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 tight end of the NFL who went undrafted in most fantasy leagues, only to become the hottest of commodities during the 2008 regular season.

The nominees

John Carlson, Seahawks: It took a few weeks for the most part, but Carlson became one of the best fantasy tight ends to own by the end of the 2008 season. Despite having to deal with a quarterback carousel in Seattle, Carlson was able to put up solid, consistent fantasy stats at the tight end position. The way he ended 2008 will plant him solidly in the top-10 of all fantasy tight end rankings heading into the 2009 season.

Dustin Keller, Jets: Keller was more heralded as a rookie coming into the 2008 than his counterpart Carlson. And with the offseason acquisition of Brett Favre, who loves throwing to tight ends, Keller looked like a breakout lock at the start of 2008. He earned the trust of fantasy owners after the third and fourth week of the season, but only posted three more solid efforts after breaking onto the fantasy scene before the Jets’ week 5 bye. However, Keller showed enough potential that an offseason of practice and preparation will land him on fantasy owners’ radars before drafts next summer.

Visanthe Shiancoe, Vikings: Shiancoe figured out how to hold onto the football and it paid off in a big way this season. He leapt on fantasy radars despite playing on a team that is known, predominantly, for running the football. Gus Frerotte and Tarvaris Jackson were not scaring anyone, still Shiancoe found a way to finish the season as a top-5 fantasy tight end in standard scoring leagues.

Zach Miller, Raiders: Despite only scoring one touchdown all season, Miller’s yardage totals were significant enough each week to make him a popular waiver wire add throughout 2008. He found a way to squeeze fantasy points out of the anemic Raiders’ offense by fighting for extra yards with every reception. JaMarcus Russell appeared to improve by leaps and bounds by the end of the season, which parlays a little bit of hope that Miller’s 2009 season could include a few more scores as well as decent yardage totals.

Anthony Fasano, Dolphins: Fantasy tight end is a fairly inconsistent position, unless you get your paws on guys like Antonio Gates or Tony Gonzalez every year. Fasano fit that mold to a tee in 2008 with a few huge weeks but mostly mediocre — or much worse — ones. He likely on benefitted those owners who either took a random chance on him one of those great weeks or were forced to use him for the entirety of the season due to losing a starting tight end. Still, his big weeks were enough to help him finish in the top-10 in most leagues, good enough to be nominated for a Wonders.

And the winner is …

John Carlson.

Yes, Shiancoe finished with more total points than Carlson by the end of the season. But in a position that lacks week-to-week consistency more than any other, Carlson wiped the floor with Shiancoe.

Consider this: Carlson scored three fantasy points or less in only four of Seattle’s 16 games in 2008. Shiancoe, meanwhile, burned his owners a total of seven times this season, due in large part to the inconsistency of Minnesota’s passing offense.

Even worse for Shiancoe was his absolutely dismal performance in the second weekend of most fantasy owners’ playoffs, when he totalled only one catch for eight yards. That performance likely cost a few owners a shot to enjoy his mega-performance during fantasy championship weekend when he posted 7-for-136 and two scores.

Carlson, meanwhile, hit his stride during the fantasy stretch run. He scored seven or more points between weeks 12 and 16, including two double-digit performances. The rookie has a high ceiling going forward, and he proved that by putting up good fantasy numbers with Seneca Wallace at the helm of the Seattle passing game.

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