So, you’re an awards voter at this point in Season 29. You have about 22 different awards you have to vote for at seasons end. My goal here today is to give you a break on one of those 22 awards. Here is my case for why Joel Drake should win Defensive Player Of The Year for Season 29.
Firstly, I need to argue why Drake has been the best safety this season. I could hardly advocate for the best defensive player award if Drake couldn’t even be called the best at his position right? Well there are certainly a few standouts at safety this year alongside Drake. Likely you already know about Cuco Clemente, who leads all players with 6 interceptions. There are also players who have Drake tied with interceptions at 4 like Bob Roberts and Eugene Smoothie. My reasoning for topping all 3 of these players is simple. Drake leads the league in defensive touchdowns with 2, while Roberts and Clemente have one apiece and Smoothie had none. Drake also has a forced fumble that he himself recovered while Roberts has 2 forced with no recoveries and Smoothie has no forced fumbles and Clemente only has 1 that he didn’t recover. In terms of pass deflections Drake also leads with 10, tied with Clemente while leading Roberts’s 9 and Smoothie’s 8.
So all that will likely convince you that Drake has had a better season than Bob Roberts and Eugene Smoothie, and every other Safety, it might take a bit more convincing to convince you that he’s also been better than Cuco Clemente. After all, Clemente has 6 INTs to Drake’s 4, and they are tied in deflections with 10 each. And while leading in TDs with 2, Clemente has 1 himself, so the gap may not seem that big between them. I now want to discuss a stat that isn’t readily available in the index. I want to discuss defensive efficiency.
It’s great when you have a player that can cause a bunch of turnovers on his own, like Cuco Clemente who’s had his hand in 7 possible different turnovers this year, but it’s what you do with those turnovers that really matters. If you intercept a pass 10 minutes into the game and your offense does nothing with it, did that turnover really have that much of an impact? Of course, hypothetically that Drive might’ve been a touchdown or a field goal without that turnover, but we have no way of really knowing. While giving your offense an extra chance is good on its own, what’s even better is how many points you can say a player directly led to scoring for his team.
Drake has turned the ball over 5 times this year for the Colorado Yeti. As we’ve discussed, 2 of those were immediately returned for touchdowns. That’s 14 points scored already. Against the Sailfish in week one, Drake intercepted a Mike Boss Jr pass that lead to a FG just before halftime, in a game decided by just 3 points. In week 9 against Arizona, Drake had his best game of the season so far, with a forced fumble+recovery, and an interception. The forced fumble? Led to a field goal. The interception? That led to a touchdown. That’s 10 total points directly linked to Drake, in a game decided by 13. All in all, Drake has directly led to the scoring of 27 points on the season, with an efficiency rate of 100%. Every turnover he produced has led to points for his team.
Now let’s take this same methodology and apply it to Cuco Clemente. As discussed he returned one Interception for a touchdown already, so we can immediately chalk up 7 points in his favor. Against the Yeti in week one he picked off a Caliban pass. The result? An immediate 3 and out from his offense, no points scored. He also had his one forced fumble this game, that was recovered by Demon Jaxson. The result? Two plays and then a pick. No points scored. Once again in week 2 he caused another 2 turnovers, the aforementioned pick six, and another interception a few drives later. The result? A touchdown. That’s 14 total points so far. Once again he picked off a pass the very next week vs Baltimore, leading to another touchdown.
21 points.
It took a few more weeks to get another pick, but he did it vs New York, leading to a field goal.
24 points.
Finally in the most recent week played, in a loss vs Berlin, Clemente had his 6th pick of the year, leading to a touchdown. 31 total points. With 7 turnovers on the year, and 5 of those leading to points, that’s an efficiency rate of 71%.
So what do we take from this? Well some will inevitably argue that this stat isn’t necessarily fair. You can only control so much and relying on circumstances out of the players control like the offense being successful after the turnover is out of the players hands. I would argue against this. If the teams I had been comparing would be a top contender and a bottom feeder, like say the Honolulu Hahalua, that would be more understandable. A player shouldn’t be judged harsher because they are a good player on a bad team, but that isn’t the case here. The Yeti and The Sailfish have been going at it for the top seed in the league for basically every week this season. These are two great teams that have great players at every level. I believe these outcomes to be more comparable.
