Upside by Cathy Fazio
The New England Patriots' offense has earned the reputation of being a very efficient offense. With a stout defense, the offense does what it has to do to win games. Tom Brady spreads the ball around to his cadre of capable receivers of Deion Branch, David Givens, David Patten, Bethel Johnson, and Troy Brown. And don't forget the tight end duo of Daniel Graham and Christian Fauria who are often targeted in the end zone.

So what reasons would there be to be high on Deion Branch? Will he be able to outshine his fellow receivers?

Let's look at last year's stats:

• Deion Branch - 57 receptions for 803 yards and 3 touchdowns



• Troy Brown - 40 receptions for 472 yards and 4 touchdowns



• David Givens - 34 receptions for 510 yards and 6 touchdowns



• Bethel Johnson - 16 receptions for 209 yards and 2 touchdowns



• David Patten - 9 receptions for 140 yards and 0 touchdowns

Branch was by far the leader amongst the group and the most consistent. His leading competitors were Troy Brown and David Givens. Brown is now 33 and has become an injury risk. David Givens improved last season as the year went on. Two quality wide receivers on a team will elevate each other's play. And Givens has become a nice complement to Branch.

Footballguys currently has Branch ranked as the 39th receiver on the board. But as the leading receiver on a very capable offense with a rejuvenated power rushing attack with Corey Dillon, there is a lot of upside to taking Deion Branch in the mid rounds of your draft.

Downside by Mike Anderson
Deion Branch is a very talented WR, with two major issues that could cost him a chance at really succeeding this season.

The first is opportunity. Although Branch could become the main weapon of the passing game, the Patriots have not been a team that concentrated their passes to a single receiver. Instead, they spread the ball out. By simply looking at Branch's stats from last season you can see a perfect example of this. Branch played in 15 games, starting 12 of them. He amassed a pedestrian 803 yards, with only 3 TDs. The New England system spreads the ball around, not creating a go to receiver with big stats. As the system has won 2 of the last 3 Super Bowls, don't look for any change in offensive philosophy any time soon.

The other issue with Brach is his health. At a smurf-like 5'9" and 193 lbs, branch doesn't have the size that prototypical WRs in the NFL enjoy. Be it because of his size, style of play, or simply just bad luck, Branch is always nursing some injury of some kind. Without going back his entire career, and just looking at his recent "minor" injuries, we will find:

• Lost time in November due to an ankle.



• Missed most of a game in December due to a finger injury.



• Sat out practices due to a leg injury.

None of these are earth shattering, or really an issue to the fantasy community, but it needs to be noted that Branch has had a number of minor nagging injuries throughout his career. Is that just the way of the NFL, or is he prone to them given his size?

One last thing to consider: At the end of July, the Patriots were toying with the option of using Branch on kick off returns to bolster their anemic production in the 2003 season. If that pans out, it puts Branch in a lot more contact on a regular basis.