By Lewis Gould
So now Jeremy Maclin, who missed all of 2013 with the second ACL reconstruction of his career including one at Missouri, is being called undervalued by ESPN.com.
The Worldwide Leader rated the top six undervalued receivers for the purposes of fantasy football, and Maclin was No. 5:
Before the 2013 season, DeSean Jackson had never posted more than 62 receptions, 1,156 receiving yards or nine touchdowns in a season. Chip Kelly’s offense changed that, as Jackson posted new highs in receptions (82) and receiving yards (1,332) and tied for his single-season high in touchdowns (9) last year.
That bodes well for Maclin to post career highs now that he is taking Jackson’s place as the top vertical threat in the Philadelphia offense. Particularly telling for Maclin is that in the 2012 season he outpaced Jackson in nearly every vertical pass category. Maclin had a higher VYPA (14.8 for Maclin, 11.4 for Jackson) and SVYPA (17.8 for Maclin, 10.0 for Jackson) and did so on similar or higher target volumes (45 vertical/22 stretch-vertical targets for Maclin, 38 vertical/23 stretch-vertical targets for Jackson).
Even if for some reason Maclin doesn’t quite make it up to or over Jackson’s production levels, if he gets anywhere close to the No. 10 fantasy ranking among WRs that Jackson got to last year, it would call for a much higher draft value than Maclin currently has.
