Week 14 Power Rankings — The Worst League

Dec 15

Dec 15 Week 14 Power Rankings

“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.”

So writes Cormac McCarthy in No Country for Old Men. In the Coen brothers’ adaptation of the West Texas masterpiece about fate, chance and briefcases filled with cash, Anton Chigurh—the relentless hitman played by Javier Bardem—infamously leaves the fate of his victims to the flip of a coin. In a memorable scene in an old filling station, Chigurh pressures the old proprietor to “call it,” not knowing that heads or tails will decide whether he lives or dies. Seethes Chigurh about the quarter:

“It’s been traveling 22 years to get here. And now it’s here. And it’s either heads or tails. And you have to say. Call it.”

Sometimes, that’s what fantasy football feels like too—the intersection of luck and fate. It’s the flip of a coin to start one player over another crossed with a preordained matchup that decides whether you win or lose. And like the coin that’s traveled over two decades to land in Chigurh’s pocket, we too have traversed time and space to get here—the final week of the regular season.

It’s a journey that was minted in the draft where the first of several calls were made. 106 days ago, we started with Christian McCaffrey and ended with Wil Lutz. And in between, 190 picks set the course for our season. And with respect to the strategies of all 12 team owners, two drafts jumped out for their peculiarity—Gray’s and Brandon’s.

Whether by design or by happenstance, their drafts couldn’t have been more different. Or more similar in their imbalance. Gray went all-in on pass-catchers, selecting Cooper Kupp, Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill with his first three picks. Meanwhile, Brandon went RB-RB, taking Derrick Henry and Aaron Jones. Both nearly set records for how long they waited to draft the other’s strength. As we noted in our draft observations, Gray waited until the 46th pick to take Elijah Mitchell, the longest a team owner has waited to draft a RB in five years. Meanwhile, Brandon waited until the 56h pick to take JuJu Smith-Schuster, the longest a team owner has ever waited in the PPR era to select a WR.

Despite how diametrically opposed these two strategies were, both flourished in their own ways. Led by Kupp, Kelce and Hill, Gray dominated with the second-best start to the season through the first six weeks for any team in league history. By the midpoint of the year, he was 6-1 with a >99% chance to make the playoffs. In fact, no 6-1 team had ever missed the playoffs. Meanwhile, Brandon’s team flew under the radar in spite of its 1-6 record. Despite three unlucky losses (with point totals in the top half of the league in scoring), Brandon was second in the Power Rankings through the first six weeks and never fell lower than fourth after Week 1. Still, he faced long odds to make the playoffs given that no 1-6 team had ever successfully rebounded to make the playoffs.

But like Chigurh’s coin, their seasons flipped. Needing just two wins down the stretch to make the playoffs, Gray went 1-6. Sure, Cooper Kupp suffered a season-ending injury in Week 10, but Gray, like Brandon, was dealt three unlucky losses (with point totals in the top half of the league in scoring), himself. On the flip side, Brandon, led by Derrick Henry and now Christian McCaffrey, surged down the stretch, going 6-1, winning three of the last four weekly prizes. But was it one loss too many?

As fate would have it, these two met in the final game of the season with the playoffs on the line. There was Gray, clinging to the playoffs, its grip rapidly slipping through his grasp and Brandon, clawing at Gray’s feet, pulling him down to save himself. Ultimately, both suffered the same fate—elimination.

By season’s end, they had trod two very different paths but arrived at the same point. With matching 7-7 records, they rank first and second in the final Power Rankings with a nearly identical TW% (.669 and .662) and also rank first and second in scoring (125.8 ppg and 122.1 ppg). Yes, the two best teams in the league by any metric will both miss the playoffs. It is a tragedy of the highest order, not unlike the one that befell Llewelyn Moss in No Country.

We wrote about this two years ago when Josh (not Brolin) suffered a similar fate. In 2020, he became the first team owner to finish first in the final Power Rankings and first in scoring to miss the playoffs. But this time, it’s even worse. Not just because it’s double the pain, but because Brandon’s and Gray’s teams are even better. They rank 12th and 14th all-time (out of 144 teams) in TW%. Josh’s (with a TW% of .650) ranks 18th, though he did average more points (132.2 ppg) albeit in a season that featured higher scoring overall.

