Week 2 Power Rankings
If this fantasy season were a movie, it would be called “Rise of the Receiver!”
Teams that spent a first-round pick on WR are a combined 5-1. By comparison, team owners that started their drafts RB-RB are just 2-4. And while players like Stefon Diggs this week (44.8 points) and Justin Jefferson last week (39.4 points) are racking up the points, there’s not a single RB with two games of at least 17 points in Weeks 1 and 2. Meanwhile, 16 WRs are averaging 17.0 points or more through the first two weeks.
In short, if you spent an early pick on WR, you’re probably loving life. But if you drafted guys like Derrick Henry, Alvin Kamara, Dalvin Cook or even Austin Ekeler, you’ve got some serious FOMO right now. If only noted WR hype man JT were still a member of this league and around to see it. It would surely bring a tear to his eye.
Scoreboard
Revenge of the Geoff! From worst to first, Geoff led all scorers in Week 2 with 163.38 points.
After posting the lowest score of Week 1, Geoff rebounded in Week 2 to claim his first weekly prize since Week 4 of last season. His 168.38 points were more than enough to defeat Jess and even his record to 1-1.
Meanwhile, three team owners jumped out to a 2-0 record—Chelsie, Gray and Josh who defeated Alex, Samantha and Brandon, respectively. The game between Josh and Brandon was especially close. More on that including plenty of sour grapes below in Brandon’s writeup.
Finally, Greco upended Beth Ann despite starting an inactive Gabe Davis, which is a sure sign that Greco is in peak form. And Nick staged a dramatic comeback against Erik on Monday night thanks to a big day from this week’s cover boy, Stefon Diggs.
Power Rankings
Chelsie maintains her hold on the top spot for a second week as Gray and Josh lurk.
1. Chelsie
Despite a stellar rookie season, many expected Jaylen Waddle to take a backseat to Tyreek Hill this year. That explains why Waddle fell 14.4 spots below his ADP in the Worst League draft before ultimately being selected by Chelsie in the sixth round. Outside of J.K. Dobbins (who fell 15.3 spots), that was the biggest fall for a non-QB in the entire draft.
Turns out he might have been this year’s biggest steal. As part of an explosive Miami comeback, Waddle scored 40.1 points with 11 catches, 171 yards and 2 TDs on 19 targets. 19?! So much for losing targets to Tyreek Hill who had a banner day, himself, with 42.0 points. In fact, it was just the second time in NFL history that two WRs on the same team had 40+ points. Now people are literally printing “Tyreek/Waddle ’22” t-shirts.
But back to Chelsie. The hallmark of a good team is the ability to score points in a variety of ways. In Week 1, it was the RBs (notably AJ Dillon). But this week, Waddle and her WRs (A.J. Brown and Diontae Johnson) led the way. As a result, she’s got back-to-back weeks of 135+ points and continues to lead the league in scoring (143.1 ppg) and TW% (.818). Don’t be surprised if Chelsie hangs around this neighborhood for weeks to come. In fact, teams atop the Week 2 Power Rankings have finished in the top two of the final Power Rankings in seven out of 11 seasons, and one of the ones that didn’t won the championship anyway. In short, Chelsie gonna be a problem. 😤
2. Gray
I am officially OBSESSED with this team.
Fourth-round pick Elijah Mitchell is injured. Fifth-rounder Dameon Pierce is riding the bench. Trey Lance broke his ankle and is now out for the season. That’s the first season-ending injury of the year to a fantasy-relevant player. And yet…the beat goes on. For any mortal team owner, these would have been devastating blows. But Gray is thriving.
Despite just 2.5 points from Lance in Week 2, Gray scored a season-high 139.5 points and is now second in the Power Rankings. Not only that, but he’s the only team owner to finish in the top four in scoring in each of the first two weeks.
How’s he doing it? Cooper Kupp (31.8 points for a second straight week) and Tyreek Hill (42.0 points) are absolute studs. They rank second and third in total points among flex-eligible players, validating Gray’s near-zero RB strategy. Moreover, WRs are killing it so far this season. Kupp (twice) and Hill along with Justin Jefferson, Davante Adams, Stefon Diggs, Amon-Ra St. Brown and even Garrett Wilson all have games of 30+ points. Only three RBs have done that. And if we look at the top-20 flex-eligible players so far this season, 14 are WRs compared to just five RBs and one TE. Notably, that one TE (Travis Kelce) belongs to Gray too. That explains why he’s leading the league in receptions (34.0 per game) and WR scoring (61.8 ppg) despite starting a RB in the flex both weeks.
Now imagine if he starts getting anything at all from his QB. Scary. 😱
3. Josh
Now that’s a close shave.
Josh defeated Brandon by a score of 149.92 to 149.88. That’s a difference of just 0.04 points! Aside from 10 ties (which all occurred in the pre-PPR era without decimal scoring), that’s the narrowest margin of victory in Worst League history and the first time a game has been decided by less than a point. Josh is now one of three 2-0 team owners after two weeks, but his wins have come by a combined 5.74 points. He very easily could be 0-2.
Once again, Josh was led by one outstanding scorer. Last week, it was Justin Jefferson. This time, it was Lamar Jackson (42.62 points). Cam Akers (8.2 points on the bench) looked much more involved in Week 2, which is a good sign. But fifth-rounder Darnell Mooney (just 2.4 total points in two weeks) just might be the early candidate for bust of the season, especially when you consider he was drafted between Amon-Ra St. Brown and Gabe Davis. Oof. At least for now, the final result is shaking out in Josh’s favor who—after missing the playoffs despite finishing first in the final Power Rankings in 2020—was due for some good luck.
T4. Brandon
Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh…
0.04 points. Four one-hundredths of a point?! That’s the difference of one measly passing yard. Unfortunately, with the Bills blowing out the Titans on Monday night, Josh Allen left the game for good with 5:34 remaining in the third quarter, meaning there would be no more passing yards. That left it all on the shoulders of Adam Thielen, an unlikely hero who essentially needed to outscore Josh’s first-rounder, Justin Jefferson. And yet…he almost did. Thanks to some garbage time scoring, Thielen had closed to within 2.54 points of Josh with the Vikings driving and the clock running down. All Brandon needed was one 16-yard catch. This was the final sequence:
(1:11 - 4th) K.Cousins pass short middle to A.Thielen to PHI 10 for 15 yards.
(0:53 - 4th) K.Cousins pass incomplete short right to A.Thielen.
(0:43 - 4th) K.Cousins pass short left to A.Mattison to PHI 11 for -1 yards.
(0:17 - 4th) K.Cousins sacked at PHI 18 for -7 yards.
That’s right. Thielen came up one yard short and then nearly caught the game-winner on the following play. It doesn’t get any closer than that. In short…pain. 😩
The silver lining is that this team looked much better in Week 2. Josh Allen’s only flaw is that he’s blowing teams out by so much that he’s getting pulled in the third quarter. Aaron Jones rebounded with 32.0 points, one of only three RBs with a 30-point game so far. And yes, major caveat that it’s early. But despite waiting until the fifth round to draft his first WR, Brandon is the only team owner with three WRs in the top-15 in WR scoring in Christian Kirk (WR7), Curtis Samuel (WR8) and Drake London (WR14). That explains why Brandon jumped five spots into fourth place and is now fourth in the league in scoring despite his 0-2 record.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go back to the stat corrections page to hit the refresh button over and over again, hoping something changes until my fingers bleed.
T4. Nick
Week 2 was full of epic comebacks.
The Dolphins, Jets and Cardinals all came back from deficits of 10 points or more in the fourth quarter to win their games on the road. That was an NFL first. But they weren’t alone. Don’t forget to throw in Nick’s unlikely come-from-behind victory on Monday night. Trailing Erik by a score of 99.46-82.66, Nick needed Stefon Diggs to outscore both Dalvin Cook and Tyler Bass by 16.8 points. And then Diggs went nuclear.
With 12 catches for 148 yards and 3 TDs, Diggs scored 44.8 points, the most by any player in a single game this season. And that includes QBs. Other bright spots for Nick included Rashod Bateman (20.8 points) and Allen Robinson (15.3 points), the latter of whom rebounded nicely from his disappointing Week 1, proving that there’s optimism to be had for Nick’s fifth-round pick after all. Speaking of optimism, Kyle Pitts could use some of that. The third-rounder had just 2 catches for 19 yards on only three targets. He’s currently TE35 on the season. When pressed about it in the post-game press conference, Falcons coach Arthur Smith had this to say: “It's not fantasy football. We're just trying to win.” Um…yeah Arthur. So are we.
