It’s not unheard of for managers to put together Sabol Bowl-winning campaigns after a poor draft, but nobody’s done it quite like Brandon did in 2023.

Based on end-of-season results, his draft ranked just ninth among his league-mates, but a pair of savvy waiver wire additions in Week 2 may just be what saved his season.

Brandon wasn’t afraid to put up big money on a pair of Rams breakout performers from Week 1. Kyren Williams found the end zone twice on 15 carries while rookie wide receiver Puka Nacua had quite an NFL debut, garnering 15 targets and turning them into 10 catches for 119 yards.

The overbids were substantial, but clearly worth it. Brandon spent $90 of his FAAB for Puka Nacua and $45 for Kyren Williams. The next highest bids for the two of them were only a combined $30.

The $105 overbid might be the best wasted FAAB in league history as the two wound up scoring 370.28 points across 21 combined starts for Brandon, better than 17.6 points per appearance.

Nacua and William’s 2.74 points per dollar spent would have given Brandon the fourth best ranking in the AFL without counting any points from his other waiver wire and free agent additions. Once those other points were counted, Brandon wound up with the second highest points per FAAB dollar spent, and the most of any manager who spent more than $15 of his FAAB.

The two young fantasy studs joined Sabol Bowl VII MVP Lamar Jackson and the AFL’s most experienced playoff performer, Travis Kelce. It wasn’t always smooth sailing as Brandon’s team scored in the bottom half of the league in six of the first 10 weeks, but they righted the ship and finished among the Top 4 scorers in four of the final five weeks, finished second in scoring during the AFL’s wild card playoff week and first during championship week, including consolation teams!

While Brandon ultimately carries the AFL’s torch into 2024, he certainly was not a pre-season favorite. He earned the AFL’s worst draft grade from FootballGuys and the second worst grade from FantasyPros.

On the opposite end, the AFL’s preseason favorite was Stephen April. The Sabol Bowl VIII champion was given an 84.2 percent chance of making the playoffs. For comparison, Sean Kennedy had the second highest probability coming out of the draft at 61.2 percent.

Stephen owned five picks in the first three rounds of the 2023 AFL Draft and turned them into Christian McCaffrey (1.01), Tee Higgins (2.11), Tyreek Hill (2.12 – keeper), Joe Mixon (3.01), and Jahmyr Gibbs (3.06).

McCaffrey had almost 100 more points than any other running back during the fantasy regular season and, in fact, almost 10 more points than any player at any other position. Hill finished with 25 more points than any other wide receiver. And Gibbs was the RB10 at the end of the fantasy regular season.

Unfortunately, some poor mid-season decisions made Stephen’s journey through the regular season more difficult than it needed to be. He traded Mixon, who finished the regular season as the RB7, to Andrew Perez for Derrick Henry (RB8), then sent Henry to Sean in a package that included Tony Pollard (RB13) who he then sent to Eric Meyer for DK Metcalf, who only appeared in his lineup twice through the rest of his season.

One manager who definitely appears to have won on the trade front is Eric. He appeared to be selling early in the season. A four-game losing streak was part of a 2-5 start to his season, but he turned around and went 6-2 the rest of the way and very nearly found himself in the postseason.

As it stands, he has the opportunity to keep C.J. Stroud, who he acquired from Stephen along with a 4th round pick in 2024 in exchange for Austin Ekeler (RB24) and a 6th round pick in 2024.

He also has Sam LaPorta, who he kept on his TAXI squad to start the year but eventually activated after acquiring Stroud. The two of them can be kept in the 15th and 16th round, or both in the 16th if Eric finds a way to make a pick swap during the offseason.

For the second year in a row, William Battle didn’t spend a single dollar of his FAAB. In fact, he’s only spent a total of $10 of his FAAB over the past five seasons. It hasn’t much mattered though as he’s now made the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time in his career.

Meanwhile, Alex Mayo made his first career playoff appearance, winning his wildcard matchup against William and advancing to Sabol Bowl XI where he fell short but posted the highest losing score in AFL championship history.

Alex had been plagued by long losing streaks through his career. In 2020, his first year in the AFL, a 3-game losing streak in the final divisional round robin left him at 7-7 and in last place in the AFL West. A year later, he ended the year on a five-game losing streak that left him at 8-7 and in third place in the AFL Central.

In 2022, a pair of three-game losing streaks in the second half of the season again left him at 8-7 and this time in third place in the AFL East. Back in the AFL Central this year, he enjoyed two separate five-game winning streaks and finished the regular season at 11-4, the best record in the league.

In a three-way tie for the worst record were Will Massimini, Anthony Battle, and Andrew Perez. One of these teams was not like the others, however, as Will and Anthony each had three more unlucky losses than lucky wins while Andrew had one lucky win and no unlucky losses over the course of the season.

After a similarly bad 2021 season saw him escape the AFL’s first league punishment with a win in the first round of the Snyder Bracket, Andrew failed to escape his fate this year and will serve the AFL’s second ever league punishment in 2024.

Meanwhile in the Butkus Bracket, Cory Puffett came out victorious. He posted the second highest point total and the second-best all-play win total during the regular season, but even as he enjoyed the fewest points scored against him of any manager in the AFL, he wound up missing the playoffs on a tiebreaker. He’ll settle for the first selection in the 2024 Draft Pick Draft and the opportunity to select from the likes of Christian McCaffrey, Justin Jefferson, Tyreek Hill, and more should he choose to draft first overall.

