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The New England Patriots have faced a pair of disappointing season-ending injuries over the past week. Veterans Torry Holt and Ty Warren have both been placed on injured reserve and neither will see any time in 2010.

Holt’s injury is less of a letdown than Warren’s. The Patriots are stacked with youth at wide receiver. It’s unclear whether the Patriots would have even kept him on the roster, or if he would have been cut by the end of preseason. Now, it’s unclear whether the future Hall-of-Fame receiver will retire or return in 2011.

Warren’s is a much bigger loss for the Patriots, who rely heavily on their defensive linemen to collapse the pocket and hold down their blockers. He had missed a bunch of time over the past few seasons, so the Patriots have gotten used to life without Warren, but that doesn’t make it any easier.

As Ty Warren steps off the field and under the knife, who will step up for New England?

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Every fantasy season there are a handful of players that get taken early who turn out to be  busts.

The reasons for being regarded as a bust can range from injuries to supporting casts not living up to expectations, all the way to the player himself simply not getting the job done.

Like clockwork, this season will be sure to have at least a handful of guys who are taken in the top three rounds that end up not proving their worth while some guys taken in the later rounds rise to the top.

In this article I wanted to highlight a few players who you should keep high on your target list and not be scared to go after simply because of their lackluster 2009 performance. After going through a number of draft rankings, here are the guys who stood out to me to not lose sight of.

Tom Brady

I see Brady slipping down draft boards everywhere. Remember, this is the same Tom Brady who absolutely annihilated fantasy scoring just two years ago, and he still has the big-play threat with Randy Moss. Their O-line finally had to overcome some injuries, and their defense was a little less powerful than in past seasons.

With Wes Welker and Moss, not to mention the addition of sure-handed veteran Torry Holt, don’t be surprised if Brady ends up at the top of the QB rankings at season’s end. Don’t be afraid to reach for Brady as early as Round Three if top-tier RBs and WRs are off the board.

Matt Forte

Probably 2009’s biggest bust from a fantasy standpoint, Forte was expected to be among the APs and CJs of the fantasy world. Keep in mind he still had 258 carries and just shy of 1,000 yards. He didn’t find the end zone as much, but Jay Cutler throwing 26 INTs limits your opportunities as well.

Keep Forte as an extremely solid second RB option in the second and third rounds, and you will be thankful come playoff time.

Santana Moss

Moss had a very down year last year with the Redskins in a tailspin and Jason Campbell working to miss him every other play. The Eagles’ offense wasn’t record-shattering last season, but look at what DeSean Jackson did. Moss has speed similar to Jackson and can be the deep ball threat the Redskins will need. Look for Moss as an extremely solid No. 2 or No. 3 WR with a lot of upside for this year.

Matthew Stafford

The Lions made some serious moves in the offseason to upgrade their talent level. They could very well be the most improved team in 2010 (not that it would take a lot), and Matt Stafford has a solid RB, much better O-line, and a great wideout in Calvin Johnson that will help him have a great sophomore year. Keep Stafford high on your board for a high-quality No. 2 QB.

Ahmad Bradshaw

Yeah, Ahmad is the second-string guy now, but you can bank on Brandon Jacobs going down with injury. He is getting older, and he is a battering ram type of back, which means his injury risk goes way up.

Grab Bradshaw as a high-quality No. 3 back, and depending on your draft position, consider even taking him as your No. 2. By Week Four he will be getting the third down and goal line carries at a minimum and likely be the starter with Jacobs not being 100 percent.

Steve Smith (Carolina)

The only risk with this guy is that his QB is a little unproven. Rest assured John Fox’s job is on the line, so he is going to do everything in his power to get Smith the ball. Smith was a top-three WR going into last season, but a little Jake Delhomme and you see him in the 10-15 range this season. Steve Smith is a beast of a receiver and is probably the most solid No. 2 you will ever have.

A Few Extra Guys

Fred Davis

Mike Shanahan will be running more two-TE sets, which means that Chris Cooley and Fred David will get more looks at the same time as well, which I think benefits Davis more than Cooley. Expect McNabb to look Davis’ way in the red zone a lot this year. If L.J. Smith or any other TE Philly had the past 10 years could catch, they would have been All-Pro. McNabb loves the TE in the red zone.

Mason Crosby

Now I almost never draft a kicker unless I have to and would never tell you to take one before Round 13 at a minimum, but once the other goons in your league draft kickers starting in Round Eight, keep Crosby circled. The Green Bay offense is going to be nice this year, and Crosby will get you 3-5 minimum each week and likely average around 8-10, which is quality for that position.

