Nine years ago today, Anquan Boldin became a household name in his very first game. Boldin gained 217 receiving yards, the most in week 1 of an NFL season since Frank Clarke in 1962 and the most by any player in his first game.

It was as amazing was it was unexpected. Boldin was a second-round pick who had an solid college career but one tarnished by an ACL tear that caused him to miss his junior season and struggle at the Combine. He wasn’t even the highest wide receiver drafted by the Cardinals, who selected Bryant Johnson in round 1 despite the fact that he never won a college football game. No one had high expectations for the Arizona offense, with Jeff Blake at quarterback and Dave McGinnis as head coach; the Cardinals would ultimately end up last in the NFL in points scored. As an unheralded rookie on a bad team, Boldin wasn’t one of the top sixty wide receivers drafted in fantasy leagues, and probably wasn’t even among the top 100. That makes his production even more incredible.

The table below lists the best fantasy performances by wide receivers in week 1 of the NFL since 2000, with 1 point per reception, 0.1 points per receiving yards, and 6 points per touchdown. The “Exp” column shows the experience level of the receiver; the last column shows the player’s Average Draft Position among wide receivers, if in the top sixty.

Wide Receiver	Tm	Opp	Year	Exp	Rec	Yd	RTD	Lng	FP	ADP
Anquan Boldin	ARI	DET	2003	R	10	217	2	71	43.7	--
Plaxico Burress	NYG	DAL	2007	8	8	144	3	60	40.4	17
Steve Smith	CAR	ARI	2011	11	8	178	2	77	37.8	32
Quincy Morgan	CLE	KAN	2002	2	9	151	2	44	36.1	--
Wes Welker	NWE	MIA	2011	8	8	160	2	99	36.0	16
Larry Fitzgerald	ARI	NYG	2005	2	13	155	1	30	34.5	19
Chad Ochocinco	CIN	NWE	2010	10	12	159	1	28	33.9	16
Marty Booker	CHI	MIN	2002	4	8	198	1	54	33.8	22
David Boston	ARI	NYG	2000	2	9	128	2	25	33.8	33
Austin Collie	IND	HOU	2010	2	11	163	1	73	33.3	51
Randy Moss	NWE	NYJ	2007	10	9	183	1	51	33.3	15
Keenan McCardell	SDG	DAL	2005	14	9	123	2	20	33.3	37
Terrell Owens	PHI	NYG	2004	9	8	68	3	20	32.8	4
Jimmy Smith	JAX	PIT	2001	8	8	126	2	34	32.6	13
Reggie Wayne	IND	JAX	2009	9	10	162	1	39	32.2	5
Jimmy Smith	JAX	SEA	2005	12	7	130	2	45	32.0	24
Chris Chambers	MIA	HOU	2003	3	7	118	2	57	30.8	29
Kenny Britt	TEN	JAX	2011	3	5	136	2	80	30.6	26
Miles Austin	DAL	WAS	2010	5	10	146	1	30	30.6	6
Reggie Wayne	IND	NOR	2007	7	7	115	2	45	30.5	5
Hines Ward	PIT	BAL	2003	6	9	91	2	28	30.1	7
Randy Moss	MIN	GNB	2003	6	9	150	1	27	30.0	3

And because I know you’re curious: Kevin Ogletree scored 31.4 FP against the Giants on Wednesday night, with 8 catches for 114 yards and 2 scores, and Ogletree’s ADP was outside of the top 80.

But back to Boldin, who used his initial performance as a catapult to an incredible rookie season. Boldin’s 1,377 yards remain the 2nd highest in NFL history, behind only Bill Groman’s 1,473 yards in the AFL’s inaugural season. He became the first receiver to catch 100 passes as a rookie, and nobody has come very close to matching that mark since. He scored 8 touchdowns, more than double the amount of any other Cardinal that season. With the likely exception of Randy Moss’ 1998 performance, Boldin had the best rookie season by a wide receiver ever.

A knee injury sidelined Boldin for the first six games of his second season. He would still wind up leading the league in targets per game in 2004, and caught 47 passes over the last 8 games. In 2005, Boldin caught 102 passes for 1,402 yards and 7 TDs in 14 games, and led the NFL in receiving yards per game. In 2006, his numbers dropped with Matt Leinart starting, but Boldin made his second Pro Bowl and gained another 1200 yards. In 2007 and 2008 injuries would strike, limiting him to 12 games and 11 starts each season. Still, Boldin’s per game numbers remained excellent, and he scored 20 touchdowns; he had another solid season in 2009, at the age of 29, although by then it appeared that Boldin’s physical style of play had begun to take a toll on his body.

