January 5, 2020

RotoBaller's Nick Mariano goes through the staff's picks for MVP, Rookie of the Year, and more for the 2019 fantasy football season.

Welcome to the official 2019 Fantasy Football Awards Show, presented by RotoBaller.

While no one can fill Michael Scott’s shoes, I’ll try to make he and The Dundies proud as we look back on 2019, look forward to 2020, and maybe just learn something along the way. Or get a hankering for Chili’s. Either way, we’ll have some fun honoring some of the fine football players, coaches and teams who have had outstanding (for better or worse) performances in the 2019 season.

It’s always a bittersweet affair when the fantasy football season ends, as we all come down from the high of chasing championships and mainlining Gus Hansen on Red Zone every Sunday. Let’s hope for some fun playoff games to get us through these trying times.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Most Valuable Player: Lamar Jackson

When you get the QB1 with some RB2 legs combined in one package, you typically finish as No. 1. Jackson made 2019 his own not only with his 1,206 rushing yards and seven touchdowns, but passing for 36 touchdowns against just six interceptions alongside 3,127 passing yards. This season would’ve been MVP-caliber even if he was the consensus first-overall pick back in August, let alone the insane profit margins available as a late-round flyer. The only “dropoff” was that he sat in Week 17, punishing the poor souls in fantasy leagues that errantly utilize it. The hype was real, and it was spectacular.

Rookie of the Year: Josh Jacobs

Jacobs came out swinging in Week 1, tagging Denver’s stout front for 113 total yards and two touchdowns en route to RB RoY honors. He topped 100 total yards nines times in just 13 games, including Week 15 where he suited up with a broken shoulder. He would total 1,150 rushing yards on just 242 carries, good for a 4.8 YPC, alongside a respectable 166 receiving yards on 20 receptions. The injury threw cold water on the hot rookie campaign, but we know he did everything he could to get back out there for us (and Oakland.) A gamer through-and-through, he’ll be a solid second-round pick come 2020 drafts. Hopefully, we’ll soon see him boosting those TD numbers with an offense/coach that can actually move the ball.

Playoffs MVP: Kenyan Drake

Hate or love the Drake, Kenyan got his down the stretch and hit the nitro on his stat line at just the right time. He was limited to a touchdown-less 174 rushing yards across six games with Miami, but was then dealt to Arizona and set free while the ghost of David Johnson haunted our rosters. Drake exploded in his Cardinals debut, posting 162 total yards and a score on just 19 touches against none other than San Francisco -- a decent defense, if you ask me. In true Cardinals fashion, Drake was underutilized and quiet in Weeks 10-14 before humiliating the Browns with a whopping 22-137-4 rushing line in Week 15. This single-handedly vaulted many fantasy owners, who hoped for maybe 10-12 PPR points, into the finals. He would follow that up with a 24-166-2 line at Seattle, which fueled many a championship effort in Week 16. Aaron Jones and Michael Thomas both finished two votes back of Drake.

Comeback Player of the Year: Devante Parker

Parker edged out former teammate Ryan Tannehill by one vote here. Alas, Parker came alive in Week 4 and Tannehill didn’t draw a start until Week 7. It was Parker who scored a touchdown or topped 50 yards in 14-of-16 games this season, leading to a stellar 72 catches for 1,202 yards and nine touchdowns on the 2019 Miami Dolphins. You could argue Ryan Fitzpatrick earns a share of this award, as Fitzmagic’s relentless aggression helped Parker see double-digit targets in six of Miami’s final eight games.

Biggest Flop: David Johnson

Remember when Johnson put up 82 rushing yards alongside 55 receiving yards and a touchdown in Week 1? Week 2 against Baltimore was awful for nearly all Cardinals, but then Johnson came back with 462 total yards and three touchdowns over his next four games. I realize the injury and ice-cold finish to the season made things look absolutely bleak, but he wasn’t that bad in the early going.

And then that ankle injury that Kliff Kingsbury said was just fine seemed to sideline him against the Giants, only to see Chase Edmonds step up and deliver a three-touchdown performance. Edmonds then got hurt himself, only for Arizona to trade for the aforementioned Drake. Johnson would never exceed six touches in a game again.

Also, I’m surprised not one vote came in for Brandin Cooks. Jus’ sayin.

