Hello gentlemen and welcome to the 2023 SEWIFFL Superb Owl Playoffs Preview!
Bonuses have been completed for the season. Last week Drake London led the league with 172 receiving yards...unfortunately George had London riding the pine. The next leading receiver was Deebo Samuel. Ryan went ahead and started Deebo and takes down the final bonus of the 2023 season. Congrats!
The scoring title race ended up being a close one. 5 teams scored more than 1700 points this season. Jeff, Sam, Randy, Andy and Ben all eclipsed that mark. The big winner, however, was Ben. His rough last week made things close, but Ben ended up with 1783.72 points for this season. This held on against Andy's 1772.22 points. Congrats Ben on winning the first increased scoring title prize of $50.
I'm going to be sending out bonus payments today and/or tomorrow.
Round 1 Playoff Preview
Welcome to the preview for our two Superb Owl Playoff matchups. I'm going to go through each team, highlight a player or two and maybe even make someone laugh. Because what everyone wants is the opinion of a commissioner who is middling at best and can't even win the league that he runs. Its time to talk playoffs!
Jeff is looking to become the 2nd 3 time Superb Owl winner and 2nd back to back champion. Jeff's team has had an interesting series of ups and downs this year. He started the year 2-5 straight up, went .500 his next 4 matchups and then ripped off 5 straight, beating the median each week. Jeff had a real shot at securing a bye going into week 13 and fell flat on his face the last two weeks, going 0-4 to end the year. Zeke Elliott is, in my opinion, a league winner this year. Last week he proved he still has something left in the tank, despite no longer being elite. There's no reason to not expect big numbers out of CeeDee Lamb at this point and a shootout between Buffalo and Dallas could prove fruitful for Jeff. A blowout either way, however, could be detrimental.
Andy wasn't afraid to show his frustrations with his team's health last week. To be fair he's not wrong. I've seen less Qs at a far right smoked meat convention. Andy's bench is the definition of the walking wounded. While most of them are still slated to play, the stress of not having easy flexibility cannot be easy to work with at this point. Rachaad White has had one of the quietest top 5 RB seasons in recent memory. Save for a 3 week stretch, the guy has been nothing but consistent with a high floor. He'll set Andy in the right direction if he can keep that up against the vulnerable Packers defense this week. Ja'Marr Chase having a big game will do a lot to make up for potential shortcomings from less healthy teammates.
Randy took the SEWIFFL bonus season by storm. He set a league record, I believe, for most bonuses won in a season taking down 4 weeks worth of money. Not bad when you cover 1/3 of your league fees by the time you hit the playoffs. Randy's team gets a safe base each week with MVP Candidate Lamar Jackson. Lamar is the current QB4 and gives a safe floor with his legs. It helps that he's at the helm of, arguably, the best team in the league each week. Randy is going to need one of his WRs, a group I think he'd be the first to admit is his weak link, to have a game that far exceeds their current projections. Tyler Lockett has a juicy matchup against a vulnerable Eagles secondary.
Chris continues to hitch his wagon to All Universe RB Christian McCaffery. He's the RB1 and for good reason. Tonight's Thursday Night Football matchup will set the story for this matchup in general. If Austin Ekeler can put up a strong matchup in Las Vegas Chris will have an excellet shot to move onto the next round of the SEWIFFL Playoffs. Vegas has been much better at home than on the road, as we all witnessed when Green Bay looked anemic there on Monday Night Football. Justin Fields might be playing for a job and has a very tough matchup against an excellent Cleveland defense. Not ideal, but Fields has put up numbers when he plays this year.
Round 1 Consolation Preview
Bill's Bart Was The Best squad has been the hottest team in SEWIFFL over the last 5 weeks. He's gone 10-2 in his last 5 matchups including 2 sweeps over playoff teams during that time. James Cook has been excellent for fantasy football over the last month, despite only playing 45% of Buffalo offensive snaps. Rashee Rice has been the only non-Kelce bright spot in the Kansas City receiving corps and should provide a safe floor for BWTB. On the contrary, rookie phenom Puka Nacua provides the opposite. Boom or Bust is the name of his game but he's played really well the last 4 weeks. If he continues that Bill has a chance to keep moving towards control of the draft again.
George, in his own right, has won 2 of his last 3 matchups and scored over 115 3 of the last 4 weeks. The obvious make or break player for George will be De'Von Achane. Last week was his worst week of a game in which he's finished healthy and he still had 9.6 points. Other than that when he's played healthy he's balled out, averaging well over 20 points per game in those games. He has a brutal matchup this week against the Jets, but the 'Phins still have an incredibly talented offense that should be able to move the ball. Derrick Henry dominates football after there's snow in Vermont, its been snowing in Vermont so I expect Henry to eat.
Just looking at the names on his roster, if you would've told me that Zach's squad would be out of the playoffs I wouldn't have believed you. Dak is the uncrowned MVP of the league and he's been on fire since week 6. He's been in sync with CeeDee Lamb(who in a righteous world would get MVP attention himself, but the NFL loves nothing but the QB) and both have been putting up numbers. Cooper Kupp returned to 2022 form last week and if he continues that against a vulnerable Commanders defense Zach may find himself coasting into the next round.
Jim has been adament about his want for this fantasy football season to be over. He's ready to get back to the war room and draft himself a new squad. Tua has been pretty darn good this year although he's struggled the last few weeks. If he can get back to form with Tyreek he can give Jim a big number to work towards an upset. I often wonder if Davante Adams does the sad Wolverine meme thinking about how he could've been playing in Green Bay helping Jordan Love blossom this entire time. If the Raiders manage to put up more than 0 points this week Adams should be the first to benefit.