2018 IR/Major injuries

QUARTERBACK

Jimmy Garoppolo
Alex Smith
Andy Dalton
Carson Wentz
Ryan Tannehill

RUNNING BACK

Kerryon Johnson
Aaron Jones
Frank Gore
Matt Breida
Derrius Guice
Jerick McKinnon
Jay Ajayi
Devonta Freeman
Marshawn Lynch
Alex Collins
Isaiah Crowell
James Conner
Kareem Hunt
Leonard Fournette

TIGHT END

Hunter Henry
Delanie Walker
Tyler Eifert
O.J. Howard
Jack Doyle
Greg Olsen

WIDE RECEIVER

Emmanuel Sanders
Marvin Jones
Dante Pettis
Demaryius Thomas
Marqise Lee
Will Fuller
Cooper Kupp
A.J. Green
Christian Kirk
Pierre Garcon

The Huddle Awards

Draft slots were taken from the Average Draft at MyFantasyLeague.

QUARTERBACK

Best Player –  Patrick Mahomes

In his second season – he only played one game as a rookie – Mahomes threw for 5,097 yards and 50 touchdowns. There have only been five players with a 5,000-yard season and only two with 50 touchdowns in one season. Only Peyton Manning threw for 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns in one season. He did that in his 15th year in the NFL. Mahomes in his first. Where does Mahomes go from here?

Runner-up:  Ben Roethlisberger

Best Draft Pick – Patrick Mahomes

He was taken with an Average Draft Position (ADP) of No. 16 for quarterbacks so he was just a backup that went deeper into the second half of fantasy drafts. Nice payoff on this one. Maybe the nicest of all time. It is rare but it certainly happens for an afterthought to become a starter. Just not usually THE starter.

Runner-up:  Matt Ryan

Best Rookie – Baker Mayfield

He broke the rookie passing touchdown record of 26 by Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson with 27 scores along with his 3,856 yards and only 14 interceptions. That landed him around No. 15 best for the position which is just outside of a fantasy start in most leagues but he improved as the season progressed.

Runner-up:  Lamar Jackson

Worst Draft Pick – Carson Wentz

Yep. He was so consistently good in 2017 that even a knee injury that delayed his 2018 debut didn’t scare away fantasy owners. Granted, his ADP was No. 7 but it was a mostly wasted pick as he ended as No. 21 among quarterbacks and yet again could not finish the season.

Runner-up:  Tom Brady

Best Free Agent – Ryan Fitzpatrick

There were no heroes among free agent quarterbacks (unless your league did not draft Mahomes) but Fitzpatrick offered four different games with 28+ points when he did start.

Runner-up:  Nick Mullens

RUNNING BACK

Best Player –  Christian McCaffrey

This would have been  Todd Gurley but he sat out Week 16 right when you needed him most. McCaffrey was taken at the end of the first round or even in the second round of fantasy drafts and delivered every week with monster showings if you had reception points. He turned in 30 points in Week 16 when so many others flopped. All he did was run for 1,098 yards, catch 107 passes for 867 yards and scored 13 times. That was 326 touches so, yeah, maybe he can handle a full-time load.

Runner-up:  Todd Gurley

Best Draft Pick – James Conner

Conner went very cheaply last summer if he was drafted at all. Even up until the final week before the season, he was there for the taking in the second half of the draft. But then the unthinkable happened thanks to the Man-Who-Has-No-Name. And Conner suddenly became a de facto Le’Veon Bell Doppelganger for the price of a backup tight end. Conner ended around No. 5 best in most leagues even though he missed Weeks 14 to 16. I mean, you did his backup, right?

Runner-up:  James White

Best Rookie -Saquon Barkley

For the fourth straight year, the top rookie running back ended up in the Top-10. Barkley played on a bad offense with a bad offensive line and yet still ended up no worse than No. 3 among running backs and potentially No. 1 depending on your scoring. Barkley ran for 1,307 yards and caught 91 passes for 721 yards and a total of 15 touchdowns. That’s a total of 2,024 yards as a rookie. Where is he going to go?

Runner-up:  Nick Chubb 

Worst Draft Pick -Le’Veon Bell

Maybe he lands on the right team and ends up better than he ever was. But in every league, there will be a team owner that only wishes ill upon Mr. Bell and that gives him the one-finger salute when he sees his name on a draft board.

