Fantasy voters come out strong for Brady, Vick

Consistency.

That's all we really ask out of our fantasy football players, and especially our studs.

We don't want the Chris Johnsons, Dwayne Bowes and Aaron Rodgers of the world giving us multiple clunkers during the season.

Yet, those three — while solid overall — gave fantasy football teams plenty of down games that likely cost owners any shot a title.

But there was one player who posted big-time numbers nearly every week and one you could count on without fail in the season's second half: Tom Brady.

The Patriots' QB has 34 TD passes and just 4 interceptions on the season, but what's most impressive is that he has eight straight games of multiple scores (including three 4-TD games) and four 300-yard games.

For his accomplishments, Daily Herald readers handed him our fantasy MVP award with 57 percent of the vote.

Eagles QB Michael Vick (30 total TDs, 3,018 passing yards, 676 rushing) and Texans RB Arian Foster (2,030 yards from scrimmage, 16 TDs) ran neck-and-neck for second place.

I was a bit surprised Vick didn't receive more support, considering he is the top-scoring fantasy QB despite missing three full weeks and most of another.

(Last year's winner: Chris Johnson).

Biggest surprise

Not even a starting quarterback at the beginning of the season, Michael Vick took the league by storm and led the Eagles to the playoffs. What he did for fantasy teams was even more remarkable as many leagues featured Vick in their title games.

Readers handed Vick this award with 47 percent of the vote. Browns RB Peyton Hillis was a distant second at 24 percent.

(Last year's winner: Miles Austin)

Biggest dud

The only surprise here is that Patriots/Vikings/Titans wide receiver Randy Moss didn't receive 100 percent of the vote (he got 76 percent). Ranked second among wideouts in my preseason article, Moss hasn't been a factor since Week 7 despite being healthy all year.

“This guy was ranked as a Round 1 pick and hasn't done anything,” wrote Tim Kontek of Elk Grove Village. “The trade debacles made it even worse.”

You can bet some NFL team next year will take a chance on a soon-to-be 34-year-old with 153 career TDs.

The question is, will you?

(Last year's winner: Matt Forte)

Comeback player

I didn't even leave this one up for a vote. The slam-dunk winner has to be Michael Vick.

Out of the league in 2007 and 2008, Vick came back last season and played a bit part in the Eagles' offense behind Donovan McNabb. His last season with significant stats came in 2006 with Atlanta when he had 22 total TDs and ran for 1,039 yards.

(Last year's winner: Ricky Williams)

Rookie of the year

Bucs WR Mike Williams has been remarkable. With 1 more TD catch, he'll set the team record for most in a season, and with 76 receiving yards he'll be the fourth rookie WR in a decade to reach 1,000 yards (Marques Colston, Anquan Boldin, Michael Clayton).

After 16 weeks, Williams ranks 15th in fantasy points among wideouts, and DH readers gave him the ROY award in a runaway (62 percent) over Sam Bradford, Dez Bryant and LeGarrette Blount.

“Main reason I chose him over Bradford is that, while Bradford has been great, I bet most owners have not used him much,” wrote Mike Schless of Buffalo Grove. “Williams has probably seen the starting lineup the most.”

Williams still isn't a big-time household name, but if you can grab him as a solid WR2 next season, take him and run.

(Last year's winner: Percy Harvin)

My teams: Matt Forte (25 points) and Matt Schaub (19 points) led a balanced attack in my regular-league title game as I prevailed 101-76. In the unit league, it was a tough pill to swallow as I lost 57-54½ while making terrible lineup decisions in starting Matt Ryan (8 points) over Eli Manning (14) and the Dallas defense (half point) over New England (11). Brutal.

See you next year: As always, it's been a fun season. I want to leave you with a bit of a head's up for 2011: Leagues should begin thinking about how they want to attack a potential 18-game NFL schedule.

One of my leagues is a 10-teamer in which we play everybody in our division twice and the other division's teams once. That won't be possible with an 18-game schedule, so we've begun talks about adding two teams so we can continue the same basic approach to the schedule.

In the mean time, let's just hope the NFL gets its labor situation fixed so that there is a full season in 2011.

Have a great off-season, and see you in August.