Ladies and gentlemen…Welcome to the 2019 Fantasy Football Awards! Why am I acting like I hosted the Grammys? Oh well, since the Super Bowl is over, I thought we could do some fun topics until the NFL draft. I figured an award show would be a cool way to look back on the season. However, I’m fairly certain that two or three of these awards have no real-life equivalent. That’s because I wanted to talk about as many players as possible. Therefore, even if a player may deserve multiple awards, they’re only getting one.
Rankings for every position were very hard to find, so I decided to use FantasyPros for all of these, just to make things easier. Now then…on to the awards!
Offensive Player of the Year: Lamar Jackson
If you watch football in your house, everybody down to your cat knew that I’d be talking about this man. If you don’t have a cat, then find one and tweet me pictures of it @Conmans_Content. Anyway, the MVP in the real world, Jackson sat atop the fantasy world as well, except for full PPR. With 421.7 points, he was blazing hot all season, and he scored just enough to avoid a Josh Gordon joke. Jackson was 72.9 points ahead of the next quarterback, Dak Prescott, and it would’ve been a bigger gap if Jackson didn’t get Week 17 off.
Jackson dominated both football worlds with his legs, having the sixth-most rushing yards in the NFL. That’s unheard of, a quarterback is sixth in the league in rushing, and has 7 rushing touchdowns to go with it. Jackson essentially had Chris Carson‘s stats, but with 100 fewer carries.
However, and I don’t even know why I have to say this, Jackson was also a more than capable passer. The only reason he didn’t hit 4,000 passing yards, was because he chose not to. Jackson only had 401 pass attempts, good for 26th in the NFL, but he had 7.8 yards per attempt. If we do some math, 4,000 divided by 7.8 comes out to just under 513 pass attempts. That’s how many attempts Jackson would need to hit 4,000 yards, and it sounds light years away from 401 attempts, but is it?
The average pass attempts per game in the NFL this season was 34.9. If we multiply that by Jackson’s 15 games, he’d have had 523 pass attempts, 10 more than he needed to break 4,000 yards at his pace. If Jackson threw, just an average amount of times, he’d have been 7th with 4,079 passing yards this season. Don’t tell me he’s a bad passer, just don’t, he’s improved drastically in one season.
Defensive Player of the Year: Logan Ryan
I just have one question, who expected this? I understand that linebackers normally rule the IDP world, but that just makes Ryan’s season even better. Ryan had 113 tackles (73 solo), 18 passes defended, eight QB hits, four tackles for loss, four forced fumbles and four interceptions. In a word, wow! That’s a great season for a cornerback, fantasy or not. Perhaps the most impressive stat, Ryan had 230.9 fantasy points in the FantasyPros scoring system. That’s 64.2 points higher than the next cornerback, Marlon Humphrey.
Cornerback is usually the worst defensive position in fantasy football, yet Ryan was the highest-scoring non-linebacker in 2019. As the 8th ranked IDP player according to FantasyPros, Ryan was the only non-linebacker in the top-10. Ryan is also one of only three non-linebackers in the top-20 IDP players this season, both of the others being safeties. If you want to go down to where Humphrey is, you’d have to go all the way down to 51st. In other words, when it comes to cornerbacks, Ryan was in a class of his own this season.
If your league separated cornerbacks and safeties, you had a huge advantage if you had Ryan, almost like an Aaron Donald in the secondary. Even if your league didn’t separate the defensive backs, because nobody expected this, you likely got Ryan at an incredible value. For those reasons, Ryan was my favorite choice for this award, even though he wasn’t the overall scoring leader like Jackson.
MVP: Christian McCaffrey
The overall points leader for PPR format, is it safe to say that McCaffrey was the reason that the Panthers didn’t go 0-16 this season? Probably not, but it was a crime that he wasn’t in the MVP conversation in the first half of the season. That said, it’s not the quarterback award in fantasy. Running backs are what drives fantasy football, and McCaffrey was the best one this season, by far. Even in standard formats, McCaffrey has 78.6 points on the RB2.
When you add PPR into the mix, that gap widens enough to make the Grand Canyon jealous. Even in half PPR, that gap widens to 122.9 points. As for full PPR, hold on, I need my calculator. In full PPR, McCaffrey is 49.5 points ahead of Lamar Jackson (so that game off probably didn’t affect the overall leader), and CMC is 156.4 points ahead of the next running back!
Aaron Jones was the RB2 in all PPR formats, but he had 314.8 fantasy points in full PPR this season. McCaffrey had that beat by Week 12. I must say, I like the “run CMC” nickname for McCaffrey. However, I think he needs a theme song too, “’cause he’s C-M-C, he’s dynamite!”
Offensive Rookie of the Year: Josh Jacobs
I decided to do a poll to help me out with the rookie awards, and I had a feeling Josh Jacobs would win the vote, just because of the value of a good running back. I really wanted Terry McLaurin to win, but being the only running back in the poll, Jacobs probably would’ve gotten my vote too. Apologies to the Miles Sanders fans that tweeted me, but I could only put four names in, and Sanders was my fifth. Plus, the Rookie Fever podcast had Sanders in their poll, and the outcome was the same.
Despite missing three games, Jacobs was eighth in the league in rushing, with 1,150 yards on the ground. Even though Jacobs was being drafted like a legit fantasy running back, I had my doubts. Jacobs was never a workhorse at Alabama, never reaching more than 120 carries. Then, out of nowhere, Jacobs doubles his workload to 242 carries as a rookie. Jacobs also had 7 rushing touchdowns, as well as 20 catches for 166 yards out of the backfield. That’s a solid first year, and it certainly proved me wrong. I thought he’d be a fantasy bust. If you wanted to know my expectations, take Jacobs and David Montgomery, then flip them. That’s what I expected from each of them, but Montgomery was the bust, and Jacobs played well enough to win this award.
