Psst. Hey, we have a secret. But you can’t tell anybody. OK?
Ready? Here it is: If you draft good fantasy players, your fantasy team will be good. That’s it. Keep this on the down-low, OK?
Sounds easy, but it isn’t. But if you happened to draft some of these players this season, chances are your team did pretty well. They are the Fantasy Madman’s award winners for 2019.
MVP: Christian McCaffrey (RB, Carolina Panthers) — Not only did he lead everyone in fantasy scoring, he had just two games all season in which he scored fewer than 20 PPR points. Averaged nearly nine points more than any other RB.
Best QB: Lamar Jackson (Baltimore Ravens) — Averaged six more points per game than the next-best QB. Scored 25 or more in five of the final seven fantasy weeks, including playoffs.
Best RB: Ezekiel Elliott (Dallas Cowboys) — Dalvin Cook’s late-season injury crushed fantasy owners. Aaron Jones was too inconsistent. Outpaced Derrick Henry, who was out for fantasy title week. Zeke by default.
Best WR: Michael Thomas (New Orleans Saints) — Joe Burrow didn’t win the Heisman by as large of a margin as Thomas wins here.
Best TE: Travis Kelce (Kansas City Chiefs) — Massive production, impressively steady. No-brainer.
Best defense/special teams: New England Patriots — Though they faded down the stretch, so did other premier fantasy DSTs, and none made up the gap the Pats created early in the season.
Best rookie QB: Kyler Murray (Arizona Cardinals) — Finished fantasy playoffs seventh among QBs, not bad for a rookie.
Best rookie RB: Josh Jacobs (Oakland Raiders) — Missing two fantasy playoff weeks didn’t help, but David Montgomery or Devin Singletary were not able to catch him.
Best rookie WR: Terry McLaurin (Washington Redskins) — His red-hot finish delivered fantasy titles. A.J. Brown had a nice late push, but not nearly enough to eclipse Scary Terry.
Kenyan DrakeAP PhotoBest rookie TE: Noah Fant (Denver Broncos) — Finished as the 16th-best tight end, which was 11 spots better than the nearest rookie. But also provides a good example of why you shouldn’t rely on rookie tight ends.
Surprising playoff hero: Kenyan Drake (RB, Arizona Cardinals) — Was left for dead in Miami. Given new life with a trade to the 49ers. Averaged 36.5 in the final two playoff weeks.
Surprising playoff hero’s sidekick: Tyler Higbee (TE, Los Angeles Rams) — Starter Gerald Everett was only OK when healthy, but once he went down, Higbee exploded — averaging 21.2 points in Weeks 13-16, when it mattered most.
Wait-till-next-year: Devin Singletary (RB, Buffalo Bills) — Played well when he finally wrestled the starting job away from Frank Gore. Expect a nice jump in production next season.
Wizard of Oz: Bruce Arians (coach, Tampa Bay Buccaneers) — His QB (Jameis Winston) ranked fifth in fantasy. He had two receivers (Chris Godwin and Mike Evans) who ranked in the top six. He had another (Breshad Perriman) finish with a flurry when other receivers were injured. Arians’ kicker even ranked No. 3 and the DST finished in the top 10.
To Coach Arians and all award winners, thank you for a great season. And we’ll thank you even more if you can do it again next year.