Washington Redskins

This squad was one of the premier defenses in the league last year, led by London Fletcher. The only reason their rankings were middle of the pack was because they were on the field on average about 40 minutes a game due to the offensive issues.

Albert Haynesworth will adapt and put up one of the best seasons of his career. The secondary got much better, and the LB corps was already one of the better ones in the league. If you miss out on the top-tier D’s, don’t be afraid to go after the Skins’ defense.

That is two QBs, two WRs, and two RBs with some specialty positions thrown in for you to highlight going into your draft. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions on players, draft strategy, rankings, teams, etc….I am always here to help.

JD Dowell

Need a draft guide? Check out the $5 Hatty Waiver Wire 2010 Draft Guide.

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Last Years Record            10-6

Wins: Bills (x2), Falcons, Ravens, Titans, Bucs, Dolphins, Jets, Panthers,  Jaguars

Losses: Jets, Broncos, Colts, Saints, Dolphins, Texans, Ravens (Playoffs)

Biggest Playmaker            Tom Brady

QB, Michigan, Drafted #199, 11th Year

Tom Brady consistently makes plays and makes everyone around him better.  Brady could have another great year with a veteran offensive line and a very solid receiving corps.

Impact Player            Vince Wilfork

NT, Miami, Drafted #21, 7th Year

Entering his seventh season with the Patriots, Wilfork has been a staple of the Patriots 3-4 defense.  A huge key to this defense is a dominating nose tackle who can stuff the middle and take on two blockers.  While he may not boast huge numbers, he is the key to the Pats’ defense.

Biggest Free Agent Addition            Torry Holt

WR, NC State, Drafted #7, 12th Year

Torry Holt will be a great complement to fellow WR’s Randy Moss and Wes Welker.  As Moss consistently draws double teams down the field, Torry Holt could have a big year.  He only had 51 catches for 722 yards and zero touchdowns (all career lows) in 2009, but he was playing for the run-first Jacksonville Jaguars.

Biggest Offseason Loss            Benjamin Watson

TE, Georgia, Drafted #32, 7th Year

Watson has been the Pats starter at TE for years, and losing him and fellow TE Chris Baker left the Pats with a serious question mark at the position.  Now they will look to Alge Crumpler to be the leader of the group, with two rookies (Gronkowski and Hernandez) likely to be the top pass catchers.

Biggest Draft Steal            Aaron Hernandez

TE, Florida, Drafted #113, Rookie

Hernandez is a versatile athlete that will fit in very well with the Patriots system.  At Florida he was involved in the passing game as a tight end and a wideout, as well as in their option attack. 

Hernandez is electric with the ball in his hands and picking him up in the fourth round was a great move by the Pats’ management.

Biggest Draft Reach            Zoltan Mesko

P, Michigan, Drafted #150, Rookie

Mesko has a big leg and the potential to be a game changer, but drafting a punter is always risky business.  Not to take anything away from Mesko, as he has been impressive this spring, but only time will tell if it was worth using a draft pick to pick him up.                 

Offseason Grade            B

The Patriots went quietly about their business, focusing mainly on re-signing veterans such as Vince Wilfork, Kevin Faulk, Leigh Bodden and Stephen Neal. 

The Patriots addressed their needs in the draft, selecting two tight ends who should be factors immediately, and bolstering their defense with the selections of versatile CB Devin McCourty and LB Brandon Spikes. 

Getting a deal done with LG holdout Logan Mankins is a must and they could have addressed the OLB spot.

X-Factor            Wes Welker

WR, Texas Tech, Undrafted, 7th Year

After blowing out his knee in the final (irrelevant) regular season game in 2009, Welker’s knee should be a question mark only because of his importance to the team. Julian Edelman served as an adequate replacement but Welker is a vital part of the Patriots’ success. 

Welker has been cleared, and the Patriots need him to stay healthy.

Name You Should Know            Tully Banta-Cain

OLB, California, Drafted #239, 8th Year

Banta-Cain rejoined the Patriots after two seasons in San Francisco.  After seeing his role increased in 2006 in which he registered 5.5 sacks at OLB, he left for California, only to register four in two years combined. 

Tully stepped up big for the Pats last year with 9.5 sacks, and look for continued success this year

Rising Star            Jerod Mayo

ILB, Tennessee, Drafted #10, 3rd Year

Drafted in the first round out of Tennessee in the 2008 draft, Jerod Mayo has been a consistent player in the middle of the Pats’ defense.  However, Mayo has only 1.5 sacks, zero interceptions and two forced fumbles in two years combined. 

If he can become more of a consistent playmaker Mayo will be the next star of the Pats’ defense.

