The season of spring usually means baseball, Masters golf, and March Madness, but for me – it means writing some articles for some Fantasy Football magazines. Since it’s before the NFL Draft happens, the articles I wrote were actually more to do with the history of the hobby – which brings us to this piece!
In my research, I came across the 1984 NFL season, and started looking a little closer at the final regular season statistics of the best players. What I found blew my mind – and I thought we’d discuss my blown mind, and hopefully blow yours! (I said “blow” way too much.)
1984 Fantasy Football Season: Three No. 1 Overall Picks (…. Almost 4!)
What I learned, by checking out the Fantasy Football pages of each season over on ProFootballReference.com, is that the 1984 NFL season was the best year ever to have the No. 2, 3 and 4 pick in your Fantasy draft!
This was just two years after the NFL’s strike shortened the 1982 season, and very few people were playing Fantasy Football, and even fewer used yardage in their scoring system like we do today. But looking back, it’s amazing how close the top four players were that season.
FootballGuys.com’s Joe Bryant devised the “Value-Based Draft” method of ranking players before a Fantasy draft, based on projections. But that method can also be used at the end of the regular season to determine the true Fantasy value of players compared to others – both at their position and overall.
ProFootballReference.com uses that VBD method to rank players in each NFL season. So the top player in VBD would be considered the best Fantasy Football player that season. If you went back in time, he would be the top overall pick.
I looked at the post-year VBD of all players over the past 50 years or so, and it was rare to see two players really close in value – and extremely rare to see three players that close. As a matter of fact, there were FOUR players tightly packed for the VBD race in 1984, which is unreal.
There were THREE players in 1984 tied with a 180 VBD, and one had a 176 VBD. In 2004, there were two players tied with 149 VBD (much less value) and a third had a 142 value. In 1996, three players were within seven VBD spots, and in 1979, three were within nine spots.
2004 VBD Elite
149 VBD – Shaun Alexander, RB, Seattle (307 Fantasy points)
149 VBD – Daunte Culpepper, QB, Minnesota (381 Fantasy points)
155 VBD – Brett Favre, QB, Green Bay (318 Fantasy points)
152 VBD – Terry Allen, RB, Washington (281 Fantasy points)
148 VBD – Terrell Davis, RB, Denver (277 Fantasy points)
1979 VBD Elite
148 VBD – Walter Payton, RB, Chicago (294 Fantasy points)
147 VBD – Earl Campbell, RB, Houston (293 Fantasy points)
139 VBD – Wilbert Montgomery, RB, Philadelphia (285 Fantasy points)
But what about that 1984 NFL season? The fifth-best player was Walter Payton!
Top 4 Fantasy Football Players In 1984
But those top four players mark the closest range, and the top-three players were all tied with the highest VBD numbers that season! Can you figure out who they were? Let’s discuss!
T-1. Dan Marino, QB, Miami – 361 Fantasy pts, 180 VBD
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
This is the famous season in which Marino – just one year removed from being drafted in the famed 1983 NFL Draft class of quarterbacks – threw 48 TD passes. He broke Y.A. Tittle’s 21-year-old TD passes-in-a-season record of 36 set in 1963. Marino’s record held for another 20 years until Peyton Manning broke it in 2004, with 49 TD passes for the Colts. (Tom Brady broke that record in 2007 with 50 TD passes, only to have Manning take it back in 2013 with 55 TD passes.)
Marino broke six NFL passing records in 1984, including passing yards in a season (5,084), breaking Dan Fouts’ 1981 record (4,802). It would be another 24 years before a quarterback would eclipse the 5,000-yard threshold (Drew Brees, 2008). There are now just five NFL QBs to have thrown for 5,000 yards (Brees is the only player to have done it more than once – he has done it five times).
The next best Fantasy quarterback in 1984? St. Louis Cardinals QB Neil Lomax, who threw for 28 touchdowns and 4,614 yards (120 VBD, 301 Fantasy points).
Photo Credit: Andy Hayt, Getty Images
T-1. Eric Dickerson, RB, L.A. Rams – 306 Fantasy pts, 180 VBD
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
Speaking of NFL records broken in 1984, Dickerson (just 24 years old at this point) rushed for 2,105 yards that season, breaking O.J. Simpson’s record from 1973 (2,003 yards in 14 games). Again, this was just Dickerson’s second year in the NFL, coming off a year in which he won the rushing title (1,808 rushing yards) in his rookie season.
Dickerson rushed for over 100 yards in a game 12 different times in 1984, and he rushed for a stellar 5.6 yards per carry that year. He scored as many Fantasy points as our third player, another running back, and they posted a 180 VBD, just like Marino.
Photo Credit: David Madison, Getty Images
T-1. James Wilder, RB, Tampa Bay – 306 Fantasy pts, 180 VBD
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
This is the player that doesn’t seem to belong among these top four picks – or top five, when you consider Payton in the mix.
