Every NFL season is filled with many spectacular and intense moments.
The sport draws millions of viewers to root for one of thirty-two teams, and many fans wish they could make an impact on the game.
In Fantasy Football, someone can do much more than that.
From drafting a team, to making substitutions, to fighting for a championship, it’s a football fan’s dream.
As the final week of the NFL regular season has come to a close, fantasy seasons have finished up as well.
This also means that participants in fantasy leagues have felt the feeling of success or defeat.
The most important factor determining how every team’s season goes is how the players drafted perform.
Here are the top five drafted players at each position compared to the top five at the end of the year, according to ESPN PPR (Points Per Reception) rules.
Quarterbacks
According to Fantasy Pros, the five highest drafted quarterbacks on average were:
Aaron Rodgers
Deshaun Watson
Tom Brady
Russell Wilson
Cam Newton
It turns out that only one of them was able to stay in the top five ranks.
The top five after all seventeen weeks were:
Patrick Mahomes
Matt Ryan
Ben Roethlisberger
Deshaun Watson
Andrew Luck
The quarterbacks drafted first, other than Watson, placed much lower than anticipated.
Rodgers, picked first, placed sixth, Brady picked third, placed fourteenth, Wilson picked fourth, placed ninth and Newton picked fifth, placed thirteenth.
Running Backs
The top five running backs drafted on average were:
Todd Gurley
Le’Veon Bell
David Johnson
Ezekiel Elliott
Alvin Kamara
Johnson ranked ninth and Bell didn’t play a game this year.
The other three remained in the top five, with McCaffrey and Barkley, who was drafted sixth on average, filling in the other spots.
At the end of the year, the top five consisted of:
Saquon Barkley
Christian McCaffrey
Todd Gurley II
Alvin Kamara
Ezekiel Elliott
Wide Receivers
The top five wide receivers drafted on average were:
Antonio Brown
Deandre Hopkins
Odell Beckham
Julio Jones
Michael Thomas
Beckham came in fifteenth overall and Thomas placed sixth, but everyone else remained.
The five highest scoring wide receivers in the end were:
Tyreek Hill
Deandre Hopkins
Davante Adams
Julio Jones
Antonio Brown
Tight Ends
Lastly, the top five highest drafted tight ends on average were:
Rob Gronkowski
Travis Kelce
Zach Ertz
Jimmy Graham
Greg Olsen
Gronkowski came in eleventh, Graham placed twelfth, and Olsen was twenty fifth.
At the end of the season, the top five scoring tight ends resulted in:
Travis Kelce
Zach Ertz
George Kittle
Eric Ebron
Jared Cook
After the players have performed, the experience of managing your team and playing the game is all that matters.
Junior Matthew Ware explained that Fantasy Football is so popular because it is “much more manageable than other fantasy sports,” as the “NFL plays sixteen games a season, and most games are on Sunday.”
Junior Matthew Schwanke also feels that creating your own team is a huge draw.
“I believe that the creativity [Fantasy Football] has allowed for people to really connect to their own team because it represents them,” said Schwanke.
There are many reasons that people enjoy managing a team too.
Junior Nate Binko’s favorite part is “picking up players that weren’t drafted [since] they bring a new spark to a team that really needs it.”
Schwanke loves to figure out matchups between his players and the teams they go up against, and Ware enjoys bragging to his friends when he wins.
Not only has the past been filled with fun, but the future looks bright for Fantasy Football too.
From doing dynasty leagues, where you keep some of your players year after year, like Ware is excited for, to learning about new rookies, which Schwanke and Binko are looking forward to, there are many more magnificent seasons to come.