Fantasy Football Goat? Ladainian Tomlinson vs Marshall Faulk
On the weekend that Ladainian Tomlinson was inducted into
the Pro Football Hall of Fame, we decided to take a look at where he stacks up
in the Fantasy Football Hall of Fame.
There have been a lot of great running backs in Fantasy
Football throughout the years – Adrian Peterson, Brian Westbrook, Arian Foster, Shaun Alexander, Priest Holmes, Larry Johnson, to name a few. But when it comes to the Greatest Fantasy Football
Player of All-Time, only 2 names need to be mentioned: Marshall Faulk and Ladainian
Tomlinson.
But who was greater?
Career Totals
When you take a look at their career totals, it quickly
becomes evident just how close the hairs are that we’re splitting here. Their
careers mirror one another in nearly every way. They both made immediate impacts as
rookies, neither missed any significant time from injury, and they each had two
garbage seasons at the end of their careers.
They both had two seasons without a single fumble – not zero
fumbles lost, zero fumbles period!
MF played in 176 over 12 years, LT played in 170 games over
11.
MF had 19,154 yards from scrimmage in his career, LT had
18,456.
MF had 136 Touchdowns in his career, LT had 162.
Even their primes are nearly identical
LT had the best single season in totality, MF had the best single season on a points per game basis. MF had the best 3 year
stretch, LT had the best 5 year stretch.
Advantage: Tomlinson
Playoff Performance
Drive for show and putt for dough, right? What good is a player
dominating the regular season (weeks 1-13) if they don’t show up in the
Playoffs (weeks 14-16)?
Neither one of these guys had an issue showing up. Faulk
missed one Fantasy Playoff game in his career, while Tomlinson had perfect attendance.
And even more important than showing up physically, they both showed up in the
box score.
Faulk averaged 17.2 Points Per Playoff Game,
LT averaged 16.06
If you take away the 2 years that bookend their careers – their
“prime” years – MF averaged 21.05 PP in the Playoffs, LT averaged 19.63.
Bottom line, having either one of these two in your line up
for the playoffs was a huge advantage. The only real differentiating factor is
what they did in each round of the Playoffs. Tomlinson had his best performances
in the 1st Round – a round where the best owners typically have a bye. Whereas
MF had his best weeks in Rounds 2 and 3 – where the stakes are raised even higher.
Advantage: Faulk
Wins Above Replacement
Comparing player's statistics head-to-head only tells part of story.
As the league has changed throughout the years, so too has the overall
production levels of offenses as well as their impacts on different positions.
To know just how dominant a player truly was, we
have to take a look at how their production was relative to the rest of the
field.
We broke down the WAR of their best 5 year run with a baseline of RB2's (Running-backs who finished the year 13-24 in rankings), and again among the Top 5 RB's for those same years.
LT came out ahead in both instances with a RB2 WAR of 1.89 and a Top 5 WAR of 1.0448
Compared to Faulk's RB2 WAR of 1.81 and Top 5 WAR of 1.0268
Advantage: Tomlinson
Overall Impact
At the end of the day, you play to win the game. So the amount of Fantasy Football Championships a player directly contributed to has to be a heavily weighted factor.
Even though it was pretty hard to lose if you had MF in your Championship Final (week 16), the undeniable fact is that fantasy football exploded during LT’s prime. There were exponentially more people playing FF between the years of 2001 - 2009 than there were between 1994 - 2003.
Yahoo! didn’t even start offering fantasy football leagues until 1999.
Therefore, far more people won Leagues because of LT – and that has to count for something.
Advantage: Tomlinson
WINNER - LADAINIAN TOMLINSON
Even though LT never won a Championship in the NFL, he was responsible for enough Home League Championships to claim the throne as the Greatest Fantasy Football Player of All Time.
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