(S24) - PT 3 - Midseason Mania

[qWest]

After such an abysmal first half of the season for the Otters, it is not a terrible surprise trolling the index and discovering a lack of OCO players near the top of expected awards finalist lists. I struggled to find many solid contenders among the ranks of the Otters' roster. I want to give an honorable mention to linebacker Deshun Jones and kicker/punter Alex Dasistwirklichseinnachname for performing close to contention. Both players have numbers in the key stats for their positional awards that are certainly in striking range should they find improvement in the second half of the season. Alex D has quite a good punting average and a lot of punts inside the 20 and Jones is holding his own in picking up sacks and pass defenses. The major candidates based on recent performance especially are likely running back Tatsu Nakamura and returner Lord Beerus. Nakamura will certainly struggle to compete with Yellowknife's entire offense incarnate, Mathias Hanyadi, but he's had a couple of recent 100+ yard games, including one with 3 rushing TDs that could easily be a finalist for offensive performance of the year. Nakamura really needs to improve his yards per carry, but that is certainly possible with 5 of the last 8 games in the season being at home for the Otters. Beerus on the other hand looks well in control of a possible returner of the year run. His punt return numbers are respectable, but we saw last year that voters really primarily care about kick return numbers, and Beerus has the best average there at 36.6 yards per return, a full 5.3 yards ahead of the next best returner. This is certainly boosted by a stellar almost-touchdown, a 98 yard kick return that Beerus pulled off very recently. Overall, the unfortunate coalescence of bad luck and a brutal travel schedule early in the season has held OCO's best players from showing up in awards conversations, but many will need to be watched during the Otters' long home stretch and could find themselves picking up the hardware with a strong late push.