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Written by Cory Puffett
Published October 24, 2024
The coming week will take us across the midpoint of the 2024 season. It's remarkable how quickly each season seems to blow by. For this week's intro, I want to take a look at the standings in our league and how they campare to past seasons at this juncture.
We have two teams sitting at 6-1 after Sean defeated Jeffery in the game of the week to pull back into a virtual tie atop the AFL East. It is the sixth time in our league's 12 seasons that we have had two 6-1 teams. Of those other five instances, only one joins this season in featuring no teams at 5-2, but that was in 2019 when we also had a 7-0 team.
This is just the third time in AFL history we've had only four teams above .500 at this point in the season. One was that 2019 season, when three of those four teams made it to the playoffs and Sean Kennedy ultimately won Sabol Bowl VII after his 7-0 start. Then in 2022, we again saw three of four teams above .500 through seven games make the playoffs, but Sabol Bowl X champ William Battle was 3-4 at this stage of the season.
In the other nine seasons in AFL history, where we had at least five teams above .500 at this point of the campaign, sub-.500 teams have about half the chance of making the playoffs with just a 13% rate of making it compared to 25% when there are only four teams with winning records.
This is great news for our seven 3-4 teams in particular. Never have we had more than five teams with a 3-4 record at this stage of the season. It's entirely possible that two of these teams could make the playoffs. Sean and Jeffery may be a little far out front, but our two 4-3 teams are certainly still within reach.
It also would not be unprecedented for two sub-.500 teams to turn it around in the second half and make the postseason. Back in 2016, during Eric Meyer's historic run to the Sabol Bowl IV title, we had a 3-4 team and a 2-5 team ultimately make the playoffs while all three teams that started 5-2 wound up playing in the consolation ladder. Back then they only had seven more weeks to sort themselves out; now we have eight.
Suffice to say, as our league's trade deadline approaches in less than four weeks we could see a lot more managers than usual making an attempt to buy.
Game of the Week: Sean Kennedy (139.67) vs Jeffery McDonald (86.63)
Game of the Week: Sean Kennedy (139.67) vs Jeffery McDonald (86.63)
All-time H2H: Sean leads series 1-0
Jeffery had a few snafus with his roster management this week. He took the Bears defense out of his lineup and placed them on his bench for their bye week, and must have expected the Jaguars to be placed in his open starting defense spot when his claim processed on Friday morning. But because his active roster was still at 16, they were placed in his IR.
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They locked into that spot before he realized what happened, and then he added the Colts defense and they occupied his third IR spot. My advice would have been to move Jakobi Meyers to the IR to activate and start Mostert and to move either Travis Etienne or Jerome Ford to the IR to activate and start the Colts defense.
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If there’s one silver lining for Jeffery following his first loss, it’s that his optimum point total was 30 points lower than Sean’s ultimate score. Only two players on Sean’s roster failed to hit double digits, and one of them was Chris Godwin who was less than half a point shy of that mark.
Cory Puffett (75.01) vs Evan Ash (144.58)
Cory Puffett (75.01) vs Evan Ash (144.58)
All-time H2H: Cory leads series 9-8
Will Massimini (98.05) vs Anthony Battle (135.65)
Will Massimini (98.05) vs Anthony Battle (135.65)
All-time H2H: Anthony leads series 11-6
Eric Meyer (77.01) vs Brandon Saunders (125.69)
Eric Meyer (77.01) vs Brandon Saunders (125.69)
All-time H2H: Eric leads series 10-7
Alex Kincaid (114.58) vs Stephen April (120.70)
Alex Kincaid (114.58) vs Stephen April (120.70)
All-time H2H: Stephen leads series 6-4
William Battle (83.89) vs Alex Mayo (94.32)
William Battle (83.89) vs Alex Mayo (94.32)
All-time H2H: Alex leads series 6-1
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 – 149.71
TB Award Winner – 144.58
YTD Tom Brady Award Winner Record: 1-6
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) Evan Ash #19 in his career (2nd most all-time)
144.58 points Does not rank in Top 100 all-time
$1 - Norm Van Brocklin Award (Top QB) Jeffery McDonald #1 in his career
Lamar Jackson, 37.07 13th career QB1 week
$1 - Adrian Peterson Award (Top RB) Brandon Saunders #8 in his career
Jahmyr Gibbs, 31.80 2nd career RB1 week
$1 - Flipper Anderson Award (Top WR) Cory Puffett #13 in his career
Amon-Ra St. Brown, 22.65 2nd career WR1 week
$1 - Shannon Sharpe Award (Top TE) Evan Ash #18 in his career (2nd most all-time)
Mark Andrews, 18.55 7th career TE1 week
$1 - Scott O'Brien Award (Top K) Sean Kennedy #15 in his career (5th most all-time)
Wil Lutz, 19.80 9th career K1 week
$1 - Chuck Noll Award (Top DEF) Will Massimini #18 in his career (2nd most all-time)
Cincinnati Bengals, 24.22 6th DEF1 week all-time
David Carr Award (Lowest Scorer) Cory Puffett #9 in his career
#1 Power Ranking Sean Kennedy #14 in his career (5th most all-time)
#12 Power Ranking Alex Mayo #3 in his career
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 #11 in his career (t-4th most all-time)
Brandon captures his second straight Chuck Knox Award and his third of the season after earning a league-high 20.65 points thanks to two successful coaching risks. He earned 7.39 points by starting Geno Smith instead of Anthony Richardson at quarterback and another 13.26 points by continuing to leave Malik Nabers on his TAXI and instead rolling with Jaguars rookie receiver Brian Thomas. This is Brandon's third Knox Award of the year after taking back-to-back Hue Jackson Awards in Weeks 2 & 3.
