Fantasy Busts and booms of the 2020 NFL season

Druw Robinson, Staff Writer

This fantasy football season has been crazy so far with games postponed due to Covid-19, star players getting injured, a team with no name is in the lead of their division, a team played without any QB’s, and the Browns are actually good this year. Now the NFL is only in week 14 but that is close enough to call mostly all of the booms and busts of the crazy 2020 NFL season. (I will mostly be talking about busts in this article.)

 First I am going to ask an experienced fantasy football player, who has been playing for three seasons now, what his picks would be for the biggest bust and boom. When I asked Brody Parks this question he said, I think the biggest boom at QB was Justin Herbert (Los Angeles Chargers 3-9) because he came into a bad team and put up some good numbers. He also did well because he got thrown into the team after being expected to be the bench quarterback the whole season while watching Tyrod Taylor. Tyrod was going to be used as a veteran mentor but then Tyrod got a punctured lung after the Chargers doctor injected a pain killer shot. Herbert was then promoted to starting quarterback and had to learn the offense quicker than he thought he would need to. 

He said the biggest boom RB was Dalvin Cook (Minnesota Vikings 6-6) because a lot of star running backs went before him in the fantasy draft and they scored far less fantasy points and touchdowns than they did. He also mentioned how Dalvin Cook also had four more than one touchdown games along while also having a game against the Green Bay Packers where he had three rushing touchdowns and a receiving touchdown. 

He said the biggest boom wide receiver was A.J Brown because he didn’t have an elite quarterback like D.K. Metcalf did. He said that was why he chose him over DK. He also said that A.J Brown was on a team with probably one of the best running offenses in the league. He also had to compete against another good wide receiver on his team, Corey Davis.

Brody said the biggest bust at quarterback this year was Drew Brees because he was an elite quarterback who usually put up some good numbers. He then got hurt all season and was very inconsistent for fantasy owners.

He then said the biggest but at running back was Ezekiel Elliot because he was a very high first round pick with high expectations. He produced terrible numbers with a bad pass offense. He did not contribute at all the second half of the season and his projections went down eight points from 20 to 12. 

When I also asked Brody about the bust wide receivers he said Kenny Golladay because many fantasy owners took him pretty early and he was hurt most of the season and has a good chance of not playing for the rest of the season. He had a very good first season and had very high expectations. He then was basically a wasted bench spot the whole season. 

Also after doing all of these interviews and research I have found every bust from quarterback, running back, and wide receiver of this year. (This is an opinion not a fact) I am not going to put very much reasoning on these because that would be a very long article. My bust from the season for quarterback Lamar Jackson (Baltimore Ravens currently 7-5) because after coming off an MVP season the Ravens are third in their division and Lamar just hasn’t had the spark he had last season. He can still run but his passing isn’t anything special. My bust for running back is Ezekiel Elliot (Dallas Cowboys 3-9) because he was a very high first rounder who was picked over Dalvin Cook and now he is being benched in the fantasy playoffs where it matters most. My bust wide receiver was Golden Tate because Golden used to be a stud wide receiver for the Lions. When he got traded to the Giants I expected the same. But after Golden Tate played 10 games he only had two receiving touchdowns with 32 receptions. He produced little to nothing in fantasy and now is only rostered in 14% of fantasy leagues.