Brandon and Gray have the two best teams in league history that failed to make the playoffs.

Here we can see a comparison of all three of those unlucky seasons in context with every season in league history. The farther below the dotted line, the more unlucky the team. As you can see, Brandon and Gray have the best TW% of any team to finish with a .500 or worse record, though they are technically not the unluckiest. Josh’s team from 2020 is still third-unluckiest because he won fewer games (six). And Alex’s 2014 season still ranks as the unluckiest ever with a 2-10-1 record despite a .500 team by TW%.

But make no mistake, their luck was rotten. This year, there were 19 “unlucky losses” (games in which a team owner lost despite finishing in the top half of the league in scoring). Seven belonged to Brandon (three) and Gray (four). No one had more and only Nick (three) had as many. On the flip side, there were 19 “lucky wins” (games in which a team owner won despite finishing in the bottom half of the league in scoring). Balancing out his bad luck to some degree, Nick had one. (Erik had four!) But Brandon and Gray (in addition to Alex) were the only team owners without a single lucky win.

And if luck was not on their side, neither was fate. Like Chigurh darkening Carla Jean’s doorside, their schedules did them no favors. One of the interesting things we did in the post-mortem on Josh’s season a couple years ago was to see how he would have performed if he had simply swapped schedules with any other team owner in the league. So, let’s do it now for Brandon and Gray.

Brandon vs. Other Schedules

vs. Alex’s: 10-4
vs. Beth Ann’s: 11-3
vs. Chelsie’s: 12-2
vs. Erik’s: 7-7
vs. Geoff’s: 9-5
vs. Greco’s: 9-5
vs. Jess’: 10-4
vs. Josh’s: 8-6
vs. Nick’s: 9-5
vs. Samantha’s: 9-5
vs. Gray’s: 9-5
Average Wins: 9.4

Gray vs. Other Schedules

vs. Alex’s: 9-5
vs. Beth Ann’s: 12-2
vs. Chelsie’s: 10-4
vs. Erik’s: 10-4
vs. Geoff’s: 9-5
vs. Greco’s: 8-6
vs. Jess’: 8-6
vs. Josh’s: 9-5
vs. Nick’s: 10-4
vs. Samantha’s: 8-6
vs. Brandon’s: 9-5
Average Wins: 9.3

As you can see, Brandon and Gray make the playoffs with every other schedule (except for Brandon with Erik’s ironically). In some instances, they would have even broken the record for most wins in league history with 12, which would have happened if Brandon had Chelsie’s schedule or Gray had Beth Ann’s. And even if they had simply played each other’s schedules, they would have both improved to 9-5.

Meanwhile, if we did the inverse and gave every other team owner Brandon’s or Gray’s schedule, the results would have been equally disastrous.

Others vs. Gray’s Schedule

Alex vs.: 4-10
Beth Ann vs.: 3-11
Chelsie vs.: 7-7
Erik vs.: 6-8
Geoff vs.: 7-7
Greco vs.: 6-8
Jess vs.: 3-11
Josh vs.: 5-9
Nick vs.: 7-7
Samantha vs.: 6-8
Brandon vs.: 9-5
Average Wins: 5.7

Others vs. Brandon’s Schedule

Alex vs.: 2-12
Beth Ann vs.: 4-10
Chelsie vs.: 5-9
Erik vs.: 7-7
Geoff vs.: 6-8
Greco vs.: 6-8
Jess vs.: 4-10
Josh vs.: 5-9
Nick vs.: 7-7
Samantha vs.: 8-6
Gray vs.: 9-5
Average Wins: 5.7

The only team owner, besides each other, who would have been able to get to eight wins is Samantha against Brandon’s schedule. She would have gone 8-6. Everyone else with either Brandon’s or Gray’s schedule would have won seven or fewer games with an average of 5.7 wins. Theirs were schedules with an axe to grind or perhaps an air-powered cattle gun to fire.