Wake Me Up, I Can't Wake Up: Dante Pettis

Not just a hilarious song lyric, this line epitomizes a popular “sleeper” pick being physically unable to spring into action and actually do something during the season. Pettis was being drafted as the 42nd WR off the board in August after finishing 2018 on a hot streak. If I showed you the 49ers success in 2019 and nothing else ahead of your August draft, you probably would’ve leapt even higher for Pettis. But he would finish behind Deebo Samuel, Kendrick Bourne, Marquise Goodwin and Richie James, not to mention the midseason acquisition, Emmanuel Sanders. He caught only 11 of his 24 targets for 109 yards, but he had two exciting touchdowns!! Sigh. That 45.8% catch rate -- easily the lowest on the team -- wasn’t going to encourage further playing time. Yes, many were trapped in Dante’s Inferno in the early going of 2019, but at least he had the courtesy of being so terrible that he was droppable early on.

Midseason Savior: Ryan Tannehill

Full disclosure, DeVante Parker also won this but I don’t think that’s fun. I’ll let his “higher” award supersede this so I can wax poetic about Tannehill and tangentially rope A.J. Brown in too. When Tannehill took over late in Week 6, we had no reason to believe he’d catch fire. The offense went through Derrick Henry, and of course Delanie Walker got hurt early in Week 7.

Well, Tannehill threw egg on all our faces by completing 70.3% of his passes to collect 2,742 yards with a 22/6 TD/INT mark on just 286 pass attempts. He even sprinkled in 185 rushing yards with four ground TDs just to show off (and maybe win the game, we’ll never know his true intent.) He never had a start with fewer than two touchdowns, despite the low passing volume. That’s what a lofty 9.6 Yards-per-Attempt mark can do when you’ve got A.J. Brown hauling in a quartet of 40-yard TDs as a rookie.

Most Consistent: Christian McCaffrey

Don’t worry, Michael Thomas did get a decent slice of the pie here, but CMC takes it home. He had one bad game, Week 2 against Tampa Bay with 6.3 points in half-PPR, but otherwise he was a force. His next-worst game was Week 13 with 13.7 points, and beyond that it was 19 points or more in the other 14 contests. With 19 TDs, 1,387 yards rushing, 1,005 yards receiving and a gaudy 116 receptions, it’s safe to say the initial reports of McCaffrey’s work being scaled down didn’t come to fruition. Given his leaping abilities, the sky is truly the limit for the Stanford stud.

Most Underappreciated: John Brown

Brown finished as a top-20 WR despite carrying a WR59 ADP tag back in August (in half-PPR) and operating on a Buffalo team that rushed the ball 54% of the time. The 1,060 yards are a career-best, topping his 1,003-yard campaign on the 2015 Cardinals. He was Buffalo’s de facto WR1 to open the season, but Josh Allen’s erratic arm didn’t inspire confidence and Brown had little recency bias in his corner after dealing with Lamar Jackson’s growth as a thrower in 2018. Brown would have one “wow” game, the 9-137-2 line against Miami in Week 11, but was rarely talked about on the national scene. The NFL Fantasy channel didn’t put the spotlight on him whenever I had it on during a treadmill run. He just put his helmet on and got to work, and we are so happy that he did.

Biggest Headache: Odell Beckham Jr.

Antonio Brown is right there, but again, at least he was a headache we could get rid of relatively quickly. OBJ had similar preseason hype given his new uniform and the Bakermania Dream Team that was set to crush 2019. Things looked promising with a 6-161-1 line against the Jets in Week 2, but he clearly just liked being back at Metlife Stadium. He wouldn’t catch another TD until Week 12, finishing the year with just four scores that added seven years to the lives of those who rostered him. 

He only had two 100-yard games and exceeded six catches twice, punishing anyone who leaned on him as a WR1. We learned he was playing through a sports hernia, so perhaps we need to rename this award, and OBJ said he’d ‘been banged up all year since whatever happened in camp.” Fewer practices meant worse chemistry and weak results, but Freddie Kitchens couldn’t whip up a zesty offense either. He should be a sound investment in 2020, but the only thing his ‘19 was good for was Advil sales.

Tinder Ghost of the Year: Sammy Watkins

This award is to honor those in the fray of online dating who are overcome with joy and excitement upon receiving a new match. You get a couple messages deep and things appear promising -- for one night, you’re on fire. The GIFs are perfect, the jokes are landing, they’re dropping 40-plus points with three touchdowns to open the season.

