The Rotos 2018: Fantasy Football Bust of the Year

Where there’s good, there will be bad. The nominees here represent the worst of the worst in 2018 that managers drafted in the early rounds. It’s crucial to really hit your spots in the early rounds of the draft, as those will be the cornerstones and heart of your fantasy lineup for the year. Missing on these realistically brings impending fantasy doom, and moving ahead to 2019 early on. Here are the nominees.

Nominees

• Doug Baldwin (WR – SEA)
• Leonard Fournette (RB – JAX)
• Rob Gronkowski (TE – NE)
• Jordan Howard (RB – CHI)
• LeSean McCoy (RB – BUF)

Contenders

Doug Baldwin (38 ADP)

Here’s a guy that the RSJ was slightly down on (-8 vs ECR) compared to the experts. Baldwin has been tagged as touchdown dependent for some time and really crashed in 2018 scoring only five touchdowns. Granted, three of those came in the fantasy playoffs, which is why he’s not in serious contention for the award. His regular season however was very disappointing, as Seattle focused on being a run first team. The emergence of Tyler Lockett also helped keep Baldwin’s numbers low. He’s still a very good real life receiver, but his fantasy value took a big dip in 2018.

Leonard Fournette (8 ADP)

Probably the earliest bust in 2018 drafts, Fournette was a huge disappointment coming in as a late first round pick. What keeps him from the finalist pool were the injuries that held him back for seven games in 2018. When he was in lineups Fournette was averaging roughly 13 fantasy points per game and was relatively useful. However, he faltered down the stretch with 6 and then 8 points in Weeks 14 and 15. Very tough to overcome. With his missed games and lackluster post season play, Fournette was a big swing and miss at the tail end of Round 1.

LeSean McCoy (26 ADP)

Did McCoy have himself an underwhelming season? Yes he did. Why he doesn’t finish higher on this list though is because we basically told you to avoid McCoy in drafts like the plague. Despite being a lead dog in the offense, Buffalo’s offense was atrocious to start the year under Nathan Peterman. McCoy scored double digit points in four games this year with just one 20+ point outburst. After being one of the best backs in the league a short time ago, McCoy has fallen from grace thanks to age and a putrid offense. Anyone who drafted him this year will certainly tell you they wish they hadn’t.

Finalists

Rob Gronkowski (21 ADP)

Gronk was our undisputed TE1 (+4 vs ECR) heading into 2018 which was super disappointing because he’s currently sitting as the TE12. Taken in the second round of drafts, some even considered him Round 1 worthy and a guy to potentially change seasons for those who drafted him. Sure having a tight end who produces at a high level is a huge advantage, but when you take a TE in Round 2 over a stud RB or WR you better be damn sure he produces. Gronkowski is slowing down because of both the injuries of his past and age. He looks like the shell of his former self and his stats have fallen off the proverbial cliff. There are games he’s been nonexistent to the point where he’s only recorded three double digit point games. He used to average double digit point games and now we’re just praying to the gods he can get close to that. With Tom Brady is desperate need of weapons, it’s very sad to see Gronk is unable to be the beast we’d all seen for years past.

Jordan Howard (20 ADP)

The ideal mid-to-late second round pick that we dubbed this year, Jordan Howard just never seemed to put it together after a very solid second year. It looks like he delayed his sophomore slump by a year as the team featured Tarik Cohen in the offense more who is clearly the more explosive weapon in Matt Nagy’s offense. Perhaps it’s Nagy’s new system to blame that’s turned Howard into a plodder only finding fantasy goodness down at the goal line converting touchdowns. We kept waiting for the Howard explosion game, but that never materialized with a season high of 16 points. He picked it up at season’s end in the fantasy playoffs scoring double digits in all three games. It may have been too late for that though since owners who thought they struck gold in Round 2 realized they ended up with a big pile of crap and might not have made it in the first place.

And your Roto winner for the 2018 Fantasy Bust of the Year is…….

Rob Gronkowski

How the mighty have fallen. Our TE1 has fallen from grace into the pool of mediocrity, all but disappointing everyone who selected him in the second round over the likes of Joe Mixon or Tyreek Hill. There comes a time for everyone when the game becomes too much, and that time has come for Gronk. He didn’t even surpass 100 points on the let down of a year. This was a pretty straightforward choice and we feel sorry for all those that drafted him and held onto him throughout the year. I can promise you that you won’t make the same mistake again next year.