Defensive Rookie of the Year: Nick Bosa
Well, considering that I did a poll for defense too, this was a surprise to absolutely nobody. Bosa had 47 tackles (32 solo) and 16 tackles for loss, as well as 25 QB hits, nine sacks, two passes defended, two fumble recoveries, a forced fumble, and an interception. That’s quite the year for a rookie. Plus, partially because of team performance, Bosa has even been in Defensive Player of the Year conversations. As a fan, I have no problem saying that Bosa was the reason that the 49ers played in January, let alone February. However, I don’t think he’s the Defensive Player of the Year. And, I don’t think he deserved to win the poll by as much as he did.
Bosa finished his rookie campaign as the DE10 according to FantasyPros, and the overall DL12. When you combine a season like that, with the overall transformation of the 49ers defense, I can see why he’s in the conversation. I think the Defensive Rookie of the Year is enough. He’s even got more competition for that than we may realize.
Overall Rookie of the Year: Maxx Crosby
You can consider this me vetoing my own poll. I don’t mind Nick Bosa winning it, but it should’ve been closer, much closer. Bosa won by that big of a margin because I inadvertently turned things into a popularity contest. The 49ers made the Super Bowl, so of course, he was going to win. However, some people said that Crosby had even better numbers than Bosa. With 46 tackles (35 solo), 16 tackles for loss, 14 QB hits, 10 sacks, four passes defended and four forced fumbles, I’d certainly say that it’s close.
One of the arguments that I got for Terry McLaurin was “the person nobody expected should get the award.” This is because of draft capital and not needing to spend all of your resources to reap the rewards. I used this same logic on Logan Ryan, as well as for this entry. While QB hits favor Bosa, everything else is almost identical. The turnover stats are all preference, I suppose (I prefer Bosa’s stat line there). I don’t know that Crosby should’ve won the vote, but it was definitely a lot closer than the gap I got.
Comeback Player of the Year: Hunter Henry
Dalvin Cook was really the only other name that I had in mind for this award. However, since this is a fantasy award, I decided to go with the player that was injured for a sufficient amount of time this season. Henry was injured for four games this season, and he still ended up as the overall TE8. Henry was also the TE6 after his return, posting the seventh-best average in that span. For a guy that some people deem as fragile, myself included, Henry had a great season once he actually got started. I’m sure that I’m not the only one that regretted not trading for him because I thought he’d get hurt again, sorry for doubting you, King Henry.
Offensive Fantasy Performance of the Year: Deshaun Watson & Will Fuller (Week 5)
This. Game. Wow. I had a few other players in my mind for this award. However, those games only featured one player each, this one featured two. I’ll start with Deshaun Watson. Watson was 28-of-33 for 426 yards, five touchdowns, no interceptions, and a perfect 158.3 passer rating. Tack-on 47 rushing yards on four carries, and you have 41.7 fantasy points. Moving on to Will Fuller, he had 14 catches on 16 targets, leading to 217 yards and three touchdowns for 39.7 fantasy points. Now that’s a dynamic duo! The pair combined for three fumbles. Neither of them lost a fumble, so Houston did not have a problem on this day.
Defensive Fantasy Performance of the Year: Shaq Barrett (Week 3)
Against the Giants, Barrett had eight tackles (six solo), four sacks, four QB hits, three tackles for loss, and two forced fumbles. With a whopping 42 fantasy points, this was the highest-scoring IDP game this season. The Bucs didn’t even win this game, losing 32-31, so his effort was all for naught. However, even though he pleasantly surprised most of us, Daniel Jones had a rude welcome to the NFL in this one. Both of Barrett’s forced fumbles were strip-sacks, and he helped the Bucs defense hold Saquon Barkley to 10 yards rushing, 37 total.
Overall Fantasy Performance of the Year: Jamal Adams (Week 10)
Also against the Giants, Adams had nine tackles (eight solo), two QB hits, two sacks, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery, a touchdown, and a pass defended. Now that’s a day! The second-highest scoring day for a defensive player according to FantasyPros — behind only the game I just talked about. However, I think this one is better in some ways. Why? Because it led to Gregg Williams trying the play below the next week. That’s right, for whatever reason, a Safety played edge rusher. The crazy thing is, he got three sacks in that game, so it actually worked. After these two games, Adams was being called the best pass rusher on the Jets, as a Safety. I haven’t decided if that’s a compliment towards Adams, or that’s just how bad the Jets are. Probably both.
I know that this is essentially choosing one game because of another game that just happened to come after it. However, I genuinely think that this game changed how the Jets view Adams. Saquon Barkley only got one yard on 13 carries in this game, and Adams was the best fantasy player in the league Week 10. It’s a shame that the Jets have a horrible offense because their defense was one of my favorite things to watch for these two weeks.
There are a few players that I just didn’t have enough room for, but I think this is a good group. I don’t feel bad about leaving Michael Thomas out of this article, just because he won something in real life. Also, I considered Aaron Rodgers, Mike Evans, and Sammy Watkins for Offensive Fantasy Performance of the Year. I would’ve liked to talk about a rookie receiver in this article, but I wasn’t going to snub Jacobs a second time. As for my next article, I won’t spoil the exact details, but it’s essentially the exact opposite of this. Look for that in the next week or so, but until then, tweet me football takes and animal pictures, @Conmans_Content!
