Endless offseason 49er woes have everyone down on the team and the players. The Over/Under on the win total is set at 6.5, which honestly hurt as a lifelong fan of the franchise. I am going to have to let that hurt go so I can take advantage of the beautiful fantasy value it sets up in the 49er offense. Anquan Boldin is the triple antibiotic to my wound.
Anquan Boldin has been a steal in the past two years in fantasy drafts and will continue to do so this coming season. Last season he finished as the WR20 in standard fantasy points, meaning he was a serviceable second WR for your fantasy team. He was being drafted as the WR46. In 2013 he finished as the WR14 and was drafted as the WR35.
Anquan Boldin is being drafted at pick 97.1 and thats in the eighth round. He is being drafted as the WR42. This situation is setting up similarly to the last two years. It is a lock he will finish above the WR42, barring a season ending injury, but I believe he will even improve on his 2014 finish of WR20.
Crabtree is gone and so are the 108 targets that were set aside for him and I do not see Torrey Smith automatically absorbing all of those. In addition, Stevie Johnson’s 50 targets are gone as well and all behind Smith and Boldin are the underwhelming Bruce Miller, Jerome Simpson, and Quinton Patton. He will improve on his 2014 target total of 131 easily.
I could see his efficiency rising with Torrey Smith drawing a ton of attention by taking off the top of defenses, opening the intermediate area for Boldin to carve up. The reemergance of Colin Kaeperknick, which I foresee due to constructing the offense around his skill set this year opposed to last, will help Anquan get more offensive opportunities and those of a higher quality variety.
They are going to be running a faster tempo offense under new OC Geep Chryst. These recent quotes from Anquan himself support this: “It’s definitely a fast tempo,” said Boldin of Chryst’s offense. “We’re trying to get a lot faster than last year as far as getting to the line.” In training camp coverage on thr NFL network Jim Tomsula was emphasizing the pace of play, telling the players to go faster and that the pace needs to pick up.
While your first couple of picks are important, leagues are won in the later rounds where value upside players are nabbed with the hope to catch lightning in a bottle. Anquan Boldin is this lighting strike. Let the bottle be your fantasy football squad and use Boldin as a stepping stone on the path to fantasy football championship victory.
Featured Image Credit: By Jim Bahn (Flickr: Levi’s stadium opening) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
