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Tom began 2024 with a solid start. He was hanging around the top 25 through the first five weeks with four top 100 finishes. In Week 6 he took a tumble down to 37th overall with a 219th place finish driven by mere 18.10 from DJ Moore, Jahmyr Gibbs and Marvin Harrison combined. He bounced back in Week 7 finishing 47th on the week to move into 28th overall. He followed that with a 16th place finish in Week 8 to move to 19th overall and broke into the top 10 with a 37th place finish in Week 9. Although the Take Twos finished outside the top 100 in four of the next five games they never dropped outside the top 10 after Week 9 and after finishing 1st in Week 12 he moved into the top 5 overall for the stretch run. In Week 15 he finished 7th and moved into 2nd overall with 119 points from his wide receivers making up for busts from Brock Purdy and Derrick Henry. Tom kept up the pressure with a top 50 finish in Week 16 followed by a top 20 in Week 17 leaving him less than a point off the pace headed into the final week. In Week 18 Tom finished 2nd overall to flip that narrow margin into a massive 42.35 point margin of victory and take the overall championship. Let’s take a look at the roster that sealed the deal for Tom Take Two:
Tom Take Two, Week 18 | |||
---|---|---|---|
The Roster That Won the 2024 Blackout | |||
(Maximum-points picks in bold) | |||
Pos | Name | Team | Score |
QB | Baker Mayfield | TB | 25.85 |
QB | Bo Nix | DEN | 36.75 |
RB | Aaron Jones | MIN | 12.50 |
RB | Rico Dowdle | DAL | 16.40 |
WR | Courtland Sutton | DEN | 20.80 |
WR | Drake London | ATL | 40.70 |
WR | Terry McLaurin | WAS | 20.20 |
TE | Sam LaPorta | DET | 13.30 |
TE | Jonnu Smith | MIA | 20.60 |
PK | Will Reichard | MIN | 9.00 |
PK | Wil Lutz | DEN | 8.00 |
ST | Los Angeles Chargers | LAC | 2.00 |
ST | Atlanta Falcons | ATL | 0.00 |
Total | 226.10 |
I asked Tom about his season and this is what he had to say:
”Fantasy Index has been extremely helpful over the past 8 years, in a very large part helping me win 5 league championships, including this season…I've enjoyed playing the Fantasy Index Blackout and the challenges it provides. It has caused me to research players I may have otherwise overlooked, and as a result improved my game in league play...I look at each available player, the matchup, injuries, weather (if it's extreme) then take my best guess. Fortunately, this season the guesses worked out more often than not and the breaks went my way.”
They sure did! Here are some other noteworthy managers from the 2024 season of the Blackout:
- Scott K finished 3rd overall after hanging in the top 10 for fifteen out of eighteen weeks.
- GREGH987 held the top spot for weeks 2 through 8 before slipping out of the top 10 in Week 9 and finishing 9th overall.
- Joe Kapp is a former Blackout Champ and held a spot in the top 5 in fifteen of the first seventeen weeks before finishing 7th overall.
- Northern King held serve in the top 3 from Week 7 through Week 17 before failing to submit a roster in Week 18. Ouch! Hope all is well with you King.
- Fantasy Index (Ian Allan) the beating heart of FI finished 11th overall this season.
- Mighty Grimmace's who won the 2023 Blackout after dominating the competition all season finished 31st overall in 2024. A very respectable outing highlighted by 6th place weekly finishes in Week 10 and Week 18.