Three players recorded the second highest single-game score at their respective positions this season:

• WR: Ja'Marr Chase scored 47.90 points for Sean Kennedy in Week 5, trailing only Tyreek Hill's 51.40-point performance from 2020

• K: Brandon Aubrey scored 24.40 points for Will Massimini in Week 14, trailing only Tyler Bass's 26.20-point performance from 2022

• DEF: The Dallas Cowboys scored 39.42 points for Anthony Battle in Week 1, trailing only the New England Patriots' 41.50-point performance in 2019 (also for Anthony)

Justin Tucker set a new record for point in a single season by a kicker with 163.00 points in 16 games.

Tyreek Hill had the second best wide receiver season in AFL history, scoring 291.80 points in 14 games. He only trails Cooper Kupp's 2021 season when he scored 330.66 points, but he played in 16 games. Hill's 20.8 points per game was better than Kupp's 20.7 in 2021 and only trails Davante Adams's 22.0 point per game from 2020 among qualified players.

Cade Otton set a new record low single-game score for tight ends by scoring -1.00 points for Alex Kincaid in a Week 13 victory.

Matt Gay set a new record low single-game score for kickers by scoring -2.20 points for Eric Meyer in a Week 14 loss. He is one of just three players (outside of defenses) with a scored of -2.00 points or worse in AFL history.

We did not see any team scoring records set on the top end this season. Stephen's season-high 175.06 points in Week 15 barely cracked the Top 10.

However, we did see the lowest team score record (since starting lineups expanded in 2016) broken twice in the final three weeks of the season, first by William Battle with his 51.62 points in Week 13 and then by Alex Kincaid with his 47.87 points in Week 15, ironically in the same matchup which was Stephen set the season's high score.

Though his single-game score was not particularly close to the AFL record, Stephen's season on the whole was very good. He came just 0.08 points shy of breaking the single-season points record set by Cory Puffett last season. It should be noted that the two of them are barely within five points per game of the all-time league record, sitting at 6th and 7th all-time in that category due to the twice-expanded length of the AFL regular season, which only grew to 15 games in 2021.

Of more significance, Stephen's CF (comparison factor) rating, also known as point share above average, was 16.2%, the second best in AFL history behind Eric Meyer's 17.7% in 2016.

Anthony Battle (Week 4), Brandon Saunders (Week 7), and William Battle (Week 10) all earned their 75th career regular season wins this year, joining Eric Meyer, Cory Puffett, and Evan Ash. Alex Mayo earned his 25th career win in Week 5 and is the seventh fastest active manager to reach that mark, one all 12 of our current managers have now surpassed.

Stephen April earned his 500th all-play win in Week 11. He joins nine other managers who have reached that mark and was the second fastest to do so, reaching number 500 after 83 weeks of regular season action, only bested by Eric who did so in 79 weeks.

On the other end, William (Week 8), Sean Kennedy (Week 11), Anthony (Week 12), and Brandon (Week 15), all earned their 75th career regular season losses this year. Previously, only Will Massimini and Andrew Perez had reached that mark, doing so in Weeks 5 and 12 of the 2022 season, respectively.

On the player side, Patrick Mahomes passed Drew Brees into fourth all-time and baring injury should catch Tom Brady next year and become the fourth quarterback with 2,000 career points.

Kirk Cousins, Dak Prescott, and Jalen Hurts became the 12th, 13th, and 14th quarterbacks to reach 1,000 career points in the AFL.

Christian McCaffrey passed Ezekiel Elliott to become the highest scoring running back in league history with 1,765.15 points. If he's even 80% of what he was this year in 2024, he'll easily become the first non-QB to reach the 2,000-point mark.

Joe Mixon, Saquon Barkley, and Josh Jacobs passed the 1,000 point mark becoming the 13th, 14th, and 15th running backs to do so. If he returns healthy next season, Nick Chubb should be next as he is less than 20 points away.

Tyreek Hill passed DeAndre Hopkins for second place on the all-time wide receiver list and sits just 66 points behind Mike Evans in first place.

Cooper Kupp and Adam Thielen became the 11th and 12th wide receivers to reach 1,000 career points.

Travis Kelce, with 1,840.29 points in his career, now has more than double the second highest point total on the AFL's all-time tight end list in less than twice as many games.

T.J. Hockenson became the 9th tight end to reach 500 career points in the AFL.

Justin Tucker, with 1,377.60 career points, hasn't been quite as dominant among kickers, but he does have 600 more points than the next highest on the AFL's all-time list and is tied for the second highest points per game among qualified kickers.

And at defense, the Pittsburgh Steelers (1,117.37) and the Baltimore Ravens (1,009.63) became the first defenses to reach the 1,000-point mark in AFL history. They also have the two most appearances in league history, with the Steelers having started 97 contests and the Ravens having started 87. Only the Raiders, at 159.86, have yet to crack even 250 points.

Unlike the Joe Montana Award for the Sabol Bowl MVP, the Otto Graham Award, named for the first ever MVP of the NFL's Pro Bowl back in 1950, goes to the highest scorer of the game regardless of the team. In Week 18, that was Breece Hall who turned in his second 30-point performance of the previous three weeks.

Hall had the most points of any AFL player during our two-week playoff and he kept that energy up for the 'meaningless' Pro Bowl. While his performance was not enough to prevent Cory from taking home his second straight Cowher Trophy, named for the winningest head coach in Pro Bowl history, it was a special performance from a special player.

