After the absurdity in the semi-finals, it was always unlikely that the Stevens Bowl would reach the same heights, and that proved to be correct. While it was a well-earned and a decade-and-a-half in the making championship for Bennett, beating a team featuring Jeff Wilson Jr. and DeMario Douglas wasn't the same as beating Kyren Williams(!) and Amon-Ra St. Brown the previous week. Hopefully Billy can find some solace in the fact that he was probably not going to beat Bennett in the finals anyway, hopefully Esco can find some solace in being the first 3-time Stevens Bowl loser, and hopefully Ajay can find some solace in Bailey Zappe.
With Bennett's title, that leaves Zacherman, Marco, Nick, and of course Barnard as the only non-champs left after 15 years. Marco joined after year 7-ish, and Nick was sour grapes for a couple years, so it's really just Z and Barnard who are approaching having spent half their lives in this league with nothing to show for it other than some personalized golf balls and penis confetti. Z remains the People's Champion heading into next year, and Barnard remains in search of a Runningback.
I hope to do some deep dives into draft/trade/waiver quality in the coming weeks, but let's give BMO their time in the sun first. Here are the 5 reasons that BMO is our Stevens Bowl Champ:
5. Spending $85 draft dollars on Josh Allen and Tyreek Hill.
It's easy to say "draft good players." It's harder to have the balls to win high priced auctions for those players. BMO went heavy on Josh Allen and Reek (and Josh Jacobs, who was by no means a bust), and got rewarded with the #1 QB and #2 WR on the season. I'll call this a modified Billy approach, and when it hits, it's a guaranteed playoff birth.
4. Not being blinded by the Eagles.
I'll give Mejia full credit for this one. In 15 years, Bennett has ALWAYS had at least one Eagle. This dates back to the Hank Baskett days, but in recent years the strategy has paid off. Coming off a close Super Bowl loss, with an easy schedule, I would have assumed Bennett would spend his entire draft budget on Jalen and Co., but instead he showed restraint and only ended up with Swift and Goedert. I didn't love Swift as an RB2, but $14 was a steal in hindsight, and Goedert for $13 wasn't going to sink the season one way or another. Had you gone for Hurts/AJB/Penny instead of Josh/Reek, you would have had a fine year but you wouldn't be getting sized for Chef apparel.
3. Trading for Gabe Davis.
Bennett is notoriously difficult to trade with, however Weissbard was able to get a deal done way back in September that was seemingly unimportant at the time. A perpetually banged up Christian Watson and a Wally-Pipped Tutu Atwell for another team's handcuff in Jamaal Williams and the ultimate boom/bust WR in Gabe Davis. Three of those four players had no real impact on the 2023 season, but the fourth one certainly did.
2. Starting Gabe Davis in the semi-finals.
Heading into Week 16, Gabe had hit double digit scoring just five times all year. When he does hit, it tends to be for close to 20 (only three games between 5-15), and that delivered in spades against Ajay. Hitting a double dip TD is possibly the best feeling in fantasy (outside of getting a Coat), and the Chargers made damn sure that Josh and Gabe connected on Christmas Eve Eve.
1. 2.38 Points
Any championship requires its share of luck, but this year was pretty wild. Winning two playoff matchups by a combined 2.38 points is unheard of. If Ajay or Zacherman had started different QBs (would have been crazy for Z, but Ajay had a decision to make), we're never thinking about your team again. And if you ended up as the 3 seed instead of the 5 seed, you would have lost to Esco in Round 1.
The only trade BMO made was the aforementioned Gabe Davis move. The only major FAAB player was Keaton Mitchell, who didn't even play in the playoffs. This was a very well-drafted team that didn't do anything to screw it up over the course of the season, and benefitted from some insanely close matchup luck in the playoffs.
Now for the real question: Two coats or one really big one?
