Thursday Night Football, Fantasy Preview

This weeks Thursday Night Match up is between the New England Patriots and the Chicago
Bears could be a fantasy classic. Both teams feature establishing QB’s from the 2024 draft,
Caleb Williams (1st Rd 1st pick) and Drake Maye (1st Rd 3rd pick). Both players have made
outstanding leaps in thier progress as QB’s in the NFL, have key fantasy weapons, and
respectable defenses to support them. Now! For us fantasy owners/GM’s, we’ll preview and
breakdown both teams to give you more knowledge to prepare you for Thursday’s Night
match-up.

QB’s
Again, Both QB’s have had great progressions and failures in their career, but are still key
fantasy products for a successful season.

Drake Maye QB#3(ESPN), QB#4(Fantasy Pro), QB10(Fantasy Footballer)
Drake had a great run last season. Taking the Patriots back to the Superbowl, but had a not
so great performance. This year, with the additions of A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs plus
returning with Mack Hollins, Rhamondre Stevens, TreVeyon Henderson, and Hunter Henry.
Maye was a clear Top 5 QB (ESPN-QB4, NFL-QB3, USA Today-QB 3) to start the season.
However his 1st 3 games (Seattle, Pittsburgh, & Jacksonville) said otherwise: 51/80, 585 yds
1TD, 6Int, 9 scks, & 82 ryds with a fantasy average of 4.5 fantasy points per game. Now, the
next 3 games(Buffalo, Las Vegas, and New York Jets), we saw the Drake Maye was expected to
see: 66/103 878yds, 10TDs, 1Int, 2scks, 103 ryds & 1RTDs averaging 30 fantasy points per
game.

Caleb Williams QB#10(ESPN), QB#5(NFL.com), QB#5(USA Today)
The 2024 1st overall pick was locked and loaded with talent his rookie season. Balanced with a
great group of veterans and rookies, Williams had the equipment to produce FANTASY
GOLD!!! However, due to injuries and poor coaching we saw Caleb go through some rookie
struggles. Now Ben Gordon has Caleb showing that “Mamba Mentality” having ice in his
veins in clutch moments, and running up the scoreboard. Williams is producing: 712 passing
yards, 3 TDs, 1Int, 110 ryds & 2 RTDs with an average of 21.7 fantasy points per game.

Defense
Bears- The Bears Allow 19.8 ppg (6th), and 302 yds per game(7th). They allow 18-21 fppg for
QB’s, 15.4 Fpts to RB’s, 26.6 Fpts to WR’s and 8.5 fpts to TE’s. With New England having a key
player in all these categories, Chicago’s defense will have their work put out for them.

Patriots-The Patriots allow 18.8 (5th) and allows 260 yds per game (6th). They allow 15.1 fppg
to QB’s, 21.0 fppg to RB’s, 31.1Fppg to WRs, and 9.4 to TE’s.

These teams seem to be a mirror of themselves in all areas, which i agree that the defense will
not really be a factor in this game. Choose to start at your own risk!!!!

Key Fantasy Players
Bears- We’ve seen the Bears still runup the score even without Caleb playing (Hamstring
Injury). So we know they can put points on the board:

QB-Caleb Williams- Ranked QB10(ESPN), QB7 (USA Today), QB5(NFL.com)
RB-D’Andre Swift- Ranked RB9(ESPN), RB12 (USA Today)
WR-Rome Odunze- WR33 (ESPN), WR33(USA Today)
WR-Luther Burden III- WR30 (ESPN), WR22(NFL.com)
TE-Colston Loveland - TE8 (ESPN), TE8 (NFL.com), TE8 (USA Today)

New England-We have yet to see the Patriots offensively fully loaded, due to early injuries to
AJ Brown, and TreVeyon Henderson. Brown and Henderson have been listed as fully
participants in practice, so we might just see this “Fully Clipped” offense:

QB Drake Maye - QB2 (ESPN), QB4 (NFL.com), QB2 (USA Today)
RB Rhamondre Stevens - RB26 (ESPN), N/R (NFL.com), RB15 (USA Today)
RB TreVeyon Henderson - RB37 (ESPN), RB38(NFL.com), RB38 (USA Today)
WR Romeo Doubs - N/R
WR A.J. Brown - WR16 (ESPN), WR22 (NFL.com), WR18 (USA Today)

Key Fantasy Factors


Which QB will lock in 1st
Both QB’s will be facing a respectable defense. The question is who will lock in and
find their grove or rhythm first.

Whos running game will be a difference maker?
Both teams have a dangerous RB committees. However, the Bears allow a little more
fantasy points in the running game. Can New England take advantage of it?

Will we see that Maye to AJ connection?
AJ was bought here to give Maye that “go-to” player he can depend on. We have yet
to see that connection.

Can the Patriots contain the Bears air attack of Colston, Burden and Odunze?
The Pats may have thier work cut out for them this game. New England has always
been a system defense that is effective to stop basic defense (either run heavy or pass
heavy), But can they stop a team that has that 3 headed monster in the air?

This game was looked at as one of the top fantasy games this year, we could expect some high
scores in all categories ( but defense), maybe even a wild finish. Hopefully this could be one
of the classic games we talk about. Time will tell!