Brandon Saunders (6x), Alex Mayo (5), Stephen April (2x), Alex Kincaid, Will Massimini

Brandon Saunders (3x), Stephen April (3x), Will Massimini (2x), Alex Kincaid (2x), Cory Puffett (2x), Sean Kennedy, Anthony Battle, Alex Mayo

Sean Kennedy (4x), Evan Ash (3x), Cory Puffett (2x), Alex Kincaid (2x), Will Massimini, Eric Meyer, Brandon Saunders, William Battle

Anthony Battle (4x), Alex Kincaid (3x), Will Massimini (2x), Brandon Saunders (2x), Sean Kennedy, Eric Meyer, Andrew Perez, Stephen April

Alex Mayo (4x), Alex Kincaid (2x), Cory Puffett (2x), William Battle (2x), Evan Ash, Will Massimini, Andrew Perez, Sean Kennedy, Anthony Battle

Eric Meyer (3x), Alex Mayo (3x), Sean Kennedy (3x), Stephen April (3x), Brandon Saunders (2x), Will Massimini

Cory Puffett (5x), Evan Ash (3x), Stephen April (3x), Anthony Battle, Alex Kincaid, Brandon Saunders, Andrew Perez

Anthony Battle (3x), Sean Kennedy (3x), Stephen April (2x), Alex Mayo (2x), Cory Puffett (2x), Andrew Perez, Will Massimini, Eric Meyer

Brandon Saunders (3x), Andrew Perez (3x), Eric Meyer (3x), Alex Mayo (2x), Alex Kincaid, Stephen April, William Battle, Cory Puffett

Andrew Perez (3x), Will Massimini (3x), Alex Kincaid (2x), Evan Ash (2x), Sean Kennedy, Anthony Battle, Stephen April, William Battle, Cory Puffett

Anthony Battle (3x), Alex Mayo (3x), Alex Kincaid (2x), William Battle (2x), Andrew Perez (2x), Will Massimini, Evan Ash, Cory Puffett

Don Shula Banner (AFL East Champ) - Stephen April

Tom Landry Banner (AFL Central Champ) - Alex Mayo

John Madden Banner (AFL West Champ) - Brandon Saunders

Sabol Bowl XI Champion - Brandon Saunders

Butkus Award (Consolation Champ) - Cory Puffett

Snyder Award (Consolation Loser) - Andrew Perez

Mickey Loomis Award (Best Draft) - Evan Ash

Les Snead Award (Best in-season management) - Cory Puffett

Mickey Loomis Award

While there is always some good and some bad with anybody's draft, Evan did quite well this season.

With a total value of -68 in this year's draft, he recorded the 8th best draft in AFL history. When normalized for the average value in this year's draft, his rank drops to 10th, but a Top 10 draft out of 132 in AFL history is pretty terrific.

For context on that -68 value, there have only ever been three drafts in AFL history with a positive total value. Brandon Saunders had a value of +29 for his 2014 draft, Sean Kennedy had a value of +94 for his 2018 draft, and Evan himself recorded the AFL record +101 in his 2014 draft.

Some of Evan's best picks in this year's draft were:

• Jordan Love, 191st overall (+109 value)

• Taysom Hill, 170th overall (+80 value)

• D'Andre Swift, 95th overall (+55 value)

• De'Von Achane, 122nd overall (+53 value)

• Harrison Butker, 146th overall (+51 value)

• Brian Robinson, 74th overall (+47 value)

• Alvin Kamara, 50th overall (+32 value)

Unfortunately, Evan didn't benefit from some of those great values this season.

Jordan Love averaged 17.9 points per game during the AFL regular season, but only averaged 13.0 in the five games Evan started him.

Taysom Hill averaged 8.6 points per game through Week 15, but just 5.4 in the five games he spent in Evan's starting lineup.

As for De'Von Achane, Evan cut him after Week 1 and regretted it after Alex Mayo scooped him up off waivers for $0 and saw him explode against the Broncos a couple of weeks later.

Now, when you have that many strong value picks but still end up with negative total value, where does that come from? In Evan's case, it came from these other six picks in particular.

• Elijah Mitchell, 119th overall (-145 value)

• Justin Jefferson, kept 2nd overall (-120 value)

• Mark Andrews, 26th overall (-59 value)

• Tyler Lockett, 47th overall (-58 value)

• Odell Beckham, 98th overall (-54 value)

• Brandin Cooks, 71st overall (-53 value)

Michell, fairly, never appeared in Evan's lineup, Jefferson only played in seven games during the fantasy regular season, Andrews only played in 10, Lockett appeared in 14 games for Evan and averaged less than 10 points per game, and Evan lost a total of 26.7 adjusted points for the nine combined games he started Beckham and Cooks.

Despite those misses in this year's draft, Evan is our Mickey Loomis Award winner for the third time in his career. It is his fifth career GM award, second most in the AFL.

To add just one last bit of context to his -68 total value in this year's draft, the average total value this year was -463.25 and the worst draft of the year went to Sean Kennedy at -939 total value.

Runner-Up: William Battle (-134 total value, Draft Score of 32.9)

Les Snead Award

For the fourth time in his career, and the third time in the past four seasons, Cory Puffett is the Les Snead Award winner.

In all, this brings Cory's GM award count to six, one more than Evan Ash and enough to be the AFL's all-time leader.

Cory's adjusted point total for this season of +102.6 is the third highest in AFL history and his 2023 GM Score, normalized to the average GM score for the year, of 11.4 is the highest in league history, breaking his previous record of 10.9 set in 2014.

Where did he get the most value from this season? It's honestly difficult to narrow down. Our 12 managers averaged 3.4 players per roster with an adjusted point total of +10.0 or higher. That's a total of 41 across the league and Cory had nine of them, or 22% of the AFL's total.