Ultimately, that’s fantasy. The intersection of luck and fate—a series of coin flips on a road that’s already been chosen for you. It’s Brandon and Gray, two sides of the same coin, who ran in opposite directions but ended up in the same place. We can run, we can fight, we can scour the waiver wire in search of fantasy briefcases filled with league-winners. But the end comes for us all. And the only question that remains is whether—when our fate arrives—we will be lucky enough to call it right.

Scoreboard

Brandon led all scorers with 157.2 points for his fourth weekly prize of the year.

Alright, enough with the morose intro and the sour grapes. We have some teams to celebrate and an incredible finish to discuss!

In the battle for league supremacy, Chelsie’s loss to Greco opened the door for Samantha to steal the one seed in the final week of the regular season. Leading Geoff by 4.72 points entering Monday night, Samantha needed to hold on against James Conner with just the Patriots D/ST left to play. With Conner pouring it on with a near season-high 23.4 points, Samantha made an improbable comeback late in the second half thanks to a scoring TD for the Patriots D/ST plus one final sack with 3:08 left in the game to seal it. She and Chelsie with nine wins apiece get the top two seeds in the playoffs and will advance to the semifinals with a first-round bye.

Meanwhile, there was a five-way tie for the final four playoff spots between Nick, Geoff, Josh, Erik and Beth Ann. Notable among that group’s Week 14 results was Josh’s dominant upset over Nick to propel him to 8-6, not to mention Erik narrowly scraping by Alex despite just 86.38 points scored, his second-worst game of the season.

But of course, the biggest drama was with our reigning champion, Beth Ann. Having safely beaten Jess, Beth Ann needed just 13.18 points from Kyler Murray on Monday night—a near certainty considering he had surpassed that total in every game this season. So of course, he tore his ACL on the third play of the game, leaving Beth Ann’s playoff hopes crumpled in a heap. Talk about bad luck! That’s certainly one way to go out.

As a result, trailing Erik by just 12.52 points on the season, Beth Ann loses the five-way tiebreaker to Nick, Geoff, Josh and Erik who will all advance to the playoffs. Meanwhile, she along with Brandon and Gray are eliminated, joining Greco, Jess and Alex. Brandon, despite his second weekly prize in a row and third in the last four weeks, did not get the help he needed to advance as all the other seven-win teams won.

Power Rankings

1. Brandon (▲1)
7-7, .669 TW%, 125.8 ppg

Surprise! Brandon finishes as the #1 team in the final Power Rankings of 2022. This is Brandon’s second first-place finish and the first since 2017. He joins three other team owners who have done it multiple times—Gray (2011, 2015, 2016), Alex (2012, 2018) and Josh (2019, 2020).

Breaking Gray’s 11-week streak atop the rankings, Brandon won his fourth weekly prize of the year and improbably his third in the last four weeks. It was a furious finish to the season that saw Brandon go 6-1 down the stretch with a .792 TW% but ultimately came up one win short of the playoffs he so desperately coveted.

Despite the obvious disappointment, this was a successful season for a team owner who was coming off a five-win season in which he finished ninth in the final Power Rankings with arguably the worst year of his career. Brandon won’t make the playoffs this year, but he should have, leading all team owners in TW% (.669), points (125.8 ppg) and weekly prizes (four). Thanks in part to midseason trades for Christian McCaffrey, Keenan Allen, Chris Olave and Tua Tagovailoa, Brandon rallied from an unlucky 1-6 start to nearly stage the greatest comeback in league history.

If he had made the playoffs, two top-four RBs (McCaffrey and Derrick Henry), Mark Andrews (TE2), two top-20 WRs (Christian Kirk and Chris Olave) plus two more peaking at the right time in Keenan Allen (17.6 ppg since returning from injury) and Christian Watson (24.8 ppg over his last four), would have been more than a little dangerous. In fact, by TW%, this was Brandon’s second-best team ever, trailing only his 2018 championship team. But I digress…

So yes, it hurts to miss the playoffs. But what are you going to do? 🤷‍♂️ Brandon put together a winner. If not for three “unlucky losses,” including two by a point or less, he’d be dancing. In fact, it would have only taken one more win, which, in retrospect, makes the Week 2 loss to Josh all the more painful. Remember, Brandon put up 149.88 points in a 0.04-point loss to Josh—the closest game in league history. How close was Brandon to the playoffs? He missed it by one yard.

One measly yard.

2. Gray (▼1)
7-7, .662 TW%, 122.1 ppg

Just as painful as this year must have been for Brandon, I’m sure it was the same for Gray who nearly led the Power Rankings from wire-to-wire and at one point was on pace to set some all-time records. His novel near-zero RB approach dazzled the league…or at least me. And even more impressive, he did it despite considerable injuries including early ones to fourth-round pick Elijah Mitchell and eighth-rounder Trey Lance. If not for Cooper Kupp’s Week 10 injury, I have no doubt Gray would be playoff bound.

Ultimately, his team faded down the stretch. Over the last seven weeks in which he went 1-6, he ranked seventh in TW% and was just average (.506) vs. the immortal force he’d been previously (.818). Gray’s RB production dipped from 31.0 ppg (sixth in the league) to 24.6 ppg (12th). And he was never really able to solve the QB position left vacant by Lance. In fact, Gray played seven different QBs in 14 weeks, getting just one 20+ point game while averaging a league-low 11.9 ppg from the position.

As was mentioned in the intro, the schedule did him no favors. He played four weekly prize winners plus another two runners-up. I mean…that’s like six automatic losses right there! He basically had to win the rest and almost did. In fact, his Week 10 loss to Josh was the only time he lost a game this season when he wasn’t playing against the team with the highest or second-highest score.

But even with all of that plus four “unlucky losses,” Gray still nearly made the playoffs anyway, coming up just short. He too had a narrow 1.92-point loss to Erik that could have flipped things for him. Still, even by Gray’s lofty standards, this was the fourth-best team of his career. Coming off a year in which he made the playoffs but finished eighth in the final Power Rankings, this was definitely a return to form for Gray, even if the final result doesn’t show it. See you in the Poop Bowl bracket, brother.

3. Samantha
9-5, .643 TW%, 120.8 ppg

Your top seed in the playoffs is also tops among the playoff teams in the final Power Rankings. We’ll break down Samantha’s playoff prospects, along with all the other playoff teams, when we get to the official Playoff Preview. But for now, we’ll say that it’s been a long time since Samantha begrudgingly started the year with the 11th pick and then got off to a sluggish 0-2 start. Since then, she’s had the best TW% (.697) with one of the most quietly consistent teams in the league. Though she never won a weekly prize, she’s posted a score that ranked between second- and fourth-highest in eight out of the last 10 weeks, finishing as the third-place team in the final Power Rankings for the second year in a row. Now, she advances to the playoffs for the fourth time in her five seasons in the league—an 80% success rate, which is easily the best mark in the league (not counting Chelsie who is one-for-one). But unlike previous years, she’ll have a first-round bye this time around, guaranteeing her spot in the semifinals for the first time since 2019.

4. Nick
8-6, .565 TW%, 119.1 ppg

Nick ended the regular season not with a bang, but with a whimper, scoring a season-low 63.46 points in a Week 14 loss to Josh. Previously, his season low was 104.78 points. So this was a big aberration. Shockingly, none of Saquon Barkley, Travis Etienne, Rhamondre Stevenson or Stefon Diggs was able to score even seven points. But ultimately, this was just “one of those games.” And like Nick pointed out in the group text, he still had over 100 points on his bench. And if Evan Engram can even approximate his Week 14 output (39.2 points?!), that would be a big boon for the league’s last-place team in TE scoring (5.6 ppg). Notably, Nick has gotten double-digits from his TE just twice this season and never more than 13.7 points. Moving forward, Nick will be a serious contender for his first championship, even if his Week 14 choke job means he’ll have to slug it out with Erik in the quarterfinals. But personally, I love a low-scoring game for my starters the week before a big matchup because you know a bounceback is coming. That enough of a jinx for you?

