It seems like only yesterday I was writing up the fantasy football previews and now here we are, the day after the end of the regular season. It was a pretty successful season for me. I finished 2nd in my ESPN league with a team that had no business even making the playoffs due to the numbers of injuries I had to endure. Guys like Romo, Barber, Colston and Winslow getting injured put my season in jeopardy, but breakthrough performances by Thomas Jones, Chris Johnson, John Carlson, Pierre Thomas and Antonio Bryant pushed me into the playoffs as the 3rd seed. I smashed the 2nd seed in the semi finals and had the lead going into the final week against the 1st seed, but it was not to be this year.
Meanwhile, for the second year in a row, I finished 1st in the post-gazette.com fantasy football salary cap league. I jumped out to a big lead and stumbled a little bit at the end, but finished 58 points ahead of the second place team and 121 points ahead of the third place team. After last year's win, I received some criticism that I only won because I bought Tom Brady while was he was still relatively cheap. Typically that's how salary cap leagues are played, but I wonder what my critics will say this year?
Anyways, it was a great year for football, a lot of ups and downs, a lot of unpredictability, but that's what makes playing fantasy football, so much fun. Here are the Stars and Stumblers of the 2008 fantasy football season:
Stars
DeAngelo Williams - He was almost invisible for the first four weeks of the NFL season, splitting time with rookie Jonathan Stewart, but in Week 5 he exploded. He ran for 123 yards and scored 3 TDs against the Chiefs. This was only a flash of things to come. Williams would run for over 100 yards in 7 of the last 11 games and running for at least one TD in each of them except one and finished with the most rushing TD's in the NFL (18). He is a big reason why the Panthers are the second seed in the NFC this year and he won countless fantasy championships for owners everywhere. In a year when everyone had their eyes on Peterson, Westbrook and Tomlinson, Williams out shined them all to be the number one fantasy RB.
Michael Turner - After watching him this year, its hard to believe he was LT's backup for the last 4 years. We always knew that Turner would be a good feature back somewhere else, but I don't think anyone believed he would be this good, this fast. With a rookie quarterback, a new coach and on a team with no expectations, Michael Turner turned in a Pro Bowl caliber season finishing 2nd in the NFL in rushing and scoring 17 TD's. Turner was available in the 4th and 5th rounds of most drafts and if you grabbed him then, you got a steal.
Drew Brees - When you come within 15 yards of Dan Marino's single season passing yardage record, you've had a good season. The pass happy Saints quarterback threw for 5,069 yards and 34 TDs, both career numbers. Brees did it without his best receiver, Marques Colston, for 6 games and his newest weapon, Jeremy Shockey, who was injured off and on. Brees did it with average receivers against defenses that knew he was going to go to the air often. Brees came through big in the fantasy football championship weeks too, throwing for 737 yards, 6 TDs and 1 INT.
Philip Rivers - Coming into the season everyone was expecting big things out of the Chargers and the man they were looking to was LaDainian Tomlinson. Unfortunately, he had a very un-LT like season and only ran for over 100 yards twice this year. Someone needed to pick up the slack and lead this team into the post season. Enter Philip Rivers. Rivers finished the season tied for 1st in TD passes and had the best QB rating in the league (105.5). I had mentioned in my QB preview back in August that with all the receivers he had to throw to, this was going to be Rivers' breakout season and it definitely was just that.
Peyton Manning - One of the usual suspects you would expect to see on a Stars list is Peyton Manning. The Colts got off to a slow start at 3-4, but at that point, Peyton took command, turned around their season and they rattled off nine straight wins. During that nine game winning streak, Manning threw 17 TDs and only 3 INTs. He came through big for the Colts and even bigger for his owners. During the last four weeks, fantasy playoff time, Manning threw 8 TDs and zero interceptions. He continues to be the best, most reliable fantasy option out there.
Stumblers
LaDainian Tomlinson - This year people were starting to wonder if LT meant, losing touch. Tomlinson was primed for a monster season as the Chargers had a very soft and favorable schedule this year, but the former MVP wasn't able to capitalize. Fighting off a bad toe, LT only ran for over 100 yards twice this year. In two matchups against the Chiefs who owned one of the worst run defenses this year, he only ran for 117 yards (3.2 ypc) and 1 TD. He was a top 5, if not top 3, pick in every league this year and those of you that drafted him were seriously disappointed. Is this the end of the road for LT? I don't think so, but his days as being a first round pick are over.
Brett Favre - Ohhh Brett, couldn't you have just done the Jets and your fantasy owners a favor and stay retired? After missing almost all of training camp, Favre was traded to the Jets in hopes that this would be the piece that puts them over the top and gets them past the Patriots. It wasn't. It didn't even get them past a Matt Cassel led Patriots team in the standings. Favre had a great offensive line, a good running game, good play making receivers and a soft schedule, but it wasn't soft enough for Favre apparently. He reverted back into the turnover machine that killed Green Bay from 2003-2006. A lot of owners had high hopes for Favre this year, but he was probably one of the biggest fantasy disappointments I've ever seen. Do yourself a favor, if Favre doesn't retire, don't draft him next year.
Marion Barber - It pains me to do this, but my number one pick in my ESPN league was a monster bust this year, well at least for most of it anyways. He get a lot more touches this year but it didn't turn into more fantasy points. Barber finished with only 885 yards and 7 TDs. Compare this to 2007 when he was splitting time with Julius Jones he ran for 975 yards and 10 TDs. Barber was actually having a pretty decent season until Romo got knocked out for a month and defenses keyed on him. By the time Romo came back, Barber was beat up and bruised and was only able to contribute a little. I'm not a profit, but unless Godzilla and King Kong are signed to the Dallas offensive line next year, I don't see Barber being a top 10 fantasy RB next year.
Larry Johnson - LJ didn't have high expectations for the season, but he did fairly well last year, rushing for over 100 yards 3 times in 8 games. He was getting the best of some of the softer defenses. Some people expected more of the same this year and that he would be a good spot starter. Forget it. The former Nittany Lion was awful for most of the year, even against soft defenses. At home against the Raiders, LJ ran for 22 yards on 12 carries. Against Carolina, he ran for 2 yards on 7 carries. Then again in Cincinnati, he ran for 18 yards on 10 carries. Performances like these make him a fantasy risk each and every week, even against soft teams.
The Cleveland Browns - Coming into the season the Brownies had high hopes. They finished with 10 wins last year, the offense looked great, the defense added Shaun Rodgers to help stop the run and things were looking up. Then the season started, they remembered that they're the Browns and nature took its course. A lot fantasy owners out there bought into the high octane Browns offense and drafted Derek Anderson, Jamal Lewis, and Braylon Edwards thinking they had the next Aikman, Smith and Irvin. Unfortunately, DA is a flash in the pan, Jamal Lewis appears to have lost a step and Braylon Edwards, whom I was told by a die hard Browns fan would break Randy Moss' TD record this year, forgot how to catch a football.
Posted
Dec 29 2008, 01:22 PM
by
Nick Fruscello