Boldin entered the league at age 23, and his first seven seasons were incredible, especially on a per-game basis. When looking at receivers, I occasionally use something I call Adjusted Catch Yards, which starts with receiving yards and then gives players 5 yards for every reception and 20 yards for every touchdown. ^[1]You can — and should — quibble with the weights, but in any event I prefer ACY to any of the three underlying stats on their own. At some point, I plan to finalize exactly what I think … Continue reading The table below shows every receiver with at least 100 ACY per game through their first seven seasons:

Player	G	Rec	RecYd	RecTd	ACY	Rec/G	RecYd/G	RecTD/G	ACY/G
Lance Alworth	82	394	7973	73	11403	4.8	97.2	0.89	139.1
Randy Moss	109	574	9142	90	13812	5.3	83.9	0.83	126.7
Marvin Harrison	108	665	8800	73	13585	6.2	81.5	0.68	125.8
Jerry Rice	108	526	9072	93	13562	4.9	84	0.86	125.6
Torry Holt	110	619	9487	54	13662	5.6	86.2	0.49	124.2
Lionel Taylor	82	508	6424	43	9824	6.2	78.3	0.52	119.8
Anquan Boldin	95	586	7520	44	11330	6.2	79.2	0.46	119.3
Art Powell	84	405	6643	66	9988	4.8	79.1	0.79	118.9
Larry Fitzgerald	108	613	8204	65	12569	5.7	76	0.6	116.4
Andre Johnson	102	587	7948	42	11723	5.8	77.9	0.41	114.9
Isaac Bruce	93	476	7299	50	10679	5.1	78.5	0.54	114.8
Calvin Johnson	76	366	5872	49	8682	4.8	77.3	0.64	114.2
Chad Johnson	108	559	8365	49	12140	5.2	77.5	0.45	112.4
Sterling Sharpe	112	595	8134	65	12409	5.3	72.6	0.58	110.8
Marques Colston	86	449	6240	48	9445	5.2	72.6	0.56	109.8
Terrell Owens	106	512	7470	72	11470	4.8	70.5	0.68	108.2
Herman Moore	104	528	7484	52	11164	5.1	72	0.5	107.3
Gary Clark	106	485	7830	53	11315	4.6	73.9	0.5	106.7
Del Shofner	76	295	5594	48	8029	3.9	73.6	0.63	105.6
Bob Hayes	91	321	6617	67	9562	3.5	72.7	0.74	105.1
Jimmy Smith	95	472	6887	36	9967	5	72.5	0.38	104.9
Charley Hennigan	95	410	6823	51	9893	4.3	71.8	0.54	104.1
Greg Jennings	88	389	6171	49	9096	4.4	70.1	0.56	103.4
Brandon Marshall	91	494	6247	34	9397	5.4	68.6	0.37	103.3
Kellen Winslow	81	424	5494	37	8354	5.2	67.8	0.46	103.1
Michael Irvin	96	416	6935	40	9815	4.3	72.2	0.42	102.2
Keyshawn Johnson	109	558	7336	45	11026	5.1	67.3	0.41	101.2
Andre Rison	110	522	7154	63	11024	4.7	65	0.57	100.2

Putting aside Lionel Taylor who was a receptions machine on a bad Broncos team in the early days of the AFL, Boldin is only behind some very impressive names. Boldin was a monster when healthy for the Cardinals, but suffered a bit with injuries and languished on several bad teams. And he didn’t always have good quarterback play: of his 95 games in Arizona, Kurt Warner was the starter for only 47 of them. Interestingly enough, though, Boldin produced regardless of who was the quarterback:

Part of the reason Boldin’s numbers weren’t higher with Warner is that Larry Fitzgerald was there for 46 of the 47 Warner games, whose presence slightly suppressed Boldin’s numbers. ^[2]Once you adjust for the quality of quarterback. Boldin’s numbers with and without Fitzgerald are nearly identical: 6.2 R/G, 78 Y/G and 0.5 TD/G with Fitzgerald and 6.2 R/G, 82 Y/G and 0.5 TD/G … Continue reading But Boldin’s production with subpar quarterbacks is impressive.

For awhile, it looked like Boldin was one of the game’s best and a potential future Hall of Famer. His production in his first seven years was incredible. It’s true that Boldin started at age 23, and if you examined receivers from age 23 to 29 (instead of looking at receivers by experience level), Andre Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald, and Isaac Bruce would pass him in ACY/G, although he’d move back ahead of Harrison. But in any event, at his peak, he compares favorably to some of the best receivers of the last two decades.

Unfortunately, since going to Baltimore, Boldin has gone from one of the game’s best playmakers to the third most valuable offensive player on a defensive team. Boldin had the worst statistical season of his career on a per-game basis in 2010, and only rebounded slightly in 2011. It doesn’t appear likely that Boldin has any more elite seasons left, and I doubt history will be very kind to Boldin. But I’ll always remember him as a fearless receiver with Hall of Fame run-after-the-catch ability and for being one of the toughest and most dominant players in the league during his prime. He first flashed that nine years ago today.