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Back Page 2001 second-quarter fantasy awards
By Bob Harris, Special to CNNSI.com If it's Week 9 it must be time for the second installment of my quarterly 2001 Fantasy Awards! These awards, of course, honor those players who have, for better or for worse, distinguished themselves above all others over the period in question -- in this case the Second Quarter of the season (Weeks 5, 6, 7 and 8) -- in the following categories (this year's First Quarter honorees appear in parenthesis under the appropriate category):
Fantasy MVP
Fantasy Flop
Ambush Award
Top Comeback Player
The Candy Bone Award So, with the preliminaries out of the way. ... My 2001 Second-Quarter Fantasy Award winners are:
Fantasy MVP: Tom Brady, QB, New England Patriots I'll point out that all of Brady's INTs came late in the fourth quarter of the team's Oct. 28 loss to the Broncos and the 24-year old responded to that performance with a brilliant outing against the Falcons last Sunday. At one point on Sunday, he completed 11 straight passes and when the final whistle blew, Brady had hit 21-for-31 for 350 yards, three touchdown passes and a 124.4 passer rating. Brady heads into the third quarter of the season looking like a seasoned pro and a more than capable playmaker.
Fantasy Flop: Elvis Grbac, QB, Baltimore Ravens Playing in only two of four games this quarter, Grbac has thrown for 280 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. He's also lost a pair of fumbles and in general failed to put up the kind of totals the Ravens, who ponied up $30 million to secure his services back in March, or Fantasy owners, who burnt an early draft pick with visions of the former Michigan star blowing past his 2000 totals (28 TDs, 14 INTs) while working under the offensive-minded Brian Billick. But as Houston Chronicle columnist John McClain wrote last weekend: "[Billick], who elected not to re-sign Trent Dilfer and chose to replace him with Grbac, is blaming injuries in the offensive line rather than his quarterback. But the Ravens could be finding out why the Chiefs were happy to see Grbac leave. ..."
Ambush Award: Anthony Thomas, RB, Chicago Bears Thomas, who has clearly emerged as the pick of the Bears' draft, currently ranks 10th in the NFL in rushing despite starting for only the last three games and has 534 yards on 105 carries for an average of 5.1 yards per carry. Looking at the four games of particular interest -- Weeks 5, 6, 7 and 8, Thomas has rushed for 469 yards with three TDs and pulled in seven passes for another 80 yards.
Top Comeback Player: Ike Hilliard, WR, New York Giants Hilliard has been especially impressive over the last two weeks, starting with a two-reception, 40-yard performance in a losing effort against the Redskins -- a performance that included an impressive 27-yard touchdown catch-and-run in which he eluded one defender, bounced off another and outran a third to the goal line. But the former Florida star managed to follow that one up with an even better outing against the Cowboys last week when he hauled in seven passes for 63 yards and a touchdown.
The Candy Bone Award: Fred Taylor, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars Taylor, who hasn't played since tearing a tendon in his groin away from the bone on Sept. 23, edged out Colts WR Jerome Pathon to make it two in a row. "It's been the most frustrating, the most painful" of all his injuries, Taylor explained this week. "You lose five games on top of it, and it hurts like hell. It hurts to lose, and it hurts when you're injured, and you can't do anything about it but sit back and watch." And unlike the knee injury that cost him considerable down time last year, or his hamstring injury in 1999, Taylor says he has always known his groin would take six to eight weeks to heal -- no less -- and there's no use in hurrying to come back at less than full health. "Because of the position I play, and the type of moves I try and type of burst I need, I need to be 100 percent," he said. "If I'm 75 or 80 percent, thinking I'm just going to go out there and do straight-line running, that's not my game." According to the latest reports out of Jacksonville this week, Taylor has worked out on a limited basis and could return this weekend -- or not. "A lot of people try to put pressure on me," Taylor said. "They say, `When is he going to come back? Is there a Fred sighting?' That stuff doesn't make me smile, it doesn't make me upset. My thing is to better myself. When I'm better, I'll come back, and when I get back, I'll try to play my best." A word of advice to those of you counting on Taylor's return to re-energize your Fantasy team and turn your season around: Don't hold your breath! There you have it. ... Remember: I'll revisit these awards at the three-quarter mark and at season's end before announcing my final 2001 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.
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