After a record 19 players appeared in 2024 starting lineups while either injured or on bye, the 2025 season began with a pair of major rule changes.

Managers who committed lineup infractions by leaving these players in their lineups would receive strikes with escalating penalties, up to expulsion from the league with a fourth strike within a two-year time period.

To help ensure managers would not earn a strike for Monday night players whose status was up in the air on Sunday, the AFL also instituted a rule allowing managers to designate a sub for their Monday night player in the event they were inactive.

The latter change was never used, nor did it wind up being needed for this season. The former, though, resulted in nine strikes being handed out across five managers, with one of them earning his fourth of the season in the final week and being replaced for the 2026 season.

The other big change to the league's structure moving forward came in the form of a switch from TAXI keepers to rookie keepers beginning in 2026. No longer will rookies only be eligible as a second keeper if they did not appear in AFL lineups during their rookie seasons. In fact, managers earn more value if they start their rookies every week!

The AFL Draft was wrought with issues. One manager failed to pay his dues by the deadline and was mistakenly moved to the back of every round of the draft instead of just the first eight rounds. Then an error with the draft adjustment that came out of that caused a manager to select out of order near the end of the draft. Managers decided they were okay with the players they ended up with, and the season finally began on September 4 when the Philadelphia Eagles narrowly defeated the Dallas Cowboys.

Stephen April and Sean Kennedy faced off in a rematch of Sabol Bowl XII with Stephen defending his title with a 1-0 start. This would be the 10th time in 13 seasons the eventual Sabol Bowl champion began the year 1-0. Unfortunately for Stephen, 2025 would not feature the first back-to-back title winner since the league's first two seasons in 2013 and 2014.

By Week 9, it was a three-man race for the title of regular season champion:

Eric Meyer was enjoying a resurgence. Once a dominant force who put together three 12-2 seasons in a four-year span, Eric was in the midst of a five-year playoff drought. But with an 8-1 record atop the AFL East, he was all but assured a playoff spot; of eight previous AFL managers who had started a season with that record, all eight had reached the postseason and five of them had lifted the Sabol Trophy when it was all said and done.

Brandon Saunders was just a game behind Eric and leading the AFL Central division. The winner of Sabol Bowl XI in 2023, he'd started 3-0 including the third biggest blowout in AFL history, a 156.30-49.78 victory over his historic rival William Battle. In the midst of a four-game winning streak, he just needed to keep up the pressure. Of eight previous AFL managers who had started a season 7-2, three had ultimately slipped to the consolation ladder.

Anthony Battle, with an AFL-record seven postseason appearances already under his belt, was sitting a game behind Brandon in the AFL Central. He'd had some difficulty stringing wins together and of 21 previous managers to open a campaign with a 6-3 record, barely more than half (52.4%) had leveraged it into a playoff berth.

The AFL West was still wide open. Even Cory Puffett at 1-8 was still in the hunt just four games behind Sean Kennedy and Alex Mayo with six games remaining. The final six weeks were fascinating.

Eric Meyer and Anthony Battle matched with perfect 6-0 records to lock up the top two seeds in the postseason. Alex Mayo went 5-1 to take control of the AFL West division and earn the league's #3 seed.

The fourth and fifth best records over the final six weeks? Alex Kincaid (4-2) and Cory Puffett (3-3), two managers who would find themselves facing off in the Snyder Bowl during championship week, trying to avoid last place and the punishment that goes with it.

The final playoff spot instead went to a team that closed the season on a dismal 2-4 skid. Fortunately for Brandon, he'd built enough of a lead that, for the first time since 2021, the four playoff teams' records were all clear of the field. In fact, for the first time in league history no consolation team was within a game of a playoff team.

Eric Meyer became the sixth manager in AFL history, including his own 2016 and 2018 seasons, to claim all three regular season titles: the Andy Reid Award for the regular season champion, the John Fox Award for the regular season points champion, and the Guy Chamberlin Award for regular season all-play champion. Of the five previous winners, only he in 2016 had gone on to even play in the Sabol Bowl, much less lift the trophy.

Unfortunately for Eric, this year would follow that trend. He would join eight other managers in AFL playoff history to post the second highest score of the wild card round while being matched up against the round's highest scorer. Brandon's squad had limped to the end of the regular season, but like Max in Stranger Things the final two acts signaled their time to wake back up.

Following a dominant wild card performance, thanks in large part to Puka Nacua's 2025 league-best performance by a wide receiver, Brandon was ready to make his league-record fifth Sabol Bowl appearance.

He'd be facing Anthony Battle, who outlasted Alex Mayo thanks to Chase Brown's dominant three-touchdown performance. Despite having one more postseason appearance than Brandon in his career, this was just Anthony's second Sabol Bowl appearance after previously falling to his brother in Sabol Bowl VI back in 2018.

The historic nature of this matchup extended back further than the AFL's existance. Our predecessor league, Just Do It!, lasted just two seasons before being reorganized. But the two champions of Just Do It! had been Anthony Battle in 2011 and Brandon Saunders in 2012.

In a Sabol Bowl that now sits perfectly as the median of the 13 editions in terms of combined score, it came down to the final minutes of Monday Night Football in Week 17 between the LA Rams and the Atlanta Falcons. Anthony needed a Kyren Williams touchdown, preferably a receiving touchdown from Matthew Stafford, to complete an unlikely comeback. He'd trailed by 21.50 points entering the final game of the matchup, and while those two were expected to easily eclipse that total, Brandon had Puka Nacua.

A late Stafford touchdown was just what Anthony needed, except it went to Nacua, securing Brandon's second Sabol Bowl victory in three years. Brandon joins William Battle in 2022 season as the only managers to raise the Sabol Trophy after entering the playoffs as the wild card team.

In addition, Brandon joins Danny Hatcher (3), William Battle (2), and Stephen April (2) as a multi-time AFL champion. The race to catch Danny, who left the AFL unceremoniously following the 2019 season, is on!

