Gentlemen, we officially have our champion. Garrett, thanks to some late-game heroics by Travis Etienne, managed to hold off Tyler and win his first ever Apex Fantasy Football League Championship. The man who spent a total of $1 from his FAAB all season (on Cameron Dicker the kicker), the man who is a decade past throwing up in his bathtub on draft night (and then years later out the side of Tmo's car on the way to his lake shack), the man who did no draft research whatsoever, proved to us that dreams can come true and brought home the trophy against the Clemson of the AFFL. Congratulations Garrett, hold the trophy high, and enjoy the spoils of victory
Now, the administrative side of the end of the season, all of your player pages and the history and 2023 Season pages are updated and should reflect the latest stats, so I won't dwell on them here. Your 2024 Keeper options are published as well (and will be linked on the website's home page for the entire offseason). I'm going to do some housekeeping for next season and then do a little post-season grading for everyone. We'll start with the playoff teams then go in order of the standings.
Housekeeping
The postseason survey results are in and I thoroughly appreciate everyone's feedback.
- FAAB is generally approved of, so we're keeping it moving forward
- We're sticking with a 10-man league hosted on ESPN
- Gut-Check will likely return but I want to check out what the NFL schedule is first
- Next year's season-long game will be a spin off of Survivor from 2022, but where you get multiple strikes before being eliminated
- Because we can start trading for draft picks next year, I'm going to establish a trade deadline, but I haven't decided on exactly how it will work yet. I will get back to you all on that
If you're having trouble accessing the website or its not displaying correctly, please hit me up and show me what its doing so I can try and fix it.
Grades-Playoff Teams
Garrett (20-10, A+)
Hey, he's the champ. Champs get A+s. Beating Tmo on the way is just a sweet little extra treat for all of us to enjoy. Dak Prescott, Travis Etienne, Alvin Kamara, Mike Evans, even David Njoku, were all in the top 10 of their positions and Garrett managed to squeak past both Collin and Tyler when it mattered most. Congrats again Garrett, and well done this year.
Tyler (24-6, A)
I almost gave Tmo an A+ anyways but felt like that was reserved for champs only. Tmo almost broke Mike's 2013 win percentage record (.857) and almost broke his own 2018 points record (2,163) during a season where he fielded an elite lineup that scored a barn-burning 140+ PPG. Tyler had a great team, there's no arguing that.
Collin (20-10, A)
Collin was deliberate with his movements this year, trading for both Lamar Jackson and Amon-Ra St Brown who combined for over 120+ by themselves in Collin's postseason campaign to win his first ever Money Back Bowl. Christian McCaffrey was just the icing on the cake for what was a great team that fell 2.5 points short of a Championship win (he would have breezed by Tyler had he played him). He gets some hardware and some cash, but Collin will have his eyes on the title next year as he looks to continue an impressive run over the last three seasons.
TK (16-14, A-)
TK just wasn't quite on the same level as the rest of the playoff field, and kind of became an obstacle for the better teams, but the fact is that he WAS a playoff team, something that the next six teams can't say, and he got there despite missing his first-round pick for 8 weeks. Some key injuries like TJ Hockenson and Hollywood Brown tapered his postseason potential, but getting over .500 in a year dominated by three other teams, and for that he gets into the A range.
Grades-The Rest
Austin (14-16, C)
Austin managed to go sub-.500 despite having QB2 Jalen Hurts, RB5 Breece Hall, and WR9 Ja'Marr Chase plus getting Puka Nacua off waivers at the start of the season. He was in the bottom half of the league in points against, so its not like people were just going off against him. He went 3-3 against the bottom three teams in the standings. For this reason, Austin, I cannot commend your 5th place finish as honorable or noteworthy. You wasted a talented team and you should hold your head low in shame.
Mike (14-16, B+)
If you would have told me after week 7, when Mike was 1-13 and completely in shambles, that I would give him a B+ I simply wouldn't have believed you. But I will give Mike credit, he turned a disaster season around in the final 8 weeks by going 13-3, and in 2 of those 3 losses he scored over 130. He had the scar of carrying the most points against in the season and somehow stayed in the playoff hunt deep into the season despite his awful start. Doing that with the... "team" he has was impressive, to say the least. Well done Mike. Also, Mike gets some love for being the only person to regularly interact with the comments on the website, which made me happy.
Ryan (13-17, C-)
I was going to give Ryan a C except for the fact that he still has Daniel Jones on his IR. Ekeler and Davante Adams didn't really shine this year, and he never managed to pick up anyone that would really strengthen the efforts of Josh Allen and David Montgomery. Plus like... 13-17 just can't warrant much better of a grade if we're being fair. Even George Kittle, TE4, was just meh scoring 13.2 per game. Good enough for a TE I guess, but that can't be a stat line you rely on.
Jake (12-18, C)
YES I'm giving myself a passing grade despite my subpar performance. Why? Because I had the 2nd-most points against (just barely under Mike at 128.2 per game), plus I give myself pats on the back for managing this damn website for you people. Jake's downfall may have been his spoils of RBs, the surplus of options frequently resulted in him leaving points on the bench and he should have made a trade to strengthen his WR corps earlier in the year (I don't want to hear it, Collin).
Nathan (10-20, D)
First up with the failing grades is Nathan. He was .500 after the first 9 weeks of play, but just completely collapsed in the back part of the season going 1-11 and scoring under 100 points in 5 of those 6 weeks. His one win came against Austin (this is why you got a C, Austin), but it was way too late and he had already spoiled what looked to be a potentially good season for him. A costly trade that landed him an injury-prone Jonathan Taylor was just one of the problems Nate had this year, and he'll need to regroup and try again next year with a new outlook on things.
John Luke (7-23, F, obviously)
John Luke seriously dude what the fuck. HOW did you go 7-23?? Your starting lineup averages 125 PPG but you somehow only put up 107?? And to top it all off the one fucking time you decide to actually do something you drop 158 on ME? I just have so many questions... JL's team isn't really even that bad either. His entire starting lineup is in the top 15 of their positions, I'm just at a loss for words. Do better John Luke.
