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With Week 8 in the books, we now find ourselves at the midpoint of the 2019 fantasy season (unless you have a week 17 championship which is bogus, don’t @ me). This season has been full of surprises, injuries and poor officiating; but I thought it would be a good time to talk about who has earnt the nominations for a number of categories in fantasy football so far this season.

MVP

Deshaun Watson

Watson is the leading points scorer in fantasy football so far in 2019, so he has to be a part of this conversation. He’s only dipped under 15 points twice this year but made up for it with 5 performances of over 25 points, including 41 points in Week 5. This man can do it all and proved on Sunday that he only needs one eye to do it. So far this season he has already matched his career-high for rushing TD’s and is on course to break his highest number of passing TDs. This man is a difference-maker and was drafted accordingly back in August.

Christian McCaffrey

There’s not much more I can say about McCaffrey that hasn’t been said thousands of times by every NFL analyst in the land, the kid is a freak! Currently the top-scoring non-QB across all formats, in fact, in PPR, he’s the top-scoring player full stop. McCaffrey is rewarding those who drafted him early, he may have been a top pick but he has been worth it as I’m sure everyone who has him will agree. The most impressive thing about McCaffrey is his ability to stay on the field, in 3 of 7 games this year McCaffrey played 100% of the Panthers offensive snaps, something most other players at his position cannot even come close to.

New England Patriots D/ST

Given my general dislike of team defense in fantasy football, I can’t even believe I’m bringing the Patriots D/ST into the conversation. However, I feel like I would be a fool not to because they are 5th overall in scoring, across all positions. Just to put that in perspective, the 2nd best D/ST are 36th overall, and the 3rd best D/ST are 90th overall. This Patriots D/ST is record-breaking and given that they were going undrafted (like most defenses) they easily provide the best value of any player or team in the fantasy football spectrum.

Winner: Christian McCaffrey

Rookie of the Year

Kyler Murray

The number 1 overall draft pick in 2019 hasn’t disappointed. The Cardinals were slow to start off the year but Murray and HC Kliff Kingsbury have pieced things together and the offense now looks like it has a lot of promise. Murray currently sits at QB8 which is a solid showing for a rookie QB who was put into an offense that was a dumpster fire in 2018. Murray was being drafted late in drafts this year, often in the region of QB12-15, so if you grabbed him in that range you would be very happy with his production thus far this year.

Josh Jacobs

Having been taken in the 1st round of the NFL draft, there was a lot of pressure and expectation resting on the young man’s shoulders. I was one of many people who took Jacobs with the top pick in the rookie draft, and in redraft, Jacobs was going in the late 3rd/ early 4th round. A high price tag for an unproven rookie. However, Jacobs has lived up to the hype as he currently sits at RB11 despite the fact that he has been nursing minor injuries and an illness that saw him drop 10lbs. The only knock on Jacobs this year has been the lack of involvement in the passing game, but that does seem to be changing slowly, in his first 4 games Jacobs only received 5 targets and in his 3 most recent games he has 8. A small improvement, but a welcome one which should increase as Jacobs adjusts more to the NFL.

Terry McLaurin

Scary Terry McLaurin has been one of the biggest breakout stars of 2019 despite playing on an awful offense with a QB carousel throwing him the ball. McLaurin was being taken around the 3rd round of rookie drafts, where the hit rate is extremely low and was mostly going undrafted in redraft leagues. A big early waiver target as he has launched himself up to WR16 despite missing a game through injury.

Winner: Josh Jacobs

Best Value Draft Pick

DJ Chark

DJ Chark has emerged this year as a true WR1 in a Jags offense which was crying out for someone to make a leap. After an incredibly disappointing rookie season, many had discarded and forgotten about Chark, who was a 2nd round pick in the 2018 NFL draft. However, Chark has figured things out in the offseason and has helped Gardner Minshew adjust to life in the NFL pretty nicely. Chark currently sits at WR5 despite going undrafted n most leagues at the start of the year.

Courtland Sutton

Sutton was another player who was going undrafted in a lot of leagues, or at the very least was a tail-end draft pick. In 2018 Sutton was in the spotlight when Thomas was traded away and Sanders got hurt, however, despite his size and speed wasn’t able to step up into the role everyone hoped he would. This all changed in 2019 as the young man out of SMU has managed to step up his game and has emerged as a true WR1 on a team with mediocre QB play. With Flacco injured the rest of the season may not look great for Sutton but he is someone to bear in mind big time for 2020.

Cooper Kupp

Kupp may not have come out of anywhere like Chark and Sutton but his rise to WR2 has definitely been a surprise given that he was being drafted in the 5th round, and often behind both of his teammates, Cooks, and Woods. However, Kupp has emerged from the trio as Goff’s favorite target and is looking like an absolute steal for any team smart enough to draft him.

Winner: DJ Chark

Comeback Player of the Year

Dalvin Cook

Dalvin Cook was a polarising player going into this season given his injury history. Many believed that he was too risky to take in the mid-2nd round. However, those who had faith in him have seen it rewarded massively as he currently sits at the RB2 spot. He’s shown great movement and pass-catching skills behind a solid offensive line, and now that the Vikings are showing themselves as having downfield threats, opposing defenses can’t stack the box against him.

Cooper Kupp

Kupp tore his ACL last year but that isn’t an injury that plagues player’s long term anymore, with Kupp being the latest prime example of this as he has launched himself all the way up to the WR2 spot. His consistency rankings may not be great as he has put up under 5 points on three occasions, however, his big games have been exemplary with 4 games over 25 points.

Winner: Dalvin Cook

Biggest Disappointment

Odell Beckham Jr

OBJ was being drafted at the end of the 1st round, beginning of the second. With these picks you really want your players to be performing a lot better than WR35. This certainly isn’t all Odell’s fault, as Baker Mayfield has struggled to perform behind a poor o-line, but when the ball has gone OBJ’s way he hasn’t shown himself to be the talent we all know he can be, with multiple drops hindering his development as a Brown.

Antonio Brown

An obvious choice for this category is the player who was drafted in the early 3rd round and even as high as the 2nd, yet only managed to make one appearance before being cut by his 2nd team in the same season. Now sitting on the outside looking in many will be hoping a team finds themselves desperate enough to sign him but with his grievances against the Raiders and Patriots filed, combined with his crazy tweets week after week, I would be pretty shocked to see Mr. Big Chest play another down in the NFL.

Joe Mixon

Mixon was another 2nd round pick with whom many had high expectations and has yet to reach them. This isn’t all his fault as he may be playing behind the worst o-line in the league, and the HC reluctant to use him in the passing game despite trailing in most games this year. A huge disappointment as he sits at RB33 after being drafted around the RB10 range.

Winner: Antonio Brown