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From MVP to Flop, here are the First Quarter Fantasy Awards

By Bob Harris, Special to SI.com

Hey now! If it's Week 5, it must be time for the first installment of my quarterly Fantasy Awards, which honor those players who have -- for better or for worse -- distinguished themselves above all others over the four-game stretch in question. For those of you new to these awards, here are the categories:

Fantasy MVP: The player who performed above and beyond the expectations of fantasy owners, an impact player who regularly made the difference between winning and losing.

Fantasy Flop: The player we believe came the furthest from meeting the preseason fantasy expectations. This award is based solely on performance. Players missing significant time due to injury are not considered.

Ambush Award: The player turning in the most surprising fantasy performance based on preseason expectations, or more precisely, the lack of same.

Top Comeback Player: The player who best overcame past non-productivity and/or ineffectiveness due to injury, a weak supporting cast or other adversities to surpass the lowered preseason expectations resulting from their previous problems.

The Candy Bone Award: The "crown jewel" of these awards! Given to the player who above all others failed to meet preseason expectations due to injury.

So, with the preliminaries out of the way, here you have 'em -- my 2003 First Quarter Fantasy Award winners:

Fantasy MVP: Priest Holmes, RB, Kansas City
Surprise, surprise. You'd think a guy would learn, but not me. For the third year in a row I backed off Holmes in my preseason rankings, letting him fall to the No. 4 spot behind LaDainian Tomlinson, Ricky Williams and Marshall Faulk.

Good call.

My annual offseason doubts notwithstanding, Holmes is delivering again. In fact, he's actually continued a trend of emerging as an even more spectacular version of himself each September.

So far this season Holmes has carried the ball 84 for 386 yards and seven touchdowns. He's added another 184 yards on 17 catches. That's an average of 5.6 yards per touch.

In addition to his obvious skill and talent, Holmes gets a major boost from his coaching staff. As offensive coordinator Al Saunders put it: "We've learned what Priest does best. We like to say we're an optional hole, space run team. The more we can get on the perimeter, the better we are."

As a result, Holmes is being used more on delayed plays like screens and draws, and on perimeter runs and passes. The Chiefs no longer give Holmes a specific hole to run through, they let a play develop behind what might be one of the best offensive lines in the NFL, then let him pick and choose his spots.

All of which makes me wonder if anybody will be able to knock Holmes out of this spot as the season progresses.

Others considered: None.

Fantasy Flop: Kurt Warner, QB, St. Louis
Well, this one is pretty obvious, considering I constantly ranked Warner among my top 10 Fantasy quarterbacks this preseason.

And with good reason. The guy couldn't miss this summer. He only threw four incomplete passes in camp. And as Buccaneers head coach Jon Gruden pointed out after Warner hit 7-of-7 against his defense during an Aug. 18 preseason game: "That's hard to do in pre-game warmups."

Now I realize Warner officially lost his job after suffering a concussion, but that's clearly not the reason he's still watching from the sidelines.

Others considered: None.

Ambush Award: Anquan Boldin, WR, Arizona
Wow. This was a tough one, eh? After all, there's a reason the NFL just named him offensive rookie of the month for September after the second-round draft pick caught 30 passes for 464 yards -- setting records in both categories for anyone's first four games.

Anyone. As in Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, Marvin Harrison or Terrell Owens.

So why didn't anybody know who he was before September?

As Associated Press sports writer Mel Reisner noted, an injury and Boldin's versatility are to blame. He passed and ran for a Florida state record 11,433 yards at Pahokee High School. Switched to wide receiver with the Seminoles, he missed the 2001 season after tearing a knee ligament, started only 23 games in two other seasons and finished his junior year as Florida State's Sugar Bowl quarterback by default after one player higher on the depth chart was suspended and another was kicked off the team.

Boldin left school early for the draft this year, and didn't impress anyone with his 40-yard time. But Jeff Blake told Reisner that Boldin seems born for the NFL.

"He's been playing football his whole life, and he knows how to play the game," Blake said. "It's not hard -- you catch the ball, you run and try to score. I mean, he's doing a great job just playing basic football and letting his talent take over once he gets the ball in his hand."'

Others considered: None.

Top Comeback Player: Stephen Davis, RB, Carolina
After languishing under Steve Spurrier and his Fun-n-Gun offense in Washington last year, Davis has clearly found his niche. He's already run the football 76 times in three games, which means he's on pace to carry it 405 times this season.

Asked if that's too much work for Davis, head coach John Fox said, "The one thing I know about NFL players is sometimes they complain about not getting used enough and sometimes they complain about getting used too much. So we're going to find that happy median hopefully, and I think Stephen will be able to handle that load."

Davis had accounted for 52.8 percent of Carolina's offensive output this season.

Others considered: None

Candy Bone Award: Mike Vick, QB, Atlanta As an owner who drafted Vick early in multiple drafts held prior to his injury this summer, this one was a slam-dunk, too.

But on a more positive note, Vick has done some light on-field work with trainer Ron Medlin -- including some throwing -- the last two days and head coach Dan Reeves told reporters, "He's had a lot of progress the last three or four days."

I'll remind you, however, that few observers think Vick will play before the Falcons' Oct. 19 game at home against New Orleans.

Others considered: Marshall Faulk, RB, St. Louis.

That's all for now. I'll revisit these awards on a quarterly basis over the remainder of the regular season before announcing my final 2003 Full Season Fantasy Award winners following Week 17.

Bob Harris is Editor and Webmaster of the TFL Report and Senior Editor for Fantasy Sports Publications.