Fantasy Football: Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver projections

Jacksonville Jaguars wide receivers may not be the sexiest pick for you fantasy football owners out there, but when you look at the numbers from a year ago there are some promising things to project.

We’ll keep the extrapolations as fair as we possibly can, giving you a taste for what the Jaguars could have done last season and projecting how that could shake out with Blake Bortles, Allen Robinson, Allen Hurns, and Marqise Lee in year two.

Taking a look at all teams in the NFL, Michael Fabiano at NFL.com had this to say about the Jaguars receivers as targets for fantasy:

"You might be shocked, but Jaguars wideouts were targeted 379 times a season ago under former coordinator Jedd Fisch. That ranked fourth in the NFL. Unfortunately their receivers didn’t do a lot with those targets, finishing 14th in catches (202) and 20th in yards (2,347) while producing just 10 touchdowns. … Jacksonville does have some good, young talent at the position, as Allen Robinson, Marqise Lee and Allen Hurns all look to make an impact as NFL sophomores."

While the raw targeting numbers (and disappointing drops/incompletes) shouldn’t cause you to rise off your chair and root wildly for Blake Bortles and his receivers during your fantasy draft, they do show an indication that Bortles will be dropping back often. New offensive coordinator Greg Olson likely will tone it down a bit from former OC Jedd Fisch, but expect him to make use of the talented young receivers and new tight end Julius Thomas.

Thomas may cut into some of those targets and receptions and find himself third or second on the overall list for Jags receivers. So when you’re looking at Jags receivers to pick up, stick with the most reliable of the bunch: Allen Robinson.

Robinson and Bortles had a real connection before the former went down with an injury and couldn’t finish the season. He could very well be the first 1000 yard receiver for the Jaguars since Jimmy Smith, he’ll get plenty of looks for scores, and he’ll be able to rack up yards more consistently than guys like Hurns or Lee. The passing offense will be build on the Bortles-Robinson and Bortles-Thomas connections, so expect Robinson to get plenty of looks.

Last season, Robinson saw 81 targets. That number could stay around the same and expect him to haul in more than just 48 of those this coming season as he grows as a player. Fabiano thinks his targets could get as high as 130 with Robinson catching 75 of those. I would like to see his catch rate higher than that, nearing 70% like some of the best receivers in the league.

While it’s nice to look at all of the receivers and see how they might do. The only sure bet at this point for a solid return on your investment in your fantasy football league would be Allen Robinson. Other Jaguars receivers just aren’t consistent enough to take a risk on.

Next: Wide receiver training camp predictions

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