Every year there are a slew questions that we ask ourselves when the Fantasy Football season comes to a close. Who was the biggest bust? Who was the best draft bargain? Who was the best rookie? Who was the best waiver wire pickup? Who was the comeback player of the year? Who will be next year’s number one pick? And finally, who was the MVP? So, we here at Last Word on Sports have created an award ceremony to declare the winner of each category. And without further ado, let’s GET IT ON!
Before the year kicked off, I called into Mike Fabber’s Sport Fixx online radio show and we talked a little bit about our expectations for the year to come. One of the questions that came up was who would be the biggest bust.
My guess: Eddie Lacy.
I was on the path to righteousness. In his first four starts he was stuck in the mud with a gut-busting 3.03 YPC and salvaged his fourth game with a touchdown. Then all of that was swiftly curbed by his week five Thursday night explosion versus the Minnesota Vikings (132 total yards, 2 TDs). Besides a crummy week six against the Dolphins, Lacy kept shattering that notion over and over again. Thanks for making me look like an idiot, Lacy. I do a fine job of that all by myself.
Fantasy Football’s Biggest Busts
Honorable Mention: Adrian Peterson
The only reason why we were not going to award Adrian Peterson as the runaway winner is the fact that he only played one game, and the rest of the games were spent either suspended or on the Commissioner’s Exempt list. He definitely qualifies as a bust, but we thought it was too lazy and so we avoided the easy road.
5) Doug Martin/Zac Stacy, TB/STL RB: I clumped these two together because they are similar animals. They were interchangeably drafted as the 14th/15th RB off the board, and disappointed an equal amount. Stacy lost his job to a rookie, and Martin could hardly stay on the field to keep a job. Either way, most drafters were left on the riverboat raft to wade through the free agency pool, or had to scam and cheat their way through trade to unearth themselves from this costly mistake.
4) Cordarrelle Patterson, WR MIN: Here is another case where the media hype placed a dynamic athlete on a pedestal and deceived us into thinking that Patterson would be the next great no. 84 to wear the Vikings jersey (Randy Moss). Even after week one the world was convinced that he was going to be a fantasy dynamo. Alas, we were mistaken. Savvy players traded him after the performance and managed to be ok. Others become lone survivors in a zombie apocalypse, fighting for a way to make it through. Don’t worry folks, the end is near.
3) Jimmy Graham, NO TE: Now I didn’t personally own him on any of my teams this year, but when we reached out to all of you on this topic the response was alarming. We took a look further and we agree. Graham, on average according to Yahoo!, was drafted in the first round, yet his numbers do not warrant that position. Yes, he is the third best TE overall, but the two that succeed him are Rob Gronkowski (Drafted 41.9) and Greg Olsen (64.1). Another reason why there was such uproar had to be the stinkers he put up in weeks 13 and 14. This season has been a sore disappointment for the hybrid, as he had seven games where he failed to reach double digits in standard scoring. And that my friend is what lands you on this list.
2) Montee Ball, DEN RB: I’m pretty sure you know why Ball is on this list. Highly regarded as a top ten RB pre-draft, Ball mustered up a paltry 3.1 YPC in the four games that he actually played in. The rest of the season he was maligned with injury. What has to be the biggest stinger is what Ronnie Hillman and CJ Anderson were able to do in his place. If Peyton manning is your quarterback, there should be nothing that stops what you do on the ground. Nice knowing ya, Ball!
1) LeSean McCoy, PHI RB: McCoy clinched this spot merely because he was the consensus number one RB off the board in most leagues. Sure, some people opted for Adrian Peterson or Jamaal Charles in his stead, but it was widely conceived that McCoy would feast in Chip Kelly’s limitless offense. For the most part, it was a lot of aches and pain. There were seven games where he failed to hit the double-digit mark (standard scoring) and three of those games didn’t get past three points. THREE POINTS! We can blame Darren Sproles all we want, but the fact of the matter is, McCoy did not meet expectations that we set for him. Generally when you have the first pick, you want a player who is iron clad and will singlehandedly escort you to victory. Thanks for nothing McCoy! Actually, thank you for putting your body on the line every week to entertain us fools. You’re the reason why we play this game. We are just sour because we cannot play the game.
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