Fantasy Football: Season In Review

Hopefully you did better than me this fantasy football season! That might be hard to do, but I will get into that later in this blog. First I want to go over the Super Bowl, then I will dive into my three best and worst pickups for the season and finally talk about my fantasy season in review.

First off, congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks on a remarkable Super Bowl win over the Denver Broncos. As much as I wanted to see Peyton Manning shred the Seattle defense, it was not meant to be. For all of you San Francisco 49ers fans out there, just imagine what you could have done to the Broncos, be proud of your team, they are still headed in the right direction, and hopefully a little help from the health bug and you will be right back next year. 

For all my Raider-nation hopefuls, we have a long off-season ahead of us which will hopefully see the resurgence of the Silver and Black to prominence, although it is an uphill trek for us as our team now plays in what is the best or second best division in the NFL. The NFC West edges out the AFC West in my opinion.

On to fantasy football talk. Let's talk winners first because that is always more exciting. 

I have three players I will go over as the best fantasy pickups this year, unfortunately for me, I didn't always take my advice or was able to take my advice and watched some of my competition take a guy or two.

The first, and best pickup this year in any fantasy football format was Chicago Bears wide receiver Alshon Jeffery. I was hot on this guy out of college, a tall lengthy receiver with good speed looked like a great fit for the 49ers, but they went with A.J. Jenkins. Ooops! This year Jeffery proved to everyone inside and outside of the Windy City that he has what it takes to be a top flight receiver. I missed out on Jeffery simply for the fact that when he became relevant, after his week four, five catch 100-yard performance I was in first place and was out of the running for any real waiver wire acquisitions. 

Here are Jeffery's numbers this year: 16 games played, 89 receptions on 150 targets for 1,421 yards with seven touchdowns. Those numbers are mind-blowing considering Jeffery failed to record over 25 catches last year or eclipse 400 yards. Jeffery will not be slept on this upcoming year and will continue to be a force in the receiving game as long as he goes on the field with teammate Brandon Marshall.

The second best pickup this year in fantasy football was running back Knowshon Moreno of the Denver Broncos. Moreno looked to split time with Montee Ball at the start of the season, and many people weren't high on the aging backs anticipated production. But then there were the people like me, the prognosticators. I might have read to deep into a Peyton Manning interview after week one, but in actuality I hadn't as Manning told the media it would be Moreno who would lead the backfield. I jumped on it, and in week two I grabbed Moreno.

Moreno proved to be a solid pickup for me, and was for many owners as several running backs this year went down with injury. Moreno's stats for the year: 16 games played, 241 rushing attempts for 1,038 yards with 10 touchdowns. While 1,000 yards is not eye-popping, the 10 touchdowns are, considering the offense he was in. Moreno also helped in the receiving categories catching 60 balls on 74 targets for 548 yards with three touchdowns. His 13 total touchdowns were tied for the fifth most this season behind only the likes of Jamaal Charles (19), Jimmy Graham (16), Marshawn Lynch and Demariyus Thomas (14). His 13 touchdowns were also tied with Vernon Davis and Dez Bryant. For a free agent, Moreno's production bordered on a first round pick territory as Charles, Graham, Lynch and Bryant were chosen in the first two rounds in all three leagues I played in.

While Moreno's production this year was great, I could see it fading next year as Ball will surely get more looks and the Broncos offense once again continues to pass the ball with Manning at the helm.

The third best pickup this year goes to Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles. The preseason outlook on the Eagles was one that didn't include Foles in the starting 11, but rather Michael Vick in the up-tempo Chip Kelly run offense. But after Vick went down with an injury, Foles stepped in. His first run at starting quarterback was mediocre, but it was short lived as he too went down with an injury. But when Foles came back, he became a force to be reckoned with.

I picked up Foles immediately after Vick went down assuming he would get some quality numbers in a high-powered offense, but more for the fact that I had Aaron Rodgers go down and was in desperate need of a quarterback. Foles proved to be very valuable for me. In particular it was the game against the Oakland Raiders, which was hard for me to swallow. In the game against the Raiders, in Oakland I might add, Foles tied an NFL record set by Manning in week one, with seven touchdown passes in one game. After this performance I knew I had picked up someone special, but I did not know how special.

Foles' numbers on the year also suggest something special: in 13 games played, he completed 203 passes on 317 attempts for 2,891 yards with 27 touchdowns and only two interceptions. That's a 13.5 / 1 ratio for touchdowns to interceptions. Not even Manning was able to match that this year going 55-10, which is a mark of 5.5 / 1 touchdown to interception ratio. 

