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Written by Cory Puffett
Published October 3, 2024
I just have a few observations to share this week. Firstly, we missed out on a lot of points across the AFL this week. It was the lowest scoring week of the season so far, and we can attribute that largely to the fact that 13 of 30 positional Top 5 scorers were on benches, IRs, and TAXI squads in the AFL. Just at QB, four of the top five, five of the top seven, and six of the top nine were on rosters but not in starting lineups.
Evan Ash, Brandon Saunders, and Alex Kincaid finished within 0.04 points of each other this week, with the latter two matched up against each other.
Sean Kennedy had a perfect lineup, the first we've seen this season. It was a legit one at that, considering we had no byes and only one player on his bench, Joe Mixon, was out due to injury.
Last year was the first time since 2016 we didn't have a single team make it to 4-0. In fact, we were on a four-year streak of having two 4-0 teams every season. We're back to that number this year with Sean and newcomer Jeffery McDonald heading up the AFL East division. Sean's had the perfect mix of strength and luck so far this season, as he leads all managers in scoring by about 6 points per game and also has the fewest points scored against him out of any manager by about 2 points per game.
Week 5 is Rivalry Week in the AFL. Three of this week's matchups have already been featured earlier this season. Alex Mayo beat Brandon Saunders in the season-opening Game of the Week, avenging his Sabol Bowl XI loss from December. Anthony Battle beat Evan Ash in Week 1, as well, and hopes his trend of alternating wins and losses will continue for exactly one more week. And in Week 2, Sean Kennedy beat Alex Kincaid and will try to do so again to keep his perfect record intact.
Our other three matchups in Week 5 will be contested again later in the year before the three-week divisional round robin that concludes every regular season.
Game of the Week: Anthony Battle (73.88) vs Cory Puffett (113.31)
Game of the Week: Anthony Battle (73.88) vs Cory Puffett (113.31)
All-time H2H: Series tied 7-7
It’s always frustrating when a stat correction might flip the outcome of a game. In 2023, the Denver Broncos defense was assessed a 6-point manual deduction for a punt return lost for a touchdown, and Marvin Mims received those 6 points back. Fortunately, the Broncos defense was on Brandon’s bench and Mims was on waivers at the time, so there was no impact in our league.
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On Sunday, though, we had a situation where Rashid Shaheed was penalized six points for the exact same situation, but in our league offensive players don’t gain or lose points for anything they do on special teams, and those points are either credited to or deducted from the defense’s score. Anthony was starting the Saints defense and Cory had Shaheed in his lineup. As a result, a manual correction of +6 points for Cory and -6 points for Anthony will be applied after FleaFlicker stat corrections are assessed on Thursday.
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As it turned out, there was no impact on the final outcome of the game. Anthony led by less than a point after Sunday Night Football with no players left, and DK Metcalf and Amon-Ra St. Brown cleaned things up for Cory on Monday night.
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Cory improved to 17-12 in his career playing in the game of the week while dropping Ant to 17-17. The two are now tied for the second most Peyton Manning Awards in AFL history.
Eric Meyer (112.44) vs Will Massimini (127.51)
Eric Meyer (112.44) vs Will Massimini (127.51)
All-time H2H: Eric leads series 9-7
William Battle (106.22) vs Jeffery McDonald (122.81)
William Battle (106.22) vs Jeffery McDonald (122.81)
All-time H2H: Jeffery leads series 1-0
Sean Kennedy (113.03) vs Stephen April (95.93)
Sean Kennedy (113.03) vs Stephen April (95.93)
All-time H2H: Sean leads series 4-3
Alex Mayo (79.15) vs Evan Ash (98.23)
Alex Mayo (79.15) vs Evan Ash (98.23)
All-time H2H: Evan leads series 5-1
Brandon Saunders (98.21) vs Alex Kincaid (98.19)
Brandon Saunders (98.21) vs Alex Kincaid (98.19)
All-time H2H: Brandon leads series 4-3
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 – 147.91
TB Award Winner – 127.51
YTD Tom Brady Award Winner Record: 1-3
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.
Weekly Manager Awards
How were this week's $10 divvied up? Weekly awards with no financial benefit can also be found here
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) Will Massimini #14 in his career (5th most all-time)
127.51 points Does not rank in Top 100 all-time
$1 - Norm Van Brocklin Award (Top QB) Will Massimini #7 in his career
Baker Mayfield, 30.18 1st career QB1 week
$1 - Adrian Peterson Award (Top RB) Evan Ash #15 in his career (4th most all-time)
Derrick Henry, 36.17 10th career RB1 week
$1 - Flipper Anderson Award (Top WR) Sean Kennedy #18 in his career (3rd most all-time)
Nico Collins, 28.45 1st career WR1 week
$1 - Shannon Sharpe Award (Top TE) Will Massimini #7 in his career
Pat Freiermuth, 13.80 1st career TE1 week
$1 - Scott O'Brien Award (Top K) Stephen April #7 in his career
Evan McPherson, 14.20 2nd career K1 week
$1 - Chuck Noll Award (Top DEF) William Battle #21 in his career (most all-time)
San Francisco 49ers, 25.36 6th DEF1 week all-time
David Carr Award (Lowest Scorer) Anthony Battle #11 in his career
#1 Power Ranking Sean Kennedy #12 in his career
#12 Power Ranking Brandon Saunders #17 in his career (t-3rd most all-time)
Coaching Report
Who earned or cost him team the most points or a win based on coaching decisions? Find out here.