So let’s assume you agree with me that efficiency allows Drake to top Clemente for Safety Of The Year. I’d say a 29% difference is significant but even if you don’t agree with my stat let’s assume that you do for the sake of argument. Why then would i put Drake as not just the best Safety, but the best Defensive Player overall? Well here we need to use some more slightly controversial weighted statistics.
See it’s a well known fact in this league that if you want consistent stats on the defensive side, you create as a linebacker. The sim simply gives linebackers at least one or two big plays every game if you’re good. What I want to argue here is that simply having bigger numbers doesn’t necessarily mean you were the better player when comparing across positions.
While linebackers get big plays basically weekly, safeties are just about the opposite, being lucky to make 4 or 5 big plays a year. This change is what I want to focus on. If you simply looked at the raw numbers for every position, a linebacker would win every year with no competition. Nobody else would even be nominated except for maybe the occasional cornerback. However I want to argue that Drake’s stats beat out even the best linebacker this season, and to do that I’ll compare him to the best linebacker this season.
Dex Kennedy.
Few would argue that Kennedy has been nothing short of a force of nature this season. He leads in TFLs, FFs, Sacks (tied with a few others), and he has a touchdown. All in all a final season few could even dream of. Yet I still believe Drake tops him.
As everyone is probably aware, the awards committee LOVES touchdowns for defensive players. You can’t win an award without one. Drake is the only player with 2. Not the only safety or the only defensive back. The only defensive player period. Kennedy is also without an interception so far. He slightly makes up for it with 5 FFs, but interceptions usually carry more weight with the committee. Finally I believe that, unfair as it may be, the final nail will be the difference between the two teams they play on. While the Yeti are currently 10-2 one win away from basically clinching the division, the Copperheads are 2-9-1 and are the second worst team in the league. Unfair as it may be it always causes another obstacle for a good player to win an award on a bad team.
So that why I believe Drake deserves to win DPOTY this year. Obviously this is subject to change with the last few weeks of the season.
Firstly, I need to argue why Drake has been the best safety this season. I could hardly advocate for the best defensive player award if Drake couldn’t even be called the best at his position right? Well there are certainly a few standouts at safety this year alongside Drake. Likely you already know about Cuco Clemente, who leads all players with 6 interceptions. There are also players who have Drake tied with interceptions at 4 like Bob Roberts and Eugene Smoothie. My reasoning for topping all 3 of these players is simple. Drake leads the league in defensive touchdowns with 2, while Roberts and Clemente have one apiece and Smoothie had none. Drake also has a forced fumble that he himself recovered while Roberts has 2 forced with no recoveries and Smoothie has no forced fumbles and Clemente only has 1 that he didn’t recover. In terms of pass deflections Drake also leads with 10, tied with Clemente while leading Roberts’s 9 and Smoothie’s 8.
So all that will likely convince you that Drake has had a better season than Bob Roberts and Eugene Smoothie, and every other Safety, it might take a bit more convincing to convince you that he’s also been better than Cuco Clemente. After all, Clemente has 6 INTs to Drake’s 4, and they are tied in deflections with 10 each. And while leading in TDs with 2, Clemente has 1 himself, so the gap may not seem that big between them. I now want to discuss a stat that isn’t readily available in the index. I want to discuss defensive efficiency.
It’s great when you have a player that can cause a bunch of turnovers on his own, like Cuco Clemente who’s had his hand in 7 possible different turnovers this year, but it’s what you do with those turnovers that really matters. If you intercept a pass 10 minutes into the game and your offense does nothing with it, did that turnover really have that much of an impact? Of course, hypothetically that Drive might’ve been a touchdown or a field goal without that turnover, but we have no way of really knowing. While giving your offense an extra chance is good on its own, what’s even better is how many points you can say a player directly led to scoring for his team.
