Now that the hype around the Super Bowl has died down, and we can stop talking about how good the Seahawks were, let’s talk about what went wrong this season. And no one did it worse than these 25 players in the 2013 season.
25. Fred Davis, TE, Washington Redskins
This one didn’t come as much of a surprise as the others you’ll see on this list, given that he played just seven games in the 2012 season, but a lot of people expected Davis to have a bounce-back year. Spoiler alert: he didn’t. Davis finished the year with just 70 yards, but because he had just 325 yards in 2012, he doesn’t finish higher up on the list.
24. Mark Ingram, RB, New Orleans Saints
Every season, fantasy owners are convinced Ingram is going to have a good year. It still didn’t happen this season. Ingram played in just 11 games, and had only 386 yards and one touchdown. At least in the two previous seasons, Ingram had a total of 10 touchdowns, but it looks like Ingram is falling out of favor with the Saints after this year.
23. Kenbrell Thompkins, WR, New England Patriots
It’s tough to say that a rookie was disappointing, especially one that was an un-drafted free agent signing by the New England Patriots. But what made Thompkins disappointing was that he started out well, breaking 40 yards in his first three games and 127 in Week 4 against the Atlanta Falcons. After that, Thompkins had two games of no catches, and three games of just 16 yards.
22. Montee Ball, RB, Denver Broncos
The Broncos expected Ball to be their No. 2 option at running back, but Knowshon Moreno took over, and Ball was essentially invisible up until the last few games. Ball only had four games of 60 or more rushing yards, and he had just three games where he scored a rushing touchdown. Denver was thankful to have Moreno as an option, and they didn’t get much out of their rookie back.
21. Daryl Richardson, RB, St. Louis Rams
The St. Louis Rams had expected Richardson to be their workhorse heading into the season, but when Zac Stacy returned, he took over, and Richardson appeared in just eight games. On the fantasy side, Richardson was the highest drafted out of all the Rams backs, but he missed every game after the month of October, and finished the year with just one game of more than 50 rushing yards.
20. Michael Vick, QB, Philadelphia Eagles
Everyone knows was Nick Foles did this year, but it’s overlooked how poorly Vick played, which put the Eagles in the position of playing Foles.
In seven games, Vick had six total turnovers and just seven total touchdowns. Vick is a free agent this offseason, and this season didn’t do much to raise his stock.
19. James Jones, WR, Green Bay Packers
Losing Aaron Rodgers for a few games obviously didn’t help the Packers, but their receivers had a number of injuries, starting with Jones. He appeared in 14 games, and managed to finish with 817 yards. But a year after scoring 14 touchdowns, Jones only had three. His yardage totals were up, but the drop-off in touchdowns made this a disappointing for Jones.
18. Darren McFadden, RB, Oakland Raiders
McFadden has been in the NFL for six years now, and it seems like he ends up on these kinds of lists every season (except 2010), but McFadden was back to disappointing once again this season. He had just 379 rushing yards and appeared in only 10 games, and caught just 17 passes out of the backfield. This may have been the nail in the coffin of McFadden’s career.
17. Hakeem Nicks, WR, New York Giants
Any Giants’ offensive player could have ended up on this list, but we’ll start with Nicks. Despite appearing in 15 games, Nicks didn’t score a single touchdown all season. He did have 896 yards, but you can’t follow up years of seven and three touchdowns with none. Eli Manning had a down year, but that’s no excuse for Nicks being held off the scoreboard.
16. Marques Colston, WR, New Orleans Saints
Colston’s totals by the end of the season are pretty impressive, and wouldn’t lead you to believe that he was disappointing.
But Colston was wildly inconsistent. After starting out the year with at least 63 yards in the first four games of the season, he only eclipsed that mark four more times all season, and had the lowest touchdown total in five years.
15. Lamar Miller, RB, Miami Dolphins
From a fantasy and a professional prospective, Miller was pretty disappointing. He had 709 yards on four yards per carry, but he only had two touchdowns, and had just one 100-yard game. Heading into the offseason, the Dolphins have to be disappointed in the production they got out of the second-year Miller.
14. Dwayne Bowe, WR, Kansas City Chiefs
The Bowe hate seemed to carry on all season, and rightfully so. Bowe finished with his lowest yardage total since his third season in the league when he missed five games, yet Bowe only missed one this season. He has never been a big touchdown guy (besides his 15-touchdown year in 2010), but the Chiefs would have liked to see more than five touchdowns out of him. Every week, it seemed to be the week that Bowe was finally going to break out, but that week never came.
