International Simulation Football League
*The DSFL Runningback of the Year Is... - Printable Version

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*The DSFL Runningback of the Year Is... - iStegosauruz - 07-23-2020

[div align=\\\"center\\\"]Lets play a game. I’m going to list the stat lines of four different players. Tell me which you think is best.

Player A: 283 carries, 1281 yards, 4.5 yards per carry, 10 touchdowns / 22 catches, 116 yards, 5.3 yards per catch, 1 touchdown
Player B: 337 carries, 1592 yards, 4.7 yards per carry, 11 touchdowns / 19 catches, 125 yards, 6.6 yards per catch, 1 touchdown
Player C: 237 carries, 1160 yards, 4.9 yards per carry, 9 touchdowns / 13 catches, 57 yards, 4.4 yards per catch, 1 touchdown
Player D: 236 carries, 1228 yards, 5.2 yards per carry, 11 touchdowns / 12 catches, 92 yards, 8.2 yards per catch, 1 touchdown[/div]

I’m going to guess you picked either Player B or Player D, both of which would be good choices. Player B has an impressive amount of carries and yards but has the lowest yards per carry. If you’re someone who values high volume to determine a good player he might be your guy. Player D has the lowest volume but has a ridiculous 5.2 yards per carry. He’s one of only three runningbacks in the DSFL this season to average over 5 yards per carry.

What if I told you though that Player C should win runningback of the year? Would you think I’m crazy?

A significant part of awards voting is the narrative that surrounds the production. There’s a reason that although Devon Booker (Shooting Guard - Phoenix Suns) has averaged a ridiculous 22.3 points per game through his first five seasons in the league that he’s only made one NBA All-Star Game (2019-2020) and has never made an All-NBA Team (excluding his 2015-2016 All-Rookie Nod). He’s a great player who puts up ridiculous shooting numbers on ridiculous efficiency - before the 2019-2020 NBA season was put on hold for coronavirus he was averaging 26.1 points per game on .487/.360/.916 shooting splits. By any account that is a ridiculous year. The Phoenix Suns are only 26-39 this season. In 2018-2019 Booker averaged a career high 26.6 points per game on .467/.326/.866 splits - so more points per game but on worse efficiency, however still a ridiculous year. The Suns went 19-63 that season.

Stats can be “empty,” which is a concept that applies to both the NSFL and DSFL. Let’s look at the four players from above again, specifically at the production each of their backup RBs had.

[div align=\\\"center\\\"]Player A - Backup RB: 178 carries, 795 yards, 4.5 yards per carry, 6 touchdowns / 10 catches, 76 yards, 7.6 yards per catch, 0 touchdowns
Player B - Backup RB: 54 carries, 245 yards, 4.5 yards per carry, 2 touchdowns / 19 catches, 137 yards, 7.2 yards per catch, 0 touchdowns
Player C - Backup RB: 248 carries, 1016 yards, 4.1 average, 5 touchdowns / 18 catches, 139 yards, 7.7 yards per catch, 0 touchdowns
Player D - Backup RB: 218 carries, 981 yards, 4.5 average, 10 touchdowns / 8 catches, 38 yards, 4.8 yards per catch, 1 touchdown[/div]

Player A had a solid backup. He got the third lowest amount of carries of primary backup runningbacks among these four players but did leech the second most touchdowns. Player B basically didn’t have a backup, only surrendering 54 carries to the backup. Player C had the backup runningback who had the most volume, although at the lowest efficiency with only 4.1 yards per carry. Player D had the backup runningback who leached the most touchdowns and got the second most yards on good efficiency. He was almost a starting runningback in his own right.

At this point you might be thinking that Player D looks like he had a ridiculous year. He had amazing production on great efficiency while having a great backup runningback, and you’d be right. Lets dig a bit deeper though and look at the production each of these runningbacks had at quarterback on their respective teams.

[div align=\\\"center\\\"]Player A - QB: 210/364, 57.7% completion percentage, 2169 yards, 13 touchdowns, 12 interceptions / 12 carries, 42 yards, 3.5 yards per carry, 1 touchdown
Player B - QB1: 186/305, 61% completion percentage, 2005 yards, 10 touchdowns, 8 interceptions / 5 carries, 21 yards, 4.2 yards per carry, 0 touchdowns
Player B - QB2: 73/161, 45.3% completion percentage, 717 yards, 2 touchdowns, 10 interceptions / 2 carries, -2 yards, -1 yards per carry, 0 touchdowns
Player C - QB: 219/392, 55.9% completion percentage, 2325 yards, 9 touchdowns, 11 interceptions / 17 carries, 54 yards, 3.2 yards per carry, 0 touchdowns
Player D - QB1: 173/332, 52.1% completion percentage, 1921 yards, 8 touchdowns, 13 interceptions / 47 carries, 63 yards, 1.3 yards per carry, 1 touchdown
Player D - QB2: 37/36, 48.7% completion percentage, 398 yards, 3 touchdowns, 4 interceptions / 5 carries, 0 yards, 0 yards per carry, 0 touchdowns[/div]

Between the four runningbacks, six quarterbacks played. Player B and Player D both had two quarterbacks. That is relevant because when quarterbacks split time there are some net benefits to the production of both because they can stay more rested throughout the game. What if I told you that of those six quarterbacks, three were rookies. Could you guess which ones were the rookies?