Runner-up:  Devonta Freeman

Best Free Agent – Philip Lindsay

What a crazy year. An undrafted rookie that gave absolutely no outward signals that he was going to turn in around a Top-12 season. Royce Freeman? Devontae Booker? Nope. 102 total yards and a score in his first week. Not a one-game wonder. But a surprise free agent for the ages.  At least everyone had heard of Patrick Mahomes.

Runner-up:  Richard Jalen

WIDE RECEIVER

Best Player –  DeAndre Hopkins

A career-year meant 115 catches for 1,572 yards and 11 touchdowns. He not only broke 100-yards seven times, that included all three weeks of the fantasy playoffs. A full season with Deshaun Watson did not hurt.

Runner-up:  Julio Jones

Best Draft Pick – Adam Thielen

The Vikings upgraded their quarterback (well, sorta) but the rushing offense was expected to take off with Dalvin Cook healthy. So that No. 16 pick in ADP – a middling WR2 price – paid off handsomely with eight straight 100-yard games to open the year. Sure, he only had one more but starting out the year with the most consistently productive wideout meant getting a huge boost in winning early games.

Runner-up:  JuJu Smith-Schuster

Best Rookie – Calvin Ridley

As usual, there were no top producers as rookies though Ridley certainly started out hot with six touchdowns over his first four games. He cooled down the stretch but still ended with 821 yards and ten touchdowns.

Runner-up:  D.J. Moore

Worst Draft Pick – A.J. Green

He was drafted as the  No. 8 wideout in ADP and rolled up six touchdowns by mid-season but his toe injury effectively ended his season by Week 9. He ended with only 46 catches for 694 yards and six scores but he could have doubled that had he remained healthy.

Runner-up:   Doug Baldwin

Best Free Agent – Tyler Boyd

Boyd scared off drafters last summer since he only turned in 225 yards and two scores in 2017. But he became the starter and with Green out, assumed the primary receiver role that ended with 76 receptions for 1,028 yards and seven touchdowns. That was good enough to rank around No. 15 in most league scoring.

Runner-up:  Taylor Gabriel

TIGHT END

Best Player – Travis Kelce

He was already an elite tight end in 2017 but the change in quarterbacks was all Kelce needed to dominate the position with 103 receptions for 1,336 yards and 10 touchdowns. He produced seven games containing at least 90 yards. Fantasy value plummeted quickly with tight ends this year, so owning the highest-scoring was a significant advantage.

Runner-up: Zach Ertz

Best Draft Pick – George Kittle

This was supposed to be the year that Jimmy Garoppolo would get all the wideouts heavily involved and leave Kittle as a lesser part of the passing equation. So much for that plan. Kittle was drafted around No. 12 in most leagues and just like 2017, he became the last man standing as injuries ravaged the 49ers again. Kittle ended with 88 receptions for 1,377 yards and five scores and wasn’t drafted until after Round 10 in most leagues.

Runner-up:  Eric Ebron

Best Rookie – Chris Herndon

The position did not offer much from the rookies despite five being drafted over the first three rounds. Herndon ended with 39 receptions for 502 yards and four scores with more of that coming in the second half of the season. He wasn’t a difference maker but at least offered some upside for the waiver wire hunters.

Runner-up: Mark Andrews

Worst Draft Pick – Rob Gronkowski

He was often the No. 1 tight end taken or at least the No. 2. But he ended as the No. 11 best which was really only three games where he offered much and mostly weekly-fantasy score killers in all others. The fun part is deciding what to do with him in 2019 drafts.

Runner-up:  Greg Olsen

Best Free Agent – Chris Herndon

He offered bye-week help and a low-grade starter for teams that lost one of the better players. The position was really six players deep and then just filler.

Runner-up:  C.J. Uzomah

Huddle player of the year

Patrick Mahomes  – Having played fantasy football for 28 years and followed in obsessively for 25 years,  I can tell you – Mahomes has no real precedent. He’s already performed as well as any quarterback in NFL history and that was in his first year and with injuries and bannings impacting his offense. Quarterbacks will not be valued very highly in drafts next summer.

Except one.

Salute!

Drama 101 – Somebody has to laugh, somebody has to cry

Playoff Schedule

Saturday, Jan. 5

Colts at Texans, 4:35 PM
Seahawks at Cowboys, 8:15 PM

Sunday, Jan. 6

Chargers at Ravens, 1:05 PM
Eagles at Bears, 4:40 PM

Byes: Chiefs, Patriots, Saints, Rams

Thanks for giving me a few minutes of your Monday morning. Hope you enjoyed it half as much as I did. Enjoy the playoffs and see you next year!

For the 374th time since 1997…

Get back to work!