Right now, Travis Kelce is on the downslope of his career. But even a declining Kelce is still productive—he was fourth in PPR points among tight ends last year and hasn't finished outside the top five at the position in a decade.

In his prime though, Kelce ruled the tight end spot with an iron fist. From 2016 to 2022, Kelce posted seven straight seasons with over 1,000 receiving yards. He topped 100 catches three times. Scored 10 or more touchdowns three times. And led the tight end position in PPR points six times.

The seventh year he finished second—that bum.

2022 was the last of those seasons—the final year of King Kelce's unquestioned dominance of tight ends. But he went out with a bang. That year Kelce was targeted a career-high 152 times. He set a career-high in receptions. Topped 1,300 receiving yards. Found the end zone a dozen times. And had six games with at least 100 receiving yards.

It was the second-highest PPR point total ever for a tight end. And arguably the most dominant season by a player at his position ever—Kelce outscored the No. 2 tight end in 2022 by a touchdown per contest.

There hasn't been a more consistently dominant player at his position—period.

In the history of the National Football League, no running back has more career rushing yards than the 18,355 that Emmitt James Smith III accrued over 15 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals.

Starting in his second season, Smith piled up a staggering streak of production. Smith topped 1,000 yards on the ground 11 times—in a row. Despite a heavy workload year after year, Smith missed just six games over that span—and a third of those were due to a contract dispute.

Smith was the offensive engine for a Cowboys team that won three Super Bowls in four years—and the 1995 season was his best.

By that year, Smith had led the league in rushing three times. He had been named the NFL's Most Valuable Player. But the 1995 campaign was his most productive—Smith set career-highs in rushing yards, rushing scores and receptions. He averaged over 110 yards per game on the ground and paced the NFL with 2,148 total yards. Smith found the end zone a whopping 25 times that year. And he blew up to the tune of over 425 PPR points—the most of any player that season.

The 10th overall pick in the 2017 draft, Patrick Mahomes spent his first professional season watching Alex Smith play quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs. The following year, the Chiefs handed Mahomes the keys to the offense.

And Mahomes proceeded to break the land speed record.

Sure, people expected Mahomes to be good. But when he threw for 326 yards and six touchdowns against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 2, we knew we were in for something special.

And Mahomes was only getting started. That was the first of eight straight 300-yard games for Mahomes. He would throw for six scores again later that season in the infamous 54-51 shootout with the Los Angeles Rams. Mahomes had six games that season with four or more touchdown passes.

By the time the dust settled, Mahomes had posted one of the greatest statistical seasons by a quarterback ever, joining Peyton Manning as the only two quarterbacks to throw for 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns.

Mahomes was the highest-scoring player in fantasy and the top quarterback by over 60 points. And with an ADP in low-end weekly starter territory, Mahomes was one of the best values we've ever seen under center.

Jerry Rice was pretty good at the whole catching a football thing.

Over a 20-year NFL career, Rice caught 1,549 passes for 22,895 yards and 197 touchdowns. Every one of those numbers is No. 1 all-time.

So is Rice. He's the best wideout to ever play the game. Full stop. And 1995 was his best season.

Entering 1995, Rice was riding a nine-year streak of racking up at least 1,000 receiving yards. He had scored at least 10 touchdown catches in six straight seasons. He was a Super Bowl champion, a two-time Offensive Player of the Year and a lock for the Hall of Fame.

Rice's 1995 campaign was the icing on all that tasty cake.

That year, Rice set a career high in targets. And catches. And receiving yards. His 1,848 receiving yards was an NFL record at the time. Rice had four games that season with over 10 catches and 150 yards—including 14 receptions for 289 yards and three touchdowns against the Minnesota Vikings—in fantasy championship week.

At season's end Rice was the only wide receiver with over 400 PPR points and one of just two players overall to surpass that total.

In 2018, we watched Patrick Mahomes go from low-end weekly starter on draft day to dominant fantasy force in his second professional season.

The following season, it was Lamar Jackson's turn.

The last pick of Round 1 in 2018, Jackson headed into that second season coming off a strong finish to his rookie year. In the first game of that season, Jackson shredded the Miami defense for 324 yards and five touchdown passes. The following week, it was 272 yards and two scores through the air and another 120 yards on the ground.

That dual-threat ability propelled Jackson into fantasy mega-stardom.

That Week 1 game was the only time that Jackson threw for 300 yards. But he topped 100 yards on the ground five times on the way to 1,206 rushing yards—more than any other quarterback in the history of the NFL.

In addition to all those rushing yards (and seven touchdowns on the ground), Jackson also completed over 66 percent of his passes for over 3,100 yards and an NFL-high 36 touchdown passes.

In terms of just raw fantasy points, it wasn't the best season of Jackson's career. But when you factor in an ADP at the back end of Round 9, it's the best fantasy campaign a quarterback has ever had.

When the greatest running backs to ever play the game are discussed, you won't hear Priest Holmes' name mentioned. He only had four 1,000-yard seasons in a career that was cut short by injuries. By the 2005 season, Holmes had been pushed aside by Larry Johnson as the lead back in Kansas City.

