The 10 Greatest Fantasy Football Seasons Of The 21st Century

With the 2025 NFL season just around the corner, that means it’s time for fantasy football players across the world to prepare for their drafts. While late-round sleepers can always make or break a team’s performance, usually it’s the first-round superstars, and their ability to live up to that billing, that will determine a team’s fate.

Picking a first-round bust like, say, Tyreek Hill in 2024, can cut the legs out from under a team before the season even really gets going. On the other hand, if you selected someone like Lamar Jackson, it could well propel your team to glory.

Jackson had an all-time great fantasy football season, but it’s just one of the many incredible performances to crack our list of the 10 greatest fantasy football seasons of the 21st century.

10 Greatest Fantasy Football Seasons Of The 21st Century

Fantasy football leagues have existed well before the 21st century, with the game’s origins dating all the way back to the 1960s. But with the introduction of the internet and more reliable stat tracking, it really took off in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

These days, it seems like every league has its own unique set of rules. But for the purpose of this list, we used classic PPR scoring as tracked by Pro Football Reference to rank the 10 best season-long fantasy football performances of the 21st century.

10) Patrick Mahomes – Kansas City Chiefs (417.4 points in 2022)

Is anyone surprised to see Patrick Mahomes on this list? The two-time NFL MVP and three-time Super Bowl champion/MVP is the defining player of this current generation, and it’s not hard to see why.

From a fantasy perspective, Mahomes peaked in 2022 when he threw for a career-high 5,250 yards to go along with 41 touchdowns. He also added 358 yards and four touchdowns on the ground en route to his second NFL MVP award.

Unsurprisingly, the Chiefs led the lead in both total offense and points per game. Mahomes was the only player to top 400 points that year in PPR fantasy scoring, with Josh Allen checking in with 395.5 points in second place.

9) Marshall Faulk – St. Louis Rams (419.7 points in 2001)

When NFL fans think of The Greatest Show on Turf, they’re quick to think about Hall of Fame QB Kurt Warner and his amazing stable of wide receivers, including fellow Hall of Famer Isaac Bruce and seven-time Pro Bowler Torry Holt.

But it was superstar running back Marshall Faulk who led the way. Faulk, who established himself as a star with the Indianapolis Colts, reached the next level when he joined the Rams in 1999, winning the NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award in three straight seasons.

In 2001, the last of those seasons, he rushed for 1,382 yards and 12 touchdowns to go along with 83 receptions for 765 yards and nine scores. Oh, by the way, he did so in just 14 games played.

Faulk led the league with a jaw-dropping 419.7 fantasy points, nearly 70 clear of Marvin Harrison in second place.

8) Lamar Jackson – Baltimore Ravens (430.4 points in 2024)

You didn’t think we’d bring up Lamar Jackson in 2024 and not have him on our list, did you?

Jackson may have finished second to Josh Allen in the MVP voting in controversial fashion, but there is no denying his raw production. The Ravens’ superstar had a career year through the air, throwing for 4,172 yards and 41 touchdowns while throwing just four interceptions, all of which represent career bests.

Oh, and he didn’t sacrifice anything on the ground, either. Jackson rushed for 915 yards and four touchdowns to spearhead one of the league’s best offenses.

The lack of an MVP award and Baltimore’s postseason struggles may mean Jackson’s season gets lost to the history books, but there’s little denying how incredible his individual performance was.

7) Cooper Kupp – Los Angeles Rams (439.5 points in 2021)

Injuries have derailed what at one point looked like a potential Hall of Fame career for Los Angeles Rams superstar receiver Cooper Kupp.

A third-round pick in 2017, Kupp quickly established himself as a big-time threat in the pass game. By 2019, Kupp was a clear-cut number one receiving target, and when quarterback Matthew Stafford showed up in 2021, Kupp found a whole new level.

The Eastern Washington grad won the receiving triple crown, leading the league in receptions (145), yards (1,947), and touchdowns (16), en route to winning the AP Offensive Player of the Year and putting up an eye-popping 439.5 fantasy points.

Unsurprisingly, Kupp helped lead the Rams to the Super Bowl that season, where he caught eight passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns, earning Super Bowl MVP honors in the process.

