Fantasy Football 2014: Biggest Takeaways from This Season

Farewell, fantasy football. For a fleeting 16 weeks, we loved and cursed you the same.

We waved goodbye to most fantasy leagues as they wrapped up the 2014 season this week—unless you play in one of those odd leagues that goes through Week 17. You should get out of those leagues.

Hopefully you made it through the gauntlet and ripped the prize away from your rabid leaguemates. If not, well, better luck next time.

There was plenty to glean from the 2014 season, so let's look at some of the bigger takeaways largely using a broad view of fantasy football.

Fantasy MVP

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What do you look for in a fantasy MVP? Is it the highest-scoring player without context? Or does the most consistent scorer in the land get the nod?

How about both? That's what Dallas Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray brought to the table in 2014. The Dallas workhorse bucked his injury-prone label in an fantastic season-long fantasy performance nobody else could rival this season.

Murray started hot, notching a NFL-record eight consecutive 100-yard games to start the year. He barely cooled, too—the talented running back was in the top 10 in fantasy scoring for all but four weeks the entire year.

Even in those "off" weeks, Murray provided reliable output—he never ranked worse than 24th in standard-scoring formats, aside from his bye week. Heck, he played through a surgically repaired broken hand in fantasy championship week and had a top-25 day.

Despite a strong closing run from Pittsburgh's Le'Veon Bell—who also merits consideration here—Murray was the top scorer at his position with no real stinkers to his name.

It's likely most teams with Murray made the fantasy playoffs, if not the championship game. That is MVP-worthy.

The Best Defense Is a Good Offense

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The annual caution goes unheeded by many—wait to draft your defense. Unfortunately, the siren song of last year's top squad shipwrecks fantasy owners everywhere, every year. This year was no different.

The Seattle Seahawks were this year's vixens, enticing owners to take them as early as the seventh or eighth round or pay north of 2 percent of auction budgets in many leagues.

The Seahawks wound up being bitter disappointments to such fantasy owners, outscored by many other squads, including some defenses of ill repute like the Philadelphia Eagles. Seattle was in the bottom 10 of fantasy scoring this season.

Fantasy defenses are like Forrest Gump's proverbial box of chocolates—you never know what you're going to get. It's far better to wait and surf the waiver wire than it is to miss out on next year's Odell Beckham Jr. or Josh Gordon.

Don't be the fool who takes a defense too early next year.

Downfall of the Running Quarterback?

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Running quarterbacks had taken the league by storm, and the fantasy landscape was seemingly altered forever.

No longer were traditional quarterbacks the kings of the hill.

Guys like San Francisco's Colin Kaepernick, Seattle's Russell Wilson and Washington's Robert Griffin III followed up Cam Newton's historic rookie season with huge years of their own, ushering in a new era, one that saw running numbers padding quarterback statistics and buoying fantasy teams everywhere.

Things haven't quite worked out since then, though injuries have played a part. Of course, one of the drawbacks of having a propensity to run the ball—whether by design or extemporaneously—is the potential for injury.

Despite a nice championship weekend from many of those quarterbacks we have reviewed, it has been an inconsistent and maddening season from most of these guys. Only Wilson has been good in most weeks, and he has a top-five ranking to show for it.

Outside of Wilson, the top 10 is littered with traditional names like New Orleans' Drew Brees, New England's Tom Brady, Denver's Peyton Manning and San Diego's Philip Rivers.

To his credit, Wilson has maintained viability as a rushing threat, notching 842 yards for the season. There have been some big rushing performances out of several quarterbacks this year, but none save Wilson have been able to do it on a consistent basis.

There is certainly an ebb and flow to fantasy football, and we may have just seen defenses catch up a bit this season. But it seems running quarterbacks are not the safe mid-round havens many thought they would be.

Fantasy's Biggest Surprise

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Montee Ball's eventual replacement has been a pleasant surprise this season, but C.J. Anderson certainly had plenty of competition in that department.

To wit, Odell Beckham's ascension has been a joy to watch, and he has stormed the fantasy realm like few rookie receivers ever have.

Beckham was not only the season's biggest surprise, he was the waiver-wire wonder of the year. Fantasy owners who picked him up either when he was activated in Week 5 or after he scored a touchdown in his rookie debut reaped incredible rewards.

The New York Giants rookie was simply the most consistent receiver in the NFL during the second half of the season, ripping off an NFL rookie record streak of eight games with at least six receptions and 90 yards, all the way through a fantasy championship week.

He saved his best for the fantasy playoffs, scoring a whopping 79 standard points through the past three weeks. He scored six touchdowns in that span.

His torrid run has some thinking he is the outright MVP of the fantasy realm, including The Associated Press' Oskar Garcia:

"

Andrew Luck, DeMarco Murray and Antonio Brown all have more fantasy points, but Odell Beckham Jr. is the real fantasy MVP heading into the fantasy championship in Week 16.

He's on more teams seeking a fantasy title than any other player — 20.5 percent, according to data across thousands of leagues hosted on CBSSports.com.

It's an astounding figure considering that the upper limit for that rate is 50 percent since only one team in each standard fantasy league can have each player on its roster.

Put another way, Beckham is a factor in 41 percent of fantasy title games — with half the teams in those games rooting against him.

"

All this from a rookie receiver some deemed too small or unproductive in college to succeed in the NFL, one who missed much of the offseason and preseason and the first four weeks of the regular season due to injury.

Who saw that coming?

Rise of the Rookie Receivers

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This is a season unlike any other we will witness in the fantasy realm.

We took a look at this record-breaking class as it was beginning to manifest itself in such glory midway through the season, and the second half of the season only got better for certain players.

