GWBL 2025 SEASON RECAPS – 2nd PLACE (DYL)

Tale of the Tape:

Coming in 2nd place is She Wants the Young Caff, owned and managed by Dylan Whiting. Dyl finished with 1,927 points for (6th most), 1,766 points against (2nd fewest) and a record of 8-6.

Synopsis:

The Young Caffs were the definition of a second half team. The first 8 weeks of the season this team was pretty average. Dyl went 3-5 and averaged about 130 points per week. He had some marquee weeks like Week 3 (166, against Kev of course) and Week 5 (144). He also had some dollar store performances like Week 6 (109.97) and Week 8 (106.46). Not to disparage the Dollar Store and similar places though. When it comes to arts/crafts for the kids you can’t beat those types of stores – the cost for crayons, play-doh, etc. are unbelievable. But it is what it is. Anyway….

That all changed when he acquired Puka Nacua. The trade occurred on October 23, which is right before Week 8. Nacua had a Week 8 bye, so for all intents and purposes the acquisition happened for Week 9. Which is precisely when Dyl turned from an average team into an elite, possibly league-winning team. From Weeks 9 through 16 (Round 2 of the playoffs), his squad averaged 158 points a week. He only went below 150 twice in that span. That’s an eye opening stat.

He walked into the playoffs as the 6 seed and made a statement with his Round 1 win, defeating DMO 177 to 132. DMO was absolutely a threat for the title, but Dyl pulled a Red Wedding on King Henry’s Court (comeon, I couldn’t go this whole way without a GOT reference. New spin off starts this month, House of the Dragon season 3 next summer. LETS GOOOOO). Puka went for 28, Kittle for 22 and Tyrone Tracy chipped in with 27 of his own. McCaffrey had 20 and he was the 6th highest scoring player on Dyl’s team.

Up next was a matchup against the #1 seed – Brown ^2 (Keetz). As he did all year Keetz put up a victory-worthy score of 155. The only problem was that Dyl’s second half run had hit it’s climax. The Young Caff put up an insane total of 205.50 points, which was the 2nd highest score posted all season. (Only Keetz week 12 score of 213.89 was higher.) It was a crushing loss for Keetz, but a signature win for Dyl (see below).

Then regression hit. He came into the finals as a heavy favorite, but his team tripped over it’s shoelaces. It was like when a QB gets his foot stepped on by an offensive lineman. He ended up losing to the Commish by a score of 120-133. The lowest score Dyl had put up since Week 8 when the streak began. Rough timing. Kittle was out and all those players who put up studly performances the week before put up mediocre performances this time around.

Signature Win/Loss:

Of course, we’ll go with the semi finals win over Keetz. As I mentioned above, the 205.5 he scored was the 2nd highest score put up all season. It eliminated the clear favorite for the title and got Dyl to his second straight finals matchup.

This was the Puka Nacua Thursday night extravaganza. Puka insulted the refs and all his fantasy opponents in one fell swoop – netting 46.5 points on 12 catches, 255 yards and 2 TDs. An unbelievable performance that lifted almost* all of his owners to the finals. (*In one of my leagues a guy had Puka and JSN from that game and still lost somehow. Pain.) His 49ers duo showed out as well: CMC had 36.8 and Kittle threw in 24.5. Sutton had 20 and Hurts grinded his way to 24.3. An epic win.

Miscellaneous Draft Results & Personnel Moves:

Normally I start with draft picks, but Puka deserves to be the headliner. The Puka trade was the best trade or FA move made by any team all year. During the second half he put up (rounded) scores of 23, 17, 15, 17, 13, 36, 28, 47, and 16. He averaged 23.5 and for good measure, his best weeks came in the final week of the regular season and first two rounds of the playoffs. The finals performance was a little weak, but 16 is nothing to look down your nose at. Dyl paid handsomely for Puka – 1st, 5th and keeper rights to Fannin/Odunze – but it was worth every penny.

Now for the draft – CMC was a grand slam in the 1st round. I remember he had some phantom injury late in the draft process that drove his price down (same as Nacua), but Dyl was unphased. He’s the #1 overall player in fantasy and only has 2 weeks under 20 points this season. (One is Week 18 which of course doesn’t count.)

Nico Collins (2nd round) was well worth his draft cost – WR7. As was Courtland Sutton (5th round) – WR10. Jalen Hurts (3rd round) was a little underwhelming at times, but he’s still QB8 on the season.

Kittle in the 4th was a mixed bag. He missed almost half the season, but when he played he made it count. In his 9 healthy games he had double digits every game but one (excluding Week 18 this time). The key there is that Kittle missed the finals. Horrible timing.

Dyl was really active on waivers and according to Sleeper had the most transactions of any team (52). Gadsden/Fannin were great pickups and helped him get through the Kittle weeks. Tyrone Tracy was an impactful pickup down the stretch, nearly a league winner. Eugene Wilson was another good pickup towards the end of the season.

Keeper, I barely Know Her:

Like many of our keepers, Dyl’s largely disappointed. I thought Bucky (8th round) would have been one of the better keepers. Unfortunately, injury ruined his season as he missed Weeks 5-12. Even when he came back, he was a shell of his former self. The first two weeks back were good (19 apiece), but then he went 11-11-10 down the stretch (excluding week 18), while being extremely inefficient with his touches throughout. It’ll be interesting to see what his cost looks like next draft season.

For next year he may best served going with one of his higher priced options: CMC (late 1st), Puka (2nd), Kittle (4th). He also has Tyrone Tracy (10th) as an option.

Final Thoughts:

It was a rough end to the season for Dyl. He came into the finals as the heavy favorite and laid an egg. To keep it topical with Christmas, it was “six geese a laying” eggs. (Apologies, that was bad.) His team was simply due for a let down at the worst time and regression reared its ugly head.

To make it worse, this was the 2nd year in a row Dyl has lost the finals. Also the 2nd year in a row he lost to my squad in the finals. He does have a title, but it was back in 2018. Oddly enough he beat me for that title. I guess what goes around comes around?

Random stat: Dyl is the third team to lose back to back finals. Rob D did it in 2015-2016-2017 (#noonecirclesthewagonslikeBobD), and I did it in 2018-2019. So you’re not alone Dyl!

If I’m not mistaken this actually the FOURTH time he’s had a 2nd place finish (2025-2024-2021-2013). Yeeeeshh.  Always a bridesmaid, never a bride (except once). Or as Dyl likes to refer to himself – “good luck chuck”. Simply brutal.

It’s not a complete loss though. He’s collected $900 for those 2nd place finishes these past two years, plus whatever the payouts were in those earlier seasons. He’s making out financially and is due for a title or two. He’s a gamer in fantasy and I have a feeling the scales will even out on this one.