Week 2 Power Rankings — The Worst League

Sep 23

Sep 23 Week 2 Power Rankings

What a difference a week makes.

One week after scoring a league-low 59 points, Gray more than doubled that total in Week 2, scoring a league-high 130 points and claiming his third career weekly prize. (Send a Venmo request Alex’s way if you haven’t already.)

But rather than the highly drafted stars you might expect—guys like Mike Evans, Leonard Fournette and Stefon Diggs—it was 12th-round pick Josh Allen (22 points), 14th-rounder Mark Andrews (17) and waiver wire pickup the Patriots D/ST leading the way. Thanks to five interceptions, eight sacks, and two TDs, the Patriots D/ST scored a record 35 points, the most by a defense in league history, breaking a record that has stood since Week 10 of 2011. Not only that, but the Patriots D/ST led all scorers in Week 2, surpassing Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, which is the reason they get the cover art this week.

The Scoreboard

Alex and Josh win their second straight games to advance to 2-0.

Gray’s defense led him to a 130-80 victory over Samantha. The 50-point defeat is the second of 50 points or more for Samantha in as many weeks, having just lost to Jess after she scored 133 points in Week 1. That’s tough sledding. But while her RBs, including Nick Chubb and Aaron Jones improved from Week 1, it was the pass-catchers, notably DeAndre Hopkins, Julian Edelman and O.J. Howard, that let her down in Week 2.

Josh defeated Beth Ann 101-82 to advance to 2-0 behind a balanced effort that included six of his nine players scoring between 8 and 16 points. Beth Ann, meanwhile, had quiet days from three of her top five picks, getting just 12 points from third-round pick, Deshaun Watson, and a combined 11 points from Alvin Kamara and Marlon Mack.

Score one for the WRs! In a battle between rushers and receivers, the receivers came out on top with Julio Jones and Odell Beckham (both with 22 points) leading JT to the 101-79 victory over Jess. Despite a combined 40 points from Dalvin Cook and Austin Ekeler (both top-3 RBs as of Week 2), Jess came up well short due in part to 3 points from Mason Crosby and a measly 8 points from Derek Carr. QB remains a concern for the newly renamed I Lock It Like That. (I see what you did there.)

Alex defeated Nick 88-85 in the second-closest matchup of the season, needing almost every bit of the 30 points scored by Lamar Jackson, who continues to be a revelation. In a matchup of Week 1 winners, Alex moves to 2-0. And for Nick, you gotta put the blame squarely on the shoulders of first-round pick Joe Mixon who scored just 2 points in Week 2 after managing only 1 point last week.

Despite 31 points from Patrick Mahomes, Greco took down Erik 85-77, getting balanced scoring from all of her flex-eligible players, including Kerryon Johnson (14 points), Tyler Boyd (12), Tyrell Williams (10), Royce Freeman (9) and JuJu Smith-Schuster (8). Notably, she won despite not starting first-round pick Le’Veon Bell (10 points) or fourth-rounder Mark Ingram (7). It was a highly unconventional choice, especially given that both were drafted as starters and both put up at least 17 points in Week 1. But it’s a choice that actually paid off as Royce Freeman and Tyrell Williams actually outscored Bell and Ingram by 2 points in Week 2. An unusual decision, but one that somehow worked out.

Finally, the lowest-scoring game of the week was a “slugfest” between Geoff and Brandon with Geoff ultimately coming out on top 76-74. Continuing to play without first-round pick Tyreek Hill and fifth-rounder Derrius Guice (who he has since dropped), Geoff still managed to eek out the win thanks to just enough production from fill-ins Adrian Peterson (8 points) and Larry Fitzgerald (10). For Brandon, Geoff remains one of his most feared opponents, having gone 3-6 against him in regular season matchups. Notably, Brandon is very familiar to 2-point losses to Geoff, which of course includes the 2016 championship game.

Power Rankings

With last week’s leaders Brandon and Jess suffering sizable defeats, we have a new name atop the Power Rankings—Josh! Thanks to the second-highest point total of the week, Josh reclaims the top spot for the first time since Week 7 of last year, jumping four spots from fifth into first place.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because Josh started out in this same position last season—hotter even—jumping to the top of the Power Rankings in Week 1 where he remained for the first four weeks of the season. Though he would eventually be dethroned by Alex in Week 5 (and briefly regain the lead in Week 7), Josh ultimately finished third in the final Power Rankings.

Greco moves up two spots into second. She is one of only three owners (Josh and Nick being the others) to start the season with a score in the top half of the league in both weeks. Beth Ann, despite the loss to Josh, holds steady at third. Jess falls two spots to fourth. And Nick with another solid-not-spectacular week moves up a spot to fifth.

Besides Josh, Alex—in sixth place—is the only other owner with a perfect 2-0 record. Despite below average scoring in both weeks, he remains undefeated and has the second-fewest points allowed through two weeks. Perhaps the commissioner’s luck, which notoriously has been the worst in league history (-.074 differential between his W% and TW% over 8+ seasons), is about to change this year. Case in point, Alex has now won eight straight regular season games dating back to last season.

Following a big Week 2, JT moves up three spots into seventh. He’s followed by both Brandon and Gray who are tied for eighth. These two have had nearly identical starts to the season but in reverse. Both have won the weekly prize. Both have had the lowest score in a given week. As a result, both have a TW% of exactly .500.

Despite this, Brandon still remains in the top-2 in points this season. His 74 points this week were the fourth-highest by the week’s lowest scorer. For reference, the average total for the lowest score is just 52.6 points. And only three times in the previous eight years has the lowest scorer had more than 70 points.

Rounding out the bottom three, Erik drops three spots to 10th. Both he and Samantha are 0-2 and she holds steady in 11th. Finally, Geoff manages the win over Brandon despite the second-lowest point total of the week, but drops to the bottom of the rankings.

Looking Ahead to Week 3

Okay, so I didn’t get this recap up in time to look ahead to Week 3, since—ya know—Week 3 is already over. But we can take a look back. Way back. It’s still super early, but what does your position in the Power Rankings say about your chances? Well, let’s take a look back to this time last year. Go ahead, check out last year’s Week 2 writeup.

At this time last year, the top six were Josh, Alex, Jess, Erik, Brandon and JT. Of that six, four made the playoffs, including Brandon and Jess who both made the title game. And both Josh and Alex went on to spend the majority of the season at the top of the Power Rankings. So that bodes well for anyone in the top six right now.

But… there were outliers. Erik and JT were both in contention for the final playoff spot, but neither made it. Meanwhile, the eighth (Nick) and 10th place (Samantha) team owners both rebounded to make the playoffs. Nick actually claimed the top overall seed, winning nine of his last 11 games. And Samantha, who was 0-2 at the time, went on to finish third and in the money. So it’s definitely still anybody’s game.

After all, anything can happen in a week.