With the regular season now in the books and the Online and Live Finals having named champions, we thought it’d be fun to take a look back at how the season played out. Whether you want a head start on strategy for Season 2 or just want to nerd out on stats, here’s our full recap of the inaugural season of TOC.

Gauging Card Value

Going into Season 1, we talked a lot about game theory and different ways to approach lineup construction. Ryan Reynolds ran a great weekly column discussing different ways of approaching the upcoming slates, game stack options, correlations, and contrarian plays. If you’re familiar with daily fantasy sports (“DFS”), which we’re guessing most of you are, you know that these decisions weigh heavily and are also impacted by your risk tolerance and play preference. For some participants, trying to consistently place in Weeks 1 – 16 was the top priority, regularly cashing and racking up Main Event/Side Hustle entries for the Week 17 Finals. For others, the higher risk/reward strategy was employed, sometimes shirking the conventional wisdom in an attempt to catch lighting in a bottle. We’re going to dive into the ups and downs of Season 1, but in case you want to run your own analysis, our Research tool has everything you need, ranging from weekly high scores to ownership tables.

Leading up to the first drop, it was tough to draw a direct comparison between a TOC card’s value and other metrics within the fantasy football world, such as individual player’s average draft position (ADP) in season-long formats, but some inferences could be made. For example, according to our friends at 4for4, Christian McCaffery was the consensus first overall pick, followed by Dalvin Cook, Derrick Henry, and Alvin Kamara. While it’s not a straight comparison, both because of the full positional aspect coupled with the fact that TOC does not use PPR scoring, it’s reasonable to assume the Carolina RB, Minnesota RB, Tennessee RB, and New Orleans RB were four of the most valuable TOC cards at the RB position heading into the season.

RB can be a bit tricky due to the propensity for teams to employee a committee, resulting in ceilings to individual players even if the team as a whole was dominant on the ground. In fact, these two realities can actually create a scenario of diametric opposition. For example, the Cleveland RB card was expected to be one of the most valuable at the position, expectations it lived up to. However, Kareem Hunt’s presence threatened Nick Chubb’s value in DFS or season-long formats, and the emergence of D’Ernest Johnson and Demetric Felton also occasionally ate into Chubb’s workload. The New England RB card is another prime example of this phenomenon – Damien Harris was the #27 RB coming into the season, James White was #45, Rhamondre Stevenson was #58, and Brandon Bolden wasn’t even ranked. But, with a rookie QB at the helm and New England’s longstanding utilization of the running back-by-committee approach, this TOC card proved to be a championship-caliber asset, especially given the team’s staunch defense.

Perhaps more of a direct correlation can be drawn between pre-season ADP for quarterbacks, due of course to the fact that you’re not generally running a QB-by-committee approach, barring injuries (Carolina notwithstanding). Unsurprisingly, Patrick Mahomes was the first QB off the board in season-long formats, followed by Josh Allen, Kyler Murray, Lamar Jackson and Dak Prescott rounding out the top 5. The value transferred to TOC, where Kansas City QB was one of the most sought-after cards, bolstered by the fact that Patrick Mahomes was the clear preseason MVP front-runner.

The wide receiver position may have been one of the most difficult comparisons to make when taking individual ADP into account due to the fact that most teams regularly rely on 3-4 WR options. The distribution of targets varies, with some teams, like Green Bay, having a clear #1 WR option that soaks up a huge number of targets, while other teams, like Dallas, Los Angeles (N), and Tampa Bay came into the season with extremely deep WR corps where targets were expected to be distributed more evenly. This gives value to teams with deeper WR groups, even if a clear cut #1 option doesn’t exist.

Like the quarterback position, tight end generally had a more direct correlation to individual ADP. Travis Kelce was the consensus #1 TE, followed by Darren Waller, George Kittle, Mark Andrews, and rookie Kyle Pitts. The one major differentiation here is the importance of touchdowns in TOC. If Travis Kelce goes 12-130-0, that’s a fantastic game, but the lack of touchdown could badly hurt the Kansas City TE card’s performance because there is no PPR scoring in TOC. Generally, most of the TEs soaking up the largest target shares were also doing so in the redzone but monitoring individual game script and defensive matchups for TEs was very important from a TOC perspective due to the position’s high degree of variance.

