I like to look at the league player stats to see how players compare based on their ratings & attributes, and there's always "anomalies", where a player is performing at a level that is much higher than his rating/atts.

Passing - Geechee QB J Whitney, 3 yr vet, has the best passer rating so far (116) and its not unexpected based on his high 89 default rating (DR). But, the 2nd best PR belongs to Crusader QB J Vincent (112), 4 yr vet, and is only rated a 74 by the Ai default. There are 4 QBs total with ratings over 100, the other two are A. Thomas/Americans (108), and R. Gargano/Dragons (106), both rated in the high 80's.

Rushing - Lyon Kings' Keith Casey, an 8 yr vet is leading in yardage (1.011) and has a nice 4 ypc. Guess what his Ai default rating is .............. 50 !!!! Read it and weep all you owners with 80+ rated RBs that are averaging less than 2 yds per carry, lol. 79 rated WR Jarred Smith/Talons is right behind Casey with 961 yds and a 4.1 apc. Ed Huff of the Phantoms deserves a mention with a leading 5.1 apc with a long of only 22 yds, that is pretty consistent rushing to have that high an average w/o a couple of runs over 50.

Receiving - Geechee Terry Fields is tearing it up leading the league in yards (1700), apc (28.8!), and 19 TDs! The Ai default has Fields rated at 78, I have him at 90, so am feeling pretty good about my WR weights. The Dragon's S Salerno is next best (yay!) with 11 tds, and a 20.5 avg.

Defense - the days of a DE gettin 20 sacks or more in a season are long gone with 4.5. There are 3 DE's with 6 sacks so far this season, there are two DT in the top in the top 12. There are no LBs on the first page of sack leaders, which takes 2 sacks or more. Of the top 3, the most interesting is DE Tim Beaver/Talons, his Ai default is only 68.

The best thief so far, with 8 picks, is 10 yr vet CB Paul Perez/Wallabies. He lines up at the CB2 spot for the Weebs. He has an 82 Ai rating. Perez is followed by 7 yr vet MLB James Kennedy/Crusaders, with 6 picks and an 85 Ai rating. CB F Riley of the Phantoms has 5 picks but even more interesting is his low Ai rating of only 56 !!

There's more, but Im short on time. Post your interesting player stats and performance if you get the chance, especially for the lower rated players, it's always interesting to look at their attributes and previous seasons stats to see if there is a consistency. cheers! gdb

Upon further review .....

Another thing of interest is what drove the decision process by a team owner to acquire a player or did the player just pop out at them during pre-season or when replacing an injured player.

QB James Vincent/Crusaders, 2nd in QBR and Ai def rated 74, was originally drafted by the Tacoma Thunder as a 2.12 pick in the 2024 draft. He then was inexplicably released by the Thunder midweek 1 of the 26 season. He was signed by the Crusaders (greg or wolfkill?) at the late free agency 2 sim 2027 season, and the rest is history as the Crusaders are now 12-0, best record in the Elite. During pre-season trials, he was terrible, never exceeding a QBR higher than 28 with the Thunder (no wonder he was cut), and then 53 with Cal this pre-season. What produced the decision to start him? or even pick him up from the FA pool.

Lyons King owner ricmoney really scored on RB Keith Casey, who is very low rated (50) by the Ai default. ricmoney turned the 6-10 Kings around last season, going 10-6 and getting a WC spot in the playoffs. Casey bounced around after being drafted by the Twisters (4.32) in the 2020 draft. He was signed by the Kings at 14 game sim mark last season, and has stuck real well. When you look at his player card & attributes, you can see that he has high ratings in speed, ball carry, and acceleration.

to be continued ....

FYI Smith is a Salem Witch. I was like... We have the #2 rusher? I'm more of a rush by committee team so that didn't seem right.

Interestingly, the Talons #1&2 rushers have roughly the same # of rushes as the league leader, with more yards + 6 more TDs. I'll take that and give up some of the player hype ;-)

Of course we need to take in the Offensive line in consideration for every team.

I've never had the standout individual players on any of my teams, but we do okay with what we have. Try to make it a true "team effort." I have a couple of guys who stand out pretty good this season:

John Lamm RB 5yr Default 82/82 rating
160 carries, 710 yards, avg 4.4 ypc, 4 TDs
47 rec, 448 yards, 2 TDs

Carlton Borges SLB 6yr Default 63/63 rating
58 tackles, 4 sacks, 2 hurries, 14 knockdowns, 55.8% allowed
(the team only has 6 sacks on the season)

Not stellar performances, but enough for me to give them a little shout out. (Like they can hear me! :D )

I am glad that Perez is still productive for the Wallabies after we let him go to free agency. It was a tough decision. He was our benchmark on defense for so many seasons, but getting up in years, the Wild could not warrant signing him to a lengthy high contract extension. Still, is nice to see him finish out a stellar career on high notes and he should be an easy choice for a Hall of Fame here in the EFL.

I picked up J Vincent off the scrap-heap this off season.
The two top QB's that were on the roster had been cut due to salary cap issues.

Wolfkill-

WR Lawrence Owen had an amazing year last year, but this year he has been almost silent. Come to think of it........... I dont have hardly any... maybe one.. players this year that is making the MVP team.... yet we are at the top of the power rankings.....which... of course I totally like... but.... lets explore this. My first guess is probably because of my overall defensive stats... Am I correct?

The better you are as a team, the less any one player stands out.

Lets take a look at rookie CB James Rodrigues. Not elite, but he has been thrown at 81 times and does have 61 tackles and 23 knock downs that pairs with only 2 interceptions. He has allowed 37 catches, and if a rookie allows less than half of the attempts thrown at him to be complete, I say a job well done.

At the beginning of the draft I prayed to the football Gods that he would boom, and I believe he did.. Thank you so much football Gods!