T4. Erik
Is this the best RB room in the Worst League? The numbers say it is.
With Dalvin Cook, Joe Mixon and Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Erik is leading all team owners in RB scoring through the first two weeks, averaging 42.6 ppg. He’s also the only team owner with two top-10 RBs in Mixon and seventh-rounder Edwards-Helaire who has been a nice surprise so far this season. If Dalvin Cook (who has yet to top 13.8 points) gets back to his high-scoring ways, this team could be dynamic.
And though the WR scoring hasn’t been great (Erik ranks last in WR scoring with 25.5 ppg), a lot of that has to do with Tee Higgins’ early departure in Week 1 due to a concussion. But in Week 2, Higgins (19.1 points) looked just fine and Marquise Brown (drafted WR24, currently WR27) has been about what was expected. With Darren Waller looking feisty at TE (currently third at his position), Erik is actually fifth in receptions despite his subpar WR production.
The only concern moving forward is the injury to Justin Herbert who is day-to-day after fracturing his rib cartilage in a loss to the Chiefs. Still, Herbert threw this dime even after the injury in Thursday night’s game. So he may not miss any time at all. That’s good news for Erik who is off to a solid start.
T7. Geoff
Started from the bottom, now we’re…seventh.
After a disastrous Week 1, Geoff renamed his team, “Just hope we can win a game.” Well, he did that and more. In Week 2, Geoff’s team exploded, leading all teams in scoring with a season-high 163.38 points and collecting the weekly prize. This is now the third year in a row that Geoff has won at least one weekly prize, which is the second-longest active streak in the league. (Remarkably, Josh has done it at least once every year since he’s been in the league, dating back to 2014, though weekly prizes weren’t officially instituted until 2017.)
Leading the way was Amon-Ra St. Brown (39.4 points) who many are calling this year’s Cooper Kupp. One of only three players with a 30%+ target share through the first two games, St. Brown is currently WR4 behind only Stefon Diggs, Cooper Kupp and Tyreek Hill despite being drafted in the fifth round. That’s an even better value than Kupp who was taken in the fourth last year. In the preseason draft observations column, I posited that St. Brown was the best flex player in the league. Turns out I was underselling him.
As for the rest of the roster, Carson Wentz (averaging 27.8 ppg) is making Geoff forget about Dak Prescott real fast. And don’t forget about that Bills defense. We joke (okay, I joke) about Geoff drafting a defense early every year. But the Bills D/ST is averaging 20.0 ppg and looks like a real difference maker. This team is seventh right now, but it’s seventh with a bullet.
T7. Beth Ann
Uh oh…trouble in paradise.
With Beth Ann roaming the Roman countryside, her team appears to have gone on hiatus as well. With 98.98 points scored, it was just the fourth time she’s scored under 100 points in the last two years including the playoffs. To blame were sleepy outings from everyone outside of Kyler Murray and De’Andre Swift, not to mention a rib injury for Jerry Jeudy that forced him out of the game after just 2.2 points scored.
But I’m not too worried. Yes, the pass-catchers (Brandin Cooks, Terry McLaurin and Jeudy) have not impressed so far and Beth Ann is 11th in total receptions. But everyone has down games. And the bright spot? Rookie Garrett Wilson looked awesome in the Jets comeback Sunday, scoring 30.0 points on 8 catches for 102 yards and 2 TDs. So I think a bounce back is coming. Consider this the honeymoon period for the rest of the league.
T7. Jess
It was not a good week for Jess or the Indianapolis Colts.
Playing without Michael Pittman, the Colts got smacked by the Jaguars 24-0. Trailing and with a bad game script, Jonathan Taylor scored just 7.3 points. Pittman’s injury fill-in in the flex, Cordarrelle Patterson scored just 4.1 points, himself, ceding half his carries this week to Tyler Allgeier. And fourth-round pick Dalton Schultz went down with a knee injury, though Jess had shrewdly subbed in backup Gerald Everett. Nice move.
Deebo Samuel (14.7 points) and eighth-rounder Michael Thomas (18.5 points) were solid. But with fourth-rounder Breece Hall riding the pine, there was just not enough scoring pop to make up for down days from her studs. Like with Beth Ann, I believe this to be just part of the ebb and flow of fantasy, and I would expect Jess to return to form. But as go the Colts, so goes her team. And when they struggle, it’ll be a tough day at the office.
