Things We Learned from Fantasy Football 2020
Fantasy football in 2020 has been weird and full of new challenges. These are what we can learn from this unique 2020 season.
Ah, fantasy football. You either love it or hate it. Most of the players in the league don’t care about it, but maybe you put more attention to it than to your relationship. You may remember the stats line of Travis Kelce but you forgot the date you met your partner for the first time. But as I said, it’s a love-hate relationship. And with 2020 already a weird year in real life, fantasy football was presented with new challenges to the managers that can either make them love or hate it even more.
From injuries, COVID-19, rescheduled games, and underperforming fantasy studs, 2020 has been wild. Here’s what 2020 fantasy football has taught us and what lessons can be brought to 2021.
The Best Player is the One who Can Play
Availability has become a major issue for fantasy managers this year when setting their weekly lineup. The injury saga hit a lot of players drafted in first and second round picks in fantasy, and most of them suffered from major injuries that made them miss significant time.
Michael Thomas, who was the WR1 in 2019, exited the game in week 1 because of a high ankle injury, after only scoring 4.7 fantasy points. He came back in week 9, but he was never the same threat he was in 2019, while many fantasy managers expected that when they drafted him in the top 3 this season. He managed to finish the fantasy season, which for most managers was in week 16) with 40 receptions, 438 reception yards, and no touchdown for a total of 83.9 fantasy points. He didn’t have a game with 10 or more receptions, and only got more than 100 yards twice. A big drop off from the historic, record-breaking 2019 season.
Saquon Barkley, his Average Draft Position (ADP) in fantasy leagues in Point-per-Reception or PPR format was second overall coming into the season. He is pretty much the center of the Giants offense, so there was going to be a lot of opportunities for him to run, catch, and score. Little did everyone know in week 2 against the Bears, he was going to tear his ACL and be declared out for the rest of the season. That makes it two players from the top 3 who got derailed by injuries.
Christian McCaffrey was the fantasy football darling going into the 2020 season. The consensus number one overall draft pick in many fantasy leagues. 1000+ yards rushing and 1000+ yards receiving in 2019 were a testament to his ability to win fantasy matchups weekly on his own. Turns out that came with a big condition, that is IF HE’S HEALTHY! And healthy, he was not in 2020. McCaffrey suffered a high ankle sprain, and also injured his shoulder after coming back from the ankle injury. He only played three games between week 1 to 16. YES, THREE! Week 1 against the Raiders, week 2 against the Buccaneers, and week 9 against the Chiefs were the games that he played. To be fair, every time he played, he delivered big performances with 28.50 points in week 1, 24.80 points in week 2, and 37.10 points in week 9, expected from a first overall pick. But he only did it three times this season.
Those three names are just a few of many fantasy-reliable players who got injured or bothered by COVID-19. George Kittle, Austin Ekeler, Joe Mixon, Nick Chubb, Dak Prescott, and many others. So, it didn’t matter if your players have the ability to have 100 yards rushing or receiving every single game because if your player can’t play the game because of injury, he’s going to have a zero. The best players are the ones available.
30–40 Points is the New Normal
Offensive production this season has been ridiculous. For players like Aaron Jones, Dalvin Cook and Patrick Mahomes, they set a new standard to how many points does a player have to score to be considered great. A player only scored 20 fantasy points and some would consider him to be a bust that week 30 to 40 fantasy points in a gameweek was something managers saw quite often this season, especially in PPR leagues. 20 points is no longer considered a boom performance, 30 or even 40 fantasy points is where it’s at now and fantasy managers are expecting that from their players week in and week out.
Throughout week 1 to 8, there was a streak of at least one player scoring 40+ fantasy points in a week. Out of the regular 16 fantasy week schedule, 11 of those weeks had at least one player scoring more than 40 points. Tyreek Hill, Tyler Lockett, and Alvin Kamara broke the 50+ fantasy points barrier. Kamara even did it during fantasy finals week in week 16 and helped his managers, including Drew Brees’ son Baylen, bring home their respective league’s championship. Not to mention some players like Davante Adams posted 40+ points on multiple occasions this year. 30+ points is considered as just an average number for some of these stars.
The high scores seen in this season might be due to the case of no preseason games in the 2020 NFL season. Rookie players in defense couldn’t learn that much in the offseason, and they immediately played against the best players in the league. No preseason also caused major problems in case of player’s fitness. The San Francisco 49ers, both in offense and defense, dealt with an unprecedented number of injuries. The defense, which was the key factor in delivering them the NFC Championship last year, were not even in the top 10 this year.
This trend will most likely carry on in the 2021 season. The game is evolving, the pace of the game is much faster, and the nature of today’s offensive game benefits the PPR scoring format. Maybe, next year 50+ fantasy points will become the new normal. Only time will tell.
Stream Quarterbacks More Often!
Yes, having Lamar Jackson, Aaron Rodgers, Kyler Murray, or Josh Allen in your roster is fun. But, there’s only a handful of quarterbacks in the league that can produce a significant amount of points weekly. Just like previously mentioned, 30 to 40 points is becoming the new normal, and not many quarterbacks can produce like that on a weekly basis.
But more importantly, fantasy managers should make space for more important positions on their roster. This year, with so many injuries in the running back position, the value of the position rose up drastically. Having good depth in the running back position became very important, either to start them or as a trade asset. Stocking up at a more important position is one strategy, so compromising at another position is needed. Quarterback is a good position to compromise on.
