A Football Life:

2024, Week 15

Written by Cory Puffett
Published December 19, 2024

After posting three 12-win seasons in a four year span, this will mark the third time in five years Eric Meyer is playing in the Snyder bracket of the consolation ladder. He ended the regular season with a splash though, winning his first Tom Brady Award since Week 2 of the 2021 season.

His 179.13 points is the highest score any team has posted this year, and with four positional leaders on his team, the $8 he earned in Week 15 was the most any manager has won in a single week this year and nearly quadrupled his winnings for the season.

We'll wait until after Sabol Bowl XII to present a full wrap of the season with awards and all, but I figured I'll present a few things I noticed right off.

Jeffery McDonald had a respectable showing in his first season in the AFL, but he'll walk away disappointed after becoming the first manager in league history to miss the playoffs after starting 6-0. One two others have missed the postseason after starting 5-0. If we didn't give an automatic bid to all three division winners, he would have gotten in as the #4 seed out of the AFL's toughest division, but with only the seventh most points in the league and four lucky wins offset by just two unlucky losses, the chips probably fell in the most fair positions possible at the top of the league.

Will Massimini no longer stands alone as the unluckiest manager in AFL history. After netting two lucky wins, he is now tied with Anthony at -9 in their careers. Meanwhile, William Battle's career luck was cut in half from +6 to +3, making him just the third luckiest manager in AFL history.

Every year in Week 18 we pit the manager with the most points against the manager with the best-of-the-rest all-play record for the Pro Bowl. Managers who make it to the Sabol Bowl are eliminated from the field. This year's Pro Bowl will pit Stephen April against Sean Kennedy if they both lose in the first round of the playoffs this week.

If they both win, the Pro Bowl will instead feature Brandon Saunders and Cory Puffett, who missed the playoffs despite finishing fourth in both categories. If Sean loses this week but Stephen wins, the Pro Bowl will feature Sean and Brandon. If Sean wins but Stephen loses, we'll see a repeat of last year's Pro Bowl bout between Stephen and Cory.

Players are eligible for the Pro Bowl if they appear in at least 9 (60%) of regular season starting lineups. Below you can see this year's Pro Bowl eligible players. Players are listed in order of total points scored this season (only while in starting lineups) and managers in bold earned more points from the player and would receive credit for representation if that player starts in the Pro Bowl.

Quarterbacks (10 eligible)

Lamar Jackson Jeffery McDonald

Josh Allen Anthony Battle

Jalen Hurts Alex Mayo

Joe Burrow Stephen April

Patrick Mahomes William Battle

Brock Purdy Sean Kennedy

Jared Goff Cory Puffett & Alex Kincaid

C.J. Stroud Eric Meyer

Baker Mayfield Will Massimini

Kyler Murray Evan Ash

Running Backs (24 eligible)

Saquon Barkley Alex Kincaid

Derrick Henry Evan Ash

Jahmyr Gibbs Brandon Saunders & Stephen April

Josh Jacobs Sean Kennedy

Bijan Robinson William Battle

Alvin Kamara Stephen April

Kyren Williams Anthony Battle & Alex Kincaid

Joe Mixon Sean Kennedy

James Conner Eric Meyer

James Cook Alex Kincaid & Stephen April

David Montgomery Sean Kennedy

De'Von Achane Alex Mayo

Aaron Jones Cory Puffett

Najee Harris Anthony Battle

Breece Hall Stephen April

Chuba Hubbard Brandon Saunders

Tony Pollard Jeffery McDonald

Jonathan Taylor Will Massimini

J.K. Dobbins Brandon Saunders

Rachaad White William Battle

Rhamondre Stevenson Alex Mayo

Kenneth Walker Alex Kincaid

Kareem Hunt Anthony Battle

Tyrone Tracy Cory Puffett

Wide Receivers (24 eligible)

Ja'Marr Chase Stephen April

Amon-Ra St. Brown Cory Puffett

Justin Jefferson Sean Kennedy

CeeDee Lamb Alex Kincaid & Anthony Battle

Garrett Wilson Will Massimini

Mike Evans Jeffery McDonald

A.J. Brown Alex Mayo

Terry McLaurin Stephen April & Alex Kincaid

Drake London Eric Meyer

Jaxon Smith-Njigba Evan Ash

Nico Collins Sean Kennedy

Zay Flowers Brandon Saunders

Marvin Harrison William Battle

Davante Adams Eric Meyer

Cooper Kupp Evan Ash

Tyreek Hill Eric Meyer, Alex Kincaid & Cory Puffett

DK Metcalf Cory Puffett & Alex Mayo

Calvin Ridley William Battle

Jameson Williams Alex Mayo

George Pickens Anthony Battle

Stefon Diggs Jeffery McDonald

DeVonta Smith Will Massimini

Ladd McConkey Evan Ash

Deebo Samuel Will Massimini

Tight Ends (8 eligible)