Player B - QB2 is rookie. He had a rough year but was taking snaps behind a three year DSFL veteran.
Player C - QB is a rookie. He was the primary quarterback for his team for all fourteen games of the season.
Player D - QB2 is a rookie. He was taking snaps behind a three year DSFL veteran and had minimal production because of that.
If it also worth mentioning that Player A - QB is the reigning DSFL MVP.

You might be wondering the relevancy of all of these stats - why do we care about quarterbacks? We care about quarterbacks insofar as the quality of play a team is getting at quarterback impacts the gameplan a team runs. If a team has a veteran quarterback they can rely more on the passing game throughout the year. This allows runningbacks to still get some production - unless you’re running a full passing 70 attack in the sim the runningbacks are still going to get some carries - while having to shoulder less of the game’s workloads. This is relevant when you look at the gameplans.

Also relevant to this are the receiving options that each team returned.

[div align=\\\"center\\\"]
Player A - WR: Two capped WRs (S22 and S23), no TE
Player B - WR: Two capped WRs (S22 and S23), no TE
Player C - WR: One capped WR (S23), one capped TE (S22)
Player D - WR: One capped WR (S22), no TE
[/div]

Player A and Player B along with returning a veteran QB had the most help at WR. Player C and Player D had less help in the passing game. Player D did return a veteran QB but had less options to start the season as pass catchers. Player C had a rookie quarterback but one extra option as a pass catcher - albeit a TE.

So how did these factors manifest themselves in team strategy? Lets look at the different strategy sets each team ran in Week 1.

[div align=\\\"center\\\"]Player A: [Image: zMCrbQr.png]
Player B: [Image: yOzfM8E.png]
Player C: [Image: mGze8Hf.png]
Player D: [Image: UOo8oEz.png]
[/div]

Player B and Player D both had their teams run some extreme passing comps compared to the other teams - especially in terms of DSFL strategies - in Week 1. Player B had his team leaning towards passing as early as first and long and second and long. Player D had his team running full passing spread concepts as early as second and long.

Player A and Player C both had more conservative gameplans for Week 1 that relied more on the ground game. By Week 2, however, that had begun to swap and Player B saw his team open up with more vertical concepts.

[div align=\\\"center\\\"]Player A: [Image: ntBiYx8.png]
Player C: [Image: qzCyr5z.png] [/div]

This gradual process continued throughout the season - Player A consistently saw his team incorporate more passing into the gameplan as they relied on the returning MVP and two capped WRs.

What all of these different dives into stats showcases to me is that Player C saw her team have less options early in the season, meaning they relied heavily on the run game. She shouldered the load and picked up the slack to pull her team through the early season rough patch as the rookie quarterback earned and became better.

This argument in favor of Player C only works if her team had a great season. So let’s look at the players and the respective seasons their teams had.

[div align=\\\"center\\\"]
Player A: Zed Keppler (S22) MIN 6-8; missed playoffs
Player B: Crowbar Theeks (S24) TIJ 6-8; missed playoffs
Player C: Zoe Watts (S24) DAL 9-5; made playoffs
Player D: Danny King (S23) LON 7-7; made playoffs
[/div]

Of the four players, two are rookies- Crowbar Theeks and Zoe Watts. The other two players - Zed Keppler and Danny King - both returned to their teams this seasons as senddowns and entered the season already as the DSFL TPE cap. How about their respective backups?

[div align=\\\"center\\\"]Player A - Backup RB: Timothy Martins III (S24) MIN
Player B - Backup RB: Elijah Williams (S24) TIJ
Player C - Backup RB: Bob Murphy (S23) DAL
Player D - Backup RB: Jacoby Batista (S22) LON
[/div]

Zed Keppler and Crowbar Theeks both put up ridiculous numbers while returning capped quarterbacks, multiple receiving options, and having little competition in the backfield for carries. Of those two players, Keppler saw his team have most emphasis on running, however he was still in an incredible situation to produce. With each of these great situations for a starting runningback, both teams missed the playoffs.