Week 2

William Battle's Deez Nuttz nearly set a new record for fewest points scored by a team in a single week since 2016 when starting lineups expanded from eight to nine players.

With Josh Allen's 10.84 points the only double digit score in his lineup and four started with less than five points, Deez Nuttz managed just 49.78 points, less than two more points than Alex Kincaid's Camp Kincaid in Week 15 of the 2023 season when they scored just 47.87 points.

Week 3

The Minnesota Vikings defense, playing for William Battle's Deez Nuttz, nearly set a new AFL starting tight end record when they scored 39.99 points, just over a point and a half shy of the New England Patriots record of 51.50 points set in Week 2 of the 2019 season while playing for Anthony Battle's Jack Gasses.

Along with two defensive touchdowns, the Vikings defense turned Cincinnati's offense over five times and gave up less than 200 yards of total offense.

Week 9

Brock Bowers, playing for Eric Meyer's Some Pulp, nearly set a new AFL starting tight end record when he scored 37.58 points, less than a point shy of Darren Waller's record of 38.50 points set in Week 13 of the 2020 season while playing for Stephen April's Cookin' With My Easy Drake Oven.

Bowers had an impressive 3 touchdown outing on 12 catches for 127 yards.

Week 12

Eric Meyer's Some Pulp set a new AFL #2 in single-game team scoring, with 194.95 points.

Buoyed by Jahmyr Gibbs, who scored 50.80 points, and assisted  by JSN's 33.48 and CMC's 25.32 point outings, Some Pulp finished more than 6 points clear of the AFL's previous second highest score, which was a record when set by Sean Kennedy's Buns of Steel in Week 5 of the 2021 season. Cory Puffett's Week 8 performance in 2022 leading Death Watch still stands alone with 205.21 points, the only 200-point team score in league history.

Week 15

Jason Myers, playing for Anthony Battle's Visionary, nearly set a new AFL starting kicker record when he scored 26.30 points, just one point shy of Jake Moody's record of 27.30 points set in Week 1 of the 2024 season while playing for Alex Mayo's The Legion.

Mayers nailed six field goals, accounting for all of Seattle's scoring in an 18-16 win over Indianapolis. He made four field goals from 40+, including two from beyond 50 yards.

Five managers earned their 100th career wins including playoffs this year. Eric Meyer was the first in Week 7 followed a week later by Brandon Saunders. In Week 10, Cory Puffett, who entered the season as the all-time wins leader, and Evan Ash joined their ranks. Finally, with his wild card victory over Alex Mayo, Anthony Battle earned his 100th career victory.

Newer managers still have a ways to go to reach that milestone, but Alex Kincaid earned his 50th win in Week 2 of this past season. It took him 92 regular season and postseason games to make it, putting him on pace to tie Eric Meyer for the fastest to 100. Unfortunately, Alex had a rough campaign and will have to play some catchup to get back on pace. Is it stands, Alex is the fifth fastest to 50 wins trailing only Danny Hatcher (70 games), Eric (82), Stephen April (86), and Cory Puffett (87).

We had two managers join the 50 loss club this season. Alex Kincaid and Stephen April both dropped their 50th games in Week 10. For Alex it came after 100 career games while Stephen's 50th loss game in career game number 118. Only Eric Meyer has enjoyed a longer career before taking his 50th loss, lasing 125 games.

In Week 5, Evan Ash and Eric Meyer joined Cory Puffett and Anthony Battle as the third and fourth managers to reach 1,000 career all-play wins - that is the number of wins they'd have if they faced all of the other AFL managers every week. Four weeks later, Brandon Saunders joined the fray.

Halfway to that mark, the two Alexes reached 500 career all-play wins this season. Alex Kincaid did it in Week 3 after 91 career regular season weeks while Alex Mayo reached the mark in the final week of the regular season after just 89 weeks.

Prior to 2025, no managers had reached 1,000 career all-play losses. Three reached that mark this season. The first was William Battle in Week 4, followed five weeks later by Will Massimini and then in the season's final week by the eventual league champion, Brandon Saunders.

Aptly, just as they joined the 50-loss club together this season, Alex Kincaid and Stephen April both reached 500 career all-play losses this season. For Alex reached that mark in Week 4 after 92 weeks while Stephen's 500th all-play loss came three weeks earlier but after 103 weeks, better than every other manager except Eric Meyer who reached that mark in his 110th regular season game.

Alex Mayo scored his 10,000th career point in Week 15. He tied Eric Meyer and Danny Hatcher for the third fastest to that mark, one game behind Alex Kincaid and five behind Stephen April. It should be noted it's much easier for managers to reach that mark quickly if they joined after 2016 since we've had an additional starting roster spot since then.

For the same reason, it should be no surprise that Alex Mayo reached 10,000 career opponent points in Week 13 of this season after just 89 weeks, tied with Stephen April for the fastest to that mark with Alex Kincaid just a game behind.

Alex Mayo earned his 5th career Tom Brady Award in Week 6.

In Week 1, Alex Kincaid earned his 25th career Top 3 score. In Week 8, Eric Meyer became the third manager in league history to record 50 Top 3 scores.

Anthony Battle and Eric Meyer, in Weeks 7 and 12, respectively, joined Cory Puffett as the second and third managers to reach 100 top half scores in league history.

Two managers earned their 10th career David Carr Awards this season for the lowest weekly team score. Cory Puffett earned his in Week 4. Stephen April joined in the season's final week. With Stephen joining the list, every manager with at least 8 seasons of play in the AFL is on this list. Stephen is the fourth fastest to that mark while Cory took the longest, lasting 33 more weeks than Will Massimini, who previously was the longest holdout.

Additionally, Stephen April reached 25 career Bottom 3 scores in Week 8 and 50 career bottom half scores in Week 15. Nine weeks earlier, Alex Kincaid earned his 50th career bottom half score.

