2017 Week 9

Week 9 Power Rankings 

League,

Welcome to the 9th week of the fantasy season.  With only a few weeks left, we see ourselves turning toward the playoffs with 3 or 4 divisional matchups left on each other’s schedules.  Now is the time, more than ever, to get it gear and have some of the most competitive contests all season.  

Just as a quick preview, we see Father Sack and Sack Jr. go up against each other.  Both teams only one game apart in the contentious Psychotic Division.  Next, the resurgent Certified G team up against the 1999 NFC Championship Team.  Justin, who took a crushing loss last week, needs this week more than ever if he wants to keep his streak of playoff berths alive.  I play a struggling Mike DeStefano team that have the makings a true low scoring dog fight.  The Maniac division leading crew of plundering misfits go against Nick in what could be the upset of the week. And finally the number one team in our league goes up against Eric who is slowly slipping back into obscurity.  We’ll see if he can get it together.  

As we head into the last four division-heavy weeks, I will shift these power rankings into both a recap of the previous week first, then power rankings.  Going into further analysis of the games that take place and then each team’s future outlook.

So let’s get into it.

1. (0) The Redeem Team (7-2).  It’s excellence at its finest yet again for Dave’s squad.  He led the league with 113.8 points, and decimated Joe by more than 40 points.  His lead back Gurley is proving to every fantasy enthusiast that he is no joke, and currently averaging 19.8 points per week.  Russel. Whieel-son. is also proving to be incredibly effective.  In a game that only had two scores for his team, Wilson was able to put up 23.6 points.  Dave made the claim earlier today that Wilson will be the number one QB after this week with Wentz and Smith on bye, and I think I have to agree.  Number one QB, number one RB, and a number one D/ST in Sacksonville, Dave is all ready for the playoffs.  All he has to do is ride the wave in for the next four weeks, avoid 4 straight losses, and he’ll be there.  

2. (0) Seal Team Ricks (6-3). WOW Dan’s luck has changed.  Five years now and this is the most wins Dan has ever had in Da Station League.  He even has the chance to tie the record of most wins, in the off chance he were to win out.  Incredible.  But the the reason why Dan’s luck has changed has to be accredited to his impeccable trades that he dealt this year.  TY and McKinnon have show true superstar potential for Dan.  TY this week, for example, put up 29.5 points.  His highest of the year.  Now, he may not do that again for the rest of the season but Dan has some solid bench guys in Robby Anderson, Ted Ginn, and Theilen who can get the job done.  I almost forgot to mention Jay Ajayi.  The man has a new team and it is already paying dividends.  He got 8 carries in the short week and averaged 9.6 yards per.  And with the score he is already cementing his spot as the starter position in Philly.   Dan’s next matchup is a trap game and with Ajayi on BYE, we’ll see if Dan can Captain Jack Sparrow himself out of another difficult predicament.

3. (+2) Certified G (5-3).  Statement made by Big Dave.  No longer can I consider Certified G as just a middle of the pack type of team.  Alvin Kamara has been nothing short of incredible.  For not even having the starting job in New Orleans, he still is able to put up consistently good numbers, averaging 12 points per game since Week 3 on.  The other stand out is Marvin Jones.  A guy who resided on Big Dave’s bench (who I hope he will begin to start) is finally back up to that high value WR1 we all hoped he could be after that explosion last year.  And how can we forget about McCaffrey and Jared Cook who both had their best games of the year this past week.  Big Dave had a real slow start to this season but is now starting to hit his stride, and with the second most points, is in a strong position to be that first wild card team.

4. (+2) The 1999 NFC Championship Team (4-5).  I honestly believe that Justin’s team just had a really unlucky week.  Jonathan Stewart with -1.9, McCoy with 2.5 and Crabtree with only 4.  These are anomalies, and I think that Justin will get back on that horse next week.  The one issue is that he plays Big Dave but Justin needs this game more than Big Dave.  In fact, Justin needs this game more than anyone needs a game next week.  With another loss we’ll see Justin move into that 4-6 hole.  A hole that will take a miraculous effort to get out of.   He has Stanford up against CLE, Hyde against the NYG, and Dez up against ATL.  Hopefully he can take advantage of these favorable matchups.