10. Samantha
Let’s start with the good. Jalen Hurts is awesome. With 33.02 points in Week 2, including 11 rushes for 57 yards and 2 rushing TDs, he and Josh Allen are the only two QBs with a top-four finish among QBs in each of the first two weeks. As a fifth-round pick, that guy is going to be a great value and a rock for this team for weeks to come.
Now the bad. The other five players Samantha selected in the first six rounds (Alvin Kamara, Davante Adams, DJ Moore, Ezekiel Elliott and Chris Godwin) all combined for just 28.4 points on Sunday, meaning they got collectively outscored by Hurts. But a lot of that is injury related. Kamara missed Week 2 due to a rib injury. And Chris Godwin, still making his way back from a torn ACL, will miss some time with a hamstring injury sustained in Week 1. Adams and Moore have been good to great, but Zeke has struggled. As a result, Samantha’s depth is being seriously tested early.
All that being said, I do see light at the end of the tunnel. Kamara should return in Week 3. And 10th-round pick James Robinson has been a steal, currently ranking in the top 10 among RBs—the only RB taken outside the first eight rounds to do so. There’s your Zeke replacement. If and when Godwin returns to form, this team could be great. But like Alex’s squad last season, which struggled through injuries earlier in the year, the question will be whether Samantha can tread water long enough until her players are fully healthy.
But if anyone can do it, it’s Samantha. This is now her fifth season in the Worst League and all five times she’s started 0-2. And in three out of the four previous occasions, she rebounded to make the playoffs. Doubt her at your own peril.
11. Greco
Another week with below-average scoring for Greco, but this time she got the win, defeating Beth Ann by a score of 111.0 to 98.98. On its face, it’s an inauspicious start. She ranks 11th in both TW% (.227) and scoring (103.4 ppg) and is frankly lucky to be 1-1.
But I think this team has sneaky upside. In Week 1, Ja’Marr Chase and Gabe Davis both showed they were capable of big games. Last week, we questioned whether or not the Chargers would do the right thing and feed Mike Williams with Keenan Allen out. In Week 2, they did to the tune of 25.3 points. Nick Chubb, while not winning points with his coaches, did so for fantasy owners with 32.3 points. He currently leads all RBs in scoring. And finally, there’s depth on the bench with David Montgomery (a starter last week) and Tyler Lockett both going for 15+ points.
There are concerns. Gabe Davis was started this week but then was declared inactive due to an ankle injury. Josh Jacobs has not returned draft-day value. But what RB has? And Tom Brady (currently QB29), until he gets his WRs back, is probably the biggest question mark. But I think this team will have its moments.
12. Alex
That’s two bad weeks in a row and Alex’s team is reeling. Averaging just 90.2 ppg, Alex’s true record is currently 2-20, which equates to a TW% of .091. That’s tied for the third-worst start in Worst League history. Only Greco last year and Trevor in 2017 have done worse. Neither won more than four games the rest of the season. 😬
But…like with Samantha, a lot of this is injury related. George Kittle missed a second straight week with a groin injury and could return in Week 3. (That explains why Alex is last in TE scoring with 1.6 ppg). Keenan Allen was kept out with a hamstring injury in Week 2, but like Kittle, could return soon. And Mike Evans was ejected from Sunday’s game early in the fourth after an altercation with Marshon Lattimore. (Don’t say anything bad about Tom Brady around him.) As a result, Evans was suspended for Week 3 but should be back after that.
Yes, RB2 is still an adventure for this squad. Russell Wilson and the Broncos generally have disappointed (of which I’m sure Alex is well aware). And Christian McCaffrey has been solid but not as explosive or involved in the passing game to make up for deficiencies elsewhere. But, there’s a lot of season left and plenty of time for Alex and his roster to turn things around. Remember, at this time last year, eventual champion Beth Ann was 0-2 and ninth in the Power Rankings.
Looking Ahead to Week 3
Big games this week for Brandon, Samantha and Alex who would all like a win to avoid going 0-3. The stiffest test looks to be for Brandon who will face off against second-ranked Gray in a battle of opposing styles—Brandon spent early picks on RB whereas Gray leaned into WR.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Chelsie and Josh (along with Gray) will also look to go 3-0 with games against Greco and Nick, respectively. Then, of course, everyone else will be scratching and clawing to build some early season momentum.
That’s it for Week 2. Good luck to everyone in Week 3.
