Week #18

The BeaudoinBrothers won the PQBFL title in the most unglamorous way possible, by falling short of scoring 100 points and finishing dead last in the final week #18.  Hurts was back in action and started but he was obviously not himself and the Bros would have been better off starting R Wilson who easily outscored Hurts by more than 20 pts.  Hurts’ wobbly play also affected Sanders and AJ Brown – another reminder of the perils of starting too many players on the same NFL team.  Anyway after a season full of rebounds and comebacks, the Bros came out ahead of Wax in the end.  After week #6 of the season the Bros were already down by 7 rank-points and Wax had a possibility of running away with the title early but the Bros took those 7 rank-points away in weeks 7-8 to tie Wax.  However Wax beat Beaud handily in weeks 9-10 to increase their lead to 10 rank-points and were looking in total control again, but Beaud beat Wax five straight weeks from that point on to take a 5 rank-point lead and seemed unstoppable until Hurts got injured and Wax took the opportunity to knock Beaud off in week #16 and were looking like the favorites with only 2 weeks remaining.  However Wax failed to take advantage of Beaud weakness in week #17 and then again in week #18 and that was a wrap on the season.

WaxOnWaxOff scored a season-low 101 pts for 8th place in a disappointing finish to the 2022 season.  Wax ends the year only 2 rank-points behind Beaud in first place so it’s very easy to come to the conclusion that Wax would have won the title if they had made a trade for a rookie after Breece Hall got injured in week #7.  From that point on, Wax scored zeros and ones at the rookie position while lots of mediocre rookies in the PQBFL were scoring 4s and 5s, nothing fantastic but could have easily pushed Wax over the edge.  Wax clearly had a better draft than Beaud and actually outscored Beaud by an average of 3.8 pts per week during the season, but the trading aspect was the difference maker with Beaud acquiring Hurts and Christian Wilkins to fill the two most glaring holes in their lineup while Wax sit idly with an incredibly ineffective trio of healthy rookies each of them scoring less than 1 pt per week: N Dean (0.8 pts), I Spiller (0.3 pts), and Z White (0.3 pts).  It is a clear instance of a GM refusing to give up some 2023 draft capital in exchange for improving their chances to win 2022 and Wax got burnt. 

The GloriousBastards finished first for the 5th time of the season and secured third place in front of FE.  The problem with Bas this season was inconsistency, Bas finished top two an impressive number of 8 times in 18 weeks but the three last places were too much to overcome.  This week Bas easily finished first mostly thanks to defense with 13.5 pts from the Steelers defense and 19.5 pts from DL Heyward.  Fitzpatrick was benched for a rare time and was outscored by starting backup Bates who scored 16 pts.  That concentration of PIT defense and players was also a factor this season with the yo-yo between great weeks and terrible weeks for Bas, similar to the comments above about the Beaud trio of Eagles on offense.  Offense was also better for Bas this week than most PQBFL teams who struggled with 20 pts from Herbert, 19.25 pts from Chase, and 14 pts from Pickett.  Josh Jacobs finished RB2 in the PQBFL only 0.06 points per week on average behind D Henry (Beaud) due to scoring only 4 pts this week.  Nonetheless his value in 2023 could be quite good with potential as franchise player if the Raiders acquire a good QB. 

FlyingElvis finished 2022 on a good note with second place but needed Bas to fall flat to grab third place which did not happen.  In the end, after a promising start to the season, the injury to Lamar Jackson a few weeks ago killed FE’s chances who had to rely on freakin Baker Mayfield who stunk this week with 3 pts.  At the time FE traded away Hurts, L Jackson was ahead of Hurts by 2.7 pts per week on average, but after that Jackson slowed down even before his injury, although for the very end of the season trade or not would not have mattered since both Jackson and Hurts were injured.  Lamar ends the season as QB5 behind Hurts at QB3 and will most likely be cut from FE’s roster; with the FE GM frustrations regarding Jackson, it is likely that Lamar has played his last game in the FE uniform and will be on FE’s black list for the 2023 draft.  Missing J Taylor to injury in the last 4 weeks also did not help matters.  Ekeler was able to finish RB4 which justified his franchise player status but he could not do it alone. 

