Fantasy Football 2018: MVP is Patrick Mahomes, but who is second?

The MVP of the Fantasy Football 2018 season is without question Mahomes, so who is second? Maybe we should call this the non-quarterback MVP of fantasy football. Value and points scored must be considered equally.

The fantasy football 2018 regular season is now over in nearly every league type. Those that go with just two playoff weekends (and forgo Week 17) have reached the postseason. That means it’s time to award a fantasy football MVP.

Unlike the real league, a fantasy MVP is not just the best player. It is the best value this year, although that player could be one in the same as the best player. This year, we are arguing second place. Can anyone put up a reasonable argument against Patrick Mahomes? If not, then who is second, or stated another way, who is the non-quarterback fantasy MVP?

Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, debate Fantasy Football 2018 in today’s NFL Sports Debate.

Todd Salem:

Mahomes is far and away the leading scorer in PPR leagues. He’s scored roughly 20 points more than any other player and about 60 more than any other quarterback. The gulf is even wider in standard leagues between he and non-quarterbacks. Considering he was the 13th QB drafted this year and went outside the top 100 players on average, is there any way another player has been more valuable?

No other QB has any case, but the depth at the position still opens the door for other values. In aforementioned PPR, only one QB made the top five scorers, but half of the top dozen and 13 of the top 30 were still passers. That means a top three round value in terms of points scored could have been had even later than Mahomes went. And in standard leagues, the top 20 was entirely dominated by quarterbacks, making up 75 percent of it. Like usual, any old passer would give you elite production.

Would a team have been better off with any old passer (who still scored more than 250 fantasy points) paired with James Conner, James White, and/or Tyler Boyd? They each were undrafted in standard leagues and came out of nowhere to surpass 200 fantasy points.

Or what about George Kittle? The tight end position was a complete disaster this season, with only three TEs reaching even 850 receiving yards so far this season. The first two are expected. Kittle was not. He was not drafted as a top 12 player at his position yet became a better option than Rob Gronkowski.

The Chicago defense is in a similar boat. It blew away all positional competition. Of course, few people should have used anything more than a late-round pick on any defense, so value is negligible.

No one legitimately has a case over Mahomes, though. Non-PPR leagues would offer a better argument, but it’s tricky there too. His domination over quarterbacks compared with other positions is far less, but his domination of those other positions is even starker. He is the MVP any way you cut it.

Dan Salem:

Mahomes is the slam dunk Fantasy Football 2018 MVP, so which player wins second place? Since a quarterback “always” wins the MVP award, maybe we should call runner-up the Non-Quarterback MVP. That joke did not land as well I’d hoped. Regardless, who was the best non-quarterback in Fantasy Football 2018?

You’ve made a strong case for several players, but I must eliminate a few. Kittle and the Chicago defense easily blew away their positional peers, yet neither position is of high value. Sure, stealing 10+ points from either spot in a week always helps, and both Kittle and Chicago achieved this more often than not.

But tight end was a disaster of a position, inflating Kittle’s value, while defense remains a fantasy afterthought, even if it often proves the difference between victory and defeat. We must talk wide receivers and running backs for our non-QB MVP.

The receiver position had very few breakouts this season, with the lone exception being the aforementioned Boyd. Many players proved to be disappointments, but few actually did significantly better than we expected. Calvin Ridley of Atlanta had a chance to elevate into this conversation, but dropped off a cliff since early November. Only a few running backs actually proved us wrong and crushed their preseason value. Yet one player stands above the rest, and we truly should have seen it coming.

James Conner is my non-quarterback MVP this season. Not only did he keep LeVeon Bell off the field, but he managed to be as great as Bell on it. Most owners thought Bell would come back, or that Conner would be less of a fantasy performer. He was anything but, blowing away his value and actually proving to be everything to the Steelers’ offense.

Just look at what happened the last few weeks while he has battled injury. Pittsburgh is not the same. While Bell was the 11th running back taken on average, Conner was selected 31st, if he was chosen at all. In a ten team league that plays three running backs, he was a bench add at best during most drafts.