2022 Season Preview

Running a little late on this, but when you're stuck in a chair with an IV in your arm for 6 hours, it gives you time to think about the important things in life. Like updating a very niche blog for a long-running fantasy football league that has lain dormant for months yet somehow has been investigated for ad-clicking fraud. But I digress...

I'll send out an email for Rivalry Week on Monday, but before we get to that, it's time to do the annual audit of how each team has stacked up throughout FALAFEL history, and what changed since last year.

We'll start with an overall ranking of our current teams, which can serve as a guide to both Rivalry Week selection, as well as the Division Draft. All historical data in the sidebar has been updated, though with 10 of our 14 teams within one game of .500 last year, there were relatively few large changes. Marco experienced a fairly large drop due to his poor record and relative lack of games played compared to the rest of the league, while Weissbard had the largest rise, though he still remains below .500 overall despite nearly winning three of the last four Stevens Bowls. 

After 13 years, the league is all relatively clustered around .500, though there are some exceptions. The big milestones to watch this year are the race to 100 wins (with Zacherman, Barnard, and myself all in play), as well as the race to 100 losses (Weissbard, Ajay, Alan, and of course Bennett are eligible). It's still amusing that the potential 100 win teams have 1 chef's coat between us (and none before last season), while the bottom dwellers have 3 coats and 2 hats (obviously Bennett has nothing). Stats like that make tiering the league somewhat difficult, so I'll lean on a mix of recent and overall results.

Here is where Points Above Average stand heading into this season:

Levine maintains his lead here, while Billy brings up the rear despite a strong season. Shouts to Bruno who did more damage in one year than anyone else has come close to over many years.

Based on the information above, here are the tiers heading into Rivalry Week and Division Draft:

1. Levine
2. AGD, Kumpf, Zacherman
3. Weissbard, Esco, Nick, Marco
4. Gutman, Barnard, Ajay, Billy
5. Alan, Bennett

Weissbard, Barnard, and myself are Division Captains, and are all in different tiers, so should make for an interesting division draft.

As always, I'll end with a look at overall points scored in FALAFEL history:

Rivalry Week instructions come out Monday (and hopefully a new blog picture), so stay tuned and start thinking about your rivals.