OldNo7 finished fifth for the fifth time of the season and finished the season in fifth place so perhaps the team will be renamed OldNo5.  Season 2022 could not have been more average for Old, the team did not have any glaring weaknesses but also did not have any clear strength which prevented the GM from making a splash to improve the team via a trade.  Most likely the Old saved team in 2023 will be average as well, the trade of CMC from CAR to SF has turned out to be a modest downgrade, CMC finished the season RB3 which is good but pre-draft he was the clear uncontested RB1 so it has not worked out as well as hoped for especially since the 49ers have other weapons at RB.  So the long-suffering Old franchise will have to wait one more year for glory but things are not looking up for dominance in 2023, with one caveat.  Old did not have any top 5 rookie this year, but nonetheless four of team finished between ROO6 and ROO18 and all four are from prime positions RB and WR so the crew of Dotson, London, Allgeier, and Pacheco could boost Old’s outlook and have more value in 2023 than 2022.

The Decepticons finished 6th this week and also 6th on the season to complete a very disappointing season.  From 2013 to 2021, during those 9 years Dec finished third 5 times, second twice, and first twice.  That was an amazing run of 9 consecutive seasons in the top 3 so finishing 6th was not what the doctor ordered.  Dec drafted 5 rookies this year and none of them worked out, the best was LB C Harris who finished ROO8 but he was hardly used by the coach while ineffective WRs like Pickens Burks and Doubs alternated in the lineup but hardly did anything of value (ROO14-17-19) while rookie Ridder was another rookie QB who was unable to take the starting job and do it well.  The problem for Dec is that unlike Old, these 5 rookies are less likely to have considerable value in 2023 except perhaps Harris who would be worth a saved roster spot on defense.  The RB position promises to be a sore spot for Dec in 2023 with N Harris’ value being nowhere near franchise player (RB18) and Fournette + Montgomery will not age well like fine wine. 

ProfessorMJ had a terrible year by all accounts but thanks to being the best PQBFL team in weeks 16-18 with third, first, and third place, Prof was able to climb not only to 8th but even finish ahead of Adm in 7th place.  T Etienne was held in check this week with only 2.75 pts but the Jaguars made the playoffs nonetheless and it was no shame to be limited by the Titans defense who kept most RBs facing them to quite limited stats all season long.  Etienne’s production from week 5 onward was equivalent to RB13 so he will have decent value next year.  Maybe not good enough for top quality franchise player but who else could Prof franchise other than maybe Burrow who finished QB4?  Prof will have the third pick overall so less pressure to franchise two players; for the lone choice of franchise perhaps Etienne will be the man.  For the rest, Prof’s saved team could be far worse in 2023 than in 2022 due to Javonte Williams’ injury, and older players at RB and WR like K Allen, M Evans, J Conner.  Also D Swift was so thoroughly outscored by Ja Williams (Wax) that his 2023 value is highly questionable at this point.

The Admirals started the season well but went on a downward spiral with two straight last places in weeks 6-7 and things did not get better from there especially with K Murray getting injured in week 10 which will greatly affect his 2023 value.  In week 18 Adm finished 4th which was not bad but got beat by Prof which is what mattered and Adm lost 7th place in the end.  Adm was hoping for good things from D Watson after his suspension but unfortunately it did not really happen with Watson averaging 14.2 pts per game which ranked QB16.  For that reason it’s unclear to what extent he can be relied upon in 2023.  The only reliable player for Adm this year was Chubb who finished RB5 and still has enough juice to warrant franchise player status.  Chubb ended on a good note this week with 1 TD and 122 yards from scrimmage.  Other than Chubb, Adm needs a thorough purge and cleanse at the RB position after scoring hardly anything for the RB2 spot.  D Harris will be playing second fiddle even more in 2023 relative to R Stevenson (Beaud), J Robinson will have B Hall in his way in 2023, and R Penny might end up backup to stellar rookie K Walker (Ball). 

The Ballers finished in the bottom 3 for the 10th time in 18 weeks and finished last for the season.  Ball will therefore have the first pick overall in 2023 if they elect to franchise only one player in 2023.  Diggs could be an option and K Walker’s value will depend on Penny’s rehab.  The problem will not be franchise for Ball, it will be the saved team.  Some players of value will be cut and after that the depth is not overly impressive and rookies graduating to WR are question marks for example Tyquan Thornton did not do much in 2022 and Jameson Williams has potential and returned from injury late 2022 but was ineffective.  The saved defensive team is probably not going to be great either because Ball will need to save 5 out of only 9 defensive players with no defensive rookie in the pipeline and none of the defensive players on Ball’s roster are players on the upside.  Consequently, the Ballers will need to rely on a solid draft in 2023 to compete near the top.





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