• Deebo Samuel, 22.9ppg in 5 games vs total avg of 15.8ppg (+35.5 adjusted points)

• Atlanta Falcons, 14.7ppg in 3 games vs total avg of 8.3ppg (+19.1 adjusted points)

• Joe Burrow, 17.5ppg in 8 games vs total avg of 15.3ppg (+18.3 adjusted points)

• Joe Mixon, 18.0ppg in 5 games vs total avg of 14.6ppg (+16.6 adjusted points)

• Las Vegas Raiders, 17.0ppg in 2 games vs total avg of 8.9ppg (+16.1 adjusted points)

• Zamir White, 16.8ppg in 1 game vs total avg of 2.0ppg (+14.8 adjusted points)

• Jason Sanders, 11.5ppg in 4 games vs total avg of 8.4ppg (+12.2 adjusted points)

• Gardner Minshew, 16.1ppg in 3 games vs total avg of 12.7ppg (+10.2 adjusted points)

• Seattle Seahawks, 11.2ppg in 3 games vs total avg of 7.8ppg (+10.2 adjusted points)

When you do that well at optimizing when you start players vs when you don't, or in the cases of Samuel and Mixon, at what point in the season you trade for them, you usually set yourself up for some success.

Now, nobody makes all the right moves throughout a season. Inevitably there will be a handful of players you use where you miss some games where they went off. Fortunately for Cory, only four such players even came close to double digits in the red, and only two offset any of the three lowest values out of his top nine.

• Indianapolis Colts, 2.5ppg in 2 games vs total avg of 9.6ppg (-14.1 adjusted points)

• Tyler Bass, 7.4ppg in 10 games vs total avg of 8.4ppg (-10.3 adjusted points)

• Sam Howell, 6.5ppg in 1 game vs total avg of 16.0ppg (-9.5 adjusted points)

• Greg Zuerlein, 0.0ppg in 1 game vs total avg of 9.0 ppg (-9.0 adjusted points)

Overall, Cory did far better than the average in the AFL, which was -11.4 adjusted points in 2023, and was further into the positive than our worst in-season GM was into the negative. Andrew Perez was our worst in-season GM in 2023 with an adjusted total of -73.0 points.

Runner-Up: Eric Meyer (+70.1 adjusted point total, GM Score of 8.2)

Dennis Dixon Award (Luckiest Manager) - Sean Kennedy

Takeo Spikes Award (Unluckiest Manager) - Anthony Battle & Will Massimini

Dennis Dixon Award

For the second time in his career, Sean is the luckiest manager of the season. Despite finishing among the Top 6 scorers in only four weeks this season, he walked away with seven wins in 2023, enjoying three lucky wins and suffering no unlucky losses.

Sean's other Dennis Dixon Award came in 2020, when he also had three lucky wins and no unlucky losses as part of a 5-9 campaign.

This year, Sean's lucky wins game in:

• Week 2 (10th in scoring, won 95.85-78.09 vs Cory Puffett)

• Week 13 (9th in scoring, won 100.30-100.19 vs Will Massimini)

• Week 14 (7th in scoring, won 103.11-100.28 vs Alex Mayo)

Over the course of his AFL career, which now spans 10 seasons, much of that good luck has been offset. While he has never been the unluckiest manager in any season, his total career luck of -1 comes from 14 lucky wins and 13 unlucky losses.

While these awards are based solely on luck using our Top 6 weekly scoring metric, Sean was not the luckiest manager of the year based on breakdown. His 1.9 wins above expected were second by that metric, barely ahead of Brandon Saunders's 1.7 WAE and more than half a game behind Alex Mayo's 2.5 WAE.

Runners-Up: Brandon and Alex, along with William Battle, all of whom made the playoffs this season, tied for second in the running for the Dennis Dixon Award at 2 WAE vs Top 6 scoring weeks.

Takeo Spikes Award

Shared luck awards aren't terribly uncommon in our league. Twice we've had duel winners of the Dennix Dixon Award and it's now happened three times for the Takeo Spikes Award.

For Anthony, this is the second year in a row he's had at least a share of the award and the fourth time in his career after he was the sole 'winner' in 2015 and 2016.

Will, meanwhile, has now had at least a share of the award three times in his career, including sole possession in 2013 and in 2018.

Both managers, no doubt, hoped the beginning of the second decade of our league's existance would be a turning point, a time for the tides of back luck to ebb and give way to something much better.

Instead, the two managers who entered 2023 with the worst career luck in the AFL saw more of the same in Year 11.

Anthony entered the year with 14 lucky wins and 20 unlucky losses, and while he did earn one lucky win in Week 4 when he was seventh in scoring but beat Eric Meyer 122.33-80.61, he suffered a league-high four unlucky losses this year:

• Week 2 (6th in scoring, lost 113.13-133.16 vs Alex Kincaid)

• Week 5 (5th in scoring, lost 112.19-119.20 vs Stephen April)

• Week 8 (5th in scoring, lost 129.01-168.53 vs Stephen April)

• Week 12 (5th in scoring, lost 119.85-133.52 vs Brandon Saunders)

Will, meanwhile, entered 2023 with at a league-worst 8 wins below expected through his career. He'd had only nine lucky wins in his career with 17 unlucky losses to his name. He didn't add any to that first column this year but he did suffer his 20th unlucky loss, joining Anthony as the only two managers with that many in their careers.

Will's three unlucky losses this season came in:

• Week 3 (3rd in scoring, lost 135.45-154.17 vs Sean Kennedy)

• Week 12 (6th in scoring, lost 114.16-134.46 vs Eric Meyer)

• Week 14 (4th in scoring, lost 122.20-123.25 vs Anthony Battle)

Hopefully 2024 will bring a new song for Will and Ant. Regression to the mean is supposed to be a thing in fantasy football. It's frustrating for them and, frankly, it's unpleasant for me as the commissioner to see the two unluckies managers in AFL history entering 2023 come out of the season sharing this of all awards.

Runners-Up: Stephen April and Cory Puffett, the two two scorers in the league this year, each finished at 2 wins below expected compared to Top 6 weekly finishes. Stephen led the AFL with eleven Top 6 scores and Cory was second with ten. Stephen had one lucky win but three unlucky losses to offset it while Cory had two unlucky losses and no lucky wins to help his cause.

