The 3rd season of the EBFL was another great one, with increased parity and solid competition. In the end, it was Tom Selleck’s Moustache standing at the top of the heap after a stellar late-season run, which culminated in their first Igloo Bowl win over their cross-town rival Chalupa Batman.
While the in-season action is always entertaining, the real work lies ahead as teams try to position themselves to dethrone the Stache and become the 4th Igloo Bowl champion (or in some cases, grab their 2nd). Knowing the GM’s in the EBFL, it will be another very active off-season, both leading up to and after the EBFL Rookie Draft, where the Nagintas own 8 of the first 11 selections. As such, they could be a key cog in a number of machinations this off-season. Anyway, here’s a bit of a look back at the year that was:
Highlights/Lowlights
The Stache made a huge turnaround, going from worst to first, after being the EBFL Frittata in 2015.
The Chalupas ended up as the 2nd Senor Crabs team to win the regular season.
The Chalupas are now the only team to have made the playoffs every season, and are now tied with the Nagintas with 2 championship game appearances.
The Chalupas and the Rexes are the first two-time division champions.
The Nagintas running the consolation bracket a year after winning the league, putting them at 5-0 over the last two post-seasons.
A total of 124 trades from the end of the 2015 season until the deadline, falling 5 short of the prior season.
The 1.01 is owned by another manager when it is awarded for the 3rd straight season.
A non-QB led the league in scoring for the first time in the short EBFL history.
Terrence Williams was finally traded in the off-season, and toiled on the bottom-feeding WDJFS for the year.
What Does John Fox Say beat their old standard of futility, coming in with only 6 VP this season, with 2 wins (both against the Ballers), and 2 scoring VP.
Several rookie records fell in 2016, especially on the defensive side of the ball where 5 of 6 have new ‘owners’.
The Bandits broke a pile of records, somewhat living up to the pre-season hype.
Year End Awards
Offensive Player of the Year
David Johnson (Fear Boners) – In what probably should be unanimous, Johnson easily won the award for best offensive player in 2016. He was the first non-QB to finish in the top 3 of league scoring. Johnson took it another step further and led the entire league in scoring…as a running back. Let that sink in for a second. His lowest score all season was over 14 points. Ultimately, Johnson picked up 10 first-place votes and appeared on all ballots.
Defensive Player of the Year
Landon Collins (Chalupa Batman) – Chalupas take the award with the league-leading defensive back for the second straight year. It was the defense that carried them all the way to the championship game, and Collins was the catalyst. He ended up the 2nd highest scoring defender in the league to Kwon Alexander and bested the next DB (who also found their way on the Chalupa roster) by 37 points. Collins ended up with 6 first-place votes and appeared on 10 ballots. He ultimately won the award by a single point.
Rookie of the Year
Zeke Elliott (Greg Schiano is an Idiot) – In what was basically a formality, Zeke Elliott was the 2016 Rookie of the Year. He had such a good season, he was also in the running for Offensive Player of the Year. He scored double digit points every week of the season, joining David Johnson as the only non-QB to achieve this feat. Amazingly enough, he wasn’t a unanimous selection, as one manager seemed to think a QB who only started 4 times over the course of the EBFL season, was better than the 5th overall scorer in the league that was used every week. Go figure.
Complete Voting Results (Google Docs)
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