This season introduced a new wrinkle in the Blackout, Challenge Weeks. Eight times during the season the player pool was determined by a theme that either kept me from blacking out some of the top players or pushed me to blackout even more! Here’s a summary of the theme and results for each week this season (Keep in mind that these are guidelines and I still make subjective choices here and there to tweak the competitiveness):
2024 Blackout Themes and Results | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Wk | Theme | Details | Perfect | Top | Crowd |
1 | Out With the Old | 2023 division winners ineligible | 301.90 | 233.00 | 166.00 |
2 | Normal | Standard player pool | 317.05 | 238.70 | 167.65 |
3 | Normal | Standard player pool | 329.45 | 218.85 | 142.85 |
4 | Normal | Standard player pool | 313.05 | 221.25 | 203.60 |
5 | AFC Bonanza | Top AFC players eligible | 338.75 | 256.25 | 225.05 |
6 | No Mercy | Top players ineligible | 282.00 | 237.25 | 183.90 |
7 | Normal | Standard player pool | 279.30 | 203.85 | 172.65 |
8 | No Bye Bonanza | Top 3 players eligible | 294.20 | 222.20 | 200.75 |
9 | No Mercy | Top players ineligible | 303.85 | 249.55 | 162.05 |
10 | Normal | Standard player pool | 244.50 | 184.95 | 155.75 |
11 | Normal | Standard player pool | 313.95 | 259.45 | 222.55 |
12 | NFC Bonanza | Top NFC players eligible | 338.00 | 239.00 | 202.10 |
13 | Give Thanks | Thur. & Fri. slates ineligible | 338.35 | 254.80 | 244.15 |
14 | Normal | Standard player pool | 304.20 | 221.80 | 179.80 |
15 | Normal | Standard player pool | 351.20 | 295.90 | 241.20 |
16 | Normal | Standard player pool | 313.90 | 246.95 | 221.55 |
17 | Season for Giving | The top 5 players eligible | 340.35 | 266.45 | 251.35 |
18 | Normal Difficulty | Standard player pool | 301.40 | 228.25 | 159.00 |
Season Totals | 5605.40 | 4278.45 | 3501.95 | ||
Season Averages | 311.41 | 237.69 | 194.55 |
Back in the November 21st edition of the Mailbag a reader asked Ian if there was a way to see the weekly start percentages for specific players in the Blackout. I’ve been tinkering with a spreadsheet to give you all access to that information. You can download the file here. I hope it provides some interesting data to nerd out on in the lead up to 2025. User Mike Powers has gotten a head start on that front by creating an app that uses the raw data to create some cool visualizations and give some additional features, check that out here.
Since I have the data I thought it would be fun to finish the season by going through the regular weekly writeup sections but for the whole season! So to start, let's take a look at the highest scoring Blackout roster of the 2024 season which was 295.90 points scored by Frank B Cross from Rio Grande, NJ in Week 15:
2024 Blackout highest score | |||
---|---|---|---|
Frank B Cross, Roo Grande, NJ | |||
(Maximum-points picks in bold) | |||
Pos | Name | Team | Score |
QB | Jared Goff | DET | 46.00 |
QB | Jalen Hurts | PHI | 33.00 |
RB | Jahmyr Gibbs | DET | 28.40 |
RB | James Conner | ARI | 30.80 |
WR | Amon-Ra St.Brown | DET | 39.30 |
WR | DeVonta Smith | PHI | 28.00 |
WR | Mike Evans | TB | 36.90 |
TE | Sam LaPorta | DET | 18.10 |
TE | Tucker Kraft | GB | 5.40 |
PK | Will Reichard | MIN | 12.00 |
PK | Jake Elliott | PHI | 9.00 |
ST | Los Angeles Chargers | LAC | 5.00 |
ST | Arizona Cardinals | ARI | 4.00 |
Total | 295.90 |