6) Priest Holes – Kansas City Chiefs (440.7 points in 2002)

While his peak in Kansas City was short, real ones know just how incredible Chiefs running back Priest Holmes was in the early 2000s.

In 2002, Homes won the NFL Offensive Player of the Year award and put up one of the best fantasy seasons in league history. The Texas Longhorns legend rushed for 1,615 yards and 21 touchdowns to go along with 70 receptions for 672 yards and a further three touchdowns.

Holmes was the centerpiece of the offense for Hall of Fame coach Dick Vermiel, and he scored over 50 more fantasy points than second-placed LaDanian Tomlinson.

5) LaDanian Tomlinson – San Diego Chargers (443.8 points in 2003)

What, you thought you were going to get through this list and not have legendary Chargers running back LaDanian Tomlin on it? No chance.

Tomlinson and the aforementioned Priest Holmes led a golden era of running back talent, especially in the AFC West, in the early 2000s.

The do-everything superstar from TCU rushed for 1,635 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2002. And while that may seem like a great, yet not legendary, season, he also added 100 receptions – fourth in the entire NFL – for an additional 725 yards and four scores.

4) Priest Holmes – Kansas City Chiefs (445.0 points in 2003)

Not to be outdone by Tomlinson, Holmes backed up his incredible performance in 2002 with an even more impressive showing in 2003.

While he only rushed for 1,420 yards on 320 carries, Holmes found the end zone a whopping 27 times on the ground, second-best in NFL history. He also once again provided a threat in the passing game, catching 74 passes for 690 yards to just outpace Tomlinson in fantasy production.

Sadly, this marked the last of an incredible three-year run for Holmes, as injuries limited him to just 19 games over the next four seasons before announcing his retirement.

3) Marshall Faulk – St. Louis Rams (459.9 points in 2000)

As if Marshall Faulk’s 2001 season weren’t good enough, the Rams’ superstar one-upped himself the year prior with an absolutely stunning regular season.

Faulk, coming off a Super Bowl-winning season for St. Louis, carried the ball 253 times for 1,359 yards and 18 touchdowns, while hauling in 80 passes for 830 yards and eight touchdowns.

His season peaked in a December win against the Saints where Faulk rushed for 220 yards and two touchdowns and caught seven passes for 41 yards and an additional touchdown, racking up 51.1 points in the process.

Ironically, St. Louis’ season ended in the Wild Card round at the hands of New Orleans, which held Faulk to 24 yards and on 24 carries, although he did catch seven passes for 99 yards and a touchdown.

2) Christian McCaffrey – Carolina Panthers (471.2 points in 2019)

These days, drafting Christian McCaffrey in a fantasy draft feels like a game of russian roulette with the superstar running back’s health.

But there’s a good reason for that! Early in his career, McCaffrey took on an absolutely insane workload for the Carolina Panthers, who selected him eighth overall in the 2017 NFL Draft.

In 2019, McCaffrey carried the ball 287 times for 1,387 yards and 15 touchdowns. He also reeled in 116 passes, which ranked second in the league behind Michael Thomas, for a further 1,005 yards and four scores.

Ironically, despite McCaffrey’s herculean effort, the Panthers ranked just 19th in the league in total offense and 20th in scoring. But McCaffrey will still go down in history with one of the greatest fantasy seasons of all time.

1) LaDanian Tomlinson – San Diego Chargers (481.1 points)

When you set an NFL record that still stands nearly two decades later, then you know you’ve done something special. That’s exactly what LaDanian Tomlinson did in 2006 on the way to the greatest fantasy football season of the 21st century.

Tomlinson carried the ball 348 times for 1,815 yards and an almost unfathomable 28 rushing touchdowns for the Chargers, who unsurprisingly led the league with 30.8 points per game, more than four points more than the Indianapolis Colts in second.

Tomlinson also caught 56 passes for 508 yards and three more scores, unsurprisingly earning NFL MVP honors for his troubles.

Tomlinson, Phillip Rivers, and Antonio Gates led a Chargers team that went 14-2, but eventually fell to the New England Patriots in the AFC Divisional Round, ending the 21-year career of legendary head coach Marty Schottenheimer.