If you were assigned to create a fantasy football team strictly with current Heisman Trophy winners in the NFL, you’d be heavy at quarterback, rock solid at one running back spot, potentially dangerous at receiver, but lacking any tight ends or kickers, not to mention a defense of course (Travis Hunter’s solo stats notwithstanding).
Now, if you were to broaden your draft pool to, say, top 10 Heisman finishers, suddenly your running back depth gets decidedly better, as does your receiver depth, and you’ve got a tight end or two to work with. And we’ll throw you a bone and give you the defense for any defensive player who finished in the top 10 (Thanks Aidan Hutchinson, Chase Young and others). Unfortunately, you’re still not scoring any points in the kicking game.
Some 30 million Americans play fantasy football annually, which feels like about 70 million too few if your social media algorithm leans at all toward the gridiron.
With fantasy football players putting in the final touches on their rosters, it got us thinking, not only about which current NFL Heisman players would make your roster, but about which Heisman winners put together the best fantasy football seasons in years past.
For a metric, we will go with the popular PPR (points per reception) format, as well as fairly standard point assignments of six points for a touchdown, 0.1 for rushing and reception yards and 0.06 for passing yards.
In 2024, the top three point scorers in ESPN’s fantasy chart, using the above scoring, were Heisman winning quarterbacks Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow and Baker Mayfield. Jayden Daniels was sixth overall, Kyler Murray was ninth and Caleb Williams was 17th.
Derrick Henry came in at 22nd overall and fifth among non quarterbacks. DeVonta Smith was among the top 20 scorers at receiver.
Despite the top-heavy finish of fantasy QBs, ESPN’s recent ranking of the top 100 fantasy players in PPR leagues heading into 2025 saw Henry as the highest-ranked Heisman at 11th overall while Jackson was the first QB on the list at No. 28 overall. Daniels was next on the list with Burrow at No. 41 and NFL rookie Travis Hunter at No. 54.
So Raven fans, drafting Jackson in the first round may have been a bit risky. Or maybe not. Considering Jackson’s track record of monster seasons, we shouldn’t call it a risk. More like a well-researched, potentially high-yield pivot.
Jackson, entering his eighth NFL season, has put up a handful of monster seasons, including a 2024 campaign that saw him throw for career high of 4,172 yards and 41 touchdowns against just four interceptions, completing 66.7% of his passes. He also totaled 915 rushing yards (third-most of his career) with four rushing scores.
USA Today — via data from Pro-Football-Reference.com — listed Jackson’s 2024 season as its top fantasy season every by a QB.
Below are a handful of other notably huge seasons from Heisman winners that would have made any fantasy owner proud.
Let’s start by continuing with Jackson and his 2019 NFL sophomore and MVP-winning season. Jackson, in his first full season as a starter, threw for an NFL-best 36 touchdowns, completing 66.1% of his passes for 3,127 yards while also rushing for 1,206 yards and seven TDs. Jackson’s fantasy points were listed by USA Today as the third-most ever by a QB.
Sticking to the USA Today top 20 QB list, Cam Newton’s rookie 2011 season comes in at No. 13 when he took the league by storm. He passed for a career-best 4,051 yards and 21 touchdowns while also running for 706 yards and 14 more scores, also grabbing one pass for 27 yards.
Carolina Panther QB Cam Newton in 2017. Photo Credit: Carolina Panthers
A case could be made for Newton’s 2015 season, in which he passed for 3,837 yards and a career-best 35 TDs while rushing for 636 yards, scoring 10 times on the ground.
Murray cracked the USA Today Top 20 list as well for his 2020 in which he passed for 3,971 yards and 26 TDs while rushing for 819 yards and 11 scores.
Pivoting to running back, Henry has been a fantasy workhorse for most of his career, leading the league in carries four times, rushing TDs three times and rushing twice. His 2020 was also spectacular and kept many fantasy owners in most of their games. He ran for a career-high 2027 yards — fifth-most all time — and rushed for 17 scores. He also caught 19 passes for 114 yards.
Barry Sanders is fourth on the NFL’s all-time season rushing list with 2,053 yards in his penultimate season in 1997. Sanders, one of fantasy football’s first stars before his early retirement a year later, scored 11 touchdowns in 1997 and also caught 33 passes for 305 yards and three more scores in his best-ever fantasy season.
A few seasons later, Ricky Williams had his own huge campaign that made early fantasy owners proud. In 2002, Williams led the NFL in rushing yards (1,853) and attempts (383), scoring 16 times on the ground. He also caught 47 passes for 363 yards and another score.
Marcus Allen — again per Pro-Football-Reference.com — registered the top fantasy season as a 1982 rookie as well as in 1985. His ’85 season particularly stands out with a league- and career-best 1,759 yards rushing and 11 scores while catching 67 passes for 555 yards and three more scores. He led the NFL with 447 touches and 2,314 yards from scrimmage during his MVP season.
Dipping into the receivers category, Tim Brown put together a number of top-10 fantasy seasons by a wideout, topped by his 1993 effort. That year featured 80 receptions for 1,180 yards and seven touchdowns. His season was also bolstered by his second-career punt return TD.
A time traveler looking to pick a fantasy team in 1980 would have wanted Earl Campbell on his roster. The bruising back led the league with 1,934 yards — 10th-most all time — with a league-best 13 rushing scores while also notching 11 receptions. He led the league in touches and yards from scrimmage in an NFL Offensive Player of the Year season.
A few years early, Tony Dorsett’s rookie NFL season may have been his best in the prism of fantasy. He burst onto the scene with 1,007 rushing yards —a total he would pass seven times — but he found the end zone a career-best 13 times, including 12 times on the ground.
Tony Dorsett. Photo Credit: Dallas Cowboys
He also caught 29 passes for 273 yards and even completed one pass for 34 yards.
We’ll dip back into the 1960s to marvel at Mike Garrett’s sophomore season in 1967. He rushed for 1,087 yards — the second-most in his career — while scoring a career-best nine times on the ground. He also caught a career-best 46 passes for 261 yards and another TD and also threw the one scoring pass of his career.
ESPN and its fantasy staff of reporters recently did retro draft covering 30 years of fantasy football, “balancing elite scoring ability with longevity.” It’s a great read.
The highest Heisman winner drafted was Newton at No. 15 overall while Henry was taken No. 40. Other Heisman winners taken in the top 100 included Vinny Testaverde (No. 54), Jackson (No. 56), Brown (No. 57), Eddie George (No. 78), Williams (No. 83) and Sanders (No. 100).