In total, the Perfect Roster scored 5605.40 points this season, an average of 311.41 points per week. There are two ways to consider the season-long “Perfect Roster”. Let’s start with the players who accumulated the most total points as eligible members of the 2024 player pool:
2024 Highest Total Points Roster | |||
---|---|---|---|
Pos | Name | Team | PTS |
QB | Jared Goff | LAR | 318.75 |
QB | Jayden Daniels | WAS | 310.50 |
RB | Kyren Williams | LAR | 215.30 |
RB | D'Andre Swift | CHI | 201.60 |
WR | Jaxon Smith-Njigba | SEA | 249.65 |
WR | Drake London | ATL | 221.10 |
WR | Tee Higgins | CIN | 214.80 |
TE | Dalton Schultz | HOU | 153.55 |
TE | Pat Freiermuth | PIT | 151.70 |
PK | Matt Gay | IND | 140.70 |
PK | Joshua Karty | LAR | 133.80 |
ST | Los Angeles Rams | LAR | 105.50 |
ST | Minnesota Vikings | MIN | 92.90 |
Total | 2509.85 |
That’s a bit misleading since those players were rarely blacked out and had the most opportunities to accumulate points . Clearly nobody considers D'Andre Swift to be the RB2 even if he did rack up the 2nd most points in the contest. To consider efficiency let's take a look at the players who scored the most points per eligible game. The total will reflect the total accumulated points of those players in eligible weeks:
2024 Highest Points Per Eligible Week Roster | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pos | Name | Team | PTS | PTS/ ELG. WK | ELG. WKS |
QB | Lamar Jackson | BAL | 97.05 | 32.35 | 3 |
QB | Jayden Daniels | WAS | 310.50 | 28.23 | 11 |
RB | Bijan Robinson | ATL | 93.70 | 23.43 | 4 |
RB | Saquon Barkley | PHI | 84.80 | 21.20 | 4 |
WR | Amon-Ra St.Brown | DET | 77.80 | 25.93 | 3 |
WR | Ja'Marr Chase | CIN | 143.50 | 23.92 | 6 |
WR | Mike Evans | TB | 99.25 | 19.85 | 5 |
TE | Trey McBride | ARI | 81.50 | 20.38 | 4 |
TE | George Kittle | SF | 96.40 | 16.07 | 6 |
PK | Jake Bates | DET | 74.90 | 10.70 | 7 |
PK | Brandon Aubrey | DAL | 78.50 | 9.81 | 8 |
ST | Minnesota Vikings | MIN | 92.90 | 10.32 | 9 |
ST | Chicago Bears | CHI | 65.80 | 7.31 | 9 |
Total | 1396.60 | 249.50 |
The Wisdom of the Crowd roster scored 3501.95 points in 2024, an average of 194.55 points per week. To build the season long 2024 Wisdom of the Crowd roster let's look at each players total times selected / the total number of selections in all eighteen weeks:
2024 Wisdom Of Crowds score | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pos | Name | Team | TOTAL % | PTS | |
QB | Jayden Daniels | WAS | 16.98% | 310.50 | |
QB | Baker Mayfield | TB | 14.52% | 307.30 | |
RB | Derrick Henry | BAL | 16.79% | 135.90 | |
RB | Kyren Williams | LAR | 16.50% | 215.30 | |
WR | Ja'Marr Chase | CIN | 20.30% | 143.50 | |
WR | Justin Jefferson | MIN | 14.23% | 89.40 | |
WR | Cooper Kupp | LAR | 11.14% | 98.40 | |
TE | Travis Kelce | KC | 19.06% | 85.50 | |
TE | Trey McBride | ARI | 15.52% | 81.50 | |
PK | Evan McPherson | CIN | 13.70% | 66.00 | |
PK | Jake Elliott | PHI | 13.45% | 114.00 | |
ST | New York Jets | NYJ | 15.37% | 74.00 | |
ST | Denver Broncos | DEN | 12.47% | 90.00 | |
Total | 1811.30 |
I hope everyone enjoyed the 2024 season of the Fantasy Index Blackout. I certainly enjoyed putting it together for you. Thanks again for playing. Things ran more smoothly this year; that’s in part due to me getting better but the support staff and tech guys over at Fantasy Index were an enormous help, especially Arthur, thank you all! I hope everyone will be back for the 2025 version of the Blackout and if you have any feedback please reachout to me at ben@fantasyindex.com or find me in the FI Discord, I’m ben_index.