George Halas Award (Most wins earned via coaching) - Anthony Battle

Bill Belichick Award (Most points earned via coaching) - Sean Kennedy

George Halas Award

Anthony was the runner-up for the Bill Belichick Award as he had the second most points earned via coaching in 2023, but his points came at the most opportune times.

He did not cost himself any wins from coaching decisions this year, so he gets credit for all three of his coaching wins in 2023 as he claims his second career George Halas Award.

• Week 1: Anthony earned 25.81 coaching points by starting the Dallas Cowboys over the New Orleans Saints and another 5.11 coaching points for starting Zay Flowers over Michael Thomas

  • 30.92 coaching points vs 19.73-point victory margin

• Week 10: Anthony earned 7.15 coaching points by starting Kareem Hunt instead of Christian Watson

  • 7.15 coaching points vs 1.62-point victory margin

• Week 14: Anthony earned 2.60 coaching points by starting Jake Elliott instead of Nick Folk

  • 2.60 coaching points vs 1.05-point victory margin

Anthony's coaching season was a far cry from his brother's or his fellow DeMatha cross country coach's season. William Battle and Cory Puffett each cost themselves a net two wins from coaching decisions this year.

Runners-Up: Sean Kennedy and Alex Kincaid each had a win differencial of +1 from their coaching decisions this year

Bill Belichick Award

Though Anthony's coaching decisions came at more opportune moments this year, Sean nearly doubled Anthony's total point differential. Five managers earned positive coaching points this season. A sixth, Will Massimini, finished at exactly 0.00 points despite succeeding on just 6 of 16 coaching risks.

But Sean was the best of them all with 50.60 coaching points in 2023. His three best coaching weeks came in:

• Week 5: Sean earned 23.43 coaching points and a win by succeeding on two of three coaching risks

  • Though he cost himself 5.16 points by starting Michael Wilson over Tyler Allgeier, he earned 19.74 points by starting Brock Purdy instead of Daniel Jones and another 8.85 points by starting Logan Thomas instead of Zach Ertz. He earned a coaching win that week off a net 23.43 coaching points vs a 19.23-point victory margin

• Week 9: Sean earned 22.86 coaching points by succeeding on all three coaching risks

  • He earned 11.80 points by starting Derrick Henry over Tony Pollard and 1.98 points by starting Jaylen Waddle over Ja'Marr Chase after trading Pollard and Chase to Stephen April for Henry and Waddle, whose combined projection was lower. He also earned 9.08 points by starting Gardner Minshew instead of Daniel Jones.

• Week 2: Sean earned 16.03 coaching points by succeeding on one of two coaching risks

  • Though he cost himself 1.67 points by starting Tyler Allgeier over AJ Dillon, he earned 17.70 points by starting Daniel Jones instead of Brock Purdy.

At the other end of the coaching spectrum, along with tying for the worst win differential from coaching, William Battle had the worst point differential, costing himself a net 105.22 coaching points in 2023 after suceeding on just two of twelve risks. He was the only manager to succeed on fewer than a third of his total risks this year.

Runner-Up: Anthony Battle had the second best point differential from coaching this year with a net of +25.52 points. Anthony's 65% success rate led the AFL in 2023.

Dick Vermeil Award (Biggest leap from 2022 Snyder bracket) - Eric Meyer

Davante Adams Award (Biggest CF improvement) - Stephen April

Dick Vermeil Award

There was only one option for this award in 2023. Every year, four managers play in the Snyder bracket, hoping to avoid the Snyder Award (our version of The League's Sacko). In 2022, those four managers were Eric, Andrew Perez, Anthony Battle, and Will Massimini.

While it took some incredibly bad luck on their part, as discussed in the Luck Awards entry, Anthony and Will are back in the Snyder bracket this year, as is Andrew Perez. As the only manager to climb out of it, Eric Meyer is this year's Dick Vermeil Award winner.

Davante Adams Award

CF (Comparison Factor) is metric I designed a few years ago to help us compare manager's seasons across the AFL's history. Since our league has undergone numerous scoring changes through its history, looking at average points per game from one season to another isn't an apples-to-apples comparison.

On League Legacy, a new platform which our league history is on and helps sort records in a more accessible way than the Word documents and Excel spreadsheets I've kept since 2013, this metric is called "Points Above Average" and can be found under Season Records.

The Davante Adams Award does not always go to the league-leader in CF for a given season, though there is a high correlation. In 2015, William Battle was the CF leader and won the Davante Adams Award. The same can be said for Eric Meyer in 2016 and 2018, Stephen April in 2020, and Evan Ash in 2021.

So, for the sixth time in ten seasons, the Davante Adams Award does go to this year's CF leader. Stephen April's CF of 16.2 is the second highest in league history, behind only Eric's 17.7 in 2016.

Coming off a CF of -1.3 in 2022, Stephen was the clear-cut winner of this award, improving his CF by 17.5.

Runners-Up: Only three other managers improved their CF scored from 2022 to 2023, with two of them tying for the second bigest improvement. Eric Meyer, this year's Dick Vermeil Award winner, improved by 11.0 from -10.9 in 2022 to 0.1 in 2023. Will Massimini also improved by 11.0 from -7.5 in 2022 to 3.5 in 2023.

Air Coryell Award (Most points from passing stats) - Eric Meyer

Mike Shanahan Award (Most points from rushing stats) - Stephen April

Joe Gibbs Award (Most points from receiving stats) - Brandon Saunders

Air Coryell Award

Eric's fourth career scoring discipline award is his first for passing stats.

Despite finishing nearly 50 passing attempts outside of the Top 3 in the AFL, his quarterbacks were more efficient than most. And by quarterbacks, I mostly mean Dak Prescott.

Prescott started 14 games for Eric this season, with Russell Wilson taking the reigns for the Cowboys' Week 7 bye.

