Fantasy Football: 5 Bold Predictions for Week 4

JuJu Smith-Schuster Will Have More Receiving Yards Than Antonio Brown

Antonio Brown is arguably the greatest wide receiver of the past few decades. He hasn't had a season with fewer than 1,000 receiving yards since 2012 and is currently on pace for another 1,000-yarder. It's usually a bad idea to bet against AB.

It seems like a particularly bad idea to bet against him this week as he matches up with the Baltimore Ravens, who are without cornerback Jimmy Smith. When Brown played the Smith-less Ravens in 2017, he went bananas: 18 targets, 11 receptions and 213 receiving yards.

But JuJu Smith-Schuster has been playing so well this year that it's not as crazy as it might seem to say he'll out-produce Brown. JuJu ranks 2nd among all receivers with 15 or more targets in Josh Hermsmeyer's RACR metric, which combines Air Yards and yards after the catch into one efficiency metric. He's combining elite efficiency with an elite target volume -- his 38 targets rank 4th in the league, just behind Brown's 42 targets.

JuJu was sidelined the last time the Steelers met the Ravens, but he should dominate in the slot in Week 4. Two weeks ago the Ravens gave up 91 yards and a score to Bengals slot receiver Tyler Boyd. JuJu has played 77.8% of his snaps in the slot per PlayerProfiler.com; he's positioned for a huge game in the middle of the field.

It feels crazy to bet against AB, but it helps that JuJu already has put up more receiving yards in each game this year. He'll do it again this week.