30 Fantasy Football Bold Predictions for the 2017 Season

Jared Cook Will Finish as a Top-15 Tight End

Why This Is Bold: The fantasy football community is sick of fantasy analysts like myself treating Jared Cook like a relevant tight end asset.

Why This Will Happen: The Raiders have a strong offense that should move the ball down the field, but they also lack a truly good slot receiver. Right now it's Seth Roberts (79.96% of his routes came from the slot last year) and potentially Cordarrelle Patterson, but neither are very enticing. Last year, Roberts averaged just 5.24 air yards per reception, finishing with a below-average 5.21 yards after the catch per catch given that air yards profile.

He also saw 77 targets, or about 13% of the target market share in Oakland last year.

Who can take some of those looks away, or at least help in the slot? Jared Cook. The Raiders had nothing at tight end last year, but the group still saw nearly 14% of the team's targets. Combine that with Roberts, and you're looking at roughly 27% of targets going to the middle of the field. If Cook captures 15% of that, then he could see close to a 100-target season.