(S5) - PT 5 - Awards

[manicmav36]

I'm going to focus on my own position and talk about the race for Running Back of the Year. I believe the front runner for the Running Back of the Year award should be Owen Taylor. Taylor has been putting together an incredible season so far as he has rushed for a league leading 788 yards on 208 carries, which is 3.8 yards per carry. For context, no starting running back has averaged 3.8 yards per carry since Season 1. This is one of the most efficient seasons we have ever seen from a starting running back and in comes in the midst of a season in which there have been discussions about how weak the running game has become. In terms of Taylor's competition, you could make a case for Eric Kennedy or Jordan Yates who have more all purpose yards, however, they have gained the majority of their yards at the wide receiver position and I feel like the Running Back of the Year award should be based more on play at the running back position so I would favor Taylor over them. Some may also argue for Darren Smallwood whose 11 rushing touchdowns are 7 more than Taylor's 4. However, I've never liked using touchdowns as a stat to compare running backs in this sim. With the lack of big rushing plays in this sim, the majority of rushing touchdown are short yardage rushes and are correlated mostly with running backs getting goal line carries rather than them creating the plays on their own. The Hawks and the Sabercats are within 300 passing yards of eachother but the Hawks have 31 passing touchdowns and the Sabercats have 17 passing touchdowns so I would argue the touchdown discrepancy between Taylor and Smallwood is due to the Sabercats taking a more run heavy approach in the red zone rather than due to a performance gap between the two backs. When taking touchdowns out of the equation, Smallwood's 3.4 yards per carry rank 6th among starting running backs so I would favor Taylor's stronger all around performance over Smallwood's stronger red zone performance. Overall Owen Taylor isn't putting up the flashiest stats, but he has been the most consistent performer as a runner this season and is putting together the most efficient rushing season we have seen in a while so I think he should be chosen as running back of the year.

Thanks, man! :cheers: