(S27) PT3 - We're halfway there

[HENDRIX 2.0]

Now that we’re at the halfway point of the season I will be looking at who I think has a chance at winning the positional awards on defense. Starting at DE I think James Cho of the Wraiths has the best case so far with his 9 sacks and 6 TFLs. At the interior of the defensive line I think Big Edd of the Yeti has a slight lead. There doesn’t seem to be any DTs really standing out so this one is really up in the air. At LB, a position near and dear to my heart, it looks like future HOFer Derred de Ville is in line to stuff his awards cabinet some more. His four more sacks than our second place contender Quaid will weigh heavily on the committee. Quaid will have to close that gap if he wants a real shot. I’m having real trouble trying to decide a CB of the year favorite. Scarlett looks like the favorite as he’s leading the league in deflections by a large margin. PD’s are probably more of an indicator of good CB play, as interceptions seem like a pure luck play. The top safety is tough to recognize as well. Right now I will go with Utterstruzen of the Sailfish. He has made plays all over the field this year based on his diverse box score. (228 words)

[ztarwarz]

Yeah, there's no way I was going to talk about anyone but Nakamura for this prompt. I've been doing a series writing up on running back efficiency, which last season would have utterly ruined some top contenders for the RBotY award. Now, though? It just makes Nakamura stand out even harder. His first bad game was last week, and that came off of the heels of back to back 3 touchdown performances. Hell, even in last game he blocked someone on the last play of the game to assure it went for a touchdown instead of getting tackled. He has 10 rushing touchdowns, leading the league there, 2 receiving touchdowns, which only expands his lead for total touchdowns, and the most yards. Now, some might say that he shouldn't be considered the best running back due to having so many attempts and how he is below 5 yards per carry, in a league with 4 other high usage backs with 5 yards per carry or higher. This is where I get to lean on my series a bit, and point out that in terms of running efficiency he's about 3.5% higher than any of those other running backs in terms of efficiency. There's still half the season to go, but right now he's my easy pick for RBotY.

[GoonerBear]

SHL affiliate

[slothfacekilla]

SHL PT

[OrbitingDeath]

SHL Affiliate

[SamTwoSix]

PBE Affiliate PT, Different Username- Sam

[qWest]

At the season's midway point we've seen the wheat separate from the chaff and we've got a great picture at the real contenders for end of season awards. Going over the two most important offensive positional awards (QB+RB) based on the early statistics we've seen so far, I have my favorites for both of these awards after eight games.

Starting at the QB position, though we've seen a few run focused teams, we've generally seen a significant uptick in passing attempts in the league this season. Across the board, QBs are completing more of those passes as well and coming in at a higher QBR this season; however, the yardage numbers look quite similar to previous seasons, indicating perhaps a greater reliance on shorter routes in the passing game. The epitome of dink and dunk has to be my favorite for QBotY: Ben Slothlisberger. His 2431 yards on 314 attempts is 2nd best in the league (resulting in 7.74 ypa, one of the better averages in the league), not to mention he crushes the competition in one of the voters' favorite categories: TDs:INT, with 16 TDs so far to just 3 INTs. If he keeps finding the endzone at this rate while remaining one of the safest QBs in the league, he'll be taking home his first award of his career.

For RBotY, we've thankfully have user ztarwarz keeping track of an important advanced statistic: RB success rate. This statistic does a great job of providing more context to player performance than either an RB's rushing yard total or their YPC numbers can. Considering only rushers with at least 100 attempts so far, the leader in RB success rate so far should also be considered the favorite for RBotY at the midseason mark: Arizona Outlaws RB Tatsu Nakamura (42.9%). Nakamura also leads the league in what may perhaps be the 2 other most important stats for measuring RB performance: total rushing yards and rushing TDs (815 yards and 10 TDs). However, given last season's bizzare pro bowl results GMs might just give the award to Darrel Williams for having 0.7 more yards per carry, so there's that.

[KC15]

PBE Affiliate PT (Champ Week)

[dogwoodmaple]

SHL affiliate (username there is "dogwoodmaple" as opposed to "Dogwood Maple" that I use here.)

[dude_man]

Well, if there is one player that is “deserving” of an OLofY award for the DSFL, it would have to be (unfortunately) Stumpy Jones. As much as I believe someone else is the best OL in that class, Stumpy is the highest earning TPE player from the S28 class and is currently (as of 2/15/21) the OL with the most pancake blocks (37 as of that date) while not allowing a single sack. He has been playing on another level, especially as a rookie for the Portland Pythons. Stumpy has been able to help the Pythons reach to a 5-2 record, which currently in the lead in the NFC.

Now if I had to tell you who I would pick personally, it would be none other than Cade Williams. With his play, he has assisted with Tijuana reaching to a 4-3 record, and while that is nothing to scoff about, it is much better than they were last year. And while his stats don’t show much (17 pancakes, and 1 sack allowed), he is partly responsible for the Luchadores second best rushing attack in the league with them leading in YPC. Cade will continue to get better throughout the years and will be able to claim the SBOLofY. (Second Best Offensive Lineman of the Year.)

(215 words)