The 25 Biggest Fantasy Football Busts of All Time

From '97 Jeff Blake to Chris Johnson in 2011.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Fantasy football drafts are a game of values. You're trying to decide what player fits best with your draft slot, what positional needs you have, and if it's worth it to go quarterback over running back in the first round. For the vast majority of us, we'll look back at the end of the 2013 fantasy NFL season and think, "What went wrong?" Last year, it all went wrong when you drafted Ryan Mathews over Adrian Peterson. Bust. Or, in 2011, because you took Chris Johnson and held off on taking another RB for another three rounds. Bust. Or maybe in 2008, you drafted Tom Brady in the first round. Bust. Reasons for fantasy football failures vary—injuries, bad teams, unreasonable expectations, poor luck, Father Time—these are all valid.

It may not be fair to call 2008 Brady or 2012 Larry Fitzgerald "busts," because their shortcomings were largely out of their control, but what does that matter to fantasy owners? They're still getting screwed out of the fantasy points they were counting on. Anytime an owner doesn't get the expected production return on the pick based on previous seasons, the player is a bust. Hence, once elite quarterbacks, wide receivers, and running backs dominate this list, because higher picks are usually invested in these positions, making the risk-reward greater than that of a tight-end, defense, or kicker. Take a regret-filled trip down fantasy memory lane and remember the busts of years past through The 25 Biggest Fantasy Football Busts of All Time.

*Although fantasy football has been around for over 30 years, CBS launched the first online fantasy football beta in 1997. We'll only be judging players in this modern fantasy era.

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2012 Larry Fitzgerald

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2012 LeSean McCoy

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2007 Larry Johnson

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2007 Derek Anderson

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2008 Braylon Edwards

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2007 Vince Young

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2005 Joe Horn

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2006 Cadillac Williams

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2007 Rudi Johnson

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2008 Joseph Addai

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2008 Ben Roethlisberger

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2003 Tiki Barber

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1997 Jeff Blake

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2001 Edgerrin James

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2008 Roy Williams

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2005 Daunte Culpepper

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2004 Jamal Lewis

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2002 Kurt Warner

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2006 Shaun Alexander

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2012 Ryan Mathews

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2001 Eddie George

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2008 Tom Brady

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2009 Matt Forte

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1997 Emmitt Smith

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2011 Chris Johnson

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