Rounding out the position groups, the defensive/special teams position holds a lot in common with the tight end position, subject to significant variance on a week-to-week basis, especially during a year marred by so much unpredictability due to COVID.

Studs and Duds – QBs

Like any NFL season, preseason projections often fall flat. Performance can be difficult to predict, injuries can derail seasons, and the added variable of COVID regularly threw things into disarray, especially near the end of the season.

Buffalo QB – It was an up and down year in Buffalo, who came in with some major expectations. Unlike Arizona, Buffalo QB put up pedestrian numbers Weeks 1 and 2 before going on a tear, ultimately leading the entire position group. Josh Allen was shaky at times from an eye test perspective, but his high floor as a runner made up for it, evidenced in Week 17 where his legs made up for his arm. The Buffalo QB card averaged nearly 30 points per game over the season, topping 30 points eight different times, Week 17 was a bit of a disappointment, as Allen ran In two TDs while throwing three interceptions against an overmatched Atlanta team, but you can’t argue with the card that lead the position group.

Los Angeles (A) QB – Justin Herbert followed up a fantastic rookie campaign with an even better sophomore season. In a perfect spot for fantasy purposes, Los Angeles (A) has one of the most lethal arsenals on offense, to go along with a shoddy defense, regularly inviting the possibility of a shootout. In fact, no other team above .500 has given up as many points as Los Angeles (A) leading to a perfect storm. After a subpar first two weeks (like so many teams experienced), the Los Angeles (A) QB put up an average of nearly 30 points per game, despite a myriad of injuries to the supporting cast. When it was all said and done, this card challenged the Buffalo QB as the most valuable at the position, averaging 27.38 points per game, third best in the league.

Cincinnati QB – One of the toughest players in the league, Joe Burrow mustered one hell of a comeback this season after tearing his ACL in Week 11 last year, derailing a solid rookie campaign. In the end, the Cincinnati QB card ranked 6th – far from spectacular, and we have “duds” that finished higher. But there’s something to be said for “what have you done for me lately” – for the Cincinnati QB card, the answer is “break records and win championships”. To be fair, it was an up and down season. From Weeks 1 – 8, Cincinnati QB averaged about 26.5 points, a solid output. From Weeks 9 – 12, that average was cut in half to about 13.6. But, with the division on the line , Burrow gutted out two incredible performances, crowning TOC champions along the way. In the last two weeks of the season, Cincinnati QB put up 46.1 and 42.84 points.

Tampa Bay QB – Tom Brady kept doing Tom Brady things, despite plenty of injuries to his top weapons and some interesting theatrics on and off the field. The Tampa Bay QB card had high expectations and it delivered, ranking 2nd in the league after Buffalo and putting together the 3rd best Finals Week performance among QB cards.

Arizona QB – In the beginning of the season, it looked like the MVP was Kyler Murray’s to lose. Arizona possessed the most lethal offense in the league, and it seemed like they were the odds-on favorites to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. Arizona led the QB position in Weeks 1 and 2, putting up 42.56 and 41.1 points, respectfully. Unfortunately, it was all down hill from there. Arizona QB only broke the 27 point threshold twice from then on, topping out at 34.82 in Week 13. The once dynamic offense was badly hampered by injuries, with Murray missing 3 games, top wideout DeAndre Hopkins having a generally underwhelming season culminating with a trip to the IR, and Chase Edmonds battling injuries of his own. When it was all said and done, Arizona QB ranked 10th amongst quarterback cards, 13th if you remove the first two weeks.

Tennessee QB – After arriving from Miami, Ryan Tannehill had a Pro Bowl season 2019, followed by a 33 TD campaign last year that nearly saw him eclipse the 4,000-yard mark. Tennessee went out and acquired future Hall of Famer Julio Jones in the offseason, and Tennessee looked like they might be poised to take the next step. Despite clinching the #1 seed in the AFC, Tennessee’s passing offense looked anemic. From Week 9 – 17, Tennessee failed to surpass 215 passing yards seven times, and the one game they did have to resort to an aerial attack they threw 4 interceptions. During that span, Tannehill thew 7 TDs and 7 INTs. The Tennessee QB card broke 17.5 points just once in those weeks, reaching a hight water mark of 20.62. The Tennessee QB card never broke 30 points on the season, a disappointing reality given the talent at WR.

Kansas City QB – It might not exactly be fair to categorize the Kansas City QB card a dud – they did achieve the 4th highest average in the league. Nonetheless, the results did not meet the expectations. Kansas City QB put up big points the first four weeks, averaging nearly 36 points per game, as the team picked up right where they were expected to following a disappointing defeat in the Super Bowl last season. But from that point on, it was major disappointment after major disappointment. Mahomes seemed to return to form in Week 10, as Kansas City QB put up 46.04 points, one of the highest scores on the year, but it was followed up with another dud where the card managed just 9.5 points. To make matters worse, a card that many hoped would bring them to glory in in the Finals put up a mediocre performance, managing just 24.86 points – not horrible, but not great. Despite not losing any major pieces, Kansas City’s juggernaut offense ground to a halt on more than one occasion. From Weeks 5 – 17, the Kansas City QB card averaged 23.49 points, breaking 30 points just twice, and failing to top 17 points on five occasions.

Los Angeles (N) QB – It was a tail of two halves for the Los Angeles (N) QB card. In the beginning of the season, Matt Stafford looked like a world beater, finally freed from his decade-long purgatory in Detroit. In Weeks 1 – 8, the Los Angeles (N) QB averaged nearly 29 points per week. From Weeks 9 – 17, the average dropped to under 22, including brutal performances the last three weeks of the season. Despite losing Robert Woods early in the year, Los Angeles (N) acquired Odell Beckham, while Van Jefferson emerged as a legitimate option and Cooper Kupp threatened receiving records. It wasn’t for lack of trying, as Stafford threw the ball at least 26 times in each game this year. Instead, he was plagued by ill-advised interceptions, many of which were run back for pick-sixes. In fact, from Week 9 on, Stafford threw 11 interceptions, six in the last three games. Despite finishing 7th in the position group, the second half of the season was a major disappointment.

Seattle QB – If you watched a lot of Seattle games this season, my condolences. Armed with two of the best WRs in the league and a dynamic QB in Russell Wilson, Seattle seemed to randomly decide to employ the prevent offense on a regular basis. While the Seattle QB card finally sprung to life in Week 17 – better late than never I suppose, it was an infuriating season leading up to that point after a promising first two weeks. In Weeks 3 -16, the Seattle QB card managed an average of just 18.14 points, including horrendous performances in Weeks 10, 11, and 15, none of which reached double digits.

Studs and Duds – RBs

Indianapolis RB – What’s there to say that hasn’t already been said? Led by Jonathan Taylor, who may well bring home the league’s MVP award despite the fact that Indianapolis fell short thanks to another Carson Wentz implosion vs. Jacksonville, Indianapolis RB put up the highest average score in the position group and wasn’t all that close, finishing with a weekly average of 26.14 points, 2 full points higher than the runner up. Things really started cooking the second half of the season, when Indianapolis RB led the group in Week 9, 11, and 13, while coming within a mere 0.2 points from leading the position group again in Week 15. A Finals Week letdown is the one back mark, but the rest of the season more than makes up for it.

Cleveland RB – Overall, the Cleveland RB card came in just behind Indianapolis RB for the highest average score. But, it should be noted that the two cards took vastly different paths. Cleveland RB put up finishes of 1st, 3rd, 1st, 7th, and 1st in the first five weeks. They also put up a 2nd place finish in Week 7 and a 4th place finish in Week 9. Unfortunately, the second half of the season was not as kind, as the team averaged just 16.21 points per week, though they did rattle off another 1st place finish in Week 16. The two-headed monster in Cleveland was largely derailed after Week 6, as Kareem Hunt handled the ball just 11 times the rest of the season, playing sparingly in Weeks 12 and 14. It was still a fantastic year for Cleveland RBs, but the team’s late season collapse and injuries led to their eventual dethroning.