Hue Jackson Award (Worst Coach) William Battle #9 in his career (t-4th most all-time)
William cost his team a league-high 22.25 points and a win this week by failing on one of his two coaching risks. Though he earned 2.90 points by starting Calvin Ridley at FLEX with a healthy Devin Singletary ineligible to come off his IR, he lost 25.15 points by starting Michael Wilson instead of Rachaad White on Monday night.
Managers took a combined 23 coaching risks this week (a season-high by 7) and were successful on 12. The league's net point differential was -40.58
To date in 2024, the AFL has a .500 success rate on 102 total coaching risks with a -199.72 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
Alex Mayo 4-7 breakdown (#8 scorer for the week)
Unlucky Losses
Alex Kincaid 6-5 breakdown (#6 scorer for the week)
Luckiest managers through Week 7 (all-play)
Jeffery McDonald 1.5 wins above expected
Sean Kennedy 0.8 wins above expected
Eric Meyer 0.6 wins above expected
Alex Mayo 0.6 wins above expected
Luckiest managers through Week 7 (median scoring)
Jeffery McDonald 2 wins above expected
Evan Ash 1 wins above expected
Will Massimini 1 wins above expected
Alex Mayo 1 wins above expected
Unluckiest managers through Week 7 (all-play)
William Battle 2.3 wins below expected
Alex Kincaid 0.8 wins below expected
Will Massimini 0.5 wins below expected
Unluckiest managers through Week 7 (median scoring)
William Battle 3 wins below expected
Brandon Saunders 1 wins below expected
Alex Kincaid 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.
Lamar Jackson, QB Jeffery McDonald 37.07 Points (#57 all-time)
Wil Lutz, K Sean Kennedy 19.80 Points (t-#23 all-time)
Daniel Carlson, K Evan Ash 18.30 Points (t-#45 all-time)
Austin Seibert, K Alex Kincaid 18.00 Points (t-#49 all-time)
Cincinnati Bengals, DEF Will Massimini 24.22 Points (#98 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.
Stephen April left the #3 QB performance of the week on his IR
Russell Wilson, 26.21 Points
William Battle left the #4 RB performance of the week on his bench
Rachaad White, 27.40 Points
Sean Kennedy left the #2 WR performance of the week on his bench
Rashod Bateman, 20.55 Points
Anthony Battle left the #4 WR performance of the week on his bench
George Pickens, 20.30 Points
Anthony Battle left the #3 TE performance of the week on his bench
David Njoku, 17.80 Points
Evan Ash left the #5 TE performance of the week on his bench
Cade Otton, 13.30 Points
Evan had the TE2 in his starting lineup
Jeffery McDonald left the #5 DEF performance of the week on his IR
Jacksonville Jaguars, 18.04 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 7
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 1,295.78 points in Week 7
This does not rank in the Top 50 in league history out of 162 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.
For the 18th time in AFL history, the highest and lowest scoring teams faced off. Their point differential of 69.57 points ranks 3rd smallest among the 10 occurrences since 2018.
William Battle and Jeffery McDonald's league-leading active streaks of 100-point games ended at 3
Anthony Battle and Brandon Saunders take over as the active leaders with their 3rd straight 100-point outing.
Alex Mayo's league-leading active drought of 100-point games extended to 5
This ties the longest drought of his career and is the 10th drought of at least five games in AFL history
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