There’s still one Monday night game left in the 2019 fantasy football season, but I’m already preparing holiday gift baskets for Tyler Boyd, Jared Cook, Breshad Perriman, and Daniel Jones, who have helped propel me to a commanding lead in my title games. I’m sure many of you have similarly warm and fuzzy feelings for other unlikely Week 16 fantasy heroes, such as Ryan Fitzpatrick, Kenyan Drake, Devonta Freeman, and maybe even Mike Gesicki. And if you somehow drafted Saquon Barkley or Alvin Kamara and still managed to make it to the championship game, I’m guessing all past sins are now (mostly) forgiven!
Mike Boone seems destined to be the final name to enter into fantasy lore in 2019. In a year that has severely lacked impact waiver wire pickups, Boone is quite possibly the biggest one of the season. Countless fantasy managers have thrust Boone into their starting lineup this week, meaning he’ll undoubtedly end up deciding a lot of fantasy championships, whether he lives up to the hype or not.
I’m riding Boone in one of my title games, and I’m facing him in another. In the league where I have Boone, all but two of my starters — Christian McCaffrey and the Patriots defense — were on the waiver wire at some point this season. If that doesn’t speak to the craziness of fantasy football, I don’t know what does.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading this column throughout the season and accompanying me on this long journey to championship week. Rather than limit this week’s recap to Week 16, I’ll use this opportunity to do a big-picture look at the entire season, starting with the biggest surprise and disappointment at each position. I hope you enjoy it, and if you want to keep the conversation going, I’m all ears for tales of dramatic victories, bad beats, dynasty/keeper league questions, and anything else you can think of on Twitter, @andrew_seifter.
Happy holidays to you and yours!
Import your team to My Playbook for instant Lineup advice 
Top 5 Surprises
Ryan Tannehill (QB – TEN)
Following six thoroughly unremarkable years in Miami, Tannehill entered the 2019 season as the backup quarterback for a conservative, run-heavy Titans offense. Not exactly the profile of a fantasy football savior, right? The guy was less likely to be drafted than Jay Cutler, Nathan Peterman, Sam Bradford, and Blake Bortles, according to FantasyPros’ average draft position (ADP) data.
But a fantasy savior is exactly what Tannehill has been over the second half of the season. Since he took over for Marcus Mariota in Week 7, Tannehill has been the second-best quarterback in fantasy football, trailing only runaway fantasy MVP Lamar Jackson. And he’s done it without attempting 40+ passes once all year — something Jameis Winston seemingly does every single week. Rather than opening up the offense, Tannehill has managed to post big-time fantasy stats via incredible efficiency, especially in the red zone, and the ability to add substantial value with his legs. He’s accounted for at least two touchdowns in every one of his nine starts, and three-plus TDs in five-of-nine, including each of the last three. If you turned to him at midseason, you may well have ridden him all the way to a fantasy title.
Kenyan Drake (RB – ARI)
Drake finished as the RB17 last season and was widely viewed as the top running back to own in Miami entering the year, so it’s not like he completely came out of nowhere. But he was just the 32nd running back selected in fantasy drafts this summer, and his value fell even further in September and October due to the overall awfulness of the Dolphins’ offense. At the time he was traded from Miami to Arizona for a conditional sixth-round pick, Drake was averaging just 58 yards from scrimmage and had yet to find the end zone.
Even after the deal was consummated, Drake was widely seen as a short-term band-aid for the Cardinals while David Johnson and Chase Edmonds were hurt. Instead, Drake blew up for 162 yards and a TD in his first game with Arizona (against San Francisco, no less), and never relinquished the starting job back to a hobbled-looking DJ. Drake’s next four games looked a lot like his subpar performances in Miami, but he saved his best for the most critical weeks of the fantasy season, piling up 330 yards and six — yes, six — touchdowns over Weeks 15 and 16. When it was all said and done, Drake had produced more fantasy points since he joined the Cardinals than any running back not named Christian McCaffrey or Derrick Henry. Drake was a legitimate league winner for those who entrusted him during the fantasy playoffs, and he’ll undoubtedly be drafted higher than RB32 next year if he’s again leading the Cardinals’ backfield.
