With week eight now in the books, the NFL season has reached its midpoint. Teams have now played half their games, or close to it, and it has now become clear who is a contender and who has some work to do come this off-season.The same can be said for fantasy football owners. With half a season of football in the books it is now clear who had the best drafts, which picks were good and which picks didn't work out. That being the case, here are your 2009 fantasy football midseason awards.
Biggest Surprise: Ray Rice - RB (Baltimore)
There are a number of reasons why Ray Rice has been a phenomenal surprise this season. Coming into this season, Rice was considered to be a secondary option to Willis McGahee, which would have limited his carries. The fact that the Baltimore offense has historically been a fairly unproductive one contributed to the belief that Rice would be a useful but not outstanding fantasy player this year after he showed promise in his rookie year. But this season, Rice has blown all of those beliefs out of the water. Rice has already eclipsed his rushing totals from a year ago in four less games, and is now ranked as the No. 9 player overall on Yahoo.com, despite entering the season at No. 121. With 525 rushing yards and four touchdowns to complement his 349 receiving yards and one touchdown, Rice has without a doubt been this season's biggest surprise.
Honorable Mentions: Joe Flacco, Brett Favre.
Biggest Bust: LenDale White - RB (Tennessee)
The fact that Chris Johnson has gone crazy for the Titans while the rest of the team has imploded makes LenDale White's drop in production somewhat unsurprising. What is shocking, however, is just how far he has fallen off. Up to this point, White has rushed for only 195 yards on the entire season, with only one touchdown. Last season White rushed for 773 yards and 15 touchdowns! The main problem for White hasn't been performance so much as it's been a lack of opportunity. The fact is that Chris Johnson has just performed so well that the Titans haven't really needed to use White this season, even in the short-yardage situations he was so effective in during seasons past. The bottom line is, fantasy football managers who drafted White hoping he would produce a lot of touchdowns have not gotten the results they were looking for, and that is why LenDale White is this season's biggest fantasy bust.
Dishonorable Mentions: Brian Westbrook, LaDainian Tomlinson.
Best Performance - Tom Brady - QB (New England)
What Tom Brady did to the Tennessee Titans back in week six was nothing short of astounding. Brady threw six touchdown passes on the day, including five in the second quarter alone. He also threw for 380 yards and completed 29 of 34 passes, despite the snowy conditions. What makes this performance even more incredible is the fact that Brady was taken out of the game midway through the third quarter. Had Brady been allowed to finish the game, it is likely he would have continued to abuse the Titans defense and probably obliterated all of the NFL single game records that he didn't already break in the course of the game. Fantasy owners who started Tom Brady that game reaped huge benefits, as Brady's performance was good for 39 points on the day in basic leagues, more than any other player has earned during any single game this season.
Honorable Mentions: San Francisco defense - Week 4, Drew Brees - Week 1, Roddy White - Week 5.
Most Valuable Player - Adrian Peterson - RB (Minnesota)
There is nothing that needs to be said about Adrian Peterson. His numbers (784 rushing yards, nine touchdowns) speak for themselves.
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