Offensive Outlook            A-

Tom Brady is still the quarterback of the New England Patriots.  Coming off a season in which the Pats posted the third highest yards per game totals, we expect similar success for the Pats offense this year who added the dynamic (but aging) Torry Holt, all-around TE Rob Gronkowski and playmaking TE Aaron Hernandez. 

If Laurence Maroney can stay healthy and have a successful year, expect the Patriots to be very hard to stop. 

Look for second year WR Brandon Tate to come back strong from his injury and push for the third receiver spot.

Defensive Outlook            B-

The Patriots most glaring weakness is their pass rush, where they ranked 23^rd in total sacks last year.  Tully Banta-Cain stepped up with 9.5 a year ago and will have to continue his success. 

Vince Wilfork is consistently huge (literally) in the middle, while the young secondary must step up. 

The Patriots will need a few players to become consistent playmakers if they want to have an elite defense.

Special Teams Outlook            B

After Chris Hanson’s 32nd ranking yards per punt in 2009, the Patriots drafted Zoltan Mesko from Michigan.

Stephen Gostkowski has been reliable throughout his career, nailing 19/20 FG attempts inside the 40 in 2009.  Welker averaged a very healthy 12.5 yards per punt return last year. 

If the Patriots can get decent production in their kick return game (Brandon Tate?) they could have a very effective Special Teams unit.

Projected 2010 Record            10-6

It’s hard to bet against the mysterious Bill Belichick and QB Tom Brady, especially when he is surrounded by weapons.  If the tight ends can overcome their inexperience and the Patriots can generate a pass rush, look for them to be hard to beat.  It certainly won’t be easy for the Pats, as they have the sixth hardest schedule in the NFL (according to 2009 Win-Loss Records).

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Well, times are very interesting in the New England area for Patriots and their fans right now. And by “interesting” I mean “odd.” The Pats are coming off a 10-6 season, decent enough by most standards, but then were summarily dismissed by the visiting Ravens in the wild card round.

Former defensive coordinator Dean Pees became the scapegoat, let go after six seasons with the team. Bill Belichick has said he will take a larger role on defense. A game plan that would make better sense if he had an offensive coordinator in place whom he trusted. And on top of that, quarterbacks coach Bill O’ Brien might not be very well liked by much of the team, especially with Tom Brady after the play calling was rather stale in 2009.

So this means coach Belichick will head into the season without a true offensive or defensive coordinator, something that the Pats aren’t used to experiencing. This could be a season of confusion and the Pats could see their worst in the Belichick era since 2000 when they went 5-11.

Quarterbacks
Tom Brady is still going to be the great Tom Brady that we know and (most of us) love. From what it looks like so far, he could end up having another great season and remain as one of the league’s top quarterbacks. He looks even more confident now that he has a full season removed from his surgery to repair the ACL in his knee. Going against what many have been thinking, I don’t think his commitment to the team will be affected even though he’s married to one of the hottest ladies on the face of the earth. Basically what I’m saying to Patriots fans is to expect the same ol’ successful Tom Brady. Brian Hoyer remains the backup for Brady. There have been talks of the Pats bringing in another veteran QB just to be a third stringer and to warm the rest of the bench. Jeff Rowe and rookie Zac Robinson might not like that idea though because if the Pats do sign another guy to the mix, that’s just one more spot down the depth chart they both go.

Running Backs
The Patriots have recently been a team with an interesting corps of running backs. They have three guys in the group who are over the age of 33 (Fred Taylor, Kevin Faulk and Sammy Morris). This is also a group that have been injury prone with Morris and Taylor both getting hurt last year. Laurence Maroney is also a guy in the group who’s been wanting to prove that he’s not the draft bust that he’s been made out to be. He did a good job of trying to covering that out last year with his nine touchdown runs. In a perfect world, Maroney would be the first- and second-down back, Morris would get the short yards, and Fred Taylor would be the goal line back and Faulk, as always, would end up all over the field. The Pats didn’t add another running via the draft or free agency.