New England RB – The quintessential, normally infuriating RBBC situation. Except in TOC, that’s your biggest asset! Coming off their first bad season in nearly two decades and a major changing of the guard, New England was not expected to do much this season…yet here we are. Going back to a Belichick favorite, New England ran the ball like crazy with a multi-headed hydra for a backfield, bringing back memories of Jonas Gray. New England RB started slow, averaging just 14.02 points through the first five weeks, but then caught fire. From Week 6 onward, New England RB put up at least 28 points seven different times, including an insane 55-point onslaught in Week 7, and a money-making 41.9 points in the Finals last week.

San Francisco RB – This is an interesting one. Kyle Shanahan loves his RBs – remember when San Francisco threw the ball just 8 times in the NFC Championship against Green Bay while rushing it 42 times for more than 300 yards? Not only was the revolving door of running backs decimated by injury, with Elijah Mitchell, Jeff Wilson, Trey Sermon, Jamycal Hasty and Raheem Mostert (remember him?) all battling constant injuries through the season, but Deebo Samuel emerged as a legitimate running threat…despite playing WR. Unfortunately for the position group, this was a big hit to the San Francisco RBs and a big win for the San Francisco WRs. On the whole, the team ran for more than 2,000 yards this year…the problem is that almost 600 of those yards and 11 TDs came from non-RBs.

Carolina RB – Yeesh. It was another lost season for Christian McCaffery, and the rest of the offense was in constant flux. When Cam Newton returned to Carolina he was generally bad, and also vultured a handful of goal line carries that might otherwise have gone to Chuba Hubbard. After McCaffery went down it was game over for Carolina RBs. The one bright spot was a strong Finals week performance, putting up their second best showing of the year to a tune of 26.9 points.

New Orleans RB – Perhaps one of the most disappointing cards (and teams) this season, New Orleans RB was undone by a putrid surrounding cast. Long one of the most dynamic teams in football, the loss of Drew Brees and Michael Thomas all but sealed New Orleans fate at an early juncture this season, as the team was never able to get on track. Add Taysom Hill into the mix and it’s an even worse situation, despite Alvin Kamara’s all-world talent. The New Orleans RB card never topped 25 points, finishing 9th worst in the league.

Minnesota RB – Perhaps not as disappointing as Carolina or New Orleans, the Minnesota RB card definitely was a major dud. In a sense, Minnesota had similarities to Los Angeles (A), which we mentioned above – a QB that can sling the ball (though Kirk Cousins is no Justin Herbert) and a very talented WR core, coupled with a bad defensive unit. This leads to plenty of shootouts, and Minnesota often played run and gun, come from behind ball, ultimately taking the rock out of Dalvin Cook’s hands and forcing Cousins to get it done…often to less than stellar results. Cook had a down year and also missed five games, but the biggest difference was his TD numbers – down from 16 in 2020 to 6 in 2021. Alexander Mattison is a solid backup, but Minnesota moved to a team that attacks primarily through the air, which hurt the duo, resulting in a finish smack dab in the middle of the pack

Studs and Duds – WRs

Los Angeles (N) WR – This is a pretty interesting one. We ranked the Los Angeles (N) QB card a dud, yet the Los Angeles (N) WR card was by far the best card at the position, led by Cooper Kupp’s incredible season. It seems counter intuitive that this could be the case, but remember, the Los Angeles (N) QB card was prone to a myriad of late-season interceptions and fumbles. Not only was the Los Angeles (N) WR card the best in the position, but it was the best by a ridiculous 5.28 points! Amazingly, this was the only card in TOC never to score below 20 points, a truly incredible feat, finishing with an average of 36.71 points per game.