5. (-1) Hounds of Justice (5-4). Another team who hit a stroke of bad luck this past week was my father.  He went up against a team who exploded while he had all his stars on BYE.  But the good news is, Le’Veon, Gronk, Roethlisberger/Rivers, will all be back next week.  No longer will my father have to start guys like Hundley, ASJ, and Davente Adams.  Two guys to take a look into on my father’s team are Robert Woods and Marquise Lee.  Both free agent pickups last week, both with monster games.  Woods himself had two scores.  These guys might prove essential to any success the Hounds of Justice have going forward.  

6. (+4) Trimarcos from Tropoja (5-4).  Believe it or not, if the season were to end today.  I would be your fourth and final seed in the playoffs.  And I actually had a pretty strong week despite my history this year so far. Mariota had 15, Kelce with 13.3, and a solid 6 or 7 from everyone else down the board.  The key to my victory was however, the addition of the New Orleans D/ST who put up an game winning 19 points on the TB Bucs.  Without this pickup, I would not have won this week because KC winded up with -1.  Next week I have Darkwa up against San Fran who could prove to be the X factor I need to move to 6-4.  An inconceivable position considering the points for total I have.  (691.1 ~ 76.7/game). 

7. Brady and the Champ (2-7).  I leave Nick where he was last week amongst the bottom of the league for two reasons.  His win was not impressive, and two he is still 2-7.  That said Nick does have the third most points in fantasy this year (820.5 ~ 91.2/game) and his team is still not the worst on paper.  Zeke is zeke and if can continue to work his appeal magic in the US court system, he will continue to hold high fantasy value.  Chris Thompson, Jarvis Landry, and Carson Wentz are also good, solid, week-to-week starting players.  Nick is out of playoff contention, but he can still play spoiler for everyone else’s playoff opportunities.  There is also the Sacko Nick still wants to avoid, so stay on the lookout for Nick’s team who is on a roll and can put up points.

8. (-5) The GOAT Team (4-5).  The most inconsistent team in the league is definitely a conversation worth having considering everyone’s crazy scores week to week.  However, Joe’s Team makes a pretty compelling case for that title.  After scoring over 130 last week, he could only muster up 68.9 this week.  Cameron Brate is starting to look to tail off and without Winston the next few weeks, could become nonexistent in fantasy.  Evans who got into a scuffle on Sunday, will be suspended for next week’s game too.  So that leaves Joe’s team with inconsistency all around: Jimmy Graham, a Tom-Savage-thrown-to DeAndre Hopkins, Sanu, Shepard, Frank Gore and Demarco Murray.  All who are painfully inconsistent.  This is not to mention, the now almost-obsolete Legarrette Blount and CJ Anderson.  With the QB carousel in place, I can not see Joe winning more than 2 of these last four weeks.  The division he plays in also does not help his cause.  Look for Joe to be in that 5-9 7-6 range, come the end of the year.

9. (-1) Team Buddy (4-5).  Eric followed up his lowest scoring week with an even lower scoring week.  A team that was flying high earlier in the season could have their playoff hopes crushed with another loss like this.  I will say Eric’s hands were tied with BYE’s but so were a lot of other teams.  The issue I find with Eric’s team is the decision making with certain free agent pickups.  Roger Lewis and Marlon Mack who have barely shown flashes this year were up against some of the tougher defenses in the NFL. The two of these guys combined for a measly 3.3.  The other issue is defense.  Oakland has notoriously been terrible this year, it perplexes me why Eric would consider starting them.  Not only that, Eric let Greg Olsen go after holding him all season.  Why hold a guy for so long just to let him slip to waivers?  Olsen, when he gets back, could have serious fantasy value considering Kelvin is now out of town.  With some better decision making we could be saying how Eric is 5-4 and getting back into contention, but we’re not and Eric’s lost 3 in a row.

10. (-1) The Real James White (3-6).  The one team that has lost more games in row than Eric that is this team right here.  Even with a pretty good day all around Mike’s loss of Leonard Fournette because of disciplinary reasons proved to be the deciding factor in his matchup.  Mike was forced to play Ty Montgomery who only had 5 and gave Mike no real chance at sinking the captain’s ship.  So where does this leave Mike? 3-6, a pipe dream away from playoffs, a real chance of becoming sacko, with the second least points scored.  Luckily for Mike he plays me two of the last four games.  He might be able to savage some dignity for himself and avoid an embarrassment of season that is currently looking at him right in the face.