Week 6 Power Rankings
Remember when Gray was bad?
Not like Danny Zuko in Grease bad. But like actually bad. Okay, it was a super small sample size, but oh, those late-summer nights when Gray was 11th in the Week 2 Power Rankings—the lowest his team had been in over four years. Well (spoiler alert), he’s pretty high this week. So what happened?
Let’s start with this week’s cover boy, Raheem Mostert.
Turns out he’s the-one-that-you-want. In this year’s Worst League draft, 33 RBs were taken before Mostert was eventually selected by Gray in the eighth round. That includes the likes of Dalvin Cook, Cam Akers, Miles Sanders and Antonio Gibson who were all deemed more valuable on draft day but have since combined for fewer points through six weeks than Mostert has all by himself. Even Gray couldn’t have seen this coming. He, himself, drafted two RBs before Mostert.
But short of Christian McCaffrey, no RB has scored more fantasy points this season than Raheem “Must-start.” Born to hand jive into the end zone, Mostert now has a league-leading 11 TDs on the season, following his Week 6-leading 34.2 points and three TDs on Sunday. That puts him on pace to tie if not break LaDainian Tomlinson’s 2006 record of 31.
And don’t forget about De’Von Achane—the 10th-round pick in this year’s Worst League draft who was eventually dropped by Nick but is no beauty school dropout. Gray scooped him up prior to Week 3, and (though he’s currently on IR until at least Week 11) Achane is averaging a league-leading 12.1 yards per attempt. Next closest is Breece Hall with…6.5. That’s nearly DOUBLE his closest competitor! Even more impressive, Achane is still RB6 on the season despite really only playing in three games.
Combined Mostert and Achane are a prolific offense unto themselves, and Gray is hopelessly devoted to them. Check out this Mike Clay tweet, which demonstrates that Miami RBs have accounted for nearly 14% of all TDs scored by RBs this season. In fact, Mostert and Achane have combined for more TDs than all but three entire offenses (namely the 49ers, Bills and Lions). Crazy but true.
Those two (and Mike McDaniel, the Dolphins’ very own Eugene) are the biggest reason Gray has turned his team and his season around. After starting 1-2 with not a single week in the top half of the league in scoring, Gray made the move to a three-RB lineup of T-Birds that includes Josh Jacobs, Alvin Kamara and one of the Miami RBs. And he hasn’t looked back.
Since then, the results have been ELECTRIC. From Weeks 4-6, he’s 3-0 with two weekly prizes and nearly a third this week. His true record is 32-1 with a TW% of .970 while averaging 152.5 ppg. That includes (blinks) 59.3 ppg from RBs, which is obviously unsustainable but would shatter the record of 45.3 ppg he set in 2021. AND since moving to a two-WR lineup, he’s still getting above-average scoring from the position. Plus, he’s got Josh Allen and George Kittle. I mean… 😬
All of which means I am officially dubbing this team ⚡️ Greased Lightnin’ ⚡️ because the power that these explosive TDs are supplying is electrifying. If Mostert and Achane can keep this up, Gray and the 2023 Worst League championship may go together like ramma lamma lamma ka dinga da dinga dong.
Gray and Erik are in a tie for the top spot in the Week 6 Power Rankings.
By now you’ve probably figured out who headlines this week’s Power Rankings…
It’s Gray a.k.a. Greased Lightnin’ in a tie with Erik for the top spot. (Does that make Erik Kenickie in this analogy?) Both also lead the official standings as well with Erik, who is no slouch either, leading all team owners with a 5-1 record.
Let’s get to the news and notes:
No lucky wins or unlucky losses this week. The top six teams all won and the bottom six all lost. That’s the first time that’s happened this season.
With all the bluster above about Gray, don’t overlook Erik. He has the most potent, back-flipping piece of that Dolphins offense too in Tyreek Hill (currently the top scoring player in all of fantasy, including QBs).
This is the fourth time in six weeks Erik has had at least a share of the top spot in the Power Rankings. Prior to this year, he had never led the rankings.
With four wins in a row, Erik has the longest current winning streak in the league.
If Erik can beat Geoff this week to get to 6-1, it will be the best start of his career.
Just like clockwork, Samantha is officially back to 3-3 after her 0-3 start. She now leads all team owners in receptions with 28.5 per game and has the best team in the league over the last three weeks besides Gray.
Can she keep it up? She has the toughest two-game stretch ahead over the next two weeks with games against Nick and Erik.
Speaking of Nick, he ends his two-game slide with a season-high 135.42 points, winning his first weekly prize since Week 6 of last year.
One week after Justin Fields and Ja’Marr Chase combined for 85.18 points, they scored just 18.92 points this week, which makes his weekly prize all the more impressive. The total team effort bodes well for the team ahead, especially with injuries to Fields and Kyren Williams this week. 🤕
Brandon falls four spots into fifth place, his lowest ranking this year and will look to bounce back from his lowest score of the season—just 90.78 points in Week 6.
Brandon has scored 20 points from TEs. Not per game. For the whole season. 😬
Greco got 21.6 points from Travis Kelce…this week.
Without Justin Jefferson, Beth Ann got a league-low 17.5 points from WRs in Week 6.
Prior to his injury, Jefferson had topped 17.5 points all by himself in each of his four fully-healthy games. Get better soon, JJ! 🙏
Two losses in a row for Alex who drops into a tie for sixth with matching 33-33 and 3-3 true and official records.
Still searching for that RB2 to accompany Tony Pollard, Alex has seen a drop in scoring these last few weeks due in part to a decline for Mike Evans, who has not scored double-digits since Week 3.
Speaking of unexpectedly resurgent WRs in their 30s, Adam Thielen is now WR3 and led Josh to a win over Greco in Week 6. Is he the best WR on this roster?
Despite the fact that Josh is below .500 in TW%, I actually kinda like this roster. Now let’s see what Josh tries to pull off by putting Patrick Mahomes on the trade block. Remember, last year he turned Lamar Jackson (then QB6) into Josh Jacobs (then RB6).
Greco is 4-2 and third in the official standings but way down in ninth place in these rankings, having finished in the bottom-three in scoring in half of the games this season.
Now with injuries to David Montgomery and Deebo Samuel plus a league-leading five players on bye in Week 7, Greco will have her hands full versus Beth Ann this week.
That’s three losses in a row for Chelsie who has not finished in the top half of the league in scoring since Week 2 when she won the weekly prize.
Make that two weeks in a row that Geoff has the lowest score in the league and he’s now fallen to 3-3 after a 3-1 start.
For the second week in a row, Zack Moss outscored Bijan Robinson from Geoff’s bench. I sense locker room issues! 😤
Finally, we buried the lede. Jess got a win!
While no 0-5 team has ever made the playoffs, Nick technically would have made the playoffs after starting 1-5 if a six-team playoff had existed in 2016. So there’s hope.
Even better, this team is finally getting healthy. Tee Higgins has a bye in Week 7, but soon Jess should be able to start him along with Austin Ekeler, Jonathan Taylor and Cooper Kupp in the same lineup.
Bottom line: she may be 1-5, but I would hate to play Jess this week. And I do. Great.
As Josh said in the group text, this season is flying by as we are officially a third of the way through the full season with next week marking the halfway point for the fantasy regular season. Enjoy it while you can, folks!