New York (A) WR – OK, maybe “stud” is a bit of a stretch. Coming in 13th in the position group might not seem like a particularly big accomplishment, but outside of Jamison Crowder, who missed plenty of time this year, how many starting WRs could you even name from this group? It’s true – Net York (A) was regularly playing from behind and benefited from plenty of garbage time TDs, but still. They never had a true lowball-esque score, with a floor of 12.9 points. Tampa Bay WR had a 4.2 point outing, Kansas City WR had two sub-10 point outings, Arizona WR had a 7.3 point week…the point is, you were probably cursing the pack gods when this card dropped, but at the end of the day, it really wasn’t that bad, topping 30 points on five separate occasions.

Cincinnati WR – Boy oh boy did the Cincinnati WR card come in huge! Everything fell into place for Cincinnati’s WR core, with dynamic rookie Ja’Marr Chase leading the way (who, if you remember, had a miserable preseason). The Cincinnati WR card saved the best for last, with a 58.4 point outing in Week 16 followed by the historic 60.4 point outing that made its card holders plenty of dough. Regardless of those two record setting games, the card had eight other weeks putting up at least 29.5 points. With one of the leagues most dynamic QB – WR combo, the Cincinnati stack will be highly coveted in TOC for years to come.

Tampa Bay WR – As deep and talented as any unit in the league, and blessed with the GOAT throwing them the ball, Tampa Bay’s WR card put up the 3rd most points of the position group, averaging over 30 points per game. The amazing thing about this card is that they probably would have done even better except for the fact that A.) They usually were playing with the league and would turn to the run late in the game, B.) Had one of the league’s best tight end position groups and C.) Faced a mix of bad injuries and shenanigans near the end of the year within the position. Assuming Brady is back next season, this will be another top card to pursue.

Atlanta WR – Yikes. After years of run and gun offensive performances, it all came to a crashing halt this year. Matt Ryan looked his age, Calvin Ridley took an indefinite leave of absence from the team, and the team’s best receiving threat was their rookie TE, Kyle Pitts. Cordarrelle Patterson, the proverbial Swiss army knife, was listed as a RB. Atlanta WR barely hit the 10 point per game average, worst in the league.

New York (N) WR – A brutal unit to watch, things went from bad to worse for the New York (N) WR group. With a weak offensive line, questionable QB, head-scratching play calling (tell me you saw the QB sneak on 3rd and 9 from their own 4 in Week 18!), this group didn’t stand a chance, especially when the injuries started piling up. On paper, Sterling Sheppard, Darius Slayton, and Kenny Golladay should have been at least adequate. In practice, it didn’t happen. After a decent start to the season – the New York (N) WR card put up an average of 26.85 points from Weeks 1 – 4, the wheels fell off. Here’s a fun fact for you: The total points scored by the New York (N) WR card from Weeks 9 – 17 was less than the Cincinnati WR card put up in Week 17 alone (and Week 16)! Yep, you read that right, a whopping 55.1 points over eight games, topping out at 11.4 points in Week 12. In Week 18, Darius Slayton caught a TD, which was the first TD by a New York (N) WR since October 24th!

Cleveland WR – Baker Mayfield was dogged with injuries throughout the year, but it’s undeniable that the Cleveland QB regressed badly in his 4th year, setting career lows in passing yards, TDs, and QBR (35.4%, yikes). It got so bad that Odell Beckham Jr’s dad did what all concerned parents do…take to twitter and start criticizing your son’s coworkers. That was all she wrote for Beckham in Cleveland, leaving the Cleveland WR group with a skeleton crew. Jarvis Landry had a miserable season and battled injuries all year, as Cleveland’s run-heavy approach, coupled with a depleted WR core and overmatched QB spelled doom for the Cleveland WRs card, ultimately finishing below the New York (N) WR card with an average of just 14.32 points per game.

