Every year there are can’t-miss draft picks who end up, well, missing pretty badly. And this year was no exception to this normality of fantasy football.

Whether it was by injury or just plain bad performances, fantasy owners are beating themselves for drafting 2008’s class of duds over other budding superstars.

The biggest disappointment of the season has to be the golden boy quarterback Tom Brady. Brady was drafted in the first round of probably every fantasy draft this season, and he didn’t even make it one full game before taking an extended vacation on the Patriots’ IR. I wonder if he is even hurt or just wanted some extra time off to work on his model girlfriend modeling career.

Sticking with quarterbacks, Carson Palmer and Derek Anderson also should be mentioned as big disappointments in 2008.

Palmer started off rough by throwing only three touchdowns in four games before heading to the bench for the rest of the season with an elbow injury. Despite avoiding injured reserve, Palmer never truly threatened to crack the starting lineup for much of the 2008 campaign.

Anderson just played terrible all season long before succombing to injury, turning the ball over 17 times in 10 games. The Browns were expected to contend with the big boys this year, but Cleveland fell back to the bottom of the AFC due in large part to Anderson’s awful quarterbacking.

Moving on to running backs, the biggest disappointments in my mind were Laurence Maroney and Joseph Addai. Coming into 2008 both were expected to show much improvement from the previous season in their still-budding careers. Addai was a first-round draft pick while Maroney was typically drafted in the second or third round of most drafts.

However, Maroney played a grand total of three games before joining teammate Brady on the IR. I bet he and Brady have the same modeling agent. But runway jobs probably will be harder to come by for this dreadlocked toting ball carrier, who may instead be up for the role as the Predator in the next Predator film.

Addai, meanwhile, played hurt almost all season. But that’s no excuse when you were expected to produce LT-type numbers by your fantasy owners. In hindsight, those were mighty lofty expectations for a guy with a history of injury problems.

Finally, this season’s duds at wide receiver included Braylon Edwards, Chad Johnson and Torry Holt. All three former stud wide receivers fell miserably short of 2008 expectations.

Edwards is at the top of the NFL in dropped passes, which contributed to the Browns’ badness in 2008. It also can be attributed to the derailing of Derek Anderson’s season, who relied on Edwards to pull down many of the same deep passes that made this tandem so successful in 2007.

Johnson, also known as Ocho Cinco, feuded with his team during the offseason and followed that up with disappointing game after disappointing game. He didn’t have Carson Palmer throwing to him most of the season due to Palmer’s injury, but Johnson still didn’t appear to have his popular swagger.

Torry Holt, however, was the biggest disappointment of the three in my mind. He had the tools to excel with a veteran quarterback in Marc Bulger and stout running game headlined by Steven Jackson. He just didn’t produce on the field. Maybe the perpetual losing in St. Louis is getting to Holt and a change of venue next year will help revive his career.

It’s not too late to join The Hazean’s Fantasy Playoff Challenge. A dozen readers joined the group on Monday, so to sweeten the pot a little bit The Hazean will give away a free movie DVD not to exceed $20 of the winner’s choice if the group reaches 30 members. Tell your league mates!

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