Dynasty Bowl IV

The Toronto Hogs entered the 2024 offseason fresh off a devastating defeat in Dynasty Bowl III, losing to the Bikini Bottom Stars on a pair of Davante Adams touchdowns late in the match. They quickly got to work improving their team on the trade block.

Toronto’s first trades in March of 2024 involved flipping D’Andre Swift and AJ Dillon, plus two 1sts, for Chris Olave, Rhamondre Stevenson, and Khalil Shakir. Hogs brass liked what they saw in Olave as a strong second option behind CeeDee Lamb; Stevenson provided an alternative to the aging D-Mo and Conner. Their big trade on draft weekend was with the Newfoundland Blowers, a familiar face on the trade block. The Hogs, in essence, turned Devonta Smith into Jordan Addison and rookie Ladd McConkey. Hogtown stayed young at the position but increased their flexibility with more options below Lamb and Olave.

McConkey got off to a strong start for Toronto right away, snagging two TDs in the first four weeks and amassing 44 fpts in that period. Clearly Herbert’s favorite target in the 2024 campaign, the Hogs enjoyed the benefits of stacking the two Chargers players in their starting lineups. Addison more gradually became a top asset in the Queen City’s lineup, missing his Weeks 2 and 3 games but returning in Week 4 with a major game and never looking back. From Week 11 onwards, Addison averaged nearly 21 points per week. McConkey and Addison greatly benefited from the presence of Mike Evans in the locker room. The big Tampa wideout hasn’t lost a step in over a decade of playing the game, and the ability to watch and learn from his game at such a high level proved invaluable to the youngsters in Toronto.

If the Hogs had one setback in 2024, it was their tendency to over-tinker with lineups. Especially with a WR room of Lamb, Olave, Evans, McConkey, Addison, plus Terry McLaurin and Jameson Williams, there were simply too many viable options and too much room to make the wrong decision. As a result, Toronto finished the regular season with only a 79% roster accuracy and saw their win total dip from 11 in 2023 to 9 in 2024.

Despite the regression in the 2024 season, Toronto was able to stay afloat long enough to find themselves in playoff contention. And when the calendar turned to December and the schedule became a series of must-win games, the Hogs found their stride.

This was no more evident than in Weeks 14 and 15, where the Hogs faced off against Thunder Bay. First to decide the SCC in Week 14, Toronto dominated on all sides of the ball, winning the game and the conference by almost 80 fpts. Week 15, then was a rematch with the added stakes of the first round of the playoffs. Toronto left even less doubt in this matchup, defeating the Mustangs by nearly 100 points and moving on to the semifinals.

From there, Toronto’s playoff matchups received top billing. The semis pitted Hogtown against Horseshoe rival and first-time playoff team Mississauga. Their exceptional 10-4 season was cut short: in the 256-235 shootout, TOR’s Lamb showed up on SNF while MIS’s Watson went missing on MNF.

At the end of the road stood the Iqaluit Trout, another team finding the playoffs for the first time. The Trout had secured the 1-seed and were long in contention for top PF in the regular season. Iqaluit was favored by 20 points on the backs of Saquon Barkley, Joe Burrow, and Travis Kelce. But the Hogs would not be an easy out.

Toronto started the week with disappointing results from CJ Stroud, James Conner, Breece Hall, and Terry McLaurin - all names that would typically evoke top fantasy scores. But the Hogs were able to make up the difference thanks, in part, to a last-second substitution into DL Zach Allen (36.5 fpts).

Of course, by this time Toronto had found its groove at the WR position, starting Evans, Addison, McConkey, plus Jameson Williams. Those four combined for 104 fpts and were a major part in the Hogs’ eventual victory.

The end result was 251 to 227 in favor of Toronto, giving way to the first-ever league champion from the SCC. The Hogs’ triumph broke the unusual trend of an 8-6 team winning the chip, and it was the first time a conference champion won the chip as well. Toronto’s 2023 defeat was avenged with this triumph. In short, a historic year for Sixth City ended with a historic result.