Tennessee WR – It’s pretty amazing that the Tennessee QB and WR card were deemed a bust, they lost their franchise RB, their defense was questionable at times, and they still managed to claim the top seed in the AFC. 2021 sure was like living in the Twilight Zone. We mentioned most of Tennessee’s issue’s when discussing their QB situation, but A.J. Brown had a largely disappointing season and Julio Jones was barely on the field. Couple that with a run-heavy approach even when Derrick Henry went down and the Tennessee WR card ended up with the 8th fewest points of the position group, a major disappointment for what seemed poised for a vaunted offense.

Studs and Duds – TEs

Cleveland TE – Here’s an interesting one for you – Cleveland TE was the 4th highest scoring unit at tight end. Unlike Kansas City, Baltimore and Tampa Bay TEs, Cleveland benefited from a much different approach – tight end-by-committee. It might be a bit of a surprise, but Cleveland had three different TEs with at least three TDs – Austin Hooper, David Njoku, and Harrison Bryant. This is a major deviation from DFS or season-long formats, and part of what makes TOC unique. While Baker Mayfield struggled and the WR core imploded due to COVID issues and OBJ’s departure, the TE group quietly picked up the slack, including the second-best score during Finals Week.

Tampa Bay TE – Gronk is officially back, and it helps to have Cameron Brate in tow, too. The Tampa Bay TE card regularly put up big games, leading the position group in Finals Week. One of the really interesting things about the TE position is the variance, where the overall average point totals separating 1st from last is under 9 points, a pretty slim margin compared to other positions. For this reason, matchup-based starts make more sense here than almost anywhere else, and even the Tampa Bay TE card had a few duds along the way.

Kansas City TE – Travis Kelce is on his way to Canton, as the star TE just put up his 6th straight 1,000-yard campaign. The Kansas City TE card led the position group with an average of 12.33 points, though there were some major ups and downs over the course of the season, especially near the end. Weeks 13 and 14 both saw the card put up a whopping 2.7 points. Week 15 was the polar opposite, where the card finished with 31.4 points, the second most of any TE card this season, falling just short of overtaking the Baltimore TE card which put up 32 points back in Week 5. The next week, it was back to the drawing board with a 2.3-point performance, followed by a respectable 12.7 points in Finals Week. Ah, the boom or bust nature of the tight end position.

Baltimore TE – Mark Andrews has established himself as the 1B to Travis Kelce’s 1A, solidifying himself as the best weapon on Baltimore outside of Lamar Jackson. The Baltimore TE card finished 2nd in the group with 12.06 points, and had the highest average from Week 5 on by almost 3 points. At only 26 years old age, Andrews may well push this card into the top slot in the not-so-distant future.

Green Bay TE – Welcome to the Great Robert Tonyan Disappearing Act! After a breakout season last year in which the TE put up 11 TDs, Tonyan evaporated from relevancy in 2021. The Green Bay offense kept on cooking, but the Green Bay TE card was a major disappointment, managing the 3rd lowest average in the position group at just 4.43 points, while only reaching double digits once.

New York (N) TE – You’d figure that when the WR group was as bad as it was, the TE position could pick up the slack, kind of like Cleveland. Nope, not in this case. The New York (N) TE card was just as disappointing as the rest of the team, putting up the 11th lowest average point total, finishing just over 6 points per game.

Detroit TE – It was a forgettable year for Detroit TEs after a promising start. TJ Hockenson’s season came to an abrupt end just as Detroit’s offense was actually beginning to figure it out a bit. Expected to be one of the lone bright spots and possibly one of the top TE cards in TOC, Detroit TE finished 20th on the year at the position. The card only broke double digits once after Week 2, putting up a combined 5.8 points the last four weeks of the season, including a goose egg in Finals Week.

Studs and Duds – DSTs

Dallas DST – If you had asked me who the top scoring DST was without looking, I would not have guessed Dallas. Not only was Dallas DST the top scoring card at the position, finishing with an average of 14.56 points per game, but the runner-up, New England, scored 1.5 points lower on average. Dallas DST averaged 2 turnovers per game (most in the league) to go along with 2.4 sacks. Unfortunately, Finals Week was the worst showing of the year as Dallas DST put up only 4 points, one of only five times the card finished with less than 10 points. In addition to Dallas DST’s consistency (Finals Week notwithstanding), the defensive unit had some monster games, putting up at least 21 points four times from Week 10 on.

