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Bold fantasy predictions: Seven bold calls to lead to glory

San Diego Chargers tight end Antonio Gates makes a catch against the Denver Broncos during the first half of an NFL football game, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2014, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Bold /bŌld/ – showing an ability to take risks; confident and courageous.

By definition, being bold is exactly how you win fantasy championships. You can’t put $1 of your FAAB money on Devonta Freeman after his three-touchdown Week 3 performance. That gets you nothing.

A year ago, Philip Rivers and Cam Newton both had ADPs in the 10th round. Clearly the “risky” Newton was the way to go. People would have told you that you were crazy if you said, “I started Blake Bortles over Peyton Manning.” Today, the response to that statement would be, “Good thing you did!”

The thing is, all of those choices, while bold, were based in fact, statistics and NFL know-how.

Today, I’m going to make seven bold predictions because I’m courageous, confident and know that risks are what make fantasy football so great. I also chose the number seven for a little extra luck. It never hurts.

1. Jeremy Maclin will go for more than 1,000 yards and score double-digit touchdowns.

Maclin is one of my favorite “value picks” of the 2016 fantasy football draft. According to Fantasy Football Calculator Maclin’s current ADP puts him at the end of the fourth round as the 23rd WR off the board. Not to get too anecdotal, but I’m seeing him go lower, sometimes at the top of the sixth round. He’s a boring pick, a safe play and many are concerned about his playing on a run-first offense. In the last five years, Maclin has gone for 850 or more yards in every season he played, over 1,000 in both of his last two. In 2015, the Kansas City Chiefs ran the ball on 38 percent of their snaps. Well, 13 other teams ran the ball on that percentage of plays or more: Arizona, Buffalo, Carolina, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Minnesota, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa Bay and Washington. Maclin received more than 48 percent of the total wide receiver targets in Kansas City. And that was only his first year in that offense. I believe he will build on his 1,088 yards and eight touchdowns, not regress.

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