Looking at Last Season's Finishes to Find This Year's Breakout Fantasy Football Players

Jerick McKinnon, RB, Minnesota Vikings

It’ll take some sort of injury to Adrian Peterson for Jerick McKinnon to become a consistent weekly option, but until then, he’ll be a high-upside dynasty stash and an intriguing late-round lottery ticket in season-long leagues.

McKinnon’s combine numbers from 2014 are out of this world. His PlayerProfiler.com page should be the background on your phone. It’s unreal. He's truly the total package athletically.

The speed, burst and power -- it's all there.

He's not just a Spandex warrior, either. These traits show up on the field.

Through 165 career carries, McKinnon has racked up 809 yards (4.9 yards per carry) and two scores, adding 48 catches and 308 receiving yards.

Using our Net Expected Points (NEP) metric -- which you can read more about in our glossary -- we can see just how effective McKinnon has been. Among running backs to see at least 50 carries in 2015 (admittedly, a very small sample), he ranked third in Rushing NEP per play.

McKinnon saw some additional work in blowout wins in Week 15 and Week 16 last season. He made 4 receptions for 76 yards and 1 touchdown in Week 15. In Week 16, McKinnon erupted for 89 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns on just 7 carries.

The problem, of course, is volume, the lifeblood of any fantasy stud.

However, Peterson is entering his age-31 season, and everyone except Antonio Gates ages. Plus, the Vikings have said they want to get McKinnon more involved.

With Peterson healthy, McKinnon’s likely ceiling is as a bench option who could be a possible flex play in the right matchups, but if Peterson were to go down, McKinnon could be a star. His cost of acquisition is incredibly cheap, too, as he has an ADP in the 12th round as RB50.