But Wilder was on a crappy Buccaneers team that went 6-10 in 1984, a year after going 2-14 in 1983. Wilder broke Dickerson’s rushing attempts record (which Dickerson set in his rookie year of 1983), and the Buccaneers RB fell just 16 yards short (2,229) of Simpson’s NFL record for combined rushing/receiving yards gained (2,243) set in 1973. (Since then, 15 running backs have surpassed Simpson’s record.)
The Bucs famously tried to help Wilder get Simpson’s record, so in the final minute of the final game against the Jets, head coach John McKay ordered his defense to let the Jets score, giving Wilder more chances.
Photo Credit: Scott Halleran, Getty Images
4. Marcus Allen, RB, L.A. Raiders – 302 Fantasy pts, 176 VBD
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
To think that you could get a player just four VBD points away from the best Fantasy player that year with the fourth overall pick is unimaginable in any other season.
Allen was in his third season with Al Davis’ Raiders team, joining the Raiders in his rookie season of 1982, in their first year in L.A. after moving from Oakland.
This was one of Allen’s best Fantasy season, with 18 total touchdowns and nearly 2,000 yards from scrimmage. He followed this year up with his best year, posting an NFL-record 2,314 yards from scrimmage, a mark bested by just seven other running backs over the 21 seasons.
Allen, the fifth-best player in 1984, would go on to post the best Fantasy season in 1985, making him the sole owner of the top VBD that season (165).
T-1. Dan Marino, QB, Miami – 361 Fantasy pts, 180 VBD
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
This is the famous season in which Marino – just one year removed from being drafted in the famed 1983 NFL Draft class of quarterbacks – threw 48 TD passes. He broke Y.A. Tittle’s 21-year-old TD passes-in-a-season record of 36 set in 1963. Marino’s record held for another 20 years until Peyton Manning broke it in 2004, with 49 TD passes for the Colts. (Tom Brady broke that record in 2007 with 50 TD passes, only to have Manning take it back in 2013 with 55 TD passes.)
Marino broke six NFL passing records in 1984, including passing yards in a season (5,084), breaking Dan Fouts’ 1981 record (4,802). It would be another 24 years before a quarterback would eclipse the 5,000-yard threshold (Drew Brees, 2008). There are now just five NFL QBs to have thrown for 5,000 yards (Brees is the only player to have done it more than once – he has done it five times).
The next best Fantasy quarterback in 1984? St. Louis Cardinals QB Neil Lomax, who threw for 28 touchdowns and 4,614 yards (120 VBD, 301 Fantasy points).
Photo Credit: Andy Hayt, Getty Images
2/4
T-1. Eric Dickerson, RB, L.A. Rams – 306 Fantasy pts, 180 VBD
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
Speaking of NFL records broken in 1984, Dickerson (just 24 years old at this point) rushed for 2,105 yards that season, breaking O.J. Simpson’s record from 1973 (2,003 yards in 14 games). Again, this was just Dickerson’s second year in the NFL, coming off a year in which he won the rushing title (1,808 rushing yards) in his rookie season.
Dickerson rushed for over 100 yards in a game 12 different times in 1984, and he rushed for a stellar 5.6 yards per carry that year. He scored as many Fantasy points as our third player, another running back, and they posted a 180 VBD, just like Marino.
Photo Credit: David Madison, Getty Images
3/4
T-1. James Wilder, RB, Tampa Bay – 306 Fantasy pts, 180 VBD
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
This is the player that doesn’t seem to belong among these top four picks – or top five, when you consider Payton in the mix.
But Wilder was on a crappy Buccaneers team that went 6-10 in 1984, a year after going 2-14 in 1983. Wilder broke Dickerson’s rushing attempts record (which Dickerson set in his rookie year of 1983), and the Buccaneers RB fell just 16 yards short (2,229) of Simpson’s NFL record for combined rushing/receiving yards gained (2,243) set in 1973. (Since then, 15 running backs have surpassed Simpson’s record.)
The Bucs famously tried to help Wilder get Simpson’s record, so in the final minute of the final game against the Jets, head coach John McKay ordered his defense to let the Jets score, giving Wilder more chances.
Photo Credit: Scott Halleran, Getty Images
4/4
4. Marcus Allen, RB, L.A. Raiders – 302 Fantasy pts, 176 VBD
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
To think that you could get a player just four VBD points away from the best Fantasy player that year with the fourth overall pick is unimaginable in any other season.
Allen was in his third season with Al Davis’ Raiders team, joining the Raiders in his rookie season of 1982, in their first year in L.A. after moving from Oakland.
This was one of Allen’s best Fantasy season, with 18 total touchdowns and nearly 2,000 yards from scrimmage. He followed this year up with his best year, posting an NFL-record 2,314 yards from scrimmage, a mark bested by just seven other running backs over the 21 seasons.
Allen, the fifth-best player in 1984, would go on to post the best Fantasy season in 1985, making him the sole owner of the top VBD that season (165).
