odell land
Credit: Julio Cortez/AP

Another great fantasy football season is in the books and we hope everybody had a fun and successful season. Here are our awards for the best and worst of 2014. We’re sure plenty of readers will disagree with our choices, so please feel free to comment and tell us what you think. This article is for you the readers to enjoy and have fun with after a stressful playoff month. We’d love to hear your input. Let us know which players helped you win your championship and which let you down and cost you a trophy.

Rookie of the Year
WR Odell Beckham Jr, NYG
Beckham’s late season surge was enough to surpass Kelvin Benjamin and hold off Jeremy Hill as he made a push as well. Beckham finished the standard 16 game fantasy season with 79 receptions, 1,120 yards and 11 TDs, despite missing the first month of the season with a hamstring injury. He put up a ridiculous stat line during the playoffs. In the three week playoff he totaled 41 receptions, 421 yards and six TDs. Those are staggering numbers for not only a rookie but any player. There is no doubt at this point that Beckham is this year’s rookie of the year.

Honorable Mention: Kelvin Benjamin and Jeremy Hill

Comeback Player of the Year
WR Jeremy Maclin, PHI
The fact that Maclin missed the entirety of the 2013 season with a torn ACL gives him the edge over Patriots’ TE Rob Gronkowski. Maclin returned in spectacular fashion doing a great job of replacing DeSean Jackson. Maclin ended the fantasy season with 82 receptions, 1,269 yards and 10 TDs. Things looked bleak in the preseason when the injury prone Maclin hit the turf with a non-contact injury holding his knee. Nonetheless, he was okay and overcame his ACL tear and stayed healthy all season, earning this award.

Honorable Mention: Rob Gronkowski

Waiver Wire Find of the Year
RB Justin Forsett, BAL
Forsett was undrafted in most leagues this season, and there were actually three RBs on the Ravens that were drafted ahead of him. Now the talk is how he was snubbed from the Pro Bowl because he outperformed LeSean McCoy. Forsett averaged an extremely impressive 5.3 YPC, which contributed to his excellent totals. He finished the fantasy season with 1,147 rushing yards and eight TDs to go along with 42 receptions for 246 yards. While you can make an argument for CJ Anderson, he did not play a full season like Forsett. Forsett saved a lot of teams season that drafted a RB bust or suffered injuries.

Honorable Mention: CJ Anderson

Most Improved Player of the Year
RB Lamar Miller, MIA
Miller was widely considered a bust last season and with Knowshon Moreno joining the backfield Miller was little more than a late round flier this season. He improved on last season’s 4.0 YPC and increased it to 4.7. He hasn’t played Week 17 yet and has already surpassed all of last season’s totals. He has put up 921 rushing yards and eight TDs so far, as compared to last year’s 709 rushing yards and two TDs. He has also really become a threat in the passing game. He turned last season’s 26 receptions for 170 yards into 38 receptions for 275 yards. Le’Veon Bell also got serious consideration but we have bigger plans in store for him. Forsett also missed out because he never had the RB1 expectations to live up to in the first place. He had more of a lack of opportunity during his career. Miller is very deserving of this award and hopefully he can rush for at least 79 yards this week and hit the 1,000-yard mark to cap off a great season.

Honorable Mention: Justin Forsett and Le’Veon Bell

Breakout Player of the Year
WR Emmanuel Sanders, DEN
Sanders had a good season last year in Pittsburgh. This year he was outstanding. Through 15 games he now has 95 receptions, 1,375 yards from scrimmage and nine TDs. He is a top five fantasy WR and has been far superior to the departed Eric Decker. With just five receptions and a TD in Week 17, Sanders could hit two major milestones. He ran away with the breakout player award with a late surge despite his QBs struggles. DeAndre Hopkins became a distant second as Sanders separated the gap as the Texans’ QB woes cost Hopkins campaign.

Honorable Mention: DeAndre Hopkins

Bust of the Year
WR Cordarrelle Patterson, MIN
Much like his fellow draftee Tavon Austin, Patterson proved to be nothing more than an athlete playing football. A glorified Darrius Heyward-Bey. Except Patterson had much higher hopes as many fantasy owners were stretching to grab him way too early. There were plenty of terrible players but Patterson took the award home. He was expected to be a star in Norv Turner’s offense but instead ended up being benched and at best the fourth best option from a subpar WR corps. He edged out the unimpressive Doug Martin and Zac Stacy. He also beat out Montee Ball who was awful but didn’t get a chance to rebound because of a groin injury. Injured players are not included in this award but Ball was awful enough when healthy to get a mention. But he couldn’t wrestle the “award” away from Patterson.

Dishonorable Mention: Montee Ball, Doug Martin, Zac Stacy

Playoff Let Down of the year aka The Dwayne Bowe Award
QB Andrew Luck, IND
He was unimpressive in the playoffs but what he did to his owners on championship week is the thing of which nightmares are made. Luck threw for 109 yards, two INTs and no TDs. He added nothing on the ground either. He was so bad that they weren’t even competitive against the Cowboys, and he was benched in the third quarter. The coronation of Luck was clearly too early. Hopefully these late season woes do not become a trend moving forward. We doubt they will, but let’s wait a bit before we crown Luck the next Dan Marino.

Dishonorable Mention: Peyton Manning

Playoff Step Up of the Year
QB Russell Wilson
After a subpar Week 15, Wilson came up huge in the championship game! He threw for 339 yards and two TDs. He then added 88 yards on the ground and another TD on the ground. He has become the best running QB in the league and is putting up numbers only Mike Vick in his heyday can rival. Anybody that played Wilson in their championship game should go out and purchase his jersey with their Christmas money. While so many big name QBs were flopping, Wilson stepped up huge like he always does for the Seahawks in real life.

Honorable Mention: Marshawn Lynch, Odell Beckham Jr

2014 Fantasy MVP
RB Le’Veon Bell
Bell caught up and passed DeMarco Murray for the MVP with a stretch that you have to go back over 30 years to find similar numbers. Luck looked like he could be a candidate but not after that embarrassing performance in the championship game. Bell has rushed for 1,341 yards this fantasy season and has scored 11 TDs. He also caught 77 passes for an additional 774 yards. That’s already over 2,000 yards from scrimmage. He had a three game stretch in which he totaled over 200 yards in each game and scored five TDs. He was the best player during the stretch run to the playoffs and into the playoffs. No player was more valuable. He also fumbled zero times on 359 touches. His 77 receptions, ability to hold on to the ball and coming up huge when it matters most gives him the edge over all competitors. He is a well deserving MVP and likely the first overall pick next season.

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