Week #17

It’s official – OldNo7 are 2023 PQBFL champions!  After years of mediocrity OldNo7 has finally made it to the top, how sweet it is!  With second place this week Old secured the championship one week ahead of time and it was not even close, with a 13 rank-point lead right now so it was a consistently dominant performance where Old avoided the red in every week except week #2 when Old finished 7th.  Old also had an 11-week stretch from week #3 to week #13 where Old finished top 4 every week.  The seeds of this top-notch team were actually planted in 2019.  More than four years ago, Old was seeking an improvement to their franchise player and acquired CMC before the draft from Dec in return for a draft pick swap 5/12 as Dec intended to franchise Mahomes and let CMC go.  Old has franchised CMC every year since 2019 and he still dominates, earning the title of PQBFL MVP this year.  The next step for the championship building team occurred during the NFL playoffs following the 2021 season.  Old was tied with Beaud before the Super Bowl week and edged Beaud on SB night so during the 2022 draft, Old was picking immediately before Beaud in the 3rd round.  Beaud was prepared to draft Tyreek Hill but Old snatched Hill right in front of Beaud who had to settle for AJ Brown.  Then Old ended up franchising Ty Hill in 2023 who will most likely finish as the PQBFL’s top WR.  Old also had a decent saved team, being able to keep Kamara (RB8), Pacheco (RB10), Dak (QB3), and Singleton (LB9).  During the 2023 Old was not drafting near the top (8th out of 9) due to having few injury points in 2022 but Old’s first pick was a hit with Amon-Ra ranking WR4 this year.  Old decided to compromise with weaker ROO and in the end it did not matter because Old dominated in most other positions.

The BeaudoinBrothers won for a league-high 6th time this season (compared to only 2 wins for Old) but it was too little too late.  In the end the dry spell in weeks #14-16 sunk the Bros.  Stroud came back from injury and scored 13.25 pts but Beaud won by such a wide margin (35.5 pts ahead of Old) that even if he stayed injured it would not have mattered.  The weekly leader was replacement RB Kyren Williams who scored 3 TDs and 25.25 pts.  Since R Stevenson’s Pats will not make the playoffs, K Williams will not be able to help Beaud during the playoffs despite the Rams having made it.  The Bros had a solid defensive week with the Bills, Buckner, L David, Q Walker, and Dugger all scoring double digits.

ProfessorMJ finished 3rd and beat Bas by 6 notches to revive the race to third place in the standings.  Prof is now only 1 rank-point behind, in what will be the most meaningful race in the final week.  Prof has scored more total points than Bas so Prof will hold the tie-breaker; that means the matchup Prof-Bas in week #18 will determine who finishes 3rd – other teams cannot affect the race because if Prof beats Bas by one, Prof will finish 3rd. This week was fairly low scoring and very tight from 3rd to 8th with scores ranging from 129 pts (Prof) to 118 pts (Ball) and Prof came out on top.  The key was by far CD Lamb who scored 30.5 pts as the rest of Prof’s offensive lineup was poor.  On defense Ernest Jones led the way with 15 pts and he has quietly put together a nice season as 19th round pick, currently ranking LB3. 

Dec finished 4th this week and beat Wax by 3 so they still keep an outside chance of finishing in 6th place.  Dec trails by 3 rank-points but are quite far back in total points so they will probably need to beat Wax by 4 spots in the final week which is doable but won’t be easy.  The best scores of the week for Dec were coming from youth and the future of the team, including Achane with 16.25 pts who took advantage of Mostert being injured, and 12 pts from LaPorta.  RBs Taylor (12 pts) and Mixon (12.25 pts) are veterans who contributed with moderate scores and on defense Z Franklin added 11.5 pts, close to his season average of 13.1 pts.  Franklin has a chance to finish LB1 in the PQBFL because he is currently only 0.1 pt per week behind Oluokun (Prof) so it will go down to week #18 to determine who wins as the top IDP.

The Admirals finished 5th and by losing to Dec, confirmed that they will finish the season in 8th place.  K Murray had a surprising 26.5 pt game on the road in Philly.  He is improving his 2024 draft status, at the very least as a cut player and perhaps even franchise if Nick Chubb does not appear fully healthy in the pre-season.  Rookie Zay Flowers also caught a long TD to finish the game with 16.25 pts.  Flowers was the 10th rookie taken and currently ranks 8th so he’s been a decent investment in the 6th round.

FlyingElvis stumbled to 6th place this week after winning last week and are almost locked into 5th place for the year, trailing Prof by 6 rank-points and not holding the tie-breaker so it would take a mini-miracle of beating Prof by 7 in the final week to finish in 4th place.  Derwin James had a strong game with 19 pts and old man Bobby Wagner was not far behind with 15 pts.  D James is currently DB2 which is not a surprise because most expected him to be a prime DB, but Wagner was the last pick of the draft so LB4 has been an excellent result for this overlooked veteran.  On offense, FE struggled except for 22.75 pts from Etienne.  Josh Allen is still holding on to QB1 in the league but this week he was so-so with 13 pts.  Ekeler lost a fumble and only scored a point so his days as a FE franchise player are numbered.  He has barely been worth starting RB material, ranking RB17.

WaxOnWaxOff finished in the red for the second time in three weeks with 120 pts and 7th place.  The Rams won to secure a spot in the playoffs but did most of the damage on the ground, not with Stafford who was limited to 9.5 pts.  In that same game, Barkley was poor with only 4.75 pts, even worse than the norm for him which was a disappointing season.  Barkley ranks RB9 so he has not been worth franchise player status. Wax’s other franchise player Ju Jefferson only scored 7.75 pts this week but unlike Barkley he can be excused and retains his value for 2024.  Jefferson himself has been injured and lost his QB, which should not be a concern in a few months’ time. 

The Ballers avoided last place this week but came out on the unlucky end of a tight pack with 8th place.  The Ballers trail Adm by 17 rank-points so they are locked in last place but should draft from the 3rd slot next year because of 3rd place in injury points, behind Adm and Wax.  The only reason Ball did not finish last this week was Lamar Jackson who scored 45.25 pts while the other 12 starters only scored 72.75 pts.  L-Jax was playing angry after being labeled a fraud MVP in this weekly column and most likely secured the NFL MVP prize (not PQBFL MVP) with his performance against the Dolphins.  With this explosive game Jackson has moved up to QB4 and because he’ll probably be benched in the final week, he won’t beat J Allen (FE), Hurts (Beaud), or Prescott (Old). 

The GloriousBastards’ second half of the season push came to a halt this week with last place.  From week #10 to #16, Bas had finished in the blue for 6 times in 7 weeks but this week removed Bas from contention for 2nd and will have to fight to keep 3rd.  RB Conner was one of the few who showed up to play and scored 21 pts but everyone else on offense underperformed relative to projections.  Purdy was not far off with 18.75 pts but the others failed by big margins, for example R White 2.5 pts, M Evans 6.5 pts, DeVonta Smith 4.5 pts, Okonkwo 4.5 pts, and Bijan 6.5 pts.  Even the Dallas defense did not bail out Bas with only 6 pts even though they kept the Lions under wraps and won the game.  It was a game of bend but not break as the Cowboys gave up 420 yards which affected their PQBFL score.




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