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) Brandon Saunders #9 in his career
Brandon earned 2.40 points and a win by succeeding on his lone coaching risk, starting Brian Thomas at WR and leaving Malik Nabers on his TAXI. Ironically, the decision to leave Nabers out of his lineup was the reason he earned the AFL's previous two Hue Jackson Awards.
Honorable Mention: Will Massimini earned a league-high 8.09 points by succeeding on both of his coaching risks. He earned 0.80 points by starting Baker Mayfield at QB with Jordan Love ineligible to return from his IR, and another 7.29 points by starting Christian Kirk at FLEX with Deebo Samuel also unable to be activated from his IR.
Hue Jackson Award (Worst Coach) Anthony Battle #7 in his career
Anthony cost his team a league-high 27.08 points by failing on both of his coaching risks. He lost 10.55 points by starting New Orleans at defense instead of Cleveland and another 16.53 points by starting Allen Lazard at FLEX instead of Jordan Addison.
Managers took a combined 13 coaching risks this week and were successful on 6. The league's net point differential was -41.24
To date in 2024, the AFL has a .500 success rate on 56 total coaching risks with a -115.96 point differential
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.
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
Brandon Saunders 4-7 breakdown (#8 scorer for the week)
Evan Ash 5-6 breakdown (#7 scorer for the week)
Unlucky Losses
Eric Meyer 7-4 breakdown (#5 scorer for the week)
William Battle 6-5 breakdown (#6 scorer for the week)
Luckiest managers through Week 4 (all-play)
Jeffery McDonald 1.2 wins above expected
Anthony Battle 0.8 wins above expected
Sean Kennedy 0.8 wins above expected
Luckiest managers through Week 4 (median scoring)
Jeffery McDonald 1 wins above expected
Anthony Battle 1 wins above expected
Will Massimini 1 wins above expected
Unluckiest managers through Week 4 (all-play)
Alex Kincaid 1.1 wins below expected
Stephen April 0.8 wins below expected
William Battle 0.7 wins below expected
Unluckiest managers through Week 4 (median scoring)
Alex Kincaid 1 wins below expected
Stephen April 1 wins below expected
William Battle 1 wins below expected
Positional Top 100 Leaderboards
These players posted one of the 100 best performances in AFL history within their position groups.
Positional Top 100 Leaderboards
These players posted one of the 100 best performances in AFL history within their position groups.
Derrick Henry, RB Evan Ash 36.17 Points (#67 all-time)
San Francisco 49ers DEF William Battle 25.36 Points (#70 all-time)
Missed Opportunities
The players riding their managers' benches would have been key contributors.
Missed Opportunities
The players riding their managers' benches would have been key contributors.
Brandon Saunders left the #1 QB performance of the week on his bench
Justin Fields, 32.67 Points
Will Massimini left the #3 QB performance of the week on his IR
Jordan Love, 29.38 Points
Love was ineligible to return from IR and Will had the true QB2 (QB1 in the AFL) in his lineup
Alex Kincaid left the #4 QB performance of the week on his bench
Jared Goff, 27.96 Points
Eric Meyer left the #5 QB performance of the week on his TAXI
Jayden Daniels, 27.38 Points
Eric only lost out on about 1.5 points since he had the true QB6 (QB2 in the AFL) in his lineup
Alex Kincaid left the #2 RB performance of the week on his bench
Kenneth Walker, 33.36 Points
Jeffery McDonald left the #3 RB performance of the week on his bench
D'Andre Swift, 26.63 Points
Stephen April left the #5 QB performance of the week on his bench
Chase Brown, 23.80 Points
Jeffery McDonald left the #2 WR performance of the week on his bench
Jayden Reed, 24.83 Points
Brandon Saunders left the #3 WR performance of the week on his bench
Dontayvion Wicks, 23.55 Points
Anthony Battle left the #4 WR performance of the week on his bench
Jordan Addison, 22.48 Points
Anthony Battle left the #1 TE performance of the week on his bench
Taysom Hill, 15.78 Points
Will left the #3 DEF performance of the week on his bench
Tennessee Titans, 16.56 Points
Anthony Battle left the #5 DEF performance of the week on his bench
Cleveland Browns, 13.51 Points
Top 100 Team Scores
These managers' earned one of the 100 highest team scores in AFL history.
Top 100 Team Scores
These managers' earned one of the 100 highest team scores in AFL history.
None in Week 4
Weekly League-wide Point Total
How high- or low-scoring was this week in the context of AFL history?
Weekly League-wide Point Total
How high- or low-scoring was this week in the context of AFL history?
The AFL scored 1,238.91 points in Week 4
This does not rank in the Top 50 in league history out of 159 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.
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.
The matchup between Brandon Saunders and Alex Kincaid was the 30th game in AFL history decided by one point or less. With a 0.02-point margin of victory for Brandon, this was the closest game the league has ever seen.
Cory Puffett's's league-leading active streak of 100-point games extended to 8 games.
Sean Kennedy remains one game behind.
Eric Meyer's league-leading active drought of 100-point games ended at 2 while Anthony Battle's extended to 3 games
Anthony has tied the longest drought of his career and will have the 18th drought of at least 4 games in AFL history if he fails to score 100 points in Week 5.
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