Fantasy Football Advice: Which New England Patriots Benefit Most From Julian Edelman's Injury?

Last night, it was announced that New England Patriots WR Julian Edelman suffered a broken foot. While he may return still this season or in the playoffs, there are going to be plenty of opportunities for other players with him on the sideline. So from a fantasy football perspective, which players benefit the most from Edelman's injury?

Other than Rob Gronkowski, who will likely not see much of an increase in targets because he already maximizes them from the tight end position in their offense, expect wideouts Danny Amendola and Brandon Lafell to receive a lot more consistent looks.

Specifically, Amendola seems to benefit the most, as he's built more in the Edelman body type, and will be running his routes in their system. That means, more than likely, the seventh-year WR is going to receive the biggest increase in targets this year.

Edelman already had 61 receptions on 88 targets this year. During the same amount of games, Amendola only had 40 catches on 48 targets. But we even saw how he benefitted in that last game once Edelman went out. After only getting more than five targets in two games this year, he saw 11 last night, and caught 10 of them for 79 yards.

Though he doesn't have the same kind of after-the-catch ability that Edelman has, Amendola can still get separation and should see at least 8-10 targets, minimum, every game until Edelman returns.

As for Lafell, he's already received 30 targets in his four games since coming back from his own ailments. Granted, he's only hauled in 13 of them, but that's likely to do with him needing to regain his rhythm within the offense and with Tom Brady. We also need to factor in that he's their best deep threat on the outside, so Brady takes more chances with him down the field.

Either way, with less reliable options behind Lafell and Amendola -- such as Aaron Dobson and Keshawn Martin -- expect them to each have the opportunity for double-digit receptions in most games, where Amendola has the edge in PPR leagues, and Lafell has the it in standard ones (due to advantage in the red zone compared to Amendola's).