So we were about to look at some positional statistics. Let’s start with a nice, simple split, total points by position, starting with the defence:

Now, when looking at these stats, you need to remember the flex options – teams did have the option of starting 1 or 2 DTs and 3 or 4 LBs. For example, in 8 of the 16 weeks, Here Comes The Brees started 2 DTs, while DFO did so in 12 of the 16 weeks, hence these two teams had by far the greatest number of points from this position.

Four teams, Champions of the Sun, Dyna Hard, Dynablaster Bombermen and Dynasore Losers only ever started 1 DT, while two more teams – Kelkowski and Dynasty of Sadness – only started 2 DTs once. We’ll get into the points per starter stats shortly, that was just to put the above numbers in a bit of context. What it does mean, though, is that only Dynablaster managed to get at least 100 points out of starting a solo DT.

So, as a percentage of all points gained by the team, how do the defensive positions break down?

It’s pretty clear which teams had the star DEs – Dyna Hard having JJ Watt gave a massive boost at that position. Watt scored 275 points in 16 weeks of the season, leaving 95 to be scored by the second choice DE. There were 4 teams which didn’t average 95 points per DE, so this was good going for the second string player at the position.

All in all, there wasn’t a huge variation in the proportion of points scored by defenses. The low of 34.15% scored by DFO was more a result of the massively high offensive scoring done by the team, likewise the 36.10% put up by Kelkowski. On total defensive points, these teams finished 8th and 7th in the league, 80 and 50 points below the league average (respectively).

So flipping it around then and looking at it on an average points per starter basis, how does it look? First of all, it’s important to remember that regularly starting fewer players at a position *should* lead to a higher average points per game on the basis that the additional flex player who has been overlooked in theory should be less likely to score a high number of points. Should be.

So I’ve included the overall average for some context – that tells you what the aveage player on the 22 man starting line-up scored. As we’d expect, in the vast majority of cases, defensive players score less than average. Watt, Dareus, Suh, McCoy, Quinn, Pierre-Paul and Sen’Derrick Marks are the ones that tip the balance, while Dynasore Losers have an exceptionally strong selection of LBs.

We can look at this as a ratio. In the table below, 100% represents the average score at a position being equal to the average score for the team overall. Over 100% means that position scored above average while below 100% means below average.

I didn’t spot before that the Brees safeties also scored over the team average points. Impressive given that no one else’s safeties manage to average more than 88% of an average player’s contribution. Harrison Smith seems to be the main (sole?) reason for that.

This might flag up key areas of weakness. I would not be surprised if Champions of the Sun were chasing a DT in the off-season. To be honest, Max might be better of fielding himself rather than whatever potato was taking the field for him this year. 2.5 points per player per game is by a fair distance the lowest average points per game of any psoition group for any team.

So what about the offensive side of the ball? It tells you to fuck off, it’s that offensive.

Lots more flex options available to teams here, with 2 flex positions spread across RB, WR and TE. 3 teams opted for only 1 TE in every game, with the 2 flexes used at the other positions – Dyna Hard, Dynablaster and the Dynasty of Sadness. Two of these teams accounted for the two lowest scores at TE, while the Bombermen were 6th in TE scoring despite only ever fielding one.

Only Kelkowski and DFO didn’t start 4 WR in at least 10 games. Despite this, both managed over 600 points at the position. The points per player information which is to follow will get into this a little more.

At RB, East Flanders started 3 in only 1 of the 16 games, Dynasore in 9 and DFO in 10. Despite this, East FLanders scored more RB points than 5 other teams while Dynasore and DFO clocked in at 4th and 3rd respectively in total RB points.

As a percentage, by position, these split down as follows:

You can tell which team had Gronkowski – the one which had TE accounting for over 10% of the team’s total points. He may have started slowly but he clocked up a total of 184 points across the 16 week season, 36 more than Anotonio Gates in second. Oh, and DFO had Gates as well, just for good measure.

Looking at the average points per game per player for offensive players then…

Naturally, we’d expect offensive scoring to be much higher. There aren’t many positional groups which end up scoring below the team average. Only two teams manage higher than average with their TEs – the Bombermen and DFO, otherwise it’s the WRs of East Flanders and the Brees that show themselves up as below average.

The other big highlight is the underperformance of the Dynasty of Sadness’ QB, clocking in a full 7 points below the league average QB. To put that in context, 7 points per game equates to 112 points across the year. If you add 112 points on to the 2,544 the Dynasty scored in the 16 weeks of the season, they’d move from 9th top scorers to… oh… 9th. But now only 25 points behind league runners-up Here Comes The Brees in 8th.

Those percentages then… they say basically the same kind of thing I was saying above. Dyna Hard and, to a lesser extent, Champions of the Sun may want to look at their TE options going forward.

Special Teams then?

I have nothing really to say here.

But now… I still have nothing really to say.

Yeah. That’s all you’re getting this time.