RADIO
The biggest bust of 2017 was literally the wide receiver position. The article should just end right now. Did you take a WR in the first 36 picks? He was probably a bust. ZeroRB drafters were seriously punished last season as the edge they needed to gain at the WR position was nonexistent. Here are a handful of names that completely failed us at WR. For a more detailed explanation and discussion on what exactly happened to the WR position in 2017, (shameless self promotion alert), I wrote an article about it!
Julio Jones (ATL)
What? Julio Jones? How is he a bust? This list is total nonsense. He finished as the WR7 by average points. Sure he was drafted as a top three WR, but a WR7 finish isn't worth of being labeled a bust...except when it is. Julio Jones' top seven finish is a mirage. You look at the final numbers and they look just fine. But even removing the fact that Jones' 15.9 ppg wouldn't be anywhere near WR1 numbers most years, he was even worse than that. Flipping to total numbers for a moment, Jones scored 238.9 fantasy points from weeks 1-16. He scored 22.5% of his entire season's worth of fantasy points in one game. I know the whole "if you remove xyz" hypothetical is fundamentally unfair because the outlier weeks count, but when I draft a fantasy WR1, I want a weekly WR1. Obviously that doesn't mean WR1 performance every week, but how about at least more often than not? If you remove Jones' 53.8 point performance against Tampa Bay, do you know what his weekly average ppg is? It's 13.22, good for about the WR19 spot. For 14 out of the 15 games Jones played for your fantasy team this season, he was a mid WR2. Is that worthy of the bust label for a consensus first round pick? I think so.
Jordy Nelson (GB)
It's a difficult to task to actually pinpoint the biggest bust at any position. Not in 2017. Jordy Nelson made that mighty easy. He was not just the biggest bust at WR, but the biggest bust in fantasy football. The guy's ADP was late first round. From weeks 7-16, Nelson did not post a fantasy point total over 7.5. I'm not going to go through every WR in the league to see how many got to double digits at least once in that span, but if I had to ball park a guess, I'd say it would be over 75. But not Jordy Nelson. You can blame Aaron Rodgers' injury all you want. Davante Adams was just fine, if not better, without Rodgers. And when Rodgers came back, albeit for one game, Nelson remained an afterthought. When a first round pick finishes outside the top 36 WRs, he gets bust of the year.
Mike Evans (TB)
Mike Evans is not the bust of the year, but he did disappoint. He was still startable on a weekly basis, unlike Nelson who should've been dropped by about week 10. He just wasn't as good as he should've been. Evans finished as the WR15 by average ppg. For all intents and purposes, he was a great high end WR2. The problem is he was drafted to be a mid WR1 and he didn't come close. Evans averaged close to 3.0 ppg lower than the guys that finished where Evans was drafted to finish. Evans struggled mightily with a case of mediocrity. He just didn't have any boom weeks. His highest scoring week was his 22.3 point performance in his first game of the season in week 2. Five weeks later, he cracked the 20 point threshold again...for the last time. Evans only had four single digit scoring weeks, but only two 20+ weeks. Otherwise, he was simply good not great.
Amari Cooper (OAK)
Maybe I labeled Jordy Nelson the bust of the year prematurely. Amari Cooper can certainly give him a run for his money. Cooper was a late second round pick, though, which isn't as damaging a failed pick as where Nelson went. Cooper was spectacularly bad this season with a three game stretch where he totaled 6.3 fantasy points. The funny part is Cooper still finished with more double digit scoring weeks than Nelson. He was useful more than Nelson was, but still a mega bust. Cooper only had three games all season with double digit targets and only in his 44 point outburst against Kansas City did Cooper catch more than five passes. When both volume and efficiency decrease significantly, it's hard to produce.
Terrelle Pryor (WAS)
Terrelle Pryor was around a mid third round pick. I thought I was bullish on Pryor heading into this season because I believed in his talent. However, when it came time to pull the trigger on Pryor in a real draft, I just couldn't do it...ever. I owned zero Terrelle Pryors this season and I'm glad I hesitated at the moment of truth. Pryor entered the season with legitimate WR1 upside. He only played eight games and averaged a mere 6.3 ppg. Yeah that was outside the top 100. It's hard to get worse than that. In terms of disparity between where he was drafted and where he finished, he's probably the biggest bust of the year, but Nelson retains the award due to being a first round pick versus a third round pick. Pryor is probably done in Washington. He's better than his 2017, but anyone relying on him got killed for half a season because it took a good six weeks before you could accept benching him.