Wilson wasn't anything special in his game, finishing with fewer than 200 passing yards and just one touchdown, though he also avoided turnovers in that game.

Prescott, meanwhile, was sensational this year, tossing 28 touchdowns and only throwing 7 interceptions in those 14 regular season games.

In all, Eric's team finished with 3,833 passing yards (5th in the AFL), 29 passing touchdowns (2nd in the AFL), and 7 interceptions (T-1st in the AFL). His team's completion percentage (68.8%) was beaten only by Sean Kennedy's 68.9% and his team's passer rating of 103.7 was also second behind Sean's 112.1 passer rating.

In total, Eric earned a league-best 263.85 points from passing stats this year.

Runner-Up: Sean Kennedy, 256.05 points
League-Worst: Evan Ash, 159.35 points

Mike Shanahan Award

This award doesn't always go to the manager with the most running back starts, but this year it does.

Stephen April had a league-high 43 starts by running backs in 2023. William Battle had the second most with 41, followed by Alex Kincaid with 40, Alex Mayo with 39, and Sean Kennedy with 39. None of those four finished among the top three in rushing scoring.

In any case, Stephen made excellent use of Christian McCaffrey, Jahmyr Gibbs, and Austin Ekeler, who made a combined 35 of his 43 running back starts. They were assisted by Joe Mixon (6 starts), Tony Pollard (2 starts), and a significant rushing contribution from Justin Herbert, who ran 52 times for 228 yards and 3 touchdowns in his 13 starts.

In total, Stephen's team tallied 678 carries (2nd in the AFL) for 3113 yards, more than 200 yards clear of the field. His 27 rushing touchdowns ranked third in the AFL and helped him amass 537.74 total points from rushing stats in 2023.

Congratulations to Stephen, who now has two Mike Shanahan Awards in his six-year AFL career!

Runner-Up: Will Massimini, 486.08 points
League-Worst: Andrew Perez, 271.68 points

Joe Gibbs Award

Brandon, meanwhile, now has a league-leading five scoring discipline awards in his career!

Last season he became the first manager to win two of them in the same season when he claimed both the Air Coryell Award and the Joe Gibbs Award. This is now the second time he's won the Gibbs Award in back-to-back seasons after he last did it in 2015 and 2016.

Brandon had the third most wide receiver starts this season with 50 of them, fewer than both Anthony Battle (52) and Andrew Perez (55).

But receiving, of course, can also come from the running back and, crucially, the tight end position.

Brandon got 13 starts each from Brandon Aiyuk and Travis Kelce this season. The two combined for just over 2,000 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns in the fantasy regular season.

At season's end, Brandon led the AFL in:

• Targets with 621 (2nd most: 561)

• Receptions with 437 (2nd most: 396)

• Receiving yards with 5,446 (2nd most: 4,492)

• Yards per target with 8.8 (2nd highest: 8.3)

• Yards per reception with 12.5 (2nd highest: 12.0)

Despite finishing outside the Top 3 in receiving touchdowns and catch rate, Brandon finished the year with 926.45 points from the receiving position, second most in AFL history behind Evan Ash's 1,064.30 recieving points in 2021 and well clear of the field in 2023.

Runner-Up: Stephen April, 851.65 points
League-Worst: Sean Kennedy, 604.80 points

Tom Moore Award (Most points from QBs) - Will Massimini

Hank Stram Award (Most points from RBs) - Stephen April

Curly Lambeau Award (Most points from WRs) - Anthony Battle

Mike Ditka Award (Most points from TEs) - Brandon Saunders

Mark Moseley Award (Most points from Ks) - Evan Ash

Buddy Ryan Award (Most points from DEFs) - Anthony Battle

Tom Moore Award

It almost feels counterintuitive for the Air Coryell Award and the Tom Moore Award to go to different managers, but they've only gone to the same manager three times in 11 AFL seasons.

Will benefited from the top fantasy quarterback in the AFL regular season in total scoring. Jalen Hurts wasn't particularly special passing the ball. In 14 starts for Will, he averaged 238.2 passing yards per game with 19 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. His passer rating of 89.9 was well below Baker Mayfield's 102.4 during Philly's Week 10 bye.

But Hurts more than made up for those lackluster passing numbers on the ground. In 14 games, he had 14 rushing touchdowns. Just to give an idea of how ridiculous his split was, he scored 184.41 points from passing starts and 152.37 from rushing this season!

Hurts and Mayfield combined to earn Will a league-high 352.15 points from the quarterback position in 2023, giving him his first career Tom Moore Award and his fourth career positional award.

Runner-Up: Alex Mayo, 347.18 points
League-Worst: William Battle: 199.50 points

Hank Stram Award

After the AFL's first three Hank Stram Awards went to the same manager as the Mike Shanahan Award, the last time it happened was when Eric Meyer won both in 2019, Stephen's second year in the AFL.

But when you have 2023 Christian McCaffrey and lead the AFL in running back starts, how could this award go in any other direction? After all, CMC had over 90 more points than any other running back in the AFL. Not 90 more than other starting running backs, mind you, but more than any other running back's actual total this year.

Stephen finished the year with 717.61 points from his running backs, well more than 100 points clear of the field.

Runner-Up: Cory Puffett, 583.69 points
League-Worst: Anthony Battle, 251.92 points

Curly Lambeau Award

Like the Hank Stram and Mike Shanahan awards, there was a high correlation between the Curly Lambeau Award and the Joe Gibbs Award in the AFL's early years. The winners were the same in four of the AFL's first five seasons.

Since then, the two awards have shared an owner just once, when Evan Ash won both in 2021.

This year, Anthony Battle had the second most wide receiver starts in the AFL with 52, just three fewer than Andrew Perez, who finished third in the running for this award.