Aaron Rodgers, making four appearances in Jeffery McDonald's lineup this year, became the first player at any position to score 2,500 fantasy points in the AFL. He is one of three quarterbacks to appear in a lineup this season who played in the AFL's inaugural 2013 campaign, the others being Matthew Stafford and Joe Flacco. The only other players who are still active from our first season are Keenan Allen, Matt Prater, and Nick Folk.

Jared Goff became the 17th quarterback in AFL history to reach 1,000 career points. Joe Burrow finished his season less than 100 points away.

Christian McCaffrey is the first running backs in AFL history to eclipse 2,000 fantasy points, a threshold previously reserved for quarterbacks. Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs became the fifth and sixth running backs to reach 1,500 career points.

Jonathan Taylor, David Montgomery and Kareem Hunt made it 20 running backs to hit 1,000 points in AFL history. Jahmyr Gibbs is within 200 points, so could easily reach that mark next year with a healthy season. De'Andre Swift and Bijan Robinson would need nearly 300 points next year to reach 1,000 points, making Robinson the more likely of the two to get there.

CeeDee Lamb and Ja'Marr Chase joined the 1,000 point club, giving us 15 wide receivers in AFL history to reach that mark. A.J. Brown and DK Metcalf are both within 100 points of this mark with DJ Moore, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and Terry McLaurin each within 200.

Travis Kelce may have concluded his NFL career this past week. Time will tell, but he had a strong 2025 campaign and at 2,100 career points has more than twice as many as any other tight end in AFL history. George Kittle reached 1,000 points this season and is the only other tight end to reach that mark. Zach Ertz and Mark Andrews are the next closes among our active players, but Ertz's career may be over after his leg injury and Andrews is 140 points away and appears washed at this stage. T.J. Hockenson is next up among our active players but he is more than 400 points away from 1k.

Nick Folk and Jason Myers joined the 500-point kicker club at kicker.

The Seattle Seahawks, Buffalo Bills, Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, and Los Angeles Rams made it seven team defenses with at least 1,000 points in AFL history, joining the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens, who are the only defensive units with at least 100 appearances in starting lineups. New additions to the 500-point defense club include the Indianapolis Colts and Detroit Lions, leaving just five teams shy of that mark.

With a playoff spot locked up and nothing to play for seeding-wise, the Chargers decided to end the regular season the same way they opening the preseason in the Hall of Fame game, with Trey Lance under center. It went about as one would expect and Eric took full advantage. He was so confident in their success he drafted the in the 7th round of the Pro Bowl draft, seven rounds before Alex took the Vikings and before he drafted CeeDee Lamb, who wound up in his second flex spot.

Denver rewarded his confidence with a terrific outing that would have ranked 17th among single game defensive scores for the 2025 season if Pro Bowl games counted toward official AFL stats. As it is, this is the second best defensive performance in Pro Bowl history and makes them the second defensive unit to earn the Otto Graham MVP award, joining the 2023 Buffalo Bills in the week after Damar Hamlin famously died briefly on the field against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Broncos forced four turnovers in the game, including a pair of 4th down stops, scored a defensive touchdown, sacked Lance four times, and added 8 pass deflections in a dominating performance to solidify the AFC's top seed entering the NFL playoffs.

Eric Meyer (5x), Brandon Saunders (3x), Alex Mayo (2x), Will Massimini (2x), Stephen April, Sean Kennedy, Anthony Battle

Eric Meyer (4x), Alex Mayo (3x), Sean Kennedy (2x), William Battle (2x), Brandon Saunders, Jeffery McDonald, Stephen April, Cory Puffett

Alex Kincaid (3x), William Battle (3x), Stephen April (3x), Evan Ash (2x), Sean Kennedy, Cory Puffett, Anthony Battle, Jeffery McDonald

Eric Meyer (3x), Evan Ash (2x), William Battle (2x), Cory Puffett (2x), Jeffery McDonald, Anthony Battle, Will Massimini, Stephen April, Brandon Saunders, Sean Kennedy

Alex Mayo (3x), William Battle (3x), Jeffery McDonald (3x), Alex Kincaid (2x), Will Massimini, Brandon Saunders, Stephen April, Eric Meyer

William Battle (4x), Anthony Battle (2x), Evan Ash (2x), Sean Kennedy (2x), Cory Puffett, Jeffery McDonald, Stephen April, Alex Kincaid, Alex Mayo

Josh Allen (3x), Matthew Stafford (2x), Jalen Hurts (2x), Bo Nix (2x), Jared Goff, C.J. Stroud, Daniel Jones, Jordan Love, Caleb Williams, Patrick Mahomes

Jeffery McDonald (5x), Eric Meyer (5x), Will Massimini (3x), William Battle, Brandon Saunders

Jonathan Taylor (5x), Christian McCaffrey (3x), Bijan Robinson (2x), Jahmyr Gibbs (2x), Derrick Henry, Ashton Jeanty, Travis Etienne

Brandon Saunders (3x), Sean Kennedy (2x), Cory Puffett (2x), Eric Meyer (2x), Alex Mayo (2x), Alex Kincaid, William Battle, Evan Ash, Stephen April

George Pickens (2x), Drake London (2x), Amon-Ra St. Brown (2x), Zay Flowers, Courtland Sutton, Emeka Egbuka, Ja'Marr Chase, Michael Pittman, Tetairoa McMillan, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, A.J. Brown, Puka Nacua

Eric Meyer (4x), Brandon Saunders (3x), Will Massimini (2x), Sean Kennedy (2x), Alex Mayo, Alex Kincaid, William Battle, Jeffery McDonald

Brock Bowers (4x), Trey McBride (3x), Tucker Kraft (2x), Hunter Henry (2x), Tyler Warren, Jake Ferguson, Dallas Goedert, George Kittle

Anthony Battle (5x), Jeffery McDonald (2x), William Battle (2x), Alex Kincaid (2x), Brandon Saunders, Eric Meyer, Evan Ash, Will Massimini

Jason Myers (3x), Matt Gay (2x), Ka'imi Fairbairn (2x), Brandon Aubrey (2x), Cam Little, Cameron Dicker, Evan McPherson, Chris Boswell, Wil Lutz, Andy Borregales

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

Los Angeles Rams (3x), Detroit Lions (2x), Chicago Bears (2x), Baltimore Ravens, Minnesota Vikings, Cleveland Browns, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks

$263 - Brandon Saunders (AFL Champion, 9 positional high scores, 1 Tom Brady Award)

$80 - Eric Meyer (Regular Season Champ, 14 positional high scores, 4 Tom Brady Awards)

$57 - Anthony Battle (AFL Runner-Up, 7 positional high scores)

$18 - William Battle (10 positional high scores, 2 Tom Brady Awards)

$17 - Alex Mayo (5 positional high scores, 3 Tom Brady Awards)

$16 - Sean Kennedy (8 positional high scores, 2 Tom Brady Awards)

$13 - Jeffery McDonald (9 positional high scores, 1 Tom Brady Award)

$8 - Cory Puffett (4 positional high scores, 1 Tom Brady Award)

$8 - Will Massimini (8 positional high scores)

$7 - Stephen April (3 positional high scores, 1 Tom Brady Award)

$7 - Evan Ash (7 positional high scores)

$6 - Alex Kincaid (6 positional high scores)

Don Shula Banner (AFL East Champ) - Eric Meyer

Tom Landry Banner (AFL Central Champ) - Anthony Battle

John Madden Banner (AFL West Champ) - Alex Mayo

Frank Reich Banner (AFL Wild Card) - Brandon Saunders

Sabol Bowl XIII Champion - Brandon Saunders

Butkus Award (Consolation Champ) - Will Massimini

Snyder Award (Consolation Loser) - Cory Puffett

Mickey Loomis Award (Best Draft) - Alex Mayo

Les Snead Award (Best in-season management) - Eric Meyer

Mickey Loomis Award

The manager with the best draft is often one of those with the best keeper value(s). Exceptional values in that regard this season included Puka Nacua for Brandon Saunders and Kyren Williams for Anthony Battle, who were kept 120 and 121 picks, respectively, after where they should have gone based on end-of-season results based on my system.

Sometimes the best draft goes to the manager who gets the steal of the draft. Nobody expected Rico Dowdle to become as valuable as he did, but my system says he should have been selected 19th overall in the 2025 AFL Draft and Jeffery McDonald secured him with the 180th overall pick.

Then there are those with balanced drafts, and that's the category Alex Mayo fit into. De'Von Achane was an excellent value 86 spots after where he should have gone (5th overall). Amon-Ra St. Brown was a +10 value; D'Andre Swift was a +33 value; Jameson Williams was +25. Caleb Williams wound up being a steal as a 16th round keeper, 101 picks later than his ideal draft position.

Alex's worst picks included CeeDee Lamb at 5th overall (he should have gone 44th based on year-end results, DJ Moore at 43rd (99th is where he should have gone), and T.J. Hockenson with the 67th pick, 103 spots too early.

Still, he was the only manager to finish with positive cumulative value (+33) this year. Only five drafts in league history have accomplished this feat. His draft score, which is normalized to set 0 as the season average, was a 44.4, which ranks 8th best in AFL history.

Runner-Up: Anthony Battle (-87 total value, Draft Score of 32.4)

Worst Draft: Stephen April (-678 total value, Draft Score of -26.7)

Les Snead Award

Eric did a great job managing the players on his roster over the course of the season. Our system of grading roster management compares a player's average point total across the fantasy regular season regardless of being in or out of a starting lineup with that same player's average point total in games a manager starts them in, then multiplies that difference by the number of games they played in their lineup.

Players like Christian McCaffrey, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Rashee Rice, and Brock Bowers started every game for Eric when they were healthy (and he never mistakenly left them in his lineup when they were inactive), so they all have adjusted scores of 0.0. They don't hurt his roster management score but they also don't help it.

Eric had a few blips. A.J. Brown averaged 11.9 points across the season but only 6.6 in the five games he started in Eric's lineup, so he cost Eric 26.4 adjusted points. Justin Herbert cost Eric 15.2 adjusted points because in his eight apperances in Eric's lineup he averaged about 1.9 points fewer than he did across all of his games during our fantasy regular season.

But those were the only two players in his lineup who were double digits in the red. Eric benefited greatly in the four regular season games he had Jahmyr Gibbs as he averaged 4.6 more points than he did across the season as a whole. Jordan Mason, Tyrone Tracy, and Jayden Daniels also helped.

But the big gainers for Eric who helped him achieve a league-best adjusted point total of 78.0 were two AFC East defenses. The New York Jets in just one 34.2-point outing earned Eric 26 adjusted points while the Patriots spread their earnings out over eight starts in which they averaged 4.1 more points than their full season average to earn Eric 32.9 adjusted points.

Eric's normalized GM score, which follows the same concept as Draft Score for the Mickey Loomis Award, was 7.2, just high enough to earn him the Les Snead Award and just outside the Top 10 GM scores of all-time.

Runner-Up: Brandon Saunders (76.9 adjusted point total, GM Score of 7.1)

Worst In-season Manager: Alex Kincaid (-62.4 adjusted point total, GM Score of -6.8)

Dennis Dixon Award (Luckiest Manager) - Stephen April

Takeo Spikes Award (Unluckiest Manager) - Jeffery McDonald

Dennis Dixon Award

Stephen April lived a charmed life in 2025, even if his team wasn't very good. He boasted a losing 7-8 record, but he was the league's luckiest manager.

