With the 2019 Season officially in the books,
the Astronauts are handing out their Annual Fantasy Awards
Biggest Bust
Jordan: Alvin Kamara. I wouldn't have had a problem if you took AK in 1.01 in redraft leagues in 2019. Granted, A LOT of guys busted in the first this year, but having Kamara as your RB1/spending a top-3 pick on him in 2019 was damn near a death sentence.
Parker: Juju Smith-Schuster. His second round draft price left you severely disappointed. I know he lost Big Ben and was rolling with mediocre quarterback play every week, but you weren't happy with the results regardless. Looking at his past two seasons you expected a lot more, especially with him taking over the lead role. Even with Ben coming back next season I don't expect Juju to be a top 12 wide receiver.
Rich: David Johnson. 2019 was a disaster. DJ was coming off the board as the RB5 in PPR redraft leagues last summer with good reason. He put up respectable numbers in the worst offense in the league in 2018, and was expected to be the workhorse back in a new look Arizona offense following the appointment of Kliff Kingsbury and the addition of Kyler Murray. At the start of the season, he justified his draft cost with top 10 RB performances in 4 out of the first 6 weeks. After suffering an ankle sprain on his first carry in Week 7, he wasn’t seen again until Week 10. He failed to top 5 carries in any game the remainder of the season and ceded the starting role to Kenyan Drake. No one enters the offseason with more question marks surrounding them. His gigantic contract may keep him around in Arizona, but at 28 years old, it’s possible that DJ’s best days are behind him.
Shane: Odell Beckham. Many had Odell in the conversation as the top dynasty wide receiver in the NFL. You probably drafted him top 10 overall, and he finished as a WR3 with guys whose ADP was around 100. He squeaked out 1000 yards to finish the season, but his lack of TDs killed him...and all of my fantasy teams.
Kev: O.J Howard. Drafted as a top 5 TE in 2019, Howard was a colossal bust - finishing as the TE29 on the season. Howard was in the conversation as a potential top 3 dynasty TE with a strong 2018 but failed to deliver in the transition to the Bruce Arians led offense. Although his snap share actually increased to that of an every down TE, he was frequently used as a blocker in Arians' vertical offense. If you had any shares in Howard last year, you were hugely disappointed and are unable to trust him in 2020.
Waiver Wire Winner
Spotlight: Terry McLaurin. I like to pay up for players in the first two weeks to get the most out of my investment. F1 McLaurin didn't disappoint. Acting quickly after his 5 catch 125 yard 1 TD performance against the Eagles in Week 1 was the key. He had some growing pains with Haskins, but the future looks promising.
Parker: Tyler Higbee wasn't even a thought during the draft. What he did the final five games, posting 43 receptions for 522 yards and two touchdowns over the final five weeks of the season, was a league-winning performance. He averaged 11.2 targets and 104.4 yards during that stretch and scored two touchdowns. He seems to have taken over the lead role from Gerald Everett and could be a steal in next years draft as a late round add.
Blue: Darren Waller was a top 5 TE waiver add during a season where TE was as fickle as ever. He is my pick for top waiver add because he became a volume king averaging over 7 targets a game. Despite only having 3 touchdowns, he finished as PPR TE3 with a whopping 90 catches for 1145 yards. His health and consistent volume gave owners the luxury of not needing to second guess their Tight End spot. That was a gift few other TEs offered.
Kev: A.J Brown. Although Brown is a SMASH sell in dynasty, based on his unrealistic & hyped-up value, I’m giving credit where credit is due - he was an excellent waiver pickup in 2019. In the final quarter of the season he was the WR2, only behind Offensive Player of the Year - Michael Thomas. He averaged over 24 points per game in this period and likely put you in a great position for a ship as a mid-season waiver add. Though he will be over-drafted in 2020, Brown was a superb waiver add to your team and hugely outperformed expectations.
Breakout Blastoff
Jordan: Chris Godwin shutting up all the haters and putting a pound of a mayo in someone's mouth does the trick for me. Rod God came through and then some for those who thought the breakout was rightfully on the way.
Blue: Austin Ekeler. Most people valued Ekeler as a valuable piece only in light of the Gordon Holdout. Had it not been for said holdout, we probably would have seen Ekeler as a end of draft handcuff type pick. Going forward however, Ekeler has established himself as a premier catching back with 3-down ability. It's hard to know what the role will look like for Ekeler next season but even with a high talent back like Gordon in he was able to average over 16 points per game and should be valued minimally as a RB2.
Kev: DeVante Parker. Everybody loves a ‘predictable’ 5th year breakout, right? His WR11 finish in 2019, far surpassed his previous fantasy efforts - after failing to break a top 40 WR in his previous four seasons in the league. Parker’s breakout was facilitated by the Dolphins’ move from risk-averse QB Josh Rosen to risk-taker QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, the loss of Preston Williams to an ACL injury & the trade of Kenyan Drake to the Cardinals. Parker has massively increased his dynasty value & should be taken confidently as a WR2 in 2020 redraft leagues.
Galileo: Chris Godwin's ascension into the fantasy elite was astronomical. After two average seasons to start his career, Godwin's 3rd year breakout was somehow both classic and surprising. While the preseason hype felt out of control, he ended up outperforming his ADP by whopping 19 spots. Now, at just 24 years old, Godwin is sure to show up plenty in the first round of dynasty startups. If Arians keeps firing up the playbook for him, that is exactly where he belongs.
Fantasy MVP
Rich: Miles 'League Winner' Sanders. I'm going against the grain of the more obvious candidates by calling this the Patrick Mahomes juxtaposition (If the writers and broadcaster deciding the Super Bowl MVP can vote based on an awesome late game run then so can I). Sanders was outstanding when it mattered (Once Jordan Howard was finally out of the way). He finished as the RB6 in Week 13 to push many of his fantasy owners in to the playoffs and though he was relatively quiet the following week, he made up for it by exploding in Week 15 and 16 for 35.2 points (RB3) and 26.6 points (RB7) respectively. If you had Miles in your lineup down the stretch it's likely you were hoisting the Shiva (my first and last reference to 'The League' I swear).
Shane: Christian McCaffrey. Over 1300 yards rushing and 1000 yards receiving earned this for him no question! Just on yardage alone he hits average of 14.95 PPG or 239.2 fantasy points which would have been good enough for RB7. Without his league leading 19 total TDs. McCaffrey's 2019 is the 5th greatest fantasy season of all time. MVP is a lock for his historical performance.
Blue: Lamar Jackson. As a Carolina fan, I want to write CMC here. He certainly has a case, but this year the fantasy and real life MVP is the same. Lamar Jackson takes this trophy home. We are talking about a guy that you drafted in the 9th, 10th or maybe even 11th round and he averaged 27+ points per game. His consistency was off the charts, only one time failing to surpass 20 points, he was a fantasy superstar.
Galileo: Lamar Jackson. McCaffrey was 2019's Juggernaut posting an incredible 471.2 fantasy points with 14 of 16 games crossing the 20 point mark. But Lamar Jackson claims the MVP title because of the massive value he brought. His pre-season MVP had him in the QB14 range, and he finished the year with 27.4 PPG, the greatest QB season in fantasy history.