DeVante Parker (WR – MIA)
A teammate of Tannehill and Drake in Miami, Parker didn’t need to escape south Florida to finally break out in his fifth season. He just needed to escape Adam Gase. The 78th WR off the board in fantasy drafts, behind such luminaries as Paul Richardson, Nelson Agholor, DaeSean Hamilton, and Devin Funchess, Parker ended up as the WR11 this season. But his season really took off once the Dolphins re-inserted Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback in Week 6. From that point on, Parker was the WR5. His fortunes rose yet again when Preston Williams landed on IR after Week 9. As the clear alpha dog in the Dolphins’ passing attack, Parker was second to Michael Thomas in fantasy points over his last seven games. Fresh off signing a big extension to stay in Miami, nobody will be sleeping on Parker heading into next season.
The #Dolphins and WR DeVante Parker are finalizing a four-year extension worth over $40 million, source said. Lot of guaranteed money. Another step in his remarkable turnaround. 💰
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) December 13, 2019
Tie: Mark Andrews (TE – BAL) and Darren Waller (TE – OAK)
No offense to Tyler Higbee, who came out of nowhere to post four straight 100-yard games from Weeks 13-16, but when looking at the season as a whole, Andrews and Waller stand apart as huge values at the tight end position. So far apart, in fact, that they must share this “award.”
Andrews was the 17th tight end taken in fantasy drafts and finished as the TE2, while Waller was the 25th tight end off the board and finished as the TE5. Andrews may have peaked early with back-to-back 100-yard games to begin the season — he didn’t reach the century mark again over his next 14 games — but he also finished strong with seven touchdowns over his final seven games. Waller, meanwhile, struggled to consistently find the end zone in an Oakland offense that was much less potent than Baltimore’s, but he made up for it by finishing third among tight ends in receptions and second in receiving yards. In a year where trustworthy tight ends were very hard to come by, Andrews and Waller were late-round steals who quickly developed into every-week fantasy starters as the clear lead passing game option for their respective teams.
DEF: New England Patriots
Yes, I am saving a spot here for a team defense. Scoring systems for team defenses vary widely, but the Patriots were miles ahead of the competition no matter what format your league used. It’s no great surprise, then, that New England was one of the most common denominators of fantasy teams that made it to the championship game. I heavily invested in the Patriots D in my fantasy leagues, but I must say I did it more for the ease of their early-season schedule than out of any great belief in the ability of their defenders. I figured snagging the Pats would give me an edge, but never imagined it would be such a massive edge. Of course, the fantasy performance of DSTs is notoriously unpredictable from year-to-year, so this likely just means the Patriots will be over-drafted in many leagues next season.
Top 5 Disappointments
Baker Mayfield (QB – CLE)
It’s hard to believe it now, but back when the Browns hype train was in full force back in August, Mayfield was the fourth quarterback taken on average in fantasy drafts. He finished the year as the QB20, behind guys like Derek Carr and Jacoby Brissett and just barely ahead of Tannehill and Drew Brees, who played four and five fewer games than Mayfield, respectively. Mayfield finished as a top-12 QB just four times all season.
After throwing seven touchdowns and 12 interceptions over his first eight games, Mayfield was a little better in the touchdown department from Week 10 on, but he still failed to reach 250 passing yards in six of his last seven games. Simply put, the Browns’ passing game never fully got off the ground this season. There’s still long-term hope that Mayfield can figure it out, but some big changes will obviously need to be made in Cleveland first.
David Johnson (RB – ARI)
Johnson isn’t just the biggest fantasy disappointment of the 2019 season — he’s arguably the biggest fantasy disappointment in recent memory. We’ve obviously had devastating season-ending injuries to top players, but it just doesn’t happen that a consensus top-10 pick in fantasy drafts is flat-out unusable over the entire second half of the season even when active.
Over the first six weeks, DJ was inefficient as a rusher but ok in fantasy terms thanks to high usage in the passing game and the fact he scored five touchdowns. But after injuring his ankle in Week 6, Johnson’s season completely fell off a cliff. He ran the ball once for 2 yards in Week 7, while Chase Edmonds exploded for three touchdowns. Then the Cardinals traded for Kenyan Drake and the rest is history. Between missed games and light usage, DJ produced a grand total of 102 yards from scrimmage and one touchdown over the Cardinals’ final nine games (through Week 16). A first-round pick who contributes so little is the dictionary definition of a league loser.