Brock Bowers William Battle

George Kittle Jeffery McDonald

Trey McBride Brandon Saunders

Travis Kelce Cory Puffett

Sam LaPorta Eric Meyer

Zach Ertz Sean Kennedy & Stephen April

Kyle Pitts Alex Mayo

Pat Freiermuth Will Massimini

Kickers (10 eligible)

Ka'imi Fairbairn Anthony Battle & Brandon Saunders

Brandon Aubrey Cory Puffett & Stephen April

Chris Boswell Will Massimini & Brandon Saunders

Justin Tucker William Battle

Jason Myers Jeffery McDonald

Austin Seibert Alex Kincaid

Wil Lutz Sean Kennedy

Jake Moody Alex Mayo

Harrison Butker Eric Meyer

Younghoe Koo Brandon Saunders & William Battle

Defenses (4 eligible)

Pittsburgh Steelers Sean Kennedy

Detroit Lions Alex Kincaid

Chicago Bears Jeffery McDonald

Kansas City Chiefs Alex Mayo

Game of the Week: Stephen April (141.94) vs Alex Kincaid (95.55)

All-time H2H: Stephen leads series 7-4

By the time Monday Night Football rolled around, Stephen already had the win and a second straight division title and playoff berth locked up. Despite a negative projection, Alex stuck with the Detroit Lions defense and they set a new AFL record by losing 16.14 points.

T.J. Hockenson and the Minnesota Vikings gave Stephen enough on Monday night to spare Alex a coaching loss. If there’s any consolation for Alex, his 46-point loss this week is not nearly as embarrassing as the 127-point loss he suffered against Stephen in their Week 15 division title bout a year ago.

Sean Kennedy (86.86) vs Eric Meyer (179.13)

All-time H2H: Series tied 7-7

Jeffery McDonald (120.16) vs Brandon Saunders (136.25)

All-time H2H: Brandon leads series 2-0

Evan Ash (66.84) vs Cory Puffett (136.07)

All-time H2H: Cory leads series 10-8

Alex Mayo (123.39) vs William Battle (78.15)

All-time H2H: Alex leads series 7-1

Anthony Battle (116.51) vs Will Massimini (118.43)

All-time H2H: Anthony leads series 11-7

Free Agent All-Stars vs Tom Brady Award Winner

Every week, we take the best possible lineup made of players who were available on waivers in the AFL at the end of the week and compare it to the top scoring team of the week in our league. Included percentages for the Free Agent All-Star players represent the percentage of FleaFlicker leagues in which each the player was rostered as of data gathering (usually Tuesday morning).

Final Score:

Free Agent All-Stars – Score

TB Award Winner – Score

YTD Tom Brady Award Winner Record: 0-0

IR Report

In our league, any player can be placed on IR regardless of injury designation. Once on IR, the player cannot be moved, dropped, or traded for a minimum of three weeks.

After Week 1, IR placements are retroactive to the prior week as long as the player was already on the team's roster but was not in the starting lineup during that prior week. This means those players will be eligible to come off IR after just a two-week stay.

TAXI Report

In our league, any rookie can be placed on the TAXI squad at any time.

Rookies placed on the TAXI on or before Week 8, who remain there without ever being removed until the end of the Sabol Bowl, are eligible as TAXI Keepers for the following year, so long as they never appeared in a starting lineup prior to Week 8. Each manager is permitted to designate one TAXI Keeper in addition to their Traditional Keeper.

Weekly Manager Awards
How were this week's $10 divvied up? Weekly awards with no financial benefit can also be found here

$4 - Tom Brady Award (Highest Scorer) Eric Meyer #18 in his career (3rd most all-time)

179.13 points Ranks #8 all-time

$1 - Norm Van Brocklin Award (Top QB) Anthony Battle #18 in his career (3rd most all-time)

Josh Allen, 43.92 16th career QB1 week

This was Josh Allen's (and Anthony's) third straight week winning the Norm Van Brocklin Award.