Drake has turned the ball over 5 times this year for the Colorado Yeti. As we’ve discussed, 2 of those were immediately returned for touchdowns. That’s 14 points scored already. Against the Sailfish in week one, Drake intercepted a Mike Boss Jr pass that lead to a FG just before halftime, in a game decided by just 3 points. In week 9 against Arizona, Drake had his best game of the season so far, with a forced fumble+recovery, and an interception. The forced fumble? Led to a field goal. The interception? That led to a touchdown. That’s 10 total points directly linked to Drake, in a game decided by 13. All in all, Drake has directly led to the scoring of 27 points on the season, with an efficiency rate of 100%. Every turnover he produced has led to points for his team.
Now let’s take this same methodology and apply it to Cuco Clemente. As discussed he returned one Interception for a touchdown already, so we can immediately chalk up 7 points in his favor. Against the Yeti in week one he picked off a Caliban pass. The result? An immediate 3 and out from his offense, no points scored. He also had his one forced fumble this game, that was recovered by Demon Jaxson. The result? Two plays and then a pick. No points scored. Once again in week 2 he caused another 2 turnovers, the aforementioned pick six, and another interception a few drives later. The result? A touchdown. That’s 14 total points so far. Once again he picked off a pass the very next week vs Baltimore, leading to another touchdown.
21 points.
It took a few more weeks to get another pick, but he did it vs New York, leading to a field goal.
24 points.
Finally in the most recent week played, in a loss vs Berlin, Clemente had his 6th pick of the year, leading to a touchdown. 31 total points. With 7 turnovers on the year, and 5 of those leading to points, that’s an efficiency rate of 71%.
So what do we take from this? Well some will inevitably argue that this stat isn’t necessarily fair. You can only control so much and relying on circumstances out of the players control like the offense being successful after the turnover is out of the players hands. I would argue against this. If the teams I had been comparing would be a top contender and a bottom feeder, like say the Honolulu Hahalua, that would be more understandable. A player shouldn’t be judged harsher because they are a good player on a bad team, but that isn’t the case here. The Yeti and The Sailfish have been going at it for the top seed in the league for basically every week this season. These are two great teams that have great players at every level. I believe these outcomes to be more comparable.
So let’s assume you agree with me that efficiency allows Drake to top Clemente for Safety Of The Year. I’d say a 29% difference is significant but even if you don’t agree with my stat let’s assume that you do for the sake of argument. Why then would i put Drake as not just the best Safety, but the best Defensive Player overall? Well here we need to use some more slightly controversial weighted statistics.
See it’s a well known fact in this league that if you want consistent stats on the defensive side, you create as a linebacker. The sim simply gives linebackers at least one or two big plays every game if you’re good. What I want to argue here is that simply having bigger numbers doesn’t necessarily mean you were the better player when comparing across positions.
While linebackers get big plays basically weekly, safeties are just about the opposite, being lucky to make 4 or 5 big plays a year. This change is what I want to focus on. If you simply looked at the raw numbers for every position, a linebacker would win every year with no competition. Nobody else would even be nominated except for maybe the occasional cornerback. However I want to argue that Drake’s stats beat out even the best linebacker this season, and to do that I’ll compare him to the best linebacker this season.
Dex Kennedy.
Few would argue that Kennedy has been nothing short of a force of nature this season. He leads in TFLs, FFs, Sacks (tied with a few others), and he has a touchdown. All in all a final season few could even dream of. Yet I still believe Drake tops him.
As everyone is probably aware, the awards committee LOVES touchdowns for defensive players. You can’t win an award without one. Drake is the only player with 2. Not the only safety or the only defensive back. The only defensive player period. Kennedy is also without an interception so far. He slightly makes up for it with 5 FFs, but interceptions usually carry more weight with the committee. Finally I believe that, unfair as it may be, the final nail will be the difference between the two teams they play on. While the Yeti are currently 10-2 one win away from basically clinching the division, the Copperheads are 2-9-1 and are the second worst team in the league. Unfair as it may be it always causes another obstacle for a good player to win an award on a bad team.
So that why I believe Drake deserves to win DPOTY this year. Obviously this is subject to change with the last few weeks of the season.
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