Fantasy Football 2019: Antonio Brown Traded to Oakland

Antonio Brown is now a member of the Raiders. How does this affect the fantasy football values of everyone involved?

Antonio Brown got his wish. He is out of Pittsburgh but unless he went to the Green Bay Packers or New England Patriots, he was going to see a decline from his quarterback. Brown was traded to the Oakland Raiders. How does this big move affect fantasy football?

The big impact is that Brown will go from catching passes from Ben Roethlisberger to Derek Carr (or Kyler Murray). Carr just had his first 4,000-yard season last year. Big Ben has had six of them and threw for a career-high 5,129 yards in his age-36 season.

Carr has just one 30-plus touchdown season, back in 2015. Roethlisberger reached that number three times and was close another three times. Oakland also struggles in the red zone, 30th in RZ drives and 29th in RZ TD last season. Those lack of possessions, successful scoring opportunities and the dropoff in quarterback skill will affect Antonio Brown’s stat line greatly.

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The Raiders new coaching staff seem to be moving towards a pass-first offense, though. Carr went from 517 pass attempts in 2017 to 553 last season. Roethlisberger threw a career-high 675 times, 36 more than the second-highest.

Carr will see a boost in production as a result. He is my QB20 after this move, making him draftable in 2-QB leagues. It’s not every year where a player of Brown’s caliber joins your team.

Then again, the Raiders did have Amari Cooper and then traded him but that’s another story. Brown will open the field, allowing his teammates to go single-covered and be more open.

When your tight end is the most targeted pass catcher, things can only get better. Jared Cook, Jordy Nelson and Seth Roberts should all see improvements to their production this season with Brown now in the lineup.

Moving onto Pittsburgh, Roethlisberger will see a slight decline in his production. Losing Brown will hurt the offense big time. His pass-catching abilities haunts defenders and improves the team around him. Now, JuJu Smith-Schuster now becomes the Steelers No. 1 wide receiver. He’s still a top-10 wide receiver for me.

Schuster can do the job, without question. He recorded 111 catches for 1,426 yards and seven touchdowns. However, with defenders putting more of a focus on him, he may see close to 100 catches instead of 110. He is still worth drafting as a top-10 wide receiver.

The Steelers have wide receiver depth issues. Now that Brown is gone, it’s Smith-Schuster, Ryan Switzer, Darrius Heyward-Bey and James Washington. Not counting Brown or Smith-Schuster, the Steelers wide receivers combined for 65 receptions, 558 yards and two touchdowns.

Unless the Steelers add a wide receiver in free agency, and there aren’t many available, Roethlisberger will fall in my rankings. As of now, he’s my QB16, just behind Lamar Jackson.

Next. Fantasy Baseball 2019: 5 Hitters Worth Drafting Late. dark

Brown wanted out of Pittsburgh. I hope he’s happy. Fantasy football owners are likely not. Brown falls to my No. 10 wide receiver. That’s not much of a downgrade but he’s not first-round worthy. He will be targeted heavily, but how many of those targets coming from Carr will turn into catches? I wouldn’t draft him as my WR1 this season.

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