And then they’re gone. Poof. Like it meant nothing at all, you’ve been ghosted.

Anyway, that’s essentially what Watkins did to us all in 2019. He wouldn’t score another TD in the regular season after the Week 1 hat trick, topping out at 64 measly yards despite seeing eight or more targets in six additional games before KC wised up to his being lousy. Go on, Sammy, go break someone else’s heart.

Best Fantasy Team: Baltimore Ravens

Lamar Jackson shouldered much of this load, but Mark Ingram delivered on his ADP as the No. 8 RB in half-PPR while Mark Andrews finished as a top-five TE. The WR corps was spotty, but Marquise Brown had his splash plays here and there. Justin Tucker provided fantasy owners with a top-three kicker while the defense supplied a top-five scoring unit. While I’d love for this to go to Tampa Bay, I can see why Baltimore claims this.

"I'm Not Drafting Him in 2020": Antonio Brown & James Conner

AB is in his own league at this point and I truly hope he gets some help. I don’t think anyone is going to seriously entertain him as a relevant pick in 2020 given what we currently know, so I’ll focus on Conner.

Frankly, I hope my fellow writers are speaking for all of you because I’ll happily take Conner at a discount in ‘20. I understand his playing 13 games in ‘18 and 10 in ‘19 play into the headache here, but much of this also comes down to Ben Roethlisberger being injured. Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges cannot lead an offense, no matter how good the line is and how monstrous T.J. Watt can be on the other side of the ball. 

The 116-464-4 rushing line feels miraculous given the offense, as I’d expect them all to have averaged well under four yards per carry. I do wish he saw more passing work, as 71 targets in ‘18 turned into 38 here with only three fewer games, but I point back to no Big Ben affecting the volume.

This leads nicely into…

2020 Comeback Player of the Year Award: JuJu Smith-Schuster

Well, alright then. Bury Conner but lift up JuJu, what do I know? Poor JJSS suffered mightily at the hands of store-brand QBs, eclipsing 100 yards just once and tallying three TDs and 552 yards on 42 catches. He battled injuries and incompetence alike, all but did have five games of 75 yards or more in his first seven games. He’ll turn 24 in the middle of next season and surely hopes Roethlisberger is back to 100% for the Roaring Twenties 2.0.

The Bermuda Triangle Award: The Pittsburgh Steelers

I don’t think I need to explain much, as the last two blurbs extol the horrid efforts of Pittsburgh’s fantasy appeal across 2019. This is where many a fantasy team’s hopes disappeared off the radar, never to be heard from again. The Jets, Redskins and Bengals all received several votes as well, but the expectations were lower with them to start. The importance of a reliable backup QB cannot be overstated.

The Oprah Winfrey Generosity Award: Jameis Winston

You get a football, and you get a football, everyone gets footballs! Jameis is just a progressive dude that doesn’t see color (of uniform) and wants to make everyone on the field feel loved with a souvenir. With an insane 5,000-yard season with 33 TDs and 30 INTs, Winston was out to make sure nobody left the game empty-handed. 

The Rex Grossman +Jay Cutler Award For Achievement In Chicago Bears Quarterbacking: Mitch Trubisky

Technically, he did play quarterback for the Chicago Bears. Shoutout to Joey Christopoulos for the award suggestion.

The Fred the Fish Award: Will Fuller

Fuller entertains us with flashes of greatness, only to have them rudely interrupted with a leg injury. In four seasons, Fuller has maxed out at 14 games played in a season. With 20 games missed over his last three years, I pretty much expect to hear “My Leg!” yelled out whenever I see him. I don’t mean to make light of a dedicated athlete trying to perform at the highest level, but this is getting ridiculous. Besides, I’m not calling him the Mr. Glass guy.

The Whitest Sneakers Award: Harrison Butker

This Pam Beesly-inspired award goes to the best kicker of the season, Mr. Butker. He just edged out Wil Lutz for the honor, who I guess wins the Roy Anderson Award as runner-up here? Anyway, Butker impressed by nailing all 13 of his field-goal attempts from the 40-49 yard range and leading the NFL with 34 overall field goals made. That said, he did miss three extra points...so don’t get a big ego over this, Butker.

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