$1 - Adrian Peterson Award (Top RB) Eric Meyer #23 in his career (most all-time by 3)

James Conner, 30.08 5th career RB1 week

$1 - Flipper Anderson Award (Top WR) Eric Meyer #18 in his career (4th most all-time)

Davante Adams, 38.90 9th career WR1 week

$1 - Shannon Sharpe Award (Top TE) Eric Meyer #14 in his career

Sam LaPorta, 16.35 4th career TE1 week

$1 - Scott O'Brien Award (Top K) Stephen April #8 in his career

Brandon Aubrey, 16.80 3rd career K1 week

$1 - Chuck Noll Award (Top DEF) Eric Meyer #12 in his career

Atlanta Falcons, 27.00 1st DEF1 week all-time

David Carr Award (Lowest Scorer) Evan Ash #19 in his career (most all-time by 3)

#1 Power Ranking Stephen April #21 in his career (t-3rd most all-time)

#12 Power Ranking William Battle #21 in his career (2nd most all-time)

Coaching Report
Who earned or cost him team the most points or a win based on coaching decisions? Find out here.

Chuck Knox Award (Best Coach) Will Massimini #12 in his career (t-5th most all-time)

Early in the week, Will picked up Juwan Johnson instead of Jake Ferguson, who not only had the highest projections among available tight ends, but also had a higher projection than any tight end on his roster, thus starting Pat Freiermuth became a coaching risk. It wound up paying off as Will earned 6.70 points and a win.

Honorable Mention: Eric Meyer earned a league-high 8.99 points by succeeding on two of his three coaching risks. He cost his team 13.04 points with his usual risk of starting C.J. Stroud at QB instead of Jayden Daniels, who remains on his TAXI. However, Eric earned 7.20 points by staring Jason Sanders instead of Harrison Butker at kicker and another 14.83 points by starting Atlanta's defense instead of Baltimore's.

Hue Jackson Award (Worst Coach) Alex Kincaid #10 in his career (t-3rd most all-time)

With two failed coaching risks, Alex cost his team a league-high 35.61 points. A small chunk of that, just 2.65 points, came from leaving Evan Engram in as his starting tight end after he was placed on IR by the Jaguars while keeping Isaiah Likely on his bench. The other 32.96 points he cost his team came from starting Detroit's defense, which had a negative projection, instead of picking up the Dallas Cowboys defense to start in their place.

Managers took a combined 22 coaching risks this week and were successful on 13. The league's net point differential was -18.08

The AFL finishes the 2024 regular season with a .436 success rate on 236 total coaching risks and a -566.55 point differential, by far the worst in AFL history dating back to 2016 when coaching was first tracked.

Manager Luck Report
Who suffered an unlucky loss or earned a lucky win this week? Who have been the luckiest and unluckiest managers this season? Find out here.

Lucky Wins

Will Massimini 5-6 breakdown (#7 scorer for the week)

Unlucky Losses

Jeffery McDonald 6-5 breakdown (#6 scorer for the week)

Luckiest managers through Week 15 (all-play)

Jeffery McDonald 1.9 wins above expected

Alex Kincaid 1.3 wins above expected

Evan Ash 1.1 wins above expected

Luckiest managers through Week 15 (median scoring)

Jeffery McDonald 2 wins above expected

Alex Kincaid 2 wins above expected

Evan Ash 2 wins above expected

Will Massimini 2 wins above expected

Unluckiest managers through Week 15 (all-play)

William Battle 2.5 wins below expected

Cory Puffett 1.4 wins below expected

Eric Meyer 1.0 wins below expected

Unluckiest managers through Week 15 (median scoring)

William Battle 3 wins below expected

Brandon Saunders 1 wins below expected

Stephen April 1 wins below expected

Eric Meyer 1 wins below expected

Cory Puffett 1 wins below expected

Sean Kennedy 1 wins below expected

Positional Top 100 Leaderboards
These players posted one of the 100 best performances in AFL history within their position groups.

Josh Allen, QB Anthony Battle 43.92 Points (#8 all-time)

Jared Goff, QB Cory Puffett 42.29 Points (#16 all-time)

Lamar Jackson, QB Jeffery McDonald 38.55 Points (#45 all-time)

Davante Adams, WR Eric Meyer 38.90 Points (#18 all-time)

Mike Evans, WR Jeffery McDonald 32.45 Points (#86 all-time)

Brandon Aubrey, K Stephen April 16.80 Points (t-#90 all-time)

Atlanta Falcons, DEF Eric Meyer 27.00 Points (t-#51 all-time)

Kansas City Chiefs, DEF Alex Mayo 24.89 Points (#93 all-time)

Missed Opportunities
The players riding their managers' benches would have been key contributors.

Will Massimini left the #5 RB performance of the week on his bench

Tyjae Spears, 24.47 Points

Brandon Saunders left the #2 TE performance of the week on his bench

Jonnu Smith, 14.25 Points

Anthony Battle left the #5 K performance of the week on his bench

Chad Ryland, 15.40 Points

Brandon Saunders left the #1 DEF performance of the week on his bench

Denver Broncos, 30.75 Points

Denver's performance would have ranked #24 on the AFL's all-time single game defensive leaderboard

Top 100 Team Scores
These managers' earned one of the 100 highest team scores in AFL history.

