7 Bold Fantasy Football Predictions About the Upcoming 2016 Season

AJ Green Will Be Fantasy Football's Top Receiver

By Brandon Gdula

In 2016, there sits a clear, untouchable triumvirate at the top of fantasy football draft boards: Antonio Brown, Julio Jones, and Odell Beckham. After that group, there's a significant drop off to everyone else in terms of consensus.

But if you miss out on the trinity of no-doubt receivers, you still might be able to land 2016's eventual WR1: A.J. Green. To be transparent, I wasn't into Green last year, actually finding eight reasons to avoid him. He finished as the WR8 in PPR formats, so I totally whiffed there, but the points were valid. He was inefficient and underutilized in 2014 -- notably in the red zone and inside the 10 -- Andy Dalton was average as usual, Tyler Eifert had legitimate breakout potential, Marvin Jones was returning, Green was expensive. You get the point.

Well, a lot of those got remedied since last offseason.

In 2015, Green was top six among 32 receivers with at least 100 targets in Reception NEP per catch and per target as well as Reception Success Rate. He managed 7 red zone touchdowns on 9 catches (18 targets), including 4 scores on 4 grabs (8 targets) from inside the 10.

Dalton comfortably led the NFL in Passing NEP per drop back with a mark of 0.35, making him one of just three passers to maintain a rate above 0.25 over at least 200 drop backs, and he was top-four in Passing Success Rate, so he wasn't just a big-play beneficiary. Eifert is out until at least Week 4, and Jones and his red zone prowess are now in Detroit.

All this points to the fact that Green's market share should vie for the league lead, and nobody can question his potential. With improved play from Dalton, Green has as good a chance as anyone else to finish as the WR1 in 2016 and he shouldn't be placed in a tier below the top three.