After a league-winning run as a fantasy stud to close out his rookie season, a Yahoo! fantasy analyst went with a big bold prediction for Amon-Ra St. Brown in 2022.
It’s not breaking news at this point, but Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown had a big final six weeks of his rookie season. With that run, up to and into playoff time, he helped win a lot of fantasy football leagues.
It’s easy to expect a downturn from St. Brown, or at minimum a far slower pace than that final six weeks of 2021. But in it’s place could be consistency, which he is driven to have in his second season.
Yahoo! fantasy analyst goes all-in with bold prediction for Amon-Ra St. Brown
Yahoo!’s fantasy analysts each offered a fresh bold prediction for 2022 this week. Andy Behrens honed in on St. Brown for his.
Andy Behrens: Amon-Ra St. Brown is a top-5 fantasy receiver
Collectively, fantasy managers have treated Amon-Ra St. Brown’s late-season binge almost as if it was a mirage. We drafted him as the WR25 at Yahoo this year, behind multiple guys who have never produced a stretch of games to rival the close to his rookie year. In case you’d forgotten, St. Brown saw double-digit targets in each of his last six games, averaging 8.5 receptions and 93.3 receiving yards per week while making six house calls. Extend that level of production (or something close to it) over a full 17 games and you’ve got a legendary season — think 120-plus receptions and 1,500-something yards.
I don’t think any competent team could reasonably dial back the usage of a player who put together a stretch of games like St. Brown’s six incredible weeks. If Detroit continues to lean on him, he clearly has top-five potential.
The WR5 last season, in full PPR, was Ja’Marr Chase with 304.6 fantasy points. Using Behrens’ stats, let’s just say 120 catches and 1,500 yards, that’s 270 full PPR points. St. Brown would need six touchdowns to reach 306 full PPR points.
If St. Brown reaches his absolute highest production level this year, it will be on the back of target volume, catches and yards more than touchdowns. So Behrens is on the right track there, just based on the catches and yards he’s boldly projecting. With those numbers, it would take less than 10 touchdowns to get St. Brown into the top-5 of fantasy receivers in PPR formats.
So is Behrens’ prediction ridiculous? Or just crazy or bold enough to be possible?