15 Bold Fantasy Football Predictions for the 2018 Season

Ben Roethlisberger Will Finish as a Top-3 Quarterback

Why This Is Bold: Ben Roethlisberger is currently being drafted as the QB14 in fantasy football.

Why This Will Happen: We know Roethlisberger has the weapons, but that hasn't always translated to fantasy football success.

Or has it?

Over the final six relevant regular season games for Big Ben last year, he averaged a weekly quarterback finish of 5.83. He was the best fantasy quarterback during this stretch.

And it may not be just because of random variance. Sure, the Steelers played in plus matchups against teams like Tennessee and Green Bay, but after a Week 10 game against Indianapolis last year, Pittsburgh's quarterback coach and now offensive coordinator, Randy Fichtner, shifted to a role on the field instead of up in the booth. And everything changed for Ben.

Coincidence? Perhaps. I'm a data person, so I won't read too far into that. But there's documented bad blood between Roethlisberger and ex-offensive coordinator Todd Haley, so who knows?

Maybe it was Fichtner's influence that shifted the Steelers into a more of a no-huddle offense during that dominant Big Ben stretch, too. Per Pat Thorman of Pro Football Focus, through that game against Indy, the Steelers' O ran no-huddle on 13.38% of their plays. That jumped to 18.31% during the Fichtner-down-on-the-field era. And here in 2018, it's looking like there could be more no-huddle in store for Pittsburgh.

All of this combined with Roethlisberger's weapons gives him a pretty high ceiling -- one that could easily make him a plug-and-play starter this year.