Names like Teddy Bridgewater, Philip Rivers, Derek Carr, or even rookies like Justin Herbert and pre-injury Joe Burrow have proven this year that with a good matchup, they could produce like a top tier fantasy quarterback this year. They are reliable enough to get fantasy managers around 18 to20 fantasy points, or on a good day even close to 30. Trading off the quarterback position is more beneficial as managers can get more production from the running back, wide receiver, or tight end positions.
Reserve Slot is KING
This is an opinion more on the technical side of the platform. With the risk of COVID-19 spreading around higher in contact sports like American Football, NFL Fantasy brought out the Reserve Slot (RES), a previously custom league feature, as a default setting on the platform). Basically, if a player who was put in the Injured Reserve (IR) or COVID-19 Reserve List, whether he was tested positive or deemed to have close contact with someone positive,, fantasy managers can put those players in the RES slot instead of dumping him to the waiver wire.
This feature proved to be very useful in the 2020 season. There were many fantasy stars who got injured this year, and some of them had to be sidelined for quite some time. Not to mention players who got infected by COVID-19, and those around him because they had close contact. This made the RES slot more important and to fantasy managers than any other year before, where you have to lose a player just to make room for the replacement because your player is in IR.
Only three players are allowed in the RES spot at any time. This is the default format, the commissioner of the league can customize the number of spots available. But only players who were designated with the IR or COVID-19 Reserve tag are allowed to be moved into the RES spot. If the player is only declared out for the game, he can’t be moved to the RES spot.
NFL Fantasy is the latest to add this feature as part of their default format on their platform. Yahoo have done this with their Injury List (IL) spot, and ESPN also have one with IR spot. But this is a sign that NFL Fantasy is willing to improve and learn from other fantasy football platforms, to make sure that fantasy managers are having a good time playing.
The First Overall Pick in 2021
Now the biggest question. Who performed really well this year, and earned enough trust of fantasy managers to become the first overall pick in the 2021 fantasy football draft?
First thing first, it’s not gonna be as consensus as how Christian McCaffrey was when he was ranked number 1 in most fantasy mock drafts for the 2020 season. Is he still going to be a top draft pick? Sure, everyone knows what he’s capable of, even in the year when he was dealing with injuries, he produced good numbers when he played. But, his health issues will hinder him next season. Will he be healthy enough to play the whole season is the question that looms in fantasy managers’ heads.
Alvin Kamara was the RB1 in 2020, and probably the frontrunner for the first overall pick in 2020. 932 rushing yards, 756 receiving yards, 21 total touchdowns, and 377.8 fantasy points solidified himself at the top as a dual-threat running back. This is exactly what fantasy managers needed, a player who can run the ball as good as catching it. With the absence of Michael Thomas for the majority of the year, Kamara exploded as the Saints’ most dangerous weapon.
One thing that could be a concern is, who’s going to be under center in New Orleans? During the game in which Taysom Hill started to replace an injured Drew Brees, the rushing workload was pretty much split between Hill and Kamara, causing Kamara to underperform . In week 11 to 14, Kamara only had 14.2 fantasy points/game, with the lowest of the season coming in week 12 against the Broncos with 6.2 fantasy points. If Drew Brees is still under center next year producing over 20 points per game should be expected of Alvin Kamara . If it’s Taysom Hill, fantasy managers should pay close attention to how the 2021 preseason unfolds.
Let’s talk about another name, Dalvin Cook. The Minnesota Vikings running back had his best season fantasy-wise this year. 1557 rushing yards (ranked second in the league), 44 receiving yards, 17 total touchdowns, resulted in 337.8 fantasy points. He is the focal point of the Vikings offense, because of the limitation from his quarterback, Kirk Cousins. He averaged 22.28 rushing attempts per game, plenty enough opportunities to succeed and he delivered it well.
Surprisingly, Cook is relatively way healthier than the years before. There were some talks and concerns about how he couldn’t play the whole season, that he keeps getting injured, and that he’s one tackle away from being done for the season. This year he only missed one game before the Vikings’ bye week, due to a groin injury. If he is indeed can carry this into 2021, he is definitely going to be in the conversation as the number 1 overall pick.
There are some other names that can be taken into consideration. Derrick Henry had a monster year, leading the league in rushing with 2000+ yards. Maybe from another position, Davante Adams or Tyreek Hill, the WR1 and WR2 respectively this season can be a number 1 overall pick. Don’t discount Christian McCaffrey and Saquon Barkley just yet. Since both of these guys are basically the offense of their respective teams, when they have recovered from their injuries, they can create chaos for opposing defenses and generate points for their managers.
Rafiandra Putra Andika is a writer, designer, video editor, photographer, content creator, or to sum up, a story-teller. He found his fond love for sports ever since a little kid, starts with Soccer, F1, Basketball, and now focusing his talent on growing the exposure of American Football, especially in Indonesia. He pledged his loyalty to LeBron James, Tom Brady, and the New England Patriots.
You can follow him on Instagram: @rafiandra21 for his recent audiovisual works (photo, video, and fantasy football podcast), and on Twitter with the same handle for his unfiltered thoughts and written pieces like this one.
