Didn't expect Baker the Touchdown Maker to lead this off, did ya?

In terms of raw stats, the 2024 season belonged to Joe Burrow under center—Burrow led the league in passing yards (4,918) and touchdown passes (43). Lamar Jackson (remember that name, you'll hear it again) had the most fantasy points among quarterbacks.

But both of those quarterbacks were off draft boards by the end of Round 6. Mayfield wasn't drafted inside the top-20 at his own position in his second season in Tampa.

But after the best season of his career in terms of both passing yards and touchdown passes, Mayfield finished the season as fantasy's No. 3 quarterback—and won quite a few fantasy managers' leagues along the way.

Ricky Williams had an, um, eventful career in the NFL. The New Orleans Saints traded their entire draft class to Washington for the right to draft Williams fifth overall, only to then flip Williams to the Miami Dolphins after three years.

With Williams the highs were high and the lows were low. And that first season in Miami in 2002 was as high as Williams ever got.

Get it?

In that first season on South Beach, Williams led the league in carries, paced the NFL with over 1,800 rushing yards, averaging almost 116 yards per game. Finished second in rushing touchdowns to Priest Holmes. And checked in third among running backs in PPR points behind Holmes and LaDainian Tomlinson.

It was the only Pro Bowl season of Williams' career.

The career of Sterling Sharpe was as much about what could have been as what was. Over seven years in the NFL, Sharpe topped 1,100 yards five times, scored 65 touchdowns and made five Pro Bowls. But after the 1994 season, Sharpe had surgery to repair a neck injury and never played another snap.

That injury-shortened career was enough to get Sharpe into the Pro Football Hall of Fame though—and the 1992 season was his Sharpest.

That was punderfully witty.

That year, Sharpe won the "Triple Crown," pacing the league in receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns. In news that should surprise no one, Sharpe was also fantasy football's No. 1 wideout, beating out the great Jerry Rice by a sizable margin.

The decade of the 2000s was something of a golden age for fantasy running backs. LaDainian Tomlinson. Priest Holmes. Shaun Alexander. All were at the height of their statistical prowess, racking up yards and PPR points in gaudy fashion.

Brian Westbrook sometimes gets lost in the shuffle among those fantasy greats. But the 2007 campaign belonged to "Westy."

That year, only Tomlinson and Adrian Peterson (in his rookie year) had more rushing yards than Westbrook. But it was as a receiver where he truly went off—his 118 targets that year were easily the most at the position, and 90 catches and five receiving touchdowns helped propel Westbrook past Tomlinson and into the top spot in the backfield.

Come with me if you will and hop into the Tardis so that we can travel back to the long-ago days of last season.

Hey, at least it's a short trip.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba is now the highest-paid wide receiver in the history of the National Football League, and the 2025 season is the reason "JSN" now makes just over $42 million a season.

It's good work if you can get it.

On the way to capturing Offensive Player of the Year honors, Smith-Njigba led the league with almost 1,800 receiving yards and finished third in receptions and tied for third in touchdown catches.

It's the last time Smith-Njigba is going to be available in the third round of fantasy drafts.

Over nine years in the NFL, Austin Ekeler never rushed for 1,000 yards. But there was a stretch when Ekeler was considered an elite fantasy option—especially in PPR formats.

Because Ekeler caught the ball out of the backfield—a lot.

The 2022 season was Ekeler's best as a rusher—he topped 900 yards on the ground and was second in the league in rushing scores. But it was the passing game that shot Ekeler into the top spot among running backs—Ekeler's 107 catches in 2022 were over 20 more than any other running back had that season, and Ekeler found the end zone five more times through the air.

It was the last top-20 fantasy finish of Ekeler's NFL career.

Darren Waller's story was a rags-to-riches one. A Day 3 wide receiver pick who converted to tight end and lost over a season to multiple suspensions for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy.

But once Waller joined the Raiders in 2019, the lightbulb appeared to come on—and the following season, that light cranked up to 150 watts.

In the Raiders' first season in Sin City, Waller led all NFL tight ends with 146 targets and 107 receptions. Only Travis Kelce had more receiving yards at the position, and only Kelce and Robert Tonyan had more touchdown catches.

Waller finished second in PPR points among tight ends that year—far and away the best season of his professional career.

When Cam Newton entered the NFL in 2011, fantasy managers were skeptical about the statistical impact he would make on a bad Panthers team. Newton was drafted outside the top-20 fantasy quarterbacks that year.

We should have known better than to doubt Superman.

In a season where three quarterbacks threw for over 5,000 yards, Newton barely cracked 4,000. His 21 touchdown passes ranked outside the top-10. But Newton also led all quarterbacks in rushing yards and scored more rushing touchdowns than the next three quarterbacks in that category combined.

Newton finished that first professional season third in fantasy points among signal-callers, making him a league-winning steal given his non-existent cost.

He'll also be making another appearance on this list.

That's called foreshadowing.

Torry Holt was a key component of "The Greatest Show on Turf"—one of the most high-octane offenses in NFL history. From 2000-2007, Holt piled up eight straight seasons with over 1,000 receiving yards.

By the time the 2003 season rolled around, the GSOT's heyday was behind them—Kurt Warner was benched after six fumbles in the season opener. But a new quarterback didn't slow down "Big Game" even a little.

That season, Holt led the league in both receptions and receiving yards. Had Randy Moss not been a big fat jerk and caught 17 touchdown passes that season, Holt would have won the receiving "Triple Crown."

Moss was also fantasy's No. 1 receiver that year, but Holt was only about a PPR point per game off the pace.