13. Danny Amendola, WR, New England Patriots
Everyone knows about Amendola’s injury history, but he was supposed to be the replacement in New England for Wes Welker, but he played in just 12 games (often not even finishing them) and finished the year with 633 yards and two touchdowns. This season cemented Amendola as a receiver who is talented when healthy, but is almost never 100 percent healthy.
12. Randall Cobb, WR, Green Bay Packers
Getting back to Green Bay’s receivers, Cobb followed up his 2012 campaign when he had 954 yards and eight touchdowns with a season when he played in only six games and finished the season with 433 yards and four touchdowns.
Cobb was also a threat on special teams, returning 38 kickoffs of 964 yards in 2012, but this season he only returned one kick for 10 yards.
11. Roddy White, WR, Atlanta Falcons
Back on the injury train, next up, Roddy White. White appeared in 13 games, but he was never really healthy. He finished the season with 711 yards, but it took him until Dec. 1 to have a game of more than 45 receiving yards. When news of White’s injury first came out, the Falcons had to have known it was bad news, but they never expected him to essentially lose a whole season of his career.
10. Victor Cruz, WR, New York Giants
Now we’re at the point of this list when teammates are starting to show up. So we’re back to the Giants now, this time with Cruz, whose touchdown dance and ability to break long touchdowns made him a household name last season. After scoring 19 touchdowns through his first two seasons in the league, Cruz had only four touchdowns, and he had six games of less than 50 yards.
9. Julio Jones, WR, Atlanta Falcons
Here’s another teammate, and here’s another disappointing injury. Injuries have always been an issue for Jones dating back to his days at Alabama, but this season he only played in five games, catching two touchdowns. In the games that he played, Jones showed off what could be with his high level of talent. But once again, injuries caught up to him.
8. Steven Jackson, RB, Atlanta Falcons
And here’s another Falcon, no wonder they finished tied for last in the NFC South. Jackson was one of the most exciting free-agent signings this offseason, but after eight seasons of 1,000 rushing yards, Jackson had quite a dud, playing in 12 games and finishing the year averaging 3.5 yards per carry. This season for Jackson only added to fuel to the “running backs go back after 30” fire.
7. David Wilson, RB, New York Giants
The Giants knew heading into this season that injuries could really hold Wilson back, and he was held out for most of his second season. Wilson’s injury led to a revolving door of running backs in New York, including Peyton Hillis and Brandon Jacobs. A 146-yard year for Wilson is nothing short of a disappointment.
6. Stevan Ridley, RB, New England Patriots
Ridley’s poor season is over-shadowed by the fact that New England was able to make it to the AFC Championship game, but after a strong start to the season Ridley fell out of favor with New England’s coaches. Ridley went through a three-game span when he lost one fumble in each game, which eventually led to his benching. Ridley finished with seven touchdowns, but his yardage really declined from last season, and the Patriots went on just fine without him.
5. Arian Foster, RB, Houston Texans
In his five seasons in the NFL, Foster has only two seasons when he played in all 16 games. After finishing last season with 1,424 yards, Foster sustained another injury, missing eight games and finishing with only 542 yards and just one touchdown, after scoring at least 10 in each of his last three seasons.
The Texans (and not to mention fantasy owners) had to be upset with Foster’s season.
4. Doug Martin, RB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Same old song and dance with Martin as with a lot of other players on this list. Marin appeared in only six games after being touted as one of the top three backs heading into this season. Even in the games that he played, Martin averaged just 3.6 yards per carry and had one rushing touchdown after 11 in his rookie campaign.
3. Ray Rice, RB, Baltimore Ravens
What makes Rice more disappointing than Foster and Martin is that he actually played this season. Although it came out once the Ravens’ season finished that Rice had been dinged up all season, it’s still tough to look past 3.1 yards per carry. Rice had four consecutive 1,000-yard seasons, but didn’t get anywhere close to that this year, having only four games of more than 50 rushing yards.
2. C.J. Spiller, RB, Buffalo Bills
Spiller’s rushing yards were solid this year, but he definitely was disappointing given how hyped he was coming into the season. The Bills had touted Spiller as a top-five back this season, but Fred Jackson turned out to be the No. 1 running option in Buffalo. His receiving production went down even farther, catching just 33 balls for 185 yards after his 2012 season when he pulled in 43 receptions for 459 yards. Oh, and he only had two total touchdowns.
1. Trent Richardson, RB, Indianapolis Colts
No one is more worth of holding this top (bottom?) spot. Richardson had two mediocre games with the Cleveland Browns this season, before he was sent off to the Indianapolis Colts. In Indy, he played 14 games but only had 458 yards and three touchdowns. Donald Brown took over as the starter, despite Indy giving the Browns a first-round draft pick in exchange for Richardson. He’s only played two years in the NFL, but next season could be a make-or-break year for Richardson after the awful season he had in 2013.