FantasyPros - Fantasy Football Awards Show + Reacting to Our Preseason HOT TAKES! (Ep. 1930)

Welcome to FantasyPros. It’s award season, and we’re handing out hardware while revisiting calls we nailed and the ones that face-planted. My three favorite participation trophies, the Welsh, Andrew Erickson, and Scott Bogman, are here, so let’s have some fun without a full-on rant about participation medals.

Before you climb on the soapbox, I’m bracing for the participation trophy speech, but let’s get to the actual trophies before we all get canceled.

Fantasy MVP nominees: Christian McCaffrey, Jackson Smith-Njigba, and Puka Nacua. Cast your votes.

CMC for me. I doubted the mileage after the injuries, but he came back looking supercharged and outscored JSN by a wide margin in half PPR.

CMC gets the consistency crown, but my MVP is JSN. He came out of nowhere, delivered elite weeks, and from week one through fifteen he edged Puka in points per game.

I’m a slave to the numbers. CMC was the top non–Josh Allen scorer per game, so he’s my MVP.

I lean JSN for that steady diet of big yardage and touchdowns, but we’ll split the room and throw it to the people. Playoff MVP time: Puka, Derrick Henry, or Bijan Robinson?

Bijan owned the playoffs. He cleared twenty-five points every week from fifteen through seventeen in half PPR and was a top-three overall scorer in that stretch.

It’s Bijan. Volume plus efficiency when it mattered most.

Quick lightning round: Bijan as the number one pick next year? I’m hearing a yes, a sure, and a cautious head nod. Two-factor approval achieved.

Breakout of 2025: Tucker Kraft, Drake May, or George Pickens?

Drake May, no debate. He finished third overall behind Allen and CMC in half PPR and anyone could draft him.

He threw for almost a thousand more yards than Allen, with thirty-one scores and sneaky rushing baked in, while Allen separated with those rushing touchdowns.

It’s Drake May by a mile. This category was made for him.

Shout to Pickens for a big jump, but the breakout banner belongs to Drake May.

Rookie of the Year: Tetairoa McMillan, Travion Henderson, or RJ Harvey?

Team Tetairoa. He was a weekly starter from the jump and finished as a strong WR2 in total points.

I’ll go Travion. He had the best points-per-game case on fewer touches, even if usage took too long to arrive.

Breaking the tie for T-Mac. He was the only rookie to hit one thousand receiving yards and produced all year with Bryce Young.

McMillan it is. Slow touchdown start, then five more down the stretch sealed it.

Waiver Wire Hero: Michael Wilson, Rico Dowdle, or Matthew Stafford?

Michael Wilson in a walk. He cleared one thousand yards, stayed healthy, and whenever Marvin Harrison Jr. sat, Wilson smashed.

If we count Stafford, the man was a top-three QB and carried teams. But in the truest waiver sense, Wilson is the pick for transforming WR2.

My vote’s Wilson. From week ten on, he was a top-three receiver in points and basically matched Puka when MHJ was out. That was the edge people needed.

Stamp it: Michael Wilson gets the nod.

Sleeper of the Year: Wondale Robinson, Kyle Pitts, or the late riser everyone talked into oblivion.

Kyle Pitts finally cashed the post-post-hype chip. Tight end two and that Thursday night nuke in week fifteen was unforgettable.

Wondale for me. He was free, steady, and finished as a fringe WR1 in total points in many formats, which is wild for how people dismissed him.

Sleeper boards were rough this year, but Wondale stayed a genuine value while others got too trendy.

Make it Wondale. Our nicest friends were downright mean about him, and he still delivered every week.

Bust of the Year: Justin Jefferson, Brian Thomas Jr., or Ladd McConkey?

Name the award after Brian Thomas Jr. The cost was sky high and he never gave you a playable run.

I lean Jefferson because you never benched him. He kept you hostage in the lineup while Thomas was at least cuttable.

Jefferson still posted over a thousand yards, but he rarely won weeks. I’m nudging toward BTJ.

JJ was a top-fifteen receiver through nine weeks. BTJ never strung together a startable stretch.

It’s Brian Thomas Jr., no question. And Ladd deserves side-eye because he had no real excuse and still face-planted.

Custom time. My I-told-you-so award goes to Saquon Barkley. Backs with four hundred carries fall off the next year, and he finished outside RB1 territory again.

My sarcastic RBs-are-dead award goes to the take itself. The top backs basically finished where we drafted them, with CMC earning a side ‘hmm’ for being exactly who many of us said he’d be.

Roster Clogger of the Year goes to Trey Benson, with nods to Jayden Daniels and Garrett Wilson. They lived on your bench with endless questionable tags and gave back nothing when you finally needed them.

My trio: Juggernaut vibes for Cam Skattebo, should’ve had more touches for Travion Henderson, and the no-one-believed-in-me award to Javonte Williams for a rock-solid season.

Hot Wings Hot Takes rewind: Bogman’s mild call had Skattebo leading the Giants in touches until the ankle wrecked it. Erickson’s mild shot at Drake London as overall WR1 became a points-per-game seventh and a lesson to take JSN instead.

My bold take hit: Tucker Kraft as a top-four tight end. He was tight end two per game before the injury, and I’m claiming the win.

My medium fire on Ricky Pearsall leading the 49ers in yards missed, though his per-game flashes and late surge keep him on the 2026 buy-low list.

Erickson’s nuclear take was a blaze: a Bills WR1 season for Elijah Moore. He finished with nine catches and a lot of regret, plus scorching lips from the scorpion sauce.

We’re down to the last two, including the Trinidad Scorpion, billed as the hottest at about two million Scoville, so load up a real dab and tell me if your closing take can top this burn.

My mouth is on fire, but here’s mine: Anthony Richardson finishes as QB six, even if the starting job wobbles early. This scheme supercharges a dynamic quarterback, and with seventeen starts he’s a locked-in QB one.

You had the right read on the system, Boggs, since Daniel Jones landed around QB twelve per game; it was the player swap that tripped you.

That was my point—the offense makes a quarterback pop, so I still like the process, even if the heat is scrambling my words.

A capable quarterback was always going to produce, and nobody could have predicted Philip Rivers popping back up for starts after retiring.

If only we could ping our August selves and say, by the way, Rivers returns for the Colts this year, along with a dozen other wild twists.

That whole stretch felt surreal, and this sauce is not helping me make sense of anything.

They invited me on that heat gauntlet and I passed, which turns out was the right call.

Most folks bailed on that challenge, but I went the distance, and I still have the worst bottle sitting on my desk as proof.

We gave some shaky takes and punished ourselves with awful sauces, and the second-to-last one scorched me more while the scorpion tasted downright evil.

Quick note, it’s scotch bonnet, and with that, tell us your 2025 award picks in the comments, subscribe on Twitch, and join Bogman and me live at 4:15 Eastern for Saturday playoff football on BettingPros YouTube and our Twitch channel. That wraps it for today, but the game keeps rolling—Welsh, Erickson, and Bogman were with me, I’m Joey P, and we’ll catch you next time, kids.