Wide Receivers
As many of you might remember, Wes Welker tore but his ACL and MCL during the Week 17 game last season. During the offseason, people were saying that they would be shocked if they saw Wes Walker play in another game before November of this year. Well, to those people I would like to say to them “Start practicing your shocked face!” To my knowledge, Wes Welker seemed to progress very well in the offseason and is starting to take hard hits in training camp. Many are starting to say that he could be ready to go by the first game of the season. But if he does happen to sit out the first few games, then they will need to count on aging veteran Randy Moss and young Julian Edelman that much more to carry this unit. Assuming Moss as the No. 1 and Edelman, seen as something of a Welker-in-the-making, as the No. 2, someone needs to step up as a viable No. 3, which is something the Patriots didn’t have much of last year. This is where Brandon Tate and rookie Taylor Price enter the mix. Oh, and there’s this other guy named Torry Holt who has been added as well. I hear he’s had a very successful career. The tight end is one position that the Pats don’t pay attention to often, but with the team grabbing Rob Gronkowski in the draft and Aaron Hernandez in the NFL Draft, that could change. Tom Brady has shown that he can handle a group of mediocre receivers, and right now that’s what this group is. Two players who have had stellar careers that are now starting to wind down and a host of others still learning the ropes of the offense.

Offensive Linemen
This is another group that is getting up there in age but is still a pretty solid group as well. They only gave up 18 sacks last year which is very impressive. I’m sure Tom Brady loved that after tearing up his leg in the first game of the season in 2008. Left tackle Matt Light will likely start the season in his usual spot, but Sebastian Vollmer, who impressed many last year as a rookie, could start at right tackle early. He could even challenge Matt Light for his spot. In the prime of his career at age 28, Logan Mankins is one of the best right guards in the game. But he’s been holding out of camp, so we’ll see what happens there. The more significant issues are at center and right guard. Dan Koppen always undersized, has been getting pushed off the ball more and more, and Stephen Neal very nearly called it a career. Dan Connolly is versatile and highly thought of in New England. He heads a young group of reserves with Mark LeVoir, Ryan Wendell, Rich Ohrnberger and Ted Larsen and Thomas Welch, who were picked up in the draft.

Defensive Linemen
The Patriots’ defensive success has always started with the O-line, so the fact that the defense struggled in 2009 can be traced back to a major hole on the line. Once Richard Seymour was moved to Oakland, the Pats didn’t have a player near his stature to put in place. Ty Warren and Vince Wilfork are both pretty good, but they won’t get a great deal of attention if another guy is brought in. Mike Wright has shown signs of promise, but he’s nothing like Richard Seymour. Ron Brace could be bumped outside after originally being a nose tackle. And given the personnel they have, the Patriots could play more 4-3 this year. But as the unit stands, the Pats will likely lack the ability to consistently push blockers back and close the pocket on the QB.

Linebackers
The wild card in this group is second-round draft pick Brandon Spikes. If Spikes can step in alongside Jerod Mayo at inside linebacker, the Pats could have the chance to move Gary Guyton to the outside, where the team is lacking depth. Guyton is very quick and very good in coverage but isn’t very strong against the run. This is the reasoning for putting him in the outside. 10-sack man Tully Banta Cain (one of my favorite names in the NFL), is the top returning pass-rusher statistically, though draftee Jermaine Cunningham could help and Pierre Woods, who got less playing time last year, can mix things up too. To sum up this whole picture, this unit is not as great on paper as it has been in the past. Unlike the D-Line, this is the weakness of the Patriots’ defense.

Defensive Backs
The success of the secondary will mostly depend on the success of the front seven. If the front seven isn’t doing its job, the secondary will struggle. Leigh Bodden is coming off his best seasons under Romeo Crennel when they were both in Cleveland; Crennel’s system is very similar to Beilchick’s, and Bodden should show even more confidence this season after a five-interception perfomance last year. Second-year cornerback Darius Butler will likely start opposite Bodden, with Jonathan Wilhite and rookie Devin McCourty in the mix at the nickel position. Terrence Wheatley is considered by some in the organization to have more talent than Wilhite, but he was in a strange sort of exile last year and played just five games. Brandon Meriweather has been making a lot of progress, and ever-steady free safety James Sanders keeps the unit on the same page.

Special Teams
The punting has been lacking over the years for the Patriots. But with the addition of former Michigan Wolverine Zoltan Mesko, that could change. Many say that he has a good personality. If his attitude is as good as his punts, the punting situations will work out great for the Pats. Stephen Gostkowski is one of the best kickers in the league for his combination of field goal and long kickoffs. Tate is expected to be the primary kick returner after a record-breaking college career.

Final Thoughts
Belichick has always found ways to get it done in New England, but this season could be a bit tougher with all the questions looming around the organization. Nobody thought that there would be coaching staff issues with this team, but there are. The questions on the field involve what the wide receivers’ depth chart will look like and how this defense will be shuffled around. With the Jets and Dolphins making quite a few moves in the offseason via the draft and free agency, it’s looking like things could be tough in New England. When it’s all over, they could find themselves as low as third place in the division.

Could you imagine the NFL Playoffs without the New England Patriots? It could happen.

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