New England DST – The runner up in the DST position group, New England’s defensive success played a major role in the running game’s ability to dominate, pointing to one of the correlations that Ryan Reynolds mentioned so often. With an average score of 12.94, the New England DST card also put forth, by far, the most dominant DST showing of the year, racking up 33 points in Week 11.

Miami DST – After a horrendous start to the season that saw the team get out to an 0-7 record, Miami was able to right the ship, largely due to dramatically improved defensive play. Over the first eight weeks of the season, Miami DST averaged just 6.5 points per game. From Week 9 on, the unit averaged 16.13 points per game, despite the unfortunate let down in Finals Week. It just goes to show that a slow start doesn’t automatically mean all is lost.

Jacksonville DST – You might be wondering why I don’t have Jacksonville listed as duds in other position groups. The simple answer is that they could pretty much have showed up anywhere, but I figured this was as good a place to drop them as any. Ranking last in the league in average points per game for the DST group, Jacksonville DST broke the double-digit threshold only three times. Jacksonville forced the fewest turnovers this season, accumulating just nine on the year. It was a forgettable season all around.

Washington DST – After a very solid 2020, expectations were high in the nation’s capital. Alas, that did not come to fruition. The Washington DST card ranked 6th worst in the league as the team missed the playoffs, averaging only 7.81 points per game. They were average in the turnovers forced and sacks department, but gave up a ton of points – 434 on the season, over 100 points more than they ceded last year.

Keys to a Winning Lineup

Now that I’ve inundated you with stats, it’s important to take a look at how the best lineups were constructed. We’ll focus on the Main Event for simplicity purposes. Conventional wisdom says that you probably want a QB-WR stack, or potentially a QB-TE stack. At the same time, RB-DST correlations are in play on games where you think a dominant defensive performance will lead to significant RB volume and goal line opportunities. So, how did that play out this season?

Of the 17 winning lineups in the Main Event contest, 11 lineups employed a QB stack with either the same team’s WR or TE, sometimes both. Interestingly, none of the top lineups played any form of stack throughout the first three weeks, meaning that this stratetegy hit 11 out of 14 times over the last 14 weeks of the season. This might be attributed to normal early season variance or the fact that TOC was a new platform that users were simply trying to get a handle on. In fact, we saw a successful stack in the top lineup from Week 9 onward, culminating with the Cincinnati QB – WR stack bringing home the gold in Weeks 16 and 17.

We actually didn’t see a QB -TE stack until Week 7 when user duuuval played the Los Angeles (N) QB, WR, and TE. While it worked out, it wasn’t because of the TE stack, as the Los Angeles (N) TE only put up 4.6 points. Thankfully, the Tampa Bay DST card made up for the difference. The next time we saw a successful stack like this was the insane Mike White game, where New York (A) and Cincinnati had a back-and-forth slugfest in a crazy Halloween game in Week 9. In Week 10 we saw our first straight QB – TE stack that didn’t also feature that team’s WR, as the Kansas City QB – TE combo dominated.

Interestingly, Week 13 was the only time the RB – DST stack won the day, with user gormanji relying on the Indianapolis RB and DST combo, while simultaneously playing the Tampa Bay QB – TE stack in the same lineup. Putting all your eggs in one basket is a very risky move, but it panned out that week.

With the prevalence of successful lineups being build using the stack technique, it’s a bit surprising that out of the 16 Live Finals entries, only seven of our finalists tried it with the QB – WR/TE, none of which placed higher than 4th. However, the RB – DST stack using New England RB and DST was successfully employed by our Live Final victor, toonashty, a combination used by four of our finalists. If only someone had played the Cincinnati stack!

With Year 1 now in the books (not including our Playoff Party!), we can’t wait to see how strategies evolve next year. Thanks for playing this season, and good luck in the playoffs!