Fantasy Football Regret- Busts of 2016
According to Dictionary.com the meaning of the term regret is “to think of with a sense of loss”. Tis the season of regretting your failed new year’s resolution, stress-eating when you realize vacation is over, and of course Fantasy Football Regret. When I say “Fantasy Football Regret” — I’m not talking about your regret from joining your 4-team family league or you Browns fans who regret fantasizing that this was your year, I’m taking about regretting a couple of big draft decisions from August/September and how you promised all your friends it was the best team EVER. Now, I’m not going to get into injuries because that is just part of the great game. Anyways here we go:
Deandre Hopkins
I’m going to start with a big one. Hopkins was a first or second round pick and was a huge disappointment this year. Last year, he was a beast! 111 receptions, 1,521 yards, and 11 TDs- he was a top four receiver and he was drafted like one. This year though he just wasn’t he had 78 receptions, didn’t even break 1,000 yards receiving (954), and had almost ⅓ the amount of touchdowns (4). He just didn’t perform on a consistent basis and had no games over 20 points in standard scoring! For me, Hopkins was a big regret, he had very similar stats to Antonio, Julio, and Odell so I had him ranked as my #4 receiver going into 2016. But, there was ONE big warning sign with Hopkins compared to the other three great receivers of 2015- yards after the catch. If we look at the others- Antonio Brown: 4.3, Julio Jones: 5.0, Odell Beckham: 4.5, and then DeAndre Hopkins: 1.6! Hopkins was never going to take a quick screen or slant and run it 80 yards for a touchdown
therefore, Hopkins needs 10–15 targets a game for a first/second round fantasy performance and he got those targets last year, but with a new QB (Osweiler), an expensive running back (Miller), and a young shiny Wide Receiver (Fuller) Hopkins was no longer the whole offense.
Allen Robinson
You can also add Allen Hurns to this one. Robinson looked amazing on paper in 2015- with 1,400 yards, 14 touchdowns, and 6 games with over 100 yards receiving. At the end of this past summer many were thinking “he is young, exciting, and this year he will add to these great stats and help my team win the championship” and in most leagues he was drafted in the second round. This year though his stats took a big dip and those people who drafted him got hit with major Fantasy Football Regret- he had 883 yards, 6 touchdowns, and only had 2 games over 100 yards receiving. With Robinson there were two warning signs with his 2015 performance. The first is low receptions and high touchdown rates which usually leads to touchdown decline the next year. A good saying to remember in Fantasy Football is “ touchdowns are the icing and yards are the cake”. The second thing to keep in mind is the Jacksonville offense threw the ball a lot. Bortles threw 25 touchdowns in the redzone last year, which I expected would decline this year. These redzone stats were great for Robinson last year in fantasy, but with Jacksonville scoring more on the ground, Robinson was inconsistent and definitely not worth drafting in the second round.
Todd Gurley
Another early round pick, another big disappointment. I mean this guy was the NFL’s offensive rookie of the year last year and this year- complete mediocrity. Last year, he averaged 4.8 yards per carry, rushed for over 140 yards 3 times in the 13 games he played, and looked like a beast with his burst of speed and power. This year though was a whole different story. He played all 16 games, rushed for a league worst 3.2 yards per carry (for rushers with over 150 carries), and had no games over 85 yards! He went off fantasy football boards in the early first round and towards the middle of year was not even startable in some 10–12 team leagues. The thing with Gurley is I can’t really explain it. It was probably not the offensive line, because they were terrible last year too. It was probably not due to his tough schedule because he had a hard one last year too. But, if you watched his games you saw something different in his stride that just wasn’t the same from the offensive rookie of 2015 who ended up way too high on the draft boards and gave many some serious Fantasy Football Regret.