But before he was cast aside the Chiefs rode Holmes in a big way—and in 2003 that resulted in the fourth-biggest PPR season we have ever seen from a running back.

It wasn't Holmes' best season in terms of rushing yards—in fact, over his three-year reign as (arguably) fantasy football's top back, his 1,420 yards on the ground that year were the lowest. But it was the best season of his career in terms of receptions, and in 2003 Holmes found the end zone a jaw-dropping 27 times—at the time the all-time high-water mark in that category. Holmes edged out LaDainian Tomlinson that year for the top spot among running backs, posting over 450 PPR points.

Sadly, that was pretty much it for Holmes. He averaged 111.5 yards per game on the ground in 2004 but missed half the season, and by 2005 Grandmama had usurped him in Kansas City.

Wait. That's the wrong Larry Johnson.

The 2021 season was Cooper Kupp's fifth in the NFL. By that year, he had already exceeded the third-round pick the Rams spent on him, topping 90 catches in a season twice and topping 1,150 yards with 10 touchdowns in 2019.

At that point, Kupp was regarded as a valuable fantasy asset but not an elite one—his average draft position was in the fourth round. In March of 2021, the Rams sent Jared Goff and two first-round picks to the Detroit Lions for Matthew Stafford.

And that new quarterback would propel Kupp to the single-most productive PPR season any wide receiver has ever had.

It didn't take long for it to become abundantly clear that Kupp was in for a massive season—he caught seven passes for 108 yards and a touchdown in the season opener before erupting for nine catches for 163 yards and two scores in Week 2. Kupp was targeted at least 10 times in each of the Rams' first seven games.

At season's end, Kupp was targeted 191 times. He paced the league in receptions, receiving yards and receiving scores, becoming the fourth wideout since the AFL-NFL merger to win the receiving "Triple Crown."

Kupp finished just shy of 440 PPR points and was the highest-scoring player in the league.

There is no shortage of outstanding running backs in the NFL in 2026, whether it's Christian McCaffrey, Jahmyr Gibbs or Bijan Robinson.

But the dawn of the 21st century was a golden age for fantasy managers in the backfield. There were multiple backs in their prime who went on to make the Hall of Fame. Others who had shorter but still wildly productive careers. 400-point fantasy seasons happened with a fair amount of regularity.

Marshall Faulk was as dominant as any of them—the offensive fulcrum of "The Greatest Show on Turf." His ability to gain yardage both on the ground and through the air made him a fantasy manager's dream. Faulk rushed for over 1,000 yards seven times and had four consecutive seasons with over 2,000 total yards.

And in 2000, Faulk had the best fantasy season of his career on the way to being named the NFL's Most Valuable Player.

Faulk cleared 1,300 yards on the ground. Surpassed 80 catches and 800 receiving yards. Flirted with 2,200 total yards. And scored a league-high 26 touchdowns.

Faulk wasn't just fantasy's No. 1 running back. Or the top player overall. He was the No. 1 fantasy asset by more than 50 PPR points.

There have been three running backs in NFL history who have gained over 1,000 rushing yards and over 1,000 receiving yards in the same season. The first two of those campaigns have already been discussed on this list.

But in terms of PPR points, Christian McCaffrey's 2019 rampage was the biggest of the lot.

As McCaffrey entered his third season with the Carolina Panthers, he was coming off the first 1,000-yard rushing season of his career. He added 107 receptions in 2018 and fell just shy of Saquon Barkley for the title of fantasy football's highest-scoring running back.

As it turns out, he was only getting started.

McCaffrey's 2019 was bananas. In his first game of that season, he carried the ball 19 times for 128 yards and two scores. Topped 200 total yards. And caught 10 passes.

It's those receptions that shot McCaffrey into the stratosphere. McCaffrey would go on to tally 116 catches that year—the most ever in a season by a running back. McCaffrey topped 400 touches, came up just short of 2,400 total yards and scored 19 times.

McCaffrey was the highest-scoring player in fantasy football by over 40 fantasy points, and he was the top running back by over 150 PPR points.

Yes, you read that right. A buck-fifty.

Putting together this list was equal parts fun and folly. An enjoyably impossible endeavor. I have zero doubt that there will be no shortage of comments on social media from people railing that so-and-so is ranked ahead of such-and-such—despite the fact that the gap between No. 25 and No. 45 is that there isn't one.

All of these seasons were great and merit celebration. There are dozens more that missed the cut but are remembered fondly by fantasy managers who reaped the rewards.

But while there's loads of room for debate about most of this assemblage of awesome, one thing is certain. A mortal lock.

No one in the history of fantasy football has had a better season than LaDainian Tomlinson in 2006.

If you had Tomlinson rostered that season, you likely won your league. If your opponent did, you just chalked up that week as a loss and prayed you wouldn't see them again in the playoffs.

He was that good.

Tomlinson led the league in rushing with over 1,800 rushing yards. Topped 2,300 total yards for the second time in his career. And set an NFL record with (and this is not a misprint) 31 total touchdowns.

Steven Jackson's big year kept the running back position from being a complete runaway, but Tomlinson averaged over 30 PPR points per game.

Boom goes the dynamite.