With Foles putting up spectacular numbers this year and many quarterbacks going down he was an integral part of many successful fantasy teams this year and I expect his value to increase exponentially going into next year. I could see him in the ranks with Matthew Stafford and Matt Ryan, in the second tier of quarterbacks in the NFL.

In the bottom three pickups for the year I will start with the worst, Green Bay Packers quarterback Seneca Wallace. With Rodgers down for an extended period of time the Packers were still playoff hopefuls and were looking to sign any arm that would propel them into the playoffs. Wallace looked like a good addition, but for fantasy owners he turned out to be a terrible one as he only started one game completing five passes for 25 yards before being sidelined for the remainder of the season with an injury. Wallace earned a total of ONE fantasy point as a starter, so that makes him the worst pickup this season, and a guy I picked up in hopes he would fill the void from an injured Rodgers. Oops!

The second worst fantasy pickup this year was former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Minnesota Vikings quarterback Josh Freeman. While Freeman has had solid season in the past, this current one was one to forget. After starting the year with 570 plus yards and two touchdowns in three games, the Buccaneers parted ways with Freeman and the quarterback needy Minnesota Vikings gave him a run for his money. While I didn't pick up Freeman, I thought he might fair well with a change of scenery. It wasn't to be, with the Vikings he played in only one game completing 20 passes on 53 attempts for 190 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. He ended that game with four fantasy points, and with 24 for the season as that was his last start.

The third worst pickup for the fantasy year comes from Darryl Richardson of the St. Louis Rams. While I only have Richardson listed as the third worst pickup, he might have been the worst player in fantasy football this year based solely on his projections and where he was DRAFTED. That's right Richardson was drafted in nearly 80 percent of leagues! Including one of mine. 

Richardson had a dismal year after being slated as the feature back in the Rams' offense. Richardson totaled 25 fantasy points on the year, with his last action coming in week eight against the Seahawks where he managed only 39 yards on eight carries, which actually isn't entirely terrible considering it was against the Seahawks. But if you put his season numbers into perspective you will see why he was so bad. In seven starts for the Rams he put up 69 carries for a total of 215 yards with zero touchdowns. Compare that to his rookie campaign in 2012 where he was a backup behind Steven Jackson and put up 415 yards on 98 carries. This year was a complete bust.

I would like to see Richardson come back, but after this dismal season I am not sure the Rams will give him another shot at the starting role, however stranger things have happened. As for his draft stock, I wouldn't touch this guy until he shows he can get it into the endzone, something he has yet to do in his NFL career.

Now that I have gone over the three best and worst pickups for the 2013 fantasy season I will talk about how my fantasy teams did. Let me start by saying I had three fantasy teams, two in 10-team leagues, and one in a 12-team league. One of the 10-team leagues was a dual quarterback league with bonuses assessed for good performances, while the other 10-team league, and the 12-team league were single quarterback leagues with standard scoring.

I will start with the 12-team league, which was my WORST performing team this year, a dismal THIRD place finish, mainly due to the fact that my first round pick Aaron Rodgers went down, and as great as Nick Foles was, he was not my saving grace. My top three performers on this team were Nick Foles, Knowshon Moreno and Eddie Lacy. My three biggest under performers were Roddy White, Antonio Gates and Colby Fleener. My best free agency pickup was Knowshon Moreno.

My second team I will go over is my standard scoring 10-team league. This team was solid but again injuries hit me hard and at the wrong time, in the playoffs where I needed my players most. However, even with injuries I was still able to pull off a second place finish. My top three performers were Nick Foles, Matt Forte and Tom Brady. My three biggest under performers were Danny Amendola, James Jones and Antonio Gates. My best free agency pickup was Nick Foles, but in actuality it was Keenan Allen as I benched Foles for Brady most weeks.

Finally my dual quarterback team in a 10-team league with bonuses. This team had the makings of a fantasy dynasty, that is until injuries once again plagued me. But even with injuries I was able to scour the waiver wire and find players to plug and play, which led me to the championship game. However, certain injuries are hard to overcome, damn you Rob Gronkowski, and I was finished with another second place trophy. My three top performers this season were Jamaal Charles, the 49ers defense and Alex Smith. My three biggest under performers this season were Roddy White, Hakeem Nicks and Jay Cutler. My best free agency pickup was Ben Tate.

That's all I've got for this fantasy season, I hope you enjoyed the ride and will take part in another fantasy league next year.