Three different receivers started 14 games for Anthony this year. CeeDee Lamb led the corps with 1,306 receiving yards and 8 touchdowns off 103 receptions and 141 targets.

Joining him were Amari Cooper (61 rec, 985 yards, 3 TDs) and Zay Flowers (65 rec, 680 yards, 3 TD). In addition, Christian Watson added three touchdowns and he and Michael Thomas both reached the 200-yard threshold, each with four appearances in Ant's starting lineup.

All-in-all, Anthony's wide receivers scored 615.33 points this season to earn him his second career Curly Lambeau Award and his first since 2014 when he rode a combination of Antonio Brown and Calvin Johnson to the award. This is Anthony's 7th career positional award, tied for the most in AFL history.

Runner-Up: Brandon Saunders, 611.49 points
League-Worst: Alex Kincaid, 347.19 points

Mike Ditka Award

In three of the past four seasons, rather than the Joe Gibbs Award going to the Curly Lambeau Award winner, it's gone to the Mike Ditka Award winner.

That's just the case this year, as it was when Brandon won both a season ago.

Though he was not the true TE1 on the season, Travis Kelce finished with 22.05 more regular season points than T.J. Hockenson in starting apperances in the AFL.

Combined with Juwan Johnson's 4.75 points in Kelce's Week 1 absence due to injury and Trey McBride's 18.55 points during Kansas City's bye week,  Kelce helped Brandon to a league-leading 180.65 points from the tight end position in 2023, despite three other managers using more tight end starts over the course of the season.

This is Brandon's 6th career positional award, just one behind a four-way tie for the most in league history.

Runner-Up: Eric Meyer, 158.13 points
League-Worst: Will Massimini, 59.95 points

Mark Moseley Award

A member of that four-way tie, along with Anthony Battle, is Evan Ash, the winner of the 2023 Mark Mosely Award.

Back in 2017, Evan earned a share of this award along with Andrew Perez. This year, it's all Evan's award to boast.

For the first nine weeks of the season, Evan rode Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker to the tune of 10.3 points per game. During KC's bye week, Evan picked up Jason Myers and used the Seattle kicker the rest of the way, to the tune of 11.1 points per game.

It was a smart pivot point for Evan, too. Butker's average per game at season's end had dropped to 9.2 points per game. Meanwhile, because of a slow start to the year, Myers's season average was just 9.8 points per game. So Evan definitely got the best stretch of each kicker's season.

Evan joined Alex Kincaid with the most field goal attempts (34) and the most made (31) in the AFL this year. His kickers made 91.2% of their field goals, the third best mark in the league. He was also one of five managers with no misses on extra point attempts.

With 158.90 points, Evan had a 10-point cushion on the rest of the AFL in the running for this year's Mark Moseley Award.

Runner-Up: Alex Kincaid, 148.90 points
League-Worst: Brandon Saunders, 99.90 points

Buddy Ryan Award

Like Evan did with his kickers, Anthony did a fantastic job managing his two strong defenses. Unlike Evan, Ant didn't split the season into two long stretches of utalizing his defenses, instead having to evaluate week-by-week which was the better one to have in his lineup.

After drafting the Dallas Cowboys in the 12th round, 133rd overall, as the third defense off the board, he drafted the New Orleans Saints exactly two rounds later as the eighth defense off the board.

He employed a similar tactic the last time he won this award in 2019. He selected the Baltimore Ravens in the 10th round as the second defense off the board and then the New England Patriots in almost exactly the same spot as he drafted the Saints this year.

In nine starts this season, the Cowboys averaged 17.5 points for Anthony, well over their 14-game average of 12.3 through the regular season. Likewise, the Saints averaged 15.4 points per game in their six appearances in Ant's lineup, better than their 11.0 points per game through all 14 fantasy regular season opportunities.

This year, in our various defensive stats that count toward defensive scoring, Anthony finished:

• 2nd in yards allowed (273.8 per game)

• 2nd in points allowed (13.8 per game)

• 2nd in sacks (50)

• 1st in passes defended (81)

• T-2nd in interceptions (18)

• T-1st in fumble recoveries (11)

• 1st in touchdowns scored (9)

• T-3rd in blocked kicks (2)

• 1st in 4th down stops (23)

In total, Anthony scored 249.85 points from defenses this year and was the only manager in the AFL with more than 200.

Runner-Up: Alex Mayo, 183.31 points
League-Worst: Stephen April, 121.26 points

Drew Brees Award - Josh Allen (Alex Mayo) - 391.99 points in 16 games (24.5ppg)

Jim Brown Award - Christian McCaffrey (Stephen April) - 372.34 points in 15 games (24.8ppg)

Jerry Rice Award - Tyreek Hill (Stephen April) - 291.80 points in 14 games (20.8ppg)

Rob Gronkowski Award - Travis Kelce (Brandon Saunders) - 166.05 points in 15 games (11.1ppg)

Justin Tucker Award - Justin Tucker (Alex Mayo) - 163.00 points in 16 games (10.2ppg)

'85 Bears Award - Dallas Cowboys (Anthony Battle) - 157.19 points in 9 games (17.5ppg)

Gale Sayers Rookie of the Year - Bijan Robinson (William Battle) - 199.59 points in 15 games (13.3ppg)

Bijan Robinson gives William his league-best fourth Gale Sayers Award as a manager. His others were Todd Gurley (2015), Saquon Barkley (2018), and Najee Harris (2021). William has twice as many as the manager with the next most ROY Awards.

*Indicates a player who appeared on more than one manager’s roster during the season but scored a plurality of his points for the indicated manager.

