The fantasy football season is over, at least in the traditional sense. There are upcoming playoff leagues and a few weeks of DFS play remain, but in standard ESPN fantasy leagues, Week 17 is the final act. As is the often the case, the list of the most popular players on the rosters of 2015 ESPN fantasy champions includes a player or two who wasn't even considered on draft day, even in the deepest of leagues.

If you reached the fantasy finals, whether you eventually won or lost, there was a good chance Tim Hightower had something to do with the outcome. In this brief column, we are celebrating the players on the rosters of champions, though, so we'll keep it (mostly) positive ... and Hightower was easily the most commonly owned player by those who won it all. He was on the rosters of more than one-third of ESPN standard 10-team-league champions. David Johnson, another back who ascended to a starting role due to a teammate's injury, was the only other player on even one-fourth of champs.

In all, there were just eight players/defenses on at least 20 percent of championship-winning rosters. Here are the 10 players/defenses with the highest such ownership numbers:

Most common players on ESPN Fantasy champions Player Position Team Pct. of Leagues Tim Hightower RB NO 33.6 David Johnson RB ARI 25.5 Doug Baldwin WR SEA 24.3 Jordan Reed TE WAS 23.4 Charcandrick West RB KC 21.4 Gary Barnidge TE CLE 21.4 Chiefs D/ST KC 20.4 Julio Jones WR ATL 20.1 Brandon Marshall WR NYJ 19.7 Cam Newton QB CAR 19.6 ESPN standard 10-team leagues only

You may be surprised that Charcandrick West is so high on the list, but remember this is list of players on rosters, not necessarily starters on those teams during the fantasy finals. West, in particular, was a waiver-wire pickup who had a few big games and likely helped many teams reach the playoffs, even if he wasn't a big factor once they reached postseason glory.

Below are the five most popular players at four key positions on the rosters of title winners in ESPN standard leagues:

Quarterbacks Running Backs Wide Receivers Tight Ends C. Newton (19.6%) T. Hightower (33.6%) D. Baldwin (24.3%) J. Reed (23.4%) B. Bortles (18.3) D. Johnson (25.5) Ju. Jones (20.1) G. Barnidge (21.4) C. Palmer (18.0) C. West (21.4) B. Marshall (19.7) T. Eifert (17.0) D. Brees (12.3) J. Allen (17.1) A. Brown (18.1) D. Walker (13.6) R. Wilson (12.1) K. Williams (16.9) A. Hurns (16.4) A. Gates (11.8)

It's worth noting that Aaron Rodgers, the top QB selected in fantasy drafts last summer, was on fewer championship teams (7.4 percent) than Derek Carr (9.3 percent). Among running backs, Adrian Peterson just missed the list above (sixth at 16.1 percent), while disappointments such as DeMarco Murray (7.0) and C.J. Anderson (6.2) were predictably outside of the top 20. It should be noted, though, that Murray and Anderson both finished with back-to-back double-digit games. Anderson did so for the first time this season! And if you're wondering where Rob Gronkowski stood among tight ends, he was only sixth at 11.3 percent. His season-worst one-point effort in Week 17 likely had something to do with that.