Zoe Watts and Danny King had less ideal situations. King had a returning, veteran quarterback but less receiving options than Watts. Watts had a rookie quarterback but one more quality receiving option to help him out. King had the better backup runningback for most of the season.

At this point it really comes down to Watts or King for me about who should win DSFL Running Back of the Year. The decider for me is that King played in an offense that did put more emphasis on passing the ball. He did have great numbers, but they’re comparative to Watts’ numbers if you discount yards per carry, which can honestly be tossed up to King having a better backup runningback to spell him during the game and keep him fresh.

While playing the same schedule as all other contenders for the award Watts put up comparative counting statistics while playing with less overall help, carrying her team through the first half of the season while the rookie quarterback adapted to the league, and still managed to have her team win 2 more games than the next closest runningback’s team did.

The narrative fits. This season Zoe Watts WAS the Dallas Birddogs, a team that finished with the second best overall record in the regular season and only one game off crucial homefield advantage for the playoffs. Her incredible work carrying her team through the early part of the season and keeping them in the playoff hunt while the rookies adapted to the league should win her Running Back of the Year.


*The DSFL Runningback of the Year Is... - gucci - 07-23-2020

Haha now I get why you were still up at 10 am.

*The DSFL Runningback of the Year Is... - LGMForever - 07-23-2020

Carl Wheezer should win RBoTY

*The DSFL Runningback of the Year Is... - The_Kidd - 07-23-2020

To keep the basketball analogy going --- Zoe was the Magic to Scabbia's Kareem whereas Danny was the Minnesota KG --- cant go wrong with either but it'll likely come down to other factors within the team that determines who shouldered the most this season

man, in real life people always say "flip x and y player and see if they keep that same production" --- we could actually flip Danny and Zoe and see if their numbers get better or worsen(this would likely help the GMoTY race more than anything)

*The DSFL Runningback of the Year Is... - Kyamprac - 07-24-2020

Had a great team out there with me DAL ??

Props to King, Keppler and Theeks for having an awesome season as well.

*The DSFL Runningback of the Year Is... - Modern_Duke - 07-24-2020

Quote:At this point it really comes down to Watts or King for me about who should win DSFL Running Back of the Year. The decider for me is that King played in an offense that did put more emphasis on passing the ball.

Dallas 392 Attempts, Lon 368 - Dallas more emphasis on passing

Quote:He did have great numbers, but they’re comparative to Watts’ numbers if you discount yards per carry, which can honestly be tossed up to King having a better backup runningback to spell him during the game and keep him fresh.

Murphy 248 carries, Batista 218 - Dallas spelled more frequently


*The DSFL Runningback of the Year Is... - siddhus - 07-24-2020

I think your making it way too complicated lol. This argument is more suited for if you were saying watts should win the most valuable player, since her team wasn’t as good around her, but for RBotY, situation/context shouldn’t matter I think

*The DSFL Runningback of the Year Is... - DarknessRising - 07-25-2020

@iStegosauruz
Quote:At this point it really comes down to Watts or King for me about who should win DSFL Running Back of the Year. The decider for me is that King played in an offense that did put more emphasis on passing the ball. He did have great numbers, but they’re comparative to Watts’ numbers if you discount yards per carry, which can honestly be tossed up to King having a better backup runningback to spell him during the game and keep him fresh.

This is the part that beats me. Whilst yes, i think context would be cool to look at for MVP awards, i think this may go just too far but i can stay with you and your train of thought, this to me contradicts itself a little bit.

Whilst King's backup may have had better stats/production to keep him 'fresh', Zoe's backup took even more carries, giving Zoe a greater chance to be even fresher, and this could be used as a reason why the backup for Zoe looks to have worse production, since they did a lot more volume than King's backup. If i follow your logic, I feel then Zoe should have been 'fresher' and therefore have better production, but in the end the production was a little less than King, in ultimately 1 more carry. Thus, you can very well make the argument that held the same level of responsibility for their team and one of them ended up out performing the other. Hence, i feel then this is reason for King to get it and not Zoe.

All said, cool read and whilst very impossible to go through this with every award, incorporating something like this with MVP would be cool to see.

Note - I put 'fresh' in quotation marks cause I'm not fully aware of how that works but to me, if they are off the field for more plays, they would therefore have more rest, equalling being fresher

*The DSFL Runningback of the Year Is... - Memento Mori - 07-26-2020

I'm definitely in favour of adding more context rather than just looking at season totals, but the context strengthens Danny King's argument more than it does Zoe Watts imo. King had more production and more touchdowns on fewer touches, neither RB benefited from great quarterback play, and Watts was in an offense with better pass catchers.

It's Theeks v King for me.