Three times he earned lucky wins, first in Week 1 when he won the Sabol Bowl XII rematch as the second lowest scorer, against in Week 6 when he won with the league's #7 score, and once more in Week 13 when he won with the third lowest score of the week.

Every loss Stephen suffered saw him as a Bottom 6 scorer, so he had no unlucky ones to balance out the good luck giving him a league-high +3 luck score this year.

Runner(s)-Up: Eric Meyer and Alex Kincaid each finished two wins over expected this year. Eric had two lucky wins and no unlucky losses while Alex had four lucky wins, but with a pair of losses as a Top 6 scorer to balance them out halfway.

Takeo Spikes Award

For just the third time in AFL history we had two teams tie with the worst luck differential. For these situations, we look at breakdown luck as the tiebreaker and it wasn't even close.

Not only did Jeffery suffer unlucky losses on Weeks 2 (#4 scorer), 6 (#5 scorer), and 13 (#6 scorer) with no lucky wins to offset them, he finished 3.2 wins below expected based on his 79-86 breakdown for the season, which suggests 7.2 wins in a season where he finished 4-11.

Runner(s)-Up: Sean Kennedy also finished with three unlucky losses and no lucky wins, but his 85-80 breakdown suggested 7.7 wins, just 1.7 more than he finished the season with.

George Halas Award (Most wins earned via coaching) - Cory Puffett

Bill Belichick Award (Most points earned via coaching) - Cory Puffett

George Halas Award

For just the third time in AFL history, the same manager claimed both end-of-season coaching awards, an accolade we dub The Jimmy (for Jimmy Johnson) on League Legacy.

Four managers finished with one net coaching win this season, but the tiebreaker for each coaching award is success rate. Cory took 16 coaching risks over the course of the season, tied for the third fewest, but he had the most successful risks with 12. His success rate of .750 was 200 points higher than the next best success rate.

Runner(s)-Up: Eric Meyer also finished the season with one net coaching win (as did Sean Kennedy and Anthony Battle), but he had just six successful coaching risks on a league-low 11 total risks, putting his success rate at .550 for the year.

Bill Belichick Award

Cory Puffett also led the league in coaching points earned this season. In a year where the league as a whole cost itself 328.77 points, the second worst coaching season in AFL history, Cory earned 30.20 points on the year. His best week of the season came in Week 15 when he earned his only coaching win and a season-high 13.95 points when he started Mike Evans instead of Stefon Diggs.

Runner(s)-Up: Eric Meyer finished up runner up for both coaching awards as he finished the year with a solid 28.57 coaching points, less than 2 points shy of the lead despite a much worse success rate.

Worst Coach(es)

Jeffery McDonald was by far the season's worst manager. On the whole, he finished with three net coaching losses (games where he would have won if he'd stuck with platform projections) and 121.07 points lost. More than half those points lost, and all three coaching losses, came in the final three weeks of the regular season.

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

Davante Adams Award (Biggest CF improvement) - Eric Meyer

Dick Vermeil Award

For the fifth time in AFL history, both improvement awards go to the same manager. Eric had previously won three of each, claiming both in 2014, the Davante Adams Award again in 2016 and 2018 and the Dick Vermeil Award again in 2021 and 2023.

When you go from serving the league punishment as the Snyder Award winner to the #1 seed in the playoffs, that'll automatically award you the Dick Vermeil Award. Not much more to say about this one.

Davante Adams Award

CF (Comparison Factor) is metric I came up with to compare manager's seasons across the AFL's history. It can also be described as "Points Above Average," which is how you will find this displayed on League Legacy.

Since 2016, Eric has been the gold standard in CF score in the AFL. That incredible season culminating in the Sabol Bowl IV title featured a CF score of 17.7 the rest of us have been chasing ever since. In 2022, Cory Puffett set a new #2 at 14.5, then in 2023 Stephen got much closer with a 16.2.

Well, Eric not only had a terrible CF score last year (-11.0) to put himself in the position to 'win' the Snyder Award he ultimately got stuck with, but just a year later he set a new AFL record with a CF score of 17.9, the greatest single-season climb in league history.

Runner(s)-Up: Alex Mayo was the runner up for both improvement awards this year. He was the #10 seed last year, just two spot above Eric last year in the Snyder bracket, and climbed to the #3 seed this year, just two spots below Eric in the playoff bracket. And though his CF improvement pales in comparison to Eric's all-time record 28.9-point improvement, Alex's 15.0-point gain is nothing to sneeze at and is the 8th best single-season improvement in AFL history.

Air Coryell Award (Most points from passing stats) - Anthony Battle

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

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

George Blanda Award (Most combined points from kicking & defensive stats) - Eric Meyer

Air Coryell Award

It's fun to see how different the rankings can look between contenders for this award and those for the Tom Moore QB COY Award. Anthony finished third in the latter rankings, but Evan Ash finished second while finishing 11th in the running for the Air Coryell Award.

It all comes down to the style of quarterback you have. Anthony had a relatively even 10-7 split between Dak Prescott and Matthew Stafford this season, and the two combined for just 149 rushing yards on 42 attempts. They were true pocket passers and put up the numbers to prove it.

In total, Anthony earned a league-best 269.83 points from passing stats this year.

Runner-Up: Cory Puffett, 265.12 points
League-Worst: Stephen April, 168.68 points

Mike Shanahan Award

Stephen's running back group did work this season. Josh Jacobs led the effort with 890 yards and 13 touchdowns on the ground in his 13 games during the AFL's regular season.

With Quinshon Judkins in support, five solid games from Jahmyr Gibbs, and a pair of rushing touchdowns from quarterback Daniel Jones, Stephen's team just held off the field with more than 2500 rushing yards and 30 rushing touchdowns.

In total, Stephen earned a league-best 506.89 points from rushing stats this year.

