2017 Week 8

Week 8 Power Rankings

League,

First, I would like to say to everyone, Happy Halloween and welcome to this week’s Power Rankings.

1. (+1) The Redeem Team (6-2).  With the league’s second most points scored this week, Dave got back to his winning ways in a landslide victory over Mike.  Even without Gurley, Dave was able to put up 110.8 on the shoulders of Russel Wilson and his newer addition, Lamar Miller.  Both with an outstanding 35.1 and 19.3 respectively.  Dave proved that in a week that had very low scoring outputs across the board, that he deserves to sit atop the mountain for yet another week.  He is the only team to score over 800 this season (821.8 - 102.7/game). He will continue to try and assert this dominance over the wildly inconsistent, yet dangerous GOAT team next week.  A game that will easily be my pick for game of the week.  Both parties met once before and it was decided by less than 2 points.  Building this matchup to be one for the ages.

2. (+4) Seal Team Ricks (5-3).  For number 2, I turn to a owner that not only stopped his ship from sinking, but has formed a whole fleet, ready to take down anyone.  Who is this seafaring individual?  None other than Captain Daniel Patrick O’Moran IV.  After the power rankings last week, we saw a trade go down with the Captain himself, and Dave.  It sent Baldwin away for Hilton and McKinnon.  McKinnon who, led his team to victory this week with 20.1.  That’s not all for Danny though.  Earlier today, we learned that Jay Ajayi, the struggling RB for the Dolphins, was traded to the Eagles.  A move than could reinvigorate the back to his 200 yard a game glory.  Dan went from having no RB options to having three maybe with the potential of Aaron Jones stealing that starting job from Ty Montgomery.  Danny is in captaining something else and that is his division; we’ll see if he can keep it going and make his first playoff appearance in league history.

3. (-3) The Hounds of Justice (5-3).  The League’s other 5-3 team did not dazzle like they did the last two weeks but they still showed enough consistency to eek out a win against Team Buddy.  Sack’s three headed RB trio combined for more than 30 points and number 2 ranked TE, Gronk added his fifth TD of the season for another 11.7 points.  Going forward, my father definitely has the personnel to make a playoff run, and currently sits in that first wild card #3 position.  But I forewarn him from getting too comfortable.  Next week he plays Big Dave for a second edition of the Battle of the Fathers.  And after that Joe, Dan, Eric, and finally Dave.  All of these teams are potential playoff contenders.  He needs better performance at the WR position, especially if he wants to be the one of the four playoff teams.

4. (+4) The GOAT Team (4-4).  A 130.1 week cannot be ignored and this week is no different.  I move Joe four spots up to the 4 position after decimating Justin this past week.  Carousel QB, Andy Dalton was the 3rd highest scoring QB.  Deandre Hopkins led all FLEX-eligible position players with 28.4 and Jimmy Graham who has just been slightly above average thus far, added in another two TD’s.  The real MVP is whoever is playing kicker for Joe.  Harrison Butker was his name and he added in 21 of his own points.  I think Joe continues to fight week in and week out and despite having to resort to a revolving door of QB’s each week, he had shown some real strength despite some of the setbacks he has faced.  With the addition of Ajayi in Philadelphia, Joe might have to lose hope in Blount going forward.  However, with Murray, Gore, and Anderson, he’ll be just fine.  As of right now, he is my pick to be that second wildcard team.

5. (0) Certified G (4-4). I would like to apologize if I offended Big Dave for not having him higher in previous weeks during his 3 game win streak.  That said, I may have be correct in my assumptions of Certified G being the 5th best fantasy team after take an L to the 0-7 disgrace that roams the depths of this league.  Big Dave, even with this L, didn’t actually embarrass himself in this matchup based on his total.  He still was able to get 91.5.  Alvin Kamara is showing to be the most fantasy relevant second RB option in all of football, and Melvin Gordon got back to his high ceiling when he broke that 87 yard TD on Sunday.  Big Dave’s biggest flaw is and will continue to be the benching of Deshaun Watson.  A QB who has had three 30 point fantasy point games and 13 TD’s in fours week is not someone that should even sniff the bench.  Hopefully for Big Dave’s sake, his decision making will not cost yet another game and he can get back to his winning ways.

6. (-2) The 1999 NFC Championship Team (4-4).  Justin played against a team that he just had no shot of beating this week.  If he had the opportunity to have started Ravens D/ST and Will Fuller V, he still would have lost by 10.  The one thing that Justin did find out is that his trio of WR’s that seemed so formidable could struggle against certain matchups.  The head-scratcher output I saw is from Brandin Cooks. A guy, who was ranked 3rd going into this matchup was up against a good but not great Chargers D/ST, was expected to do more than just 2.6.  Cooks has only had two really good weeks this year and tons of opportunities so maybe its time for Justin to reconsider inserting guys like Fuller and DeSean for him.  During a week with a favorable matchups, both Fuller and DeSean are good deep threats that can put up points.

7. (+3) Brady and The Champ (1-7).  I will first like to say this rating is based solely on the assumption that Ezekiel is playing rest of season.  As I am writing this, the NFLPA has filed an emergency motion for Elliot, so Nick’s rating depends solely on the decision of said motion.  With that out of the way, I would like to congratulate Nick on getting his first win of the year.  Its only taken 8 weeks so better late than never, I suppose.  As for strength of a team, Nick does have the fourth most points total.  He is averaging 92.6 a game and going forward, with Zeke, can beat anyone.  Carson Wentz and Brady are both solid QB options and Chris Thompson, despite an off week, is still the 8th ranked RB in fantasy.  Washington’s receiving core is a dumpster fire and a guy like Chris Thompson will continue to hold real fantasy value until the end of the year.  Next week Nick gets Eric who is spiraling as of late.  Look at Nick to get his second win of the year, of course, if Zeke plays.  If he doesn’t, find Nick back at the end of this list.

8. (-5) Team Buddy (4-4).  I valued the loss to me last week lightly, but it seems that maybe I shouldn’t have.  Eric’s team, that was once favorited to make the playoffs, is now spiraling into disarray.  Kareem Hunt is not the back he once was, Kelvin Benjamin has been traded to the pass-anemic Bills, and Cam and Keenan Allen have been dropping in fantasy value like crazy.  Hogan went down and might be out for sometime which is a nightmare scenario considering Eric is left with guys like Watkins and Funchess at the helm.  In an unlucky, injury-ridden season for Eric, it’s TIME TO RING THE ALARMS. Time is running out to make any meaningful changes.  And with an extremely tough division and all division games coming up, Eric’s team is going to have to turn it around quick.

9. (-2) The Real James White (3-5).  This week Mike was outscored by everyone.  It did not come to any surprise;  Fournette, Peterson, and Montgomery were all on byes.  The one problem is that Mike is second to last in the league, and with so many teams ahead it might be impossible to make any room for himself going forward.  His mid week pickup Smith-Schuster definitely showed some promise, but I’m thinking that this game was more of an outlier than a start of a trend for the 20 year old WR.  Next week Mike gets his backs back and some different options for the rest of his team.  Maybe he can put it together, but going up against a hungry Dan Moran does not make me confident about it.

10. (-1) Trimarcos From Tropoja (4-4).  And finally, myself.  I have been an embarrassment to the league thus far and had it not been for the excellence of Kelce and the KC Defense on Monday, I might be sitting here with a lowest scoring output ever.  I am currently averaging 75.4 points per game, and might be the flukiest 4-4 ever.  I will continue to push forward and try and make better decisions at the RB position but without any real fire power there, it’ll be quite difficult.  Going back through my draft, I made some costly decisions. Crowell, Pryor, Woodhead, FItz, Britt, Vereen.  All under performers.  Even Thomas and Freeman, who have won me games this year, are not as electric as they once were.  So it looks like it’ll only get worse, not better for the men of Tropoja.