5. Chelsie
9-5, .545 TW%, 118.9 ppg

Speaking of jinxes, last week I guaranteed a first-round bye for Chelsie and…lo and behold, it happened! Though it was no thanks to Chelsie, herself, who—like Nick—also posted her worst game of the season, scoring just 76.08 points in a loss to Greco. But with Nick’s loss, Chelsie coasted to the bye, though she was passed in points by Samantha. As a result, Chelsie drops a line to the two seed where she will play the winner of Nick/Erik versus a matchup with Josh/Geoff. But the best news for Chelsie, moving forward, might be the potential return of Dallas Goedert from IR. With Goedert, her high-flying group of WRs (46.3 ppg, tops in the league) and, of course, Patrick Mahomes, Chelsie will certainly have something to say about who comes home with a championship in just her first season. Though, I won’t be making any guarantees about how far she advances. 😉

6. Geoff
8-6, .526 TW%, 116.6 ppg

Welcome back to the playoffs, Geoff, who—like Nick—now has the first back-to-back playoff appearances of his career. In the interest of getting this thing out before the playoffs actually start, we’re not doing end-of-season fantasy awards this year. But if we did, my “weirdest stat likely never to be duplicated” would have been the fact that Geoff played in three games this year decided by less than a point. Previously, we had never gone to the decimals for the final margin. But this year, it happened five times!

Week 2: Josh vs. Brandon | 149.92-149.98 (+0.04 points)
Week 5: Geoff vs. Nick 118.66-118.08 (+0.58 points)
Week 7: Erik vs. Jess 92.82-91.84 (+0.98 points)
Week 11: Geoff vs. Josh 103.44-102.92 (+0.52 points)
Week 14: Samantha vs. Geoff 120.68-120.36 (+0.32 points)

Remarkably, Geoff was involved in three of these games, winning two and losing one. That’s three games decided by just 1.42 points or about 14 yards. As he pointed out in the group text, this thing could have easily swung a bunch of different directions. If Geoff loses either of those games to Nick or Josh, he’s out. But then again, if he beats Samantha in Week 14, he’s the two seed. But as it stands, I think Geoff won about as many games as he should have. He’s sixth in the final Power Rankings and sixth in points, which makes this the third straight year that Geoff has finished sixth in the final rankings. And the year before that? Fifth. (Average Geoff, indeed.) Given that he missed the playoffs in two of those four years as a result of some bad luck, he was certainly due for things to swing back in his favor.

T7. Greco
6-8, .481 TW%, 111.4 ppg

What might have been? In her first game with both Ja’Marr Chase and Mike Williams back in the lineup, Greco played spoiler to Chelsie, thwarting, if not her hold on a first-round bye, her attempt at the one seed. With 108.82 points scored, Greco finished in the top half of the league in scoring in back-to-back weeks for the first time since Week 7. Nevertheless, with a 6-8 record, Greco falls two games short of the playoffs.

All that being said, with a TW% of .481 and a seventh-place finish in the final Power Rankings, this is arguably Greco’s best season in five years. Yes, she finished as the runner-up in 2020 with a surprise run to the championship game, but this team is even better than that one. Though she traded him away, her selection of Josh Jacobs (in the sixth round) was a stroke of genius as he is the only top-5 RB that was taken outside of the first round. If we had done our end-of-season awards, Jacobs (RB2) would have been a prime contender for best draft pick along with Tyler Lockett (WR8)—another Greco selection—who was the only top-15 WR taken outside the first eight rounds. And if not for injuries to Chase and Williams, Greco’s season could have been even greater.

Still, this is Greco’s bet finish in the final Power Rankings since 2017, which makes this a year to build upon. Greco’s arrow is pointing up. With another solid draft and some better luck in the injury department next year, Greco could once again be competing for league supremacy very soon.

T7. Josh (▲2)
8-6, .481 TW%, 111.3 ppg

The miracle season for Josh will continue into the playoffs! Needing a win or lots of points in Week 14, Josh got both, nearly doubling up Nick with 122.76 points scored—the second time he’s finished as the runner-up for the weekly prize in the last three weeks. Now he enters the playoffs as one of the league’s hottest teams over the last three weeks, ranking third in TW% and points among playoff teams.