Runner-Up: Jeffery McDonald, 501.18 points
League-Worst: Brandon Saunders, 308.83 points

Joe Gibbs Award

In 13 seasons, Brandon has led the league in scoring from receiving stats five times. It's a discipline he places a heavy focus on in drafts. It's no suprise he's made the most Sabol Bowl appearances. Seven Joe Gibbs Receiving Coach of the Year award winers have played in the Sabol Bowl with six of them winning it. That latter number is as many as any other scoring discipline award winner has playoff appearances in AFL history.

There are many ways to go about competing for this award, but Brandon typically takes the most straight forward approach. Every time he's won it, he's either led the AFL in scoring from the wide receiver or tight end position, or both.

Trey McBride and Puka Nacua were Brandon's top scorers from receiving stats only this year, both eclipsing 200 points. George Pickens was just five points shy in the regular season and Tee Higgins added 123 points from receiving.

With 477 receptions for 5696 yards and 40 touchdowns, it was quite a season with no Nabers in the Standingz after Week 4.

In total, Brandon earned a league-best 1035.10 points from receiving stats this year.

Runner-Up: Eric Meyer, 907.70 points
League-Worst: Evan Ash, 508.90 points

George Blanda Award

In the past, kicking and defense were considered separate disciplines but when positional awards were introduced, a void was left in the disciplinary awards.

Enter George Blanda, known for having the longest career in NFL history, being the only quarterback to ever throw five interceptions in a winning effort in the postseason, a kicker whose owner was too cheap to buy him proper shoes, and a linebacker at one point in his NFL career. It felt apt to name this new award after him to recognize the manager who did the best job managing the two most-streamed positions in fantasy football.

The award has been assigned to the proper owners dating back to 2013 as follows:

2013 - Eric Meyer (won both positional awards)
2014 - Sean kennedy (won Buddy Ryan Award)
2015 - William Battle (won Buddy Ryan Award)
2016 - Sean Kennedy (won Mark Moseley Award)
2017 - Evan Ash (won share of Mark Mosely Award along with Buddy Ryan Award)
2018 - Will Massimini (won Buddy Ryan Award)
2019 - Anthony Battle (won Buddy Ryan Award)
2020 - Alex Mayo (won Buddy Ryan Award)
2021 - Stephen April (won neither positional award)
2022 - Alex Mayo (won Mark Moseley Award)
2023 - Anthony Battle (won Buddy Ryan Award)
2024 - Cory Puffett (won both awards)

This year's winner, Eric Meyer, is the second in history to earn the George Blanda Award without earning either positional award. He finished second in both competitions thanks to a strong year from Cameron Dicker and smart defensive streaming decisions. He only used the Patriots in about half of his games, but they averaged 16.4 points in those contests (this came up in the explanation for Eric's Les Snead Award for this season). Only twice this season did Eric start a defense that failed to record 5 points.

In total, Eric earned a league-best 387.04 combined points from kicking and defensive stats this year.

Runner-Up: Anthony Battle, 367.66 points
League-Worst: Jeffery McDonald, 242.40 points

Tom Moore Award (Most points from QBs) - William Battle

Hank Stram Award (Most points from RBs) - Will Massimini

Curly Lambeau Award (Most points from WRs) - Brandon Saunders

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

Mark Moseley Award (Most points from Ks) - Anthony Battle

Buddy Ryan Award (Most points from DEFs) - Alex Kincaid

Tom Moore Award

William Battle had quite an interesting quarterback room this season. Back in August, he elected to keep Patrick Mahomes as his quarterback in the third round of the AFL Draft. Then, after taking Derrick Henry with his first round pick, he made Josh Allen his second round pick. He never traded either, instead psuedo-streaming the two with an 11-4 split in favor of the reigning NFL MVP.

In their team's 15 regular season games, Allen and Mahomes combined for 3813 passing yards and 32 touchdown passes against just 13 interceptions, goot enough to help William to a third place finish in the Air Coryell Award race.

Allen put him over the top in this contest thanks to 471 rushing yards and 7 rushing touchdowns in his 11 starts.

In total, William earned a league-best 370.55 points from quarterbacks this year.

Runner-Up: Evan Ash, 298.34 points
League-Worst: Stephen April, 198.78 points

Hank Stram Award

Teams with multiple dual-threat running backs tend to dominate this award. Bijan Robinson continues to be a strong recevier, adding a 64-684-2 line to his 234-1174-6 line on the ground. Travis Etienne was arguably underutalized in the Jags passing game at times but in his 8 appearances in Will's lineup, he had 5 touchdowns on just 18 receptions.

Add in strong performances from Bucky Irving in limited healthy games and Cam Skattebo's incredible run before his season-ending injury, and Will easily ran away with the Hank Stram Award.

In total, Will earned a league-best 686.92 points from running backs this year.

Runner-Up: Eric Meyer, 614.84 points
League-Worst: Brandon Saunders, 317.02 points

Curly Lambeau Award

We already pretty much covered this and the Ditka Award with Brandon's Joe Gibbs Award, but let's run through the numbers quickly.

At wide receiver, Brandon got 25 combined games from Puka Nacua and George Pickens and another 19 combined from Tee Higgins and DeVonta Smith, plus the four games from his team namesake before there truly became No Nabers in the Standingz.

Nabers was the only receiver Brandon used this season who finished with less than 500 receiving yards and his five receivers combined for 24 touchdown receptions in the fantasy regular season.

In total, Brandon earned a league-best 709.81 points from wide receivers this year.

Runner-Up: Alex Mayo, 587.18 points
League-Worst: Will Massimini, 285.97 points

Mike Ditka Award

Trey McBride is all anybody needs to say here. By himself he scored 213.95 points in 14 games, more than any other manager's entire tight end corps scored.

Throw in three additional starts combined between rookies Oronde Gadsden and Harold Fannin in which they averaged 10.6 points per start and the Ditka Award was in the bag.

In total, Brandon earned a league-best 245.73 points from tight ends this year.

