15 Bold Fantasy Football Predictions for the 2018 Season

Rex Burkhead Will Finish as a Top-12 Running Back

Why This Is Bold: Burkhead is currently being selected as the RB27 on FantasyFootballCalculator.com, so finishing as an RB1 would mean he far exceeds his average cost.

Why This Will Happen: The Patriots currently have a banged-up backfield, and Burkhead's part of the problem -- he's been dealing with a "slight tear" in his knee. Rookie Sony Michel's knee injury is more significant, though, which could allow Burkhead to see more snaps at the beginning of the year.

But even if we assume Michel takes on the role that Dion Lewis saw last year, Burkhead should still have a high ceiling. In five regular season games where Burkhead and Lewis played worthwhile snaps together last year, Burkhead averaged more snaps, targets, and goal-line touches than his former teammate, and he averaged over four more PPR points scored per contest. During this stretch, only two players had more goal line carries than Burkhead across the entire league.

We could be looking at a player who's going to see a good number of targets from one of the best quarterbacks in the game -- and targets are more important than rushes -- as well as goal-line touches in one of the best overall offenses in the game. Sign me up.