But it wasn’t always smooth sailing for Josh who has had one of the more tumultuous seasons in recent memory as he transitioned from a backfield of Javonte Williams and Cam Akers to one that includes Josh Jacobs and Kenneth Walker. He was solid early and late. But in the middle, things got the hairy. From the week of the Javonte Williams injury (Week 4) until the Josh Jacobs trade (Week 10), Josh had the second-worst team in the league by TW% (.351) and points (101.4 ppg). Nevertheless, he persisted, wheeling and dealing his way to the playoffs.

He had some luck along the way, narrowly beating Brandon in Week 2 by just 0.04 points—the smallest margin of victory in league history—but also a lucky win over Samantha in Week 1 despite finishing in the bottom half of the league in scoring. If either of those results go the other way, he’s bounced. But Josh certainly had some bad luck as well to contend with, most notably the Javonte Williams injury. And perhaps he was due, having become the first team owner to finish first in the final Power Rankings but miss the playoffs in 2020. This year, he finishes tied for seventh, the same as last year and just the third time in nine years that he’s finished in the bottom half of the league. But this year, he’ll have the chance to do something he’s never done before—win the whole thing.

9. Erik (▼2)
8-6, .461 TW%, 108.2 ppg

If I’m Erik, I’m buying lottery tickets right now.

Again, no end-of-season awards, but this year’s luckiest team owner award would have gone to Erik. As we noted above, the guy won four games in which he finished in the bottom half of the league in scoring, including one by less than a point.

Week 3: Erik vs. Alex 105.38-81.06
Week 7: Erik vs. Jess 92.82-91.84
Week 8: Erik vs. Josh 104.22-98.12
Week 14: Erik vs. Alex 86.38-77.78

That’s four wins with 105 points or less. He did have one unlucky loss against Greco in Week 4 to balance things out a little, but if any of those games go the other way, Erik does not make the playoffs. And of course, in addition to all of that, he needed Kyler Murray’s fluke injury on the third play of the game in Week 14 to prevent Beth Ann from getting the points she needed to advance. If not for a torn ACL in the last game of the regular season, Beth Ann—not Erik—would be in the playoffs.

All that being said, for the ninth-place team in the final Power Rankings, it’s not terrible. By TW%, Erik should have won 6.5 games. And I would not be surprised at all to see him advance past Nick into the semifinals and perhaps even further. In Justin Herbert, Joe Mixon, Dalvin Cook, Tee Higgins, DeVonta Smith and JuJu Smith-Schuster, not to mention a healthy Marquise Brown, he has some dudes who can put up points. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to have a little luck. The last time Erik made the playoffs in 2020, he lost a backbreaker to Brandon that I affectionately call the Hanukkah Miracle. Maybe this time, luck will be on Erik’s side.

10. Beth Ann
8-6, .435 TW%, 107.3 ppg

The reigning champ’s hopes to defend her title came up 12.52 points short. Though she defeated Jess, Beth Ann needed a modest 13.18 points from Kyler Murray (a total he had surpassed in all 10 games in which he had played this season) to pass Erik for total points and win the tiebreaker. So, of course Murray was ruled out after scoring just 0.66 points.

Ironically, Kyler Murray figured into last year’s finale as well, completing a pass to Christian Kirk that vaulted Nick into the playoffs. But this year, he goes down with a torn ACL on the third play of the game, ending Beth Ann’s season. Gray pointed this out to me via text, but it’s just been an absolutely cursed year for any player whose name was included in a Worst League team name. Some of the victims:

Kyler Murray (Just Murray’d)
Russell Wilson (Dangeruss Minds)
Trey Lance (🔥 VengLance)
Ja’Marr Chase (Maarface)
Darnell Mooney (Mooneyball 💵🏈)
Rashod Bateman (Bateman and Robinson)
James Robinson (Bateman and Robinson)
Khalil Herbert (Only Herberts In The Building)

The only ones who have escaped relatively unscathed are Alvin Kamara (Don’t Worry Kamarling), Justin Herbert (Only Herberts In The Building), Dalvin Cook (Too Many Cooks) and Patrick Mahomes (Me and MaHomies). But with the exception of Mahomes, even those other three have disappointed to some degree.