Runner-Up: Eric Meyer, 172.76 points
League-Worst: Stephen April, 68.63 points

Mark Moseley Award

Anthony did an incredible job streaming his two kickers this year. He employed an 8-7 split between Jason Myers and Brandon Aubrey and he almost never left the lower scorer on his bench.

Consider this: If Brandon Aubrey had started every game with Myers only coming in for the Cowboys bye week, Anthony would have finished the regular season with 187.23 points from the position. If he'd gone the inverse route, Ant's season total from the position would have been 199.90 points.

In total, Anthony earned a league-best 222.20 points from kickers this year.

Runner-Up: Eric Meyer, 168.80 points
League-Worst: Jeffery McDonald, 93.90 points

Buddy Ryan Award

While you certainly can earn this award from streaming, sometimes you have a unit that's so dominant you have to trust them even with the matchup tells you to fade.

Alex wisely stuck with the Seattle Seahawks this year. The unit finished the season as the #1 defense in DVOA and scored an AFL-record 227.81 points in their 14 games. For their bye week, Alex got an underwhelming 3.80-point performance from the Commanders, one of just two defensive performances under 5 points his team had all season.

In total, Alex earned a league-best 231.61 points from defensive units this year.

Runner-Up: Eric Meyer, 218.24 points
League-Worst: William Battle, 140.91 points

Drew Brees Award - Josh Allen (William Battle) - 278.61 points in 11 games (25.3ppg)

Jim Brown Award - Christian McCaffrey (Eric Meyer) - 353.65 points in 15 games (23.6ppg)

Jerry Rice Award - Jaxon Smith-Njigba (Eric Meyer) - 279.96 points in 15 games (18.7ppg)

Rob Gronkowski Award - Trey McBride (Brandon Saunders) - 235.80 points in 16 games (14.7ppg)

Justin Tucker Award - Cameron Dicker (Eric Meyer) - 167.10 points in 14 games (11.9ppg)

'85 Bears Award - Seattle Seahawks (Alex Kincaid) - 227.81 points in 14 games (16.3ppg)

Gale Sayers Rookie of the Year - Ashton Jeanty (Brandon Saunders) - 216.25 points in 16 games (13.5ppg)

Josh Allen's season ranks 48th in AFL history by total points, but of the 47 QBs ahead of him, only 16 seasons were better on a per-game basis. Sharing a roster with Patrick Mahomes did him no favors.

Christian McCaffrey posted the sixth best running back season in AFL history and was joined by two other players in the all-time Top 20. There have been 20 seasons where a running back scored at least 300 points, and CMC now owns four of them, with all of them placing Top 7 in total points.

JSN comes in with the 4th most points in AFL history at the wide receiver position, followed closely by Puka Nacua's 2025 campaign in 6th place. It was a great year for the NFC West pass catchers.

Entering this year, Travis Kelce owned the four highest scoring tight end seasons in AFL history. Trey McBride disrupted that by landing at 3rd on the position's all-time leaderboard.

Like McBride, Cameron Dicker landed at #3 on the kicker leaderboard despite playing the fewest games of the Top 5 on that list.

And finally, the Seattle Seahawks broke an AFL scoring record that stood since 2018 when the Bears scored 206.00 defensive points in 13 games. Yes, Seattle appeared in 14 lineups this year, but they averaged 0.5 more points per game than the Bears did in their season!

I do not yet have a database of all rookie season scores in AFL history but that's a project I have on my radar that I'd like to get to this offseason among some other things that are higher priority.

Johnny Unitas Award - Josh Allen (William Battle) - 44.79 points in Week 11 (lost 101.82-105.79 vs Eric Meyer)

Cookie Gilchrist Award - Jonathan Taylor (Jeffery McDonald) - 51.56 points in Week 10 (won 126.95-78.92 vs William Battle)

Don Hutson Award - Puka Nacua (Brandon Saunders) - 40.75 points in Week 16 [wild card playoff game] (won 166.32-139.71 vs Eric Meyer)

Tony Gonzalez Award - Brock Bowers (Eric Meyer) - 37.58 points in Week 9 (won 174.05-85.04 vs Stephen April)

Lou Groza Award - Jason Myers (Anthony Battle) - 26.30 points in Week 15 (won 139.60-104.69 vs Alex Kincaid)

'98 Seahawks Award - Minnesota Vikings (William Battle) - 39.99 points in Week 3 (won 121.29-108.72 vs Cory Puffett)

It's unfortunate that Josh Allen's impressive Week 11 outing was wasted against the regular season champ. Every other league high came in a win. His performance ranks 7th all-time among AFL starting quarterbacks.

Like Josh Allen, Jonathan Taylor entered this season with the all-time single game scoring record at his position and then had the best single game performance of 2025, though he couldn't quite beat it. Taylor got a little closer than Allen, though, ranking 5th all-time.

When the regular season ended, Amon-Ra St. Brown, playing for Alex Mayo, had the two highest single-game scores among wide receivers. Then Puka exploded in Week 16 to help lift Brandon into the Sabol Bowl. Nacua's performance ranks 16th all-time in the AFL.

We have to mention, briefly, Darren Waller's would-be AFL record for single-game points by a tight end. If only Alex Kincaid had started him. Instead, Bowers had the highest score of the season, the 2nd highest in AFL history and within a point of Darren Waller's record from 2020.

Like Bowers, Myers comes in at 2nd all-time at his position and one point behind Jake Moody's season opener a year ago.

And one more #2 performance, the Vikings were just over a point and a half shy of breaking the AFL record of 41.50 point by the Patriots in 2019, but Minnesota's was a game for the ages.

