe to assume that Bill Belichick is not about to take the ball out of his hands. However, he may take the ball out of Brady's hands more often than he usually does.

He will do so in an effort to exploit the Jets' biggest defensive weakness, and that's stopping the run. The Jets are allowing over 130 rushing yards per game, and the Patriots are coming off a game against the Oakland Raiders in which they had 183 yards rushing. They may as well keep running while the running's good.

To clarify, none of this is to suggest that Brady is not worth starting. He's Tom Brady, so he should always be in your starting lineup.

Just don't expect him to carry your team in Week 5. He's got a tough matchup on his hands, and you're going to see it reflected in his fantasy output.