Mike Evans got off to a slow start in Tampa Bay—partially hampered by injury—but caught fire midway through the season and just relinquished the touchdown lead.

We have already waxed poetic about Odell Beckham, who has run away with the Offensive Rookie of the Year award thanks to his white-hot second half.

The rookie wide receiver has spearheaded the best rookie receiver class in NFL history, one that is in the process of obliterating NFL records for receptions, yards and touchdowns in any era.

The historic season should be taken with a grain of salt when looking forward, however. The word "unprecedented" comes to mind—it's unlikely to happen again anytime soon. More importantly, outside of Beckham and Evans, there was little consistency.

Kelvin Benjamin was the closest behind those two as the only legitimate wide receiving option for the Carolina Panthers. He disappeared far too often to be considered reliable, however.

Sammy Watkins had a few big games in Buffalo this season, but he was largely a disappointment in fantasy lineups most weeks.

Then there were the fleeting stars, those that burned brightly and quickly used up all their fuel. Guys like Jordan Matthews for Philadelphia and Jarvis Landry for Miami had a handful of huge fantasy days between them but reverted to typical rookie production.

Outside Beckham, Evans and Benjamin, no rookie receiver was in the top 22 in fantasy scoring this season.

Still, the amazing performances we have seen in 2014 are likely to inflate values for rookie receivers in 2015. History shows it's better to let other fantasy owners take on that risk if that is the case.

Bust of the Year

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Can we call Minnesota's Adrian Peterson a true bust if he barely stepped on the field?

Unfortunately, as we have already seen, many owners were stuck with the bill for Peterson's sins—at least as far as fantasy football is concerned, but considering Peterson only played one game, the biggest bust of the season was easily Montee Ball.

The Broncos let Knowshon Moreno go in free agency, opening the door for their second-year running back to take over as the lead back on a great offense. Ball was penned in as the starter early, and Denver stuck with him through the preseason despite an appendectomy that kept him out for several weeks.

He plodded his way through the first four games, not looking very good before injuring his groin. Granted, he faced some pretty tough defenses, which is perhaps why the Broncos were still trying to be faithful to him despite the emergence of Ronnie Hillman, and later C.J. Anderson.

Ball made his return in Week 11 only to aggravate his injury before fans could fill the stadium, and we never heard from him again in 2014.

A Dying Breed?

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The running back position roared back for one fleeting season when Adrian Peterson hit 2,000 yards in his MVP campaign just two years ago.

That improbable performance vaulted the running back position back to prominence in the fantasy realm, and fantasy owners renewed their commitment to drafting running backs early.

Unfortunately, things haven't panned out since then. Or have they?

This season marks the second consecutive one in which several top-tier running backs have been utter busts in the fantasy realm. In some cases, they hardly set foot on the field, as was the case with Adrian Peterson.

Others were complete disasters, as we have seen with Montee Ball.

When you look back at average draft position, as collected by Footballguys.com (subscription required), and reconcile it with fantasy rankings at the position, you will note a curious thing—eight of the top 12 running backs were among the top 12 drafted at the position.

That is to say, if you steered clear of the bad apples and drafted at least one of those guys, you made out pretty good. You may have even hit the jackpot if you managed to score DeMarco Murray and Le'Veon Bell, which was possible based on ADP and draft slot.

Of course, this all depends on league size, scoring format and owner tendencies. But the old RB-RB strategy is certainly still viable if you avoid the land mines and find good value at the other positions.

A Few Games Does Not a Season Make

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Remember when the New England Patriots were a dead dynasty and Tom Brady was finished? How about when Eddie Royal was on pace for 16 touchdowns and a monster fantasy season? Me neither.

The first four weeks brought plenty of intrigue and overreactions, some of which can make or break fantasy seasons. Had you traded for Brady or sold high on Royal, you very well could be hoisting a veritable championship trophy where you wouldn't be without those moves.

Brady, as we all know, flicked the switch after his Week 4 debacle in Kansas City and became one of the best fantasy quarterbacks the rest of the way. Royal showed off his now-annual disappearing act, fooling many fantasy owners into keeping him until he turned to ash on their rosters.

And Then There Was One

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Save for a few elite guys, the tight end position has always been a volatile one. Aside from Jimmy Graham and Rob Gronkowski of yesteryear, there haven't been many consistent performers.

The indubitable Jimmy Graham has been that rock in New Orleans the past couple of seasons, and he was the top tight end taken this past summer with good reason. Who could have known injuries and maddeningly inconsistent offensive play from the Saints would doom his fantasy owners, particularly in the second half of the season?

Denver's Julius Thomas was going to give the top guys a run for their money with Peyton Manning slinging the ball. Indeed, a hot start saw him score nine touchdowns in his first five games of the season. He has also had some awful games, and an injury kept him out several weeks.

In the end, we have found there is only one truly consistent fantasy option at tight end—New England star Rob Gronkowski.

A robot sent from the future to wreak havoc on the football field, Gronkowski has had to go in for repairs the past couple of seasons. Now that he is fully functional again, he has regained his status as the best tight end in the land.

"He's grown up a lot over the last five years," quarterback Tom Brady told reporters last week. "It's been a lot of fun to see it. His football IQ and understanding of what it takes to be a professional and consistently and dependably be that type of player for our offense that he's become, has been fun to see."

In doing so, he proved to be the most valuable fantasy asset at the tight end position, assuming you were comfortable drafting him in the second or third round by the end of summer. Faith in Gronk paid off for fantasy owners, as he was easily the best tight end in fantasy football on a week-to-week basis.

All fantasy statistics and rankings courtesy of FFToday.com.

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