Odell Beckham Jr. (WR – CLE)
I was tempted to list JuJu Smith-Schuster as the biggest disappointment at wide receiver, but at least he has some pretty good excuses for his down year: Ben Roethlisberger was lost for the season in Week 1, and JuJu missed 4 1/2 games due to injury himself.
Beckham hasn’t really been fully healthy, either — he’s been playing through a sports hernia injury that will require offseason surgery — but it’s hard to pin all of the problems on his physical ailment. Neither Beckham nor Mayfield has missed a game this season, but both have consistently underwhelmed. OBJ has eclipsed 100 yards just twice all year, and he’s only scored three touchdowns. Even when Mayfield began to toss more TDs, it was Jarvis Landry and a couple of backup tight ends (Demetrius Harris and Ricky Seals-Jones) that were the main beneficiaries. Beckham was the 12th player taken, on average, in fantasy drafts, but he’s just the WR30 on the year, and his numbers have actually gotten worse, not better, as the season has gone along. As with Mayfield, we’ll just have to hope OBJ can get back on track in 2020.
O.J. Howard (TE – TB)
On paper, an O.J. Howard breakout season made some sense. We saw in 2018 that the Bucs’ passing game was capable of putting up video game numbers with Jameis Winston under center, and incoming head coach Bruce Arians was (and is) as potent an offensive mind as exists in the game today. Between Adam Humphries and DeSean Jackson, Tampa Bay lost players who accounted for nearly 1,600 receiving yards last season, and someone had to step up to fill the void. Unfortunately, that someone was decidedly not O.J. Howard.
Rather than place greater emphasis on the tight end position — something Arians has rarely if ever done in the past — the Bucs’ offense leaned even more heavily on Mike Evans and especially Chris Godwin, who emerged as a true superstar in 2019. Meanwhile, Howard seemingly found himself in and out of Arians’ doghouse — and in a tight end rotation with Cameron Brate. Howard’s numbers have trended in the right direction over the last month, but even so, he’s yet to have more than seven targets, five catches, or 73 receiving yards in any game this season, and he’s only scored once. Howard was drafted to be the TE4, but he ended up being the TE27.
DEF: Chicago Bears
Remember what I said about team defenses being unpredictable? Well, the Bears were the consensus top defense in fantasy drafts, but barely finished among the top 20 defenses in fantasy points in most scoring formats. The bottom line is that Chicago was unplayable in bad matchups and those who used their eighth-round pick on an RB or WR and simply streamed defenses clearly came out ahead. Something to keep in mind before you reach for a defense in your draft next year.
Key Stats
Michael Thomas has more catches (145) than all Broncos, Colts, Eagles, Raiders, Ravens and Vikings WRs, more receiving yards (1,688) than all Eagles, Raiders and Ravens WRs, and more receiving TDs (9) than all Chargers WRs. Thomas also already has more receptions in his first four seasons in the league (466) than any receiver other than Jarvis Landry has had in their first five seasons. Incredible.
Lamar Jackson, Christian McCaffrey, and Michael Thomas all scored 30+ percent more fantasy points than anyone else at their positions. All three were true difference-makers this season. If you had one of them on your roster, you had a good chance of winning a championship, and if you had two of them you almost certainly did.
Top Takeaways
This was a weak year for the waiver wire — until Week 16. If you hung onto the number one waiver claim or most of your FAAB dollars waiting for a difference-making addition, you had to wait a very long time this year. While there were certainly breakout players like DeVante Parker and D.J. Chark, they tended to develop more gradually, while most of the hot weekly pickups ended up being flashes in the pan. But that all changed in Week 16 when Mike Boone, Breshad Perriman, DeAndre Washington, and Dion Lewis all emerged as must-have pickups.
Lamar Jackson was the Patrick Mahomes of 2019. The fantasy industry generally recommends that you wait on a quarterback in drafts, and it’s pretty sound advice. But we’ve now had back-to-back years where a QB taken outside of the top-12 at the position did things we’ve never seen before — and won a lot of people their fantasy leagues in the process. It’s safe to say that we’ll all be eagerly hunting for the next Jackson or Mahomes as we approach our drafts next summer.
View your league’s top available players with My Playbook
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | TuneIn | RSS
Andrew Seifter is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Andrew, check out his archive and follow him @andrew_seifter.