Eric Meyer 179.13 Points (#8 all-time)

Weekly League-wide Point Total
How high- or low-scoring was this week in the context of AFL history?

The AFL scored 1,398.78 points in Week 15

This ranked #32 in league history out of 170 regular season weeks

Scoring Anomalies
Did the second-highest scoring team lose? Or the second-lowest scoring team win? These sorts of anomalies and more are included here.

Eric Meyer led the league in scoring this week after winning the David Carr Award a week ago. This is the 8th time in league history this has happened.

Note: this does not count three instances of a team ending the season as the low scorer and then winning the Week 1 Tom Brady Award the next year

Sean Kennedy's league-leading active streak of 100-point games ended at 4

Brandon takes over as the lone active leader, after previously being tied with Sean, with his 5th straight 100-point outing.

Alex Mayo's league-leading active drought of 100-point games ended at 3

Alex Kincaid takes over as the active leader with his 2nd straight sub-100-point outing.

AFL Playoff Preview

Let’s take a preliminary look at our two first round playoff matchups as we draw ever closer to Sabol Bowl XII.

#4 Anthony Battle (8-7) vs #1 Sean Kennedy (11-4)

All-time H2H: Sean leads series 9-7

In the AFL's first 11 seasons, the wild card round has seen six instances of the second highest scoring team being eliminated a week short of the Sabol Bowl. If projections are anything to go by, we could be in for yet another year of this phenomenon.

Anthony opens as a 1-point favorite against the AFL's top seed as both are dealing with injuries to manage. The biggest injury news of the week has been David Montgomery's MCL sprain which supposedly will be season-ending. He is seeking a third opinion but will certainly not be available for Sean this week.

Anthony will be looking for a repeat of their Week 10 matchup, the only meeting they had this season. Anthony won that game 110.48 to 96.68.

Sean, meanwhile, has a couple of trends to hang his hat one; well, one trend anyway. Though he did beat Anthony 160.78 to 143.90 in the 2019 wild card round, it was their only playoff meeting to date and one game doesn't make a trend.

The trend that favors Sean is that the last time Sean lost back-to-back games against Anthony was a decade ago when he lost both of their regular season matchups during the 2014 season. Sean took a year off from the league in 2015 and hasn't lost consecutive meetings with Anthony since.

In addition to players already ruled out, Sean will be keeping an eye on a few of his players' statuses heading into the weekend. Joe Mixon and Rashod Bateman are both dealing with lower extremity injuries while Zach Ertz is in the concussion protocol.

George Pickens and David Njoku, meanwhile, are both questionable with hamstring injuries and Anthony probably wouldn't feel too confident with his backup options should either or both be inactive.

#3 Brandon Saunders (9-6) vs #2 Stephen April (10-5)

All-time H2H: Stephen leads series 5-4

Like the other semifinal matchup, this is projected to be a close contest with Stephen opening as a 1-point favorite. FleaFlicker expects this one to be a more exciting matchup, though, with each manager projected to outscore Anthony and Sean by nearly 10 points!

Stephen and Brandon faced off once this season already. The Sabol Bowl VIII champ won a close contest, 120.85 to 120.11, recording the second smallest margin of victory in 2024.

The two battled in the wild card round a year ago and Stephen is hoping his repeat win over Alex Kincaid in a Week 15 division championship game of the week isn't again followed up by a blowout loss to Brandon a week later. In 2023, Brandon outscored Stephen 143.81 to 119.50 to advance to Sabol Bowl XI, where he finally broke through after losing in the championship game twice before.

The last time Stephen won two straight meetings against Brandon was three years ago. After a narrow 134.82-133.46 win in Week 11 of the 2020 season, Stephen won their only meeting of the 2021 season in comfortable fashion in Week 4. That's the trend he would prefer to see again.

On the injury front, Brandon definitely has a chance at a pretty significant advantage. His entire starting lineup is currently healthy while Stephen has a couple big names nursing injuries at the top of his lineup. Joe Burrow has been limited in practice this week with injuries listed to his wrist and knee while Alvin Kamara is dealing with a groin injury.

If there's any good news to be had for Stephen, it's that an inactive Burrow would call up Russell Wilson to start at quarterback. The Ravens are giving up nearly 24 points per game to fantasy quarterbacks this season so that's a pretty juicy matchup. The bad news is Wilson didn't even score 6 points in his first matchup with Baltimore and a missed game for Burrow would limit Ja'Marr Chase's upside.

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