Joe’s Pats have climbed to the top of the peak once again! In a closely fought battle with Bubble Craps Bandits, Joe pulled out a 9-point victory 101-92, to claim the title of 2017 Sacred Sundays League Champion! This is Joe’s second league championship, and he joins Jason and James as the only people who have been multi-time champions. (Joe’s first championship came in 2015). With Joe’s victory, he also claimed his record-setting 6th Weekly High Score Prize! And third in a row! My god! Impressive way to close out the season there Joe! Well done! Well done indeed!
This week we will tie up a few remaining loose ends and dole out the final Best Bench of the season.
EVERYONE NEEDS MONEY, THAT’S WHY THEY CALL IT MONEY!
Here is the final money tally for this season:
| Weekly High | Playoffs | Total | ||
| 1 | Joe | $300 | $225 | $525.00 |
| 2 | James | $150 | $67 | $217.00 |
| 3 | Rob | $150 | $45 | $195.00 |
| 4 | Timmy | $0 | $113 | $113.00 |
| 5 | Russ | $50 | $0 | $50.00 |
| 6 | Jerry | $50 | $0 | $50.00 |
| 7 | Shawn | $50 | $0 | $50.00 |
| 8 | John | $50 | $0 | $50.00 |
Joe set a record for the payout this season, with 6 Weekly High Score Prizes and the league championship. Only Jason and Jens did not win a prize this season.
I’ll reach out to the winners separately to get your money to you as soon as possible.
TOP 5 RECAP
All season I’ve been tracking the success of the Top 5 Yahoo! picks for each position versus how they have done in reality. With the full season now in the books, we can see precisely how they did:
| Top 5 Ranks per Yahoo! | |||||
| QB | as of 9/5/17 | As of season end | Pts | Avg | |
| 1 | Aaron Rodgers | Russell Wilson Sea | 318 | 21.2 | |
| 2 | Tom Brady | Alex Smith KC | 287 | 19.1 | |
| 3 | Drew Brees | Cam Newton Car | 279 | 18.6 | |
| 4 | Russell Wilson | Tom Brady NE | 276 | 18.4 | |
| 5 | Matt Ryan | Carson Wentz Phi | 269 | 17.9 | |
| RB | |||||
| 1 | David Johnson | Todd Gurley II LAR | 308 | 20.5 | |
| 2 | Le'Veon Bell | Le'Veon Bell Pit | 243 | 16.2 | |
| 3 | LeSean McCoy | Kareem Hunt KC | 226 | 15.1 | |
| 4 | Melvin Gordon | Alvin Kamara NO | 204 | 13.6 | |
| 5 | Devonta Freeman | Melvin Gordon LAC | 203 | 13.5 | |
| WR | |||||
| 1 | Antonio Brown | Antonio Brown Pit | 219 | 14.6 | |
| 2 | Julio Jones | DeAndre Hopkins Hou | 210 | 14.0 | |
| 3 | Odell Beckham, Jr. | Tyreek Hill KC | 163 | 10.9 | |
| 4 | Mike Evans | Keenan Allen LAC | 156 | 10.4 | |
| 5 | A.J. Green | Julio Jones Atl | 151 | 10.1 | |
| TE | |||||
| 1 | Rob Gronkowski | Rob Gronkowski NE | 155 | 10.3 | |
| 2 | Travis Kelce | Travis Kelce KC | 143 | 9.5 | |
| 3 | Greg Olsen | Zach Ertz Phi | 120 | 8.0 | |
| 4 | Jordan Reed | Jimmy Graham Sea | 103 | 6.9 | |
| 5 | Jimmy Graham | Evan Engram NYG | 103 | 6.9 | |
| DEF | |||||
| 1 | Denver | Jacksonville Jax | 203 | 13.5 | |
| 2 | Seattle | Baltimore Bal | 199 | 13.3 | |
| 3 | Houston | Los Angeles LAR | 188 | 12.5 | |
| 4 | Kansas City | Philadelphia Phi | 167 | 11.1 | |
| 5 | Minnesota | Los Angeles LAC | 158 | 10.5 | |
| K | |||||
| 1 | Stephen Gostkowski | Greg Zuerlein LAR | 180 | 12.0 | |
| 2 | Justin Tucker | Stephen Gostkowski NE | 164 | 10.9 | |
| 3 | Matt Bryant | Robbie Gould SF | 156 | 10.4 | |
| 4 | Dan Bailey | Chris Boswell Pit | 153 | 10.2 | |
| 5 | Mason Crosby | Justin Tucker Bal | 152 | 10.1 | |
Out of 30 ranked players, 10 finished in the Top 5 of their respective position. The Yahoo! experts did best with the Tight End position (3 of 5 finished in the top 5, with the top 2 predicted perfectly), while Kickers and Defense were a struggle. Quarterbacks, Runningbacks and Wide Receivers all had 2 of 5 finish in the top 5.
SCORING RULE CHANGE FOR NEXT SEASON?
In an effort to balance out some of the scoring between players, I’m considering changing the scoring to have 1 point scored per reception (PPR). Quarterbacks have always dominated the points scored, and this would hopefully even things out, and get more points on the board.
I’m still not completely sold on the idea, and will likely have this as a topic for discussion in Vegas prior to the next draft. (Speaking of the next draft, we will once again target Labor Day Weekend, so start working toward that shit!)
DRAFT AND KEEPERS
The 2018 draft order will be the inverse of standings, so it will look like this:
1 John – Young Guns
2 Shawn – Coors Light Drunk Guys
3 Jerry – Longshanks
4 Jens – Finders Keepers
5 Jason – American BadAss
6 Russ – sprouts
7 Rob – Vandelay Industries
8 James – Sofa King Back
9 Timmy – Bubble Craps Bandits
10 Joe – Joe’s Pats
Keeper rules will be the same as in prior years: Up to 2 players from the final roster for this season can be designated as keepers for next season. Kept players will count as draft picks in the 2018 draft for whatever round they were drafted in 2017. Any players who were not drafted in 2017 will count as a 15th round pick. Any players who were keepers in 2017 will count as a first round pick. If two players are kept who both have the same draft value, they will count as 1 pick in that round and 1 pick in the following round. For example, if two players are kept with 1st round draft value, they will count as a first and as a second round pick. (The exception to this rule is if two 15th round picks are kept – these would count as picks in 14th and 15th rounds). I’ll send out a sheet in the next couple days with final rosters and 2018 draft values.
BEST BENCH
Three teams avoided the Best Bench distinction all season long, which is an accomplishment in and of itself. These teams are: Joe’s Pats, Finders Keepers and Sofa King Back. Well done gentlemen for keeping your rosters tight!
Couldn’t say the same for this week’s winner, who had a 32-point improvement possibility. The Week 16 Best Bench, and final one for the season, goes to… the Coors Light Drunk Guys! Shawn gets his third Best Bench of the year, and needed four roster moves to do it… T. Ginn Jr. for A. Jeffery +14, D. Murray for D. Freeman +8, Z. Ertz for C. Brate +7, D. Baldwin for K. Allen +3.
Well once again the season has gone by in a blur! It’s hard to fathom how quickly 16 weeks can zoom by. It is even harder to fathom that next season will be Sacred Sunday’s 15th year of existence! Tell me how that one is possible?!
I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and I wish all of you a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2018!
And I’m looking forward to seeing all of you guys in Vegas!!! (Labor Day Weekend…let’s do it!)
