I encourage all of you to take a look at the player rankings in our league for each position. For those of you that don't know how to do this, you go to our league, select the players tab, sort by "status" (all offense), and then pick the position. Finally, click Fan Pts to arrange them in order. There are some really interesting observations to be made.
1) Chris Johnson was 98 points ahead of the next closest running back Adrian Peterson.
2) In hindsight, the Johnson success makes sense with the reduced role of White that no one believed would happen. That being the case, in my mind, Thomas Jones was the running back surprise of the season as the 4th best running back. Cedric Benson and Ricky Williams both had great years, but TJ was simply consistently great and I thought for sure he was about to lose his job coming into the season. I don't count Ray Rice as a surprise.
3) Jamaal Charles was ridiculous down the stretch, and I give him the "DeAngelo Williams' 2008" award. He finished ahead of Steven Jackson, DeAngelo, Forte, and Turner on the season even though he didn't really get going until Week 10. Even so, he still ended up as the 9th highest scoring running back.
4) The most disappointing running back of the year had to be Steve Slaton. That's a no-brainer.
5) A-Rod (353 pts) blew away all other QB's this season. He was followed by Brees (319), Schaub (312), Manning (305), Big Ben (300), Romo (298), Brady (296), and Favre (293). Although Brees and Manning did get rested at the end.
6) I'd say Warner was the most disappointing QB this season with 232 points. This fell in between Eli Manning and Kyle Orton.
7) Andre Johnson is the man, but the WR surprise of the season has to be Miles Austin. Austin finished #2 in the league, with only 9 points behind Johnson, yet he didn't really get a chance until his coming out party in Week 5. Even as great as they were though, they still didn't outscore the top 6 RBs.
8) Larry Fitzgerald and Carolina's Steve Smith are tied for the biggest disappointments. They performed adequately, but the bar was pretty high for both of them coming into the season, and they didn't measure up.
9) As for tight-ends, I don't think Vernon Davis will go undrafted next year. He finally realized his potential this season as the #1 TE, although Dallas Clark was right there if Indy didn't rest their starters.
10) Finally, the Defenses...I had the Jets (181), Niners (181), Packers (174), and Eagles (175) rated pretty highly before the season started, but not as high as the Steelers (129), Ravens (161), or Giants (110). In my mind, New Orleans' D (173) was the biggest surprise and the Giants and Steelers are tied for the biggest disappointments.
I don't give a shit about kickers and I think we should remove them from the team next year.
2018-19 Conference Honors & Awards
7 years ago
I think that is three unofficial votes for kickers to be removed from next season's rosters.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's fair to say that A-Rod blew away Manning and Brees considering those two didn't really play the final two weeks, but points are points, and there is no disputing Rodgers' elite status among fantasy QBs for the foreseeable future...if only Greg Jennings could have benefitted from that a little more this season.
Miles Austin's season was amazing. If you watch him play, it is even more amazing. The guy is big, physical, and has great straight-line speed. He also attacks the ball when it's thrown his way, making it very difficult for anything to be intercepted, which ensures a high number of targets from Romo. This guy couldn't stay healthy the last few years, and when he played, it seemed like he dropped every other pass thrown his way...an amazing improvement.
Jamaal Charles is the early frontrunner for next season's Steve Slaton award. I think Slaton finished similarly to Charles a year ago. Neither back has the physique to carry a team for 16 games, and I could see Charles wearing down next year. All he needs to do is follow Slaton's pre-game ritual of oiling his hands to ensure great fumbleage.
Chris Johnson: 5'11"/200 lbs
ReplyDeleteJamaal Charles: 5'11"/199 lbs
And CJ seemed to hold up pretty well with 358 carries on the season.
Oh yeah, I'd hang my hat on that. I think historically we've seen a lot more sub 200-pound backs get worn down with a full workload before they rush for 2,000 yards in a season.
ReplyDeleteCJ has six pounds of hair and still has John Wallesque speed on the field...he resents your comparison.
Charles seems to be a more polished runner than Slaton. And his production doesn't seem to depend on the screen game. He is small, and doesn't quite have the speed or lateral quickness of CJ, but he is the closest thing in the NFL. It will be interesting to see what path he follows.
ReplyDeleteThe more interesting point, however, is whether Slaton will be used next year. The Texas seem to like Arian Foster over Moats and Brown. But no one in that backfield has the "take it to the house" type ability of Slaton. It would be a shame if he's not used at all.
At any rate, the Houston backfield is going to be a challenge to predict during the offseason. And it might end up being another Dallas-type clusterfuck before everything's said and done.
ReplyDeleteI have watched a lot of CJ and Charles now, and they just don't get hit as hard as the prototypical NFL back. At any rate, the injury that seems to sideline most NFL backs more than anything is the ankle sprain, and that's really not going to be very dependent on the size of the runner. As far as I know, this is the only game-limiting injury CJ's suffered in the NFL over two years as well.
By the way, I also vote for no kickers next year.
ReplyDelete