Johnny Unitas Award - Josh Allen (Alex Mayo) - 41.08 points in Week 12 (won 162.29-112.06 vs Stephen April)

Cookie Gilchrist Award - Christian McCaffrey (Stephen April) - 49.95 points in Week 4 (lost 146.99-148.04 vs Brandon Saunders)

Don Hutson Award - Ja'Marr Chase (Sean Kennedy) - 47.90 points in Week 5 (won 130.00-110.77 vs Eric Meyer)

Tony Gonzalez Award - Travis Kelce (Brandon Saunders) - 30.75 points in Week 7 (won 120.70-111.79 vs Cory Puffett)

Justin Tucker Award - Brandon Aubrey (Will Massimini) - 24.40 points in Week 14 (lost 122.20-123.25 vs Anthony Battle)

'98 Seahawks Award - Dallas Cowboys (Anthony Battle) - 39.42 points in Week 1 (won 103.63-82.90 vs Andrew Perez)

Chase and the Cowboys give Sean and Anthony, respectively, their 7th career awards for seasonal high scores at any position, tying Cory Puffett for the most in AFL history.

Quarterbacks

Josh Allen (Alex Mayo) - 343.90 points in 14 RS games

Jalen Hurts (Will Massimini) - 333.68 points in 14 RS games

Running Backs

Travis Etienne (Cory Puffett) - 229.57 points in 14 RS games

Rachaad White (Will Massimini) - 169.70 points in 11 RS games

^Breece Hall* (Brandon Saunders) - 146.17 points in 11 RS games

Wide Receivers

Tyreek Hill (Stephen April) - 276.80 points in 13 RS games

CeeDee Lamb (Anthony Battle) - 251.40 points in 14 RS games

A.J. Brown (Will Massimini) - 222.00 points in 14 RS games

Mike Evans (Alex Mayo) - 209.15 points in 14 RS games

Amon-Ra St. Brown (Cory Puffett) - 208.02 points in 13 RS games

Stefon Diggs (Alex Mayo) - 194.85 points in 14 RS games

DJ Moore (Will Massimini) - 192.62 points in 13 RS games

Tight Ends

Travis Kelce (Brandon Saunders) - 157.35 points in 13 RS games

Evan Engram (Alex Mayo) - 114.65 points in 13 RS games

Kickers

Justin Tucker (Alex Mayo) - 138.90 points in 14 RS games

Brandon Aubrey (Will Massimini) - 128.10 points in 12 RS games

Defenses

Dallas Cowboys (Anthony Battle) - 157.19 points in 9 RS games

Buffalo Bills (William Battle) - 130.78 points in 14 RS games

Congratulations to Alex Mayo and Will Massimini, each of whom was represented by a league-best five players in this year's Pro Bowl! Since the Pro Bowl was created, Alex has had eight players make the starting lineup, the most in the AFL.

^Indicates the Otto Graham Pro Bowl MVP. Unlike the Joe Montana Sabol Bowl MVP Award, which will almost always go to a player on the winning team unless there's a particularly bizarre circumstance like in Super Bowl V, the Pro Bowl MVP simply goes to the highest scoring player regardless of team.

*Indicates the player appeared on more than one manager’s roster during the season but scored a plurality of his points for the indicated manager and thus represented that manager in the 2023 Pro Bowl.

Christian McCaffrey
Stephen April

There wasn't much deliberation this year. In some previous seasons, there have been multiple strong candidates that made the decision rather difficult and often ended with the player who made the deeper playoff run being given the nod.

This year there were three players who separated themselves very clearly from the next highest scorer at their position. McCaffrey at running back, Tyreek Hill at wide receiver (also playing for Stephen), and Josh Allen at quarterback, playing for Alex.

If he had remained healthy all season, Kyren Williams could have entered the conversation and, if nothing else, diminished Christian McCaffrey's candidacy. He had the second highest points per game outside of the quarterback position in the AFL and he was undrafted. Unfortunately, Brandon Saunders's Week 2 waiver wire pickup only played 10 games, though he still finished as the RB4 on the year.

Tyreek Hill had a very strong campaign, finishing with 40 more points than CeeDee Lamb in AFL games, but if Anthony had made the playoffs and Lamb's points in those consolation games had counted toward AFL records, he would have been the WR1 on the year, which took Hill out of the running for us.

Josh Allen was a more interesting case. He was not only the QB1 in the AFL but he was the real QB1 through the season based on our league's scoring. He outscored Lamar Jackson by almost 50 points in the same number of games and averaged 5.7 more points per game than the average starting QB in the AFL this season. He also made it all the way to the Sabol Bowl.

If it had been close, Allen likely would have been given the nod. Either way, we would have had our 11th different MVP in as many seasons of our league's history.

But it just wasn't close. Being the first overall pick in a fantasy draft carries with it some very high expectations. McCaffrey very well may have exceeded Stephen's this season.

His 372.34 points makes this the second best season of his career and the fourth best running back season in AFL history. His 24.8 points per game were 11.6 more than the average starting running back in the AFL this season.

By comparison, the AFL's RB2, Travis Etienne, only averaged 3.2 more points per game than the AFL's running back average and finished with 142.77 fewer points in just one fewer game played.

Congratulations to Christian McCaffrey! And congratulations to Stephen April, who becomes the third manager in AFL history to have two MVPs to his name!

Previous LaDainian Tomlinson MVPs:

2013 - Jamaal Charles (Danny Hatcher)
2014 - DeMarco Murray (Danny Hatcher)
2015 - Cam Newton (William Battle)
2016 - David Johnson (Eric Meyer)
2017 - Le'Veon Bell (Andrew Perez)
2018 - Todd Gurley (William Battle)
2019 - Lamar Jackson (Sean Kennedy)
2020 - Dalvin Cook (Stephen April)
2021 - Cooper Kupp (Evan Ash)
2022 - Travis Kelce (Brandon Saunders)