As for Beth Ann, it was an up-and-down year for a team owner who was relatively lucky to be winning games early in the year despite a key injury to first-round pick D’Andre Swift. Through eight weeks, Beth Ann was 4-4 but eighth in the Power Rankings. After losing two straight games to fall to 4-6 with a 5% chance of making the playoffs, it seemed like her season might be over. Given the injury to Swift and the disappointing play of Brandin Cooks and Jerry Jeudy, her prospects for improvement didn’t seem great. Right in line with her historical percentages, Beth Ann got 95.2% of her scoring this year from players she drafted and just 4.8% from free agency and trade. (League average is 22.8%.)

But it was the draft that once again nearly saved her. In fact, two of the best value picks this year were seventh-rounder Tony Pollard (RB7) and 10th-rounder Garrett Wilson (WR17). Both came on strong down the stretch, helping Beth Ann as a dark horse contender to win all four of her games to close the year and ultimately finish 8-6. Due to her shortfall in points, Beth Ann became just the second eight-win team in league history to miss the playoffs, joining Greco’s 8-5 team from 2011 (though it should be noted Greco would have made a six-team playoff had one existed).

In spite of her record, I wouldn’t say her team was necessarily worthy. In fact, you could argue she had an even luckier season than Erik with three “lucky wins,” herself and a greater net differential between her W% and TW% than any other team in the league. If she swapped schedules with every other team owner in the league, she would have won fewer games with eight out of the other 11.

Still, Beth Ann has now put together three winning seasons in a row and has won more games (33) and more championships (1) through her first four years than every other team owner except Gray (36 and 1) and Greco (35 and 1). That’s elite company and proof that Beth Ann should be a force to be reckoned with for more years to come.

11. Jess
4-10, .273 TW%, 97.4 ppg

A forgettable year for Jess whose season probably ended with the Week 7 injury to Breece Hall. She finishes with a TW% of .273, which is the worst year of her career since those two disastrous early years in which she went 9-17 with a combined TW% of .262. It’s also the first time since 2011 that she ends the year with double-digit losses. Given her favorable waiver order for most of the year, she could have possibly been more active in free agency. (Jess was dead last in points acquired outside the draft with just 52.2 all year or 3.8% of her total.) But it in a year in which her Colts flopped and nearly everyone else got injured (she probably would have won the Mr. Glass award), I’m not sure there’s much more she could have done.

But as we noted previously, it’s been an incredible run for Jess whose streak of eight straight years with a .500 or better record finally comes to an end. With 86 career wins, third all time, she could very well be the next team owner to get to 100. But before that, don’t forget about the Poop Bowl. With a bottom-two seed, she’ll have to win her Week 16 game to avoid competing for that ignominious honor.

12. Alex
2-12, .260 TW%, 94.8 ppg

A terrible season mercifully comes to an end.

Given how bad this team was, there was no amount of luck or schedule swapping that could have ameliorated the final result. And believe me, I checked. The best I could find was five wins with Josh’s schedule. With everyone else’s, it’s between two and four wins. But that’s what happens when you have the worst or second-worst score in seven out of 14 weeks. 😬

Of course, I’m not here to pile on Alex. He knows it’s been a rough year. Yes, it’s easily the worst of his career by TW%. And in scoring, he actually scored more points in the pre-PPR era in two different years (2012 and 2018) than he did this year, which is impressive. Still, he’s safe from the title of the Worst’s worst, which still belongs to Nick. Though he ties him in losses with 12, Nick had one less game to accomplish that feat and finished with a worse TW% of .203 while scoring 93.5 ppg—the only other team in the PPR era (besides Alex and Jess this year) to average fewer than 100 ppg.

But if I know Alex, he will bounce back next year. In his 12-year career, he has never put together back-to-back years with a losing TW%. It’s been awhile since the Thanos days—the last time he finished first in the final Power Rankings. Since then, he’s finished fourth, seventh, fourth and now 12th. (Previously he had never finished worse than 10th.) But perhaps a victory in the Poop Bowl would be just the ticket to kickstart a more successful 2023.