A mad summer, a worst-ever start to a league campaign, injury woe, a fair dose of bad luck? All fought against impressively in recent months as the squad enter their last eight matches of the campaign one point back on the safety spots with a strong fighting chance of survival.
The question begins to rear its head at this stage of the year; who are the runners and riders for player of the year? Is there a clear front-runner, as there so often has been in years gone by?
We took a look beyond the eye test to compile the stats-based ranking of Whoscored, a website that has compiled the stats of each Championship fixture to come up with an average match rating for each Sheffield Wednesday player. It's a system that has its limitations of course, but makes for interesting reading.
We've set a cut-off at this stage at a total of 900 minutes across the course of the league season, which rules out the likes of Ike Ugbo and Ian Poveda at this stage. Featuring some positioning that may surprise a few, here's the run-down of Wednesday's best-performing players this season as per the numbers.
1. 19th - Michael Smith - 6.23
The stats do, sometimes, tell a few fibs. Smith's contribution off the bench has been very good in recent weeks and the model doesn't pick up half the things he offers. A whopping 15 of his 23 appearances have come from the bench, which doesn't help of course. In 906 combined minutes he has three goals this season.
2. 18th - Bailey Cadamarteri - 6.27
Like Smith, Cadamarteri was asked to complete a lot of work that will have gone untraced by the stat-collectors during his run in the side. His goal glut earned Wednesday points and there's no doubt it's been an impressive breakthrough season. He has three goals and one assist in his 989 league minutes. Photo: Steve Ellis
3. 17th - Bambo Diaby - 6.28
Sneaking above Cadamarteri with a rating of 6.28 is Bambo Diaby, who has found minutes hard to come by in recent weeks after a spell as Wednesday's most-used outfield player. He's joint-second for blocks-per-game (0.7) and second for clearances-per-game (3.1).
4. =15th - Pol Valentin - 6.40
It would be interesting to see a breakdown of whether Valentin's clear improvement has been bared out in the stats. In his 1668 minutes he is fourth for dribbles-per-match (1.6) but will have been hurt in the numbers by not having yet registered a goal or assist.