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Fantasy Football: Drew Brees or Eli Manning?

By Dan Salem

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Will Drew Brees rise to outshine Eli Manning, or is DeSean Jackson too much for Pierre Garcon? These quarterback and wide receiver duos leave you guessing. Fantasy Football 2015 is here, but forget easy fantasy decisions with rankings and lists, we’re talking hypothetical trades. Two sets of fantasy football players; who would you rather have? Dan Salem and Todd Salem debate in today’s NFL TD Sports Debate. Two brothers from New York yell, scream and debate the NFL and sports.

TODD:

It is officially fantasy football season. The interwebbings will soon be flooded with rankings, drafts, sleepers and busts if they aren’t already.

But that stuff doesn’t get at the meat of fantasy decisions. Anyone can know to take Jamaal Charles before Frank Gore, and that the latter may bust. Everyone can figure the upside to taking Odell Beckham, and real sleepers aren’t sleepers at all if they’re being talked about!

So with that, let’s take a deeper dive. I am going to supply two sides of a hypothetical fantasy football trade and you tell me which side would win the deal. These deals are isolated from league settings or roster construction. They are strictly either-ors.

Would you rather have…

A: Drew Brees and Pierre Garcon
or
B: Eli Manning and DeSean Jackson

This one is tricky for me because there is a lot going on, but on the surface, it comes down to whether or not you still believe Drew Brees will be an elite quarterback.

Everyone is familiar with Brees’ production, but last year he didn’t seem as reliable even though his final stat line was still stellar. Was this an innocuous dip that won’t matter in the long run or a sign of the changing tides? Add to that the declining talent around him on New Orleans’ offense: no more Jimmy Graham, no Kenny Stills, no Pierre Thomas, etc.

The Saints added C.J. Spiller in the backfield but left the wide receiving corps pretty bare. This should also affect Brees’ fantasy ceiling.

On his side of the hypothetical trade, he is joined by Pierre Garcon, a solid receiver with little chance of breaking into the position’s elite. Of course, as recently as 2013, Garcon caught 113 balls for 1,346 yards. What if that Garcon comes to play in 2015?

The other half of the trade is anchored by DeSean Jackson, a teammate of Garcon who possesses that big-play ability. He actually had fewer targets than Garcon last season but wildly outperformed him.

Is that enough to take Eli Manning as your signal caller? Manning is essentially replacement-level at the quarterback position. He will start in deeper leagues but may be bench or free-agent fodder in shallow, 10-team leagues.

Manning was the 12th-highest scoring player in all of fantasy last season regardless of position. Such is the overinflated value of QB production, but the point stands. Even a quarterback at Eli’s draft position can put up huge stats, hence the argument in draft circles of always waiting on your QB.

Dec 28, 2014; Landover, MD, USA; Washington Redskins wide receiver DeSean Jackson (11) celebrates scoring a touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys during the first half at FedEx Field. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

DAN:

You rather non-nonchalantly tossed in a fantasy football grenade at the end there. The argument for waiting to draft a quarterback, when they are hands down the highest scoring players in all of fantasy, is a bit misguided. In shallow leagues you can wait a little bit, but that does not diminish the value of the top QBs in the least. Aaron Rodgers is still infinitely better than Eli Manning. I understand the argument, but I’m picking Rodgers over any wide receiver or running back as well. Case closed.

As for this rather head-scratching trade including former stars with boom or bust potential, I must admit that I waffled back and forth between both sides before coming to a decision. This has no easy answer.

Although the Saints had a down year last season, Drew Brees’ fantasy stats barely took a hit. His completion percentage actually went up, as did his attempts, yet the yards per dropped slightly. Comparing him strictly to Eli Manning, the two players put up comparable fantasy numbers as well. The real question is whether Eli can maintain his production heading into the new season. I say he does.

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We have two quarterbacks notching 30 plus touchdowns, over 4400 yards, with double digit interceptions. Drew Brees will likely exceed Eli’s potential in 2015, but its a toss up whether the Saints will be better than the Giants as a team. This brings us to the wide receivers.

I like Pierre Garcon, but he is no DeSean Jackson. I am taking Jackson and Eli Manning in this trade, mainly because DeSean has put up over 900 yards in 6 of 7 seasons. He also gets into the endzone twice as much as Mr. Garcon. Jackson also averaged over 20 yards a catch last year, his first year with the Redskins.

In seven seasons Garcon has only eclipsed 900 yards twice. With Jackson on his team last year, he only averaged 11 yards a catch. The targets may have been equal, but the stats were not. Garcon is a nice player and an average fantasy player. Jackson is a stud and should remain one in 2015.

Drew Brees trumps Eli Manning, but Manning and Jackson win this trade debate. The smart money always seems to be on Eli Manning, no matter how much he tries to ‘aw shucks’ you otherwise.

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