Now that both the 2008 NFL regular season and, more importantly for the sake of this blog, the 2008 fantasy football regular season are in the books, it is time to pass out some hardware.

Every season, players come out of nowhere to make a name of themselves in both league circles and fantasy circles. Fantasy waiver wires are scoured for hours upon hours every week as fantasy owners search from the next diamond in the rough.

The 2008 Wonders will be given out by The Hazean to the one player at each of the fantasy skill positions who found his way from the bottom of the wire to the top of fantasy rosters. This week’s award goes out to the quarterbacks of the NFL who went undrafted in most fantasy leagues, only to become the hottest of commodities during the 2008 regular season.

The nominees

Tyler Thigpen, Chiefs: No quarterback came more out of left field in 2008 than Kansas City’s Thigpen. Buried on the depth chart behind Brodie Croyle and Damon Huard at the start of the season, it took a minor miracle — two season-ending injuries — for Thigpen to get his chance. When he finally got the opportunity, Thigpen improved his game as the week’s passed in turning a once lifeless offense into a legitimate scoring machine.

Matt Cassel, Patriots: It is highly doubtful that Cassel expected to get his first starts since high school the year after Tom Brady set the record for most touchdowns in a season. But his chance came very, very early in the regular season as Brady went down with a season-ending knee injury during the Patriots’ very first game against the Chiefs. Cassel’s mediocre start drew the ire of fantasy owners hoping to find a diamond in the rough, which is exactly what Cassel became from week 10 onward minus one debacle at Pittsburgh.

Kyle Orton, Bears: Orton does not hold a candle to the above two guys, but he deserves a mention because he did throw down some solid fantasy outings early in the season. Orton was a popular add in most leagues during a five-week stretch from weeks 3 to 7 that included three 20+ fantasy point performances in standard scoring leagues. But a midseason ankle injury sidelined him for one game and derailed his effectiveness as a starting quarterback. His fantasy stock plummeted upon return when he failed to post more than 13 fantasy points in all but two of the Bears remaining seven games.

Matt Ryan, Falcons: Ryan, also in the running for Fantasy Rookie of the Year, probably went undrafted in 100 percent of standard redraft leagues. When your first career touchdown pass is a long bomb for a touchdown, fantasy owners start to notice. And they did, gradually adding Ryan to rosters over the course of the first few weeks of the season. While not an every-week QB1, Ryan played well in spots for owners in need of a bye week quarterback or replacement for an injured one, like Tom Brady.

Kurt Warner, Cardinals: Warner was handed the reigns to the explosive Arizona offense just a few weeks before the start of the 2008 season. He went undrafted in most leagues because fantasy owners expected Matt Leinart to be the starting quarterback in the desert this year. But the old man took the job away during preseason football and never looked back, and in the process had one of his greatest seasons to date. Fantasy owners who scooped him off the waiver wire before the start of the season were pleasantly surprised by his Fantasy MVP-like numbers.

Chad Pennington, Dolphins: You know what to expect from Pennington. Accurate arm, short passes, low but consistent yardage totals and a few touchdowns sprinkled in here and there. No one expected the Miami passing game to be as good as it has been — not to say that it has been great — and Pennington was a big part of the resurgence in Miami. If the Dolphins add a few more weapons to the passing game this offseason, Pennington could become more of a blip on fantasy radars next summer.

Shaun Hill, 49ers: It took a while for the 49ers to give Hill back the job he thought he had won at the end of last season, but when they did he ran away with it. And now, with the potential backing of Mike Singletary, it looks like Hill will start the 2009 season opener for San Francisco. Fantasy owners found a gem when Hill resumed his role at the helm of the 49ers’ offense, as he scored 19 or more fantasy points in five of San Francisco’s final nine games. Even better for fantasy owners: Hill scored at least double-digits in every game he started.

Joe Flacco, Ravens: Flacco and fellow rookie Matt Ryan both exceeded expectations in their first seasons at the professional level. The Baltimore signal caller even joined Ryan in gracing fantasy lineups after a midseason run from weeks 7 to 13 that included five games with 19 or more fantasy points in standard scoring leagues. But he floundered during the fantasy postseason despite helping to guide the Ravens to the NFL playoffs.

And the winner is …

Matt Cassel.

It came down to Thigpen, Warner and Cassel, but it was hard to ignore how dominant Cassel was down the stretch of the fantasy season — despite the one clunker against Pittsburgh. Cassel posted one 20+ and two 30+ point performances during the fantasy playoffs, saving his best for championship weekend with a 345-yard, three touchdown outing against the Cardinals.

Cassel owners, many of whom were Tom Brady owners at the beginning of the season, likely rode him down the stretch of the season all the way to a fantasy title. And that makes his 2008 season much like Brady’s 50-touchdown campaign in 2007, in that he single-handedly won several fantasy games for his owners at crucial points in the fantasy season.

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