Roundtable Week 10: Fantasy Shockers of 2022

Photo: USA Today Sports

Welcome to Week 10 of the 2022 Footballguys Roundtable. Our intrepid panel of fantasy pundits discusses and debates four topics every week. Topics are now split into separate features.

This week's roundtable features these four topics:

• Fantasy Shockers of 2022 (see below)
• Is Justin Fields' Redraft Value Sustainable?
• From A Mile Away...And Still Missed
• Longshot Victory Laps

Fantasy Shockers of 2022

Matt Waldman: What's the most shocking development you've seen this year that has had a fantasy impact?

Sam Wagman: Tom Brady and the Buccaneers' decline. When Ryan Jensen went down in the preseason, and a couple of other key offensive line pieces also went away in free agency, we thought that the Bucs could take a small hit. I don't think we expected this large of a decline. Leonard Fournette, who was a true breakout top-10 RB last season, has completely fallen off the tracks after a decent start to his season, and his issues have seemed to cannibalize the rest of the offense. Chris Godwin has not posted a single top-20 WR week yet and may have come back too soon, and Mike Evans has been hit or miss.

Jordan McNamara: Geno Smith. After Russell Wilson left, almost everyone wrote of Seattle. They had one of the lowest over/unders in the betting market and had good odds of being the top pick in the NFL Draft. Now, Geno Smith has completely turned around his career and become a potential franchise quarterback in his career's second act. This was completely unexpected and a really good story.

Waldman: Smith's issue was maturity. His skills were always on par with a future starter. But he lost the trust of his first organization, which wasn't the paragon of stability and management leadership, either.

Because the league is quick to label a player early and move on, especially at quarterback, because team owners have zero patience for real development, which includes riding out lows, Smith got labeled as a journeyman backup, and that's how the league saw him.

Kudos to Smith for maintaining his confidence and continuing to work behind the scenes to make the most of this rare opportunity.