Quarterbacks

Josh Allen (William Battle) - 278.61 points in 11 RS games

Caleb Williams (Alex Mayo) - 239.34 points in 13 RS games

Running Backs

Christian McCaffrey (Eric Meyer) - 321.77 points in 14 RS games

Jahmyr Gibbs (Stephen April*) - 300.90 points in 14 RS games

Bijan Robinson (Will Massimini) - 280.42 points in 14 RS games

James Cook (Alex Kincaid) - 231.96 points in 13 RS games

Derrick Henry (William Battle) - 209.99 points in 14 RS games

Wide Receivers

Jaxon Smith-Njigba (Eric Meyer) - 260.01 points in 14 RS games

Puka Nacua (Brandon Saunders) - 222.51 points in 12 RS games

George Pickens (Brandon Saunders) - 195.55 points in 13 RS games

Ja'Marr Chase (Stephen April*) - 195.19 points in 13 RS games

CeeDee Lamb (Alex Mayo) - 147.28 points in 11 RS games

Tight Ends

Trey McBride (Brandon Saunders) - 213.95 points in 14 RS games

Hunter Henry (Sean Kennedy) - 119.70 points in 14 RS games

Kickers

Jake Bates (Alex Mayo) - 128.60 points in 13 RS games

Chris Boswell (Will Massimini) - 112.10 points in 13 RS games

Defenses

Minnesota Vikings (William Battle) - 123.72 points in 12 RS games

Denver Broncos† (Cory Puffett) - 108.64 points in 10 RS games

A Week 18 Pro Bowl often means players deserving of recognition do not appear in either lineup, or in some cases even get drafted. Here are some additional noteworthy players:

Additional QBs who finished above Williams in regular season scoring: Bo Nix, Jared Goff, Jalen Hurts

Additional RBs who finished above Henry in regular season scoring: Jonathan Taylor, De'Von Achane, Kyren Williams, Josh Jacobs

Additional WRs who finished ab

†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 2025 Pro Bowl.

A team's most valuable player is determined by a number of factors. With rare exceptions, they must have played in 10 games between the regular and posteason and are almost always the player on a team with the best differential between their own per game average and the league-wide average at their position. A player becomes ineligible to be a team's MVP if he is traded away during the season.

Brandon Saunders - Puka Nacua (276.06 points | 14 games | 8.5ppg over WR average)

Anthony Battle - Davante Adams (202.95 points | 14 games | 3.3ppg over WR average)

Eric Meyer - Christian McCaffrey (353.65 points | 15 games | 9.4ppg over RB average)

Alex Mayo - De'Von Achane (290.50 points | 15 games | 5.2ppg over RB average)

Will Massimini - Bijan Robinson (280.42 points | 14 games | 5.8ppg over RB average)

Evan Ash - Jalen Hurts (260.22 points | 13 games | 2.0ppg over QB average)

Sean Kennedy - Drake London (148.45 points | 10 games | 3.6ppg over WR average)

Stephen April - Josh Jacobs (230.44 points | 13 games | 3.5ppg over RB average)

William Battle - Josh Allen (278.61 points | 11 games | 7.3ppg over QB average)

Jeffery McDonald - Jonathan Taylor (327.41 points | 14 games | 9.2ppg over RB average)

Alex Kincaid - Seattle Seahawks (227.81 points | 14 games | 4.7ppg over DEF average)

Cory Puffett - Jared Goff (263.48 points | 14 games | 0.8ppg over QB average)

Would any of our managers argue the wrong player was named their team's MVP? Be sure to let me know, if so!

Christian McCaffrey, RB
Eric Meyer

Through 12 seasons, the AFL has never had a LaDainian Tomlinson MVP winner claim the award a second time... until now. After an incredibly dissapointing 2024 season, he found himself back at the top of the fantasy mountaintop.

CMC had some competition for this award. All 12 previous winners came from playoff teams, with 10 of them on a Sabol Bowl participant and 8 on the league champion's team. The playoff consideration immediately eliminated excellent players from this season like Josh Allen, Jonathan Taylor, and the Seahawks defense.

That still left an impressive field to choose from. McCaffrey was the best running back in fantasy this year. Instead, his biggest competition came from other positions. Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Puka Nacua, George Pickens and Trey McBride were the main consideration, another player from Eric's squad and three from Brandon Saunders's Sabol Bowl-winning team.

Pickens earned serious consideration for the value he provided. He was the WR4 in fantasy this year but was drafted in the fifth round as the 25th receiver off the board. That's the kind of home run pick you pray for coming out of a draft. But on a per-game basis, he was 3.5 points behind JSN and another point behind Puka.

Between the three NFC West offensive stars, Nacua's incredible wild card performance lifted him over JSN, leaving just the Rams receiver and the 49ers running back to decide between.

Nacua's draft value looks incredible at first glance, but he would have been a very early pick if not for his keeper status, so that doesn't factor into his MVP-worthiness. CMC only got to play one playoff game, but he provided similar value to Nacua in the postseason on the whole.

The two consideration that ultimately lifted CMC to his second league MVP were the following:

Brandon didn't hurt at all when he was missing Puka Nacua during the regular season, for two games due to injury and a bye week plus a third week due to IR mismanagement. In those three weeks, Brandon went a perfect 3-0 and finished Top 3 in scoring twice.

Meanwhile, McCaffrey was viewed as a much riskier pick entering this season. In fact, our eventual Snyder Award winner traded from the first overall pick down to the third to get value later in the draft figuring nobody would take CMC first or second overall. His gamble paid off, but he still chickened out of taking CMC after the pain he was caused in 2024 and selected Jahmyr Gibbs, who eventually ended up on Eric's team via trades. McCaffrey fell two more picks to Eric and helped take Eric to the AFL's first season with only one regular season loss and his first playoff appearance since 2019.

On additional note that did not factor into the decision and is not a precedent we'd be unwilling to buck: If Nacua had won the 2025 MVP Award, he would have been the first in AFL history to do so while not finishing the AFL season with the most points at his position.

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)
2023 - Christian McCaffrey (Stephen April)
2024 - Ja'Marr Chase (Stephen April)