Week 5 Power Rankings
This year, two teams jumped out to 3-0 records—Nick and Greco. Though they both lost in Week 4, they faced each other in Week 5 looking for redemption.
And the matchup did not disappoint.
Nick piled on the points early with 32.98 points from Justin Fields on Thursday night. Though the Commanders D/ST earned him -5 points (the seventh defense to go negative for a team owner this season), Ja’Marr (“always open”) Chase reminded everyone why he was taken fourth overall in this year’s draft, scoring a season-high 52.2 points on Sunday. In fact, that was the most points scored in the Worst League since Joe Mixon (also a Bengal) tallied 55.1 points for Erik in Week 9 of last year…and the most by Chase since he totaled 55.6 points for Beth Ann in the 2021 championship game. That guy’s good, huh?
Though both started the season cold, Fields and Chase combined for 85.18 points in Week 5 all by themselves. That’s more than Geoff’s entire team this week. (Sorry Geoff!) Moreover, Nick’s dynamic duo finished as the fifth and first overall scorers in all of fantasy this week.
But Greco was undaunted. Though she only had one player to finish in the top 20 of fantasy scorers this week (and just barely), Greco got double-digit scoring days from every single player in her starting lineup with the exception of her kicker. Trailing by around 10 points on Monday night, Jakobi Meyers easily pushed her over the top, resulting in her best game of the year. Despite huge days from Fields and Chase, she moves to 4-1 and is now in a tie with Erik in the official standings.
For Nick, he somehow breaks the record set by Brandon and Christian McCaffrey in Week 4 (which was set by Gray and Raheem Mostert in Week 3) for most points by a single player in a loss. Until this week, no one had ever gotten 50 points from one guy and lost. I feel your pain, Nick. 😩
On the bright side, both moved up in this week’s Power Rankings. But NEITHER find themselves in the top half of the rankings despite their winning records. So let’s take a look.
Erik and Samantha catch Brandon for first place in this week’s rankings.
We have a three-way tie for first!
Despite a down week, Brandon holds on (barely) to the top spot where he is joined by Erik and Samantha, all with matching .618 TW%’s. This is the first three-way tie for #1 in the Power Rankings since exactly 10 years ago. In Week 5 of 2013, Greco, Geoff and Alex all tied for first with .664 TW%’s. If past is prologue, that’s only good news for one of these three. Greco ultimately finished the season as the runner-up. But both Geoff and Alex missed the playoffs.
Let’s get to the news and notes:
Erik is 4-1! It's his best start since 2012—the only top-three finish of his career.
This is Erik’s third week on top of the Power Rankings. He got the win over Chelsie despite starting a surprisingly inactive Aaron Jones and getting -3 points from the typically stout Cowboys D/ST. They now have three weeks of 15+ points and two weeks of negative points. 🤷♂️
Good new for Erik? Joe Burrow (23.38 points) looked great. Whew. 😅 The bad news? James Conner is hurt. 🤕
Samantha has a share of the Power Rankings lead for the first time in her six seasons.
After starting 0-3, Samantha is looking strong. She’s got the best team in the league over the last three weeks and is averaging 137.9 ppg. 💃
Did Brandon actually get a “lucky win?” Despite his lowest score of the year, he got the win over Geoff and moves to 2-3. Get better soon, Anthony Richardson!
No luck needed for Gray. In Week 5, he won back-to-back weekly prizes. That’s the 25th back-to-back weekly prize in league history (including the hypothetical weekly prizes pre-2017).
If he can win it again next week, he’d be just the third back-to-back-to-back winner, having accomplished the feat previously himself in 2013 and 2011 (before actual moolah was given away for such things).
Gray’s recent run of success has been attributed largely to the ground game. Currently, Gray is stampeding teams with a league-leading 45.8 ppg from RBs, including 57.0 ppg since De’Von Achane became a thing in Week 3. Unfortunately, Achane is now hurt. But maybe that just clears things up for an Achane/Mostert owner. 🏃♂️🏃♂️🏃♂️
Gray is fourth for now. But I wouldn't be surprised to see him take the lead here soon. 🔮
Alex slips two spots after a season-low 85.54 points. But that was to be expected with Mike Evans and Tyler Lockett on bye. Not to mention the dreaded Samantha matchup, which Alex called a “scheduled loss.”
Alex is now 2-7 against Samantha all time. She averages 122.5 ppg against him—by far the highest for any single team owner against any other in league history.
But I see blue skies for Alex ahead. Especially because the Justin Jefferson injury means it's officially Jordan Addison szn. 📈
Speaking of the Justin Jefferson injury...Beth Ann. She gets the narrow win over Jess, but at what cost? The first overall pick in the draft appears to be going on IR, which means he’ll miss at least four weeks if not more.
Despite Jefferson, this team was just 8th in WR scoring. Now it will rely on its RBs (Travis Etienne, D'Andre Swift, Rachaad White and Jerome Ford), which are second only to Gray’s.
Karma alert! Something I just noticed—when Nick Chubb went down for Alex, Beth Ann benefited with Jerome Ford on her bench. Now with Jefferson sidelined for Beth Ann, Addison should see a boost for Alex. ☯️
Tough “unlucky loss” for Nick this week, which somewhat balances his two “lucky wins” from Weeks 2-3. But better days are ahead with improved play from Fields and Chase, which we discussed in the open.
Greco is 4-1 for the first time since 2017. 75% of 4-1 teams go on to make the playoffs.
Greco has had four or more wins in Week 5 twice. Both times she ended up in the title game, winning it all in 2012.
Josh suffers an “unlucky loss” at the hands of Gray. But Josh has looked much better in the last two weeks.
Though he’s last in receptions with 20.4 per game, Josh may have found some help in the form of Adam Thielen who scored 27.7 points in Week 5.
Only three players plucked off the waiver wire or through free agency have scored more for a Worst League team this season—Puka Nacua, Kyren Williams and the Seahawks D/ST. (Yes, Josh drafted Thielen in the 11th round, but he dropped him after Week 1, before scooping him up again off waivers prior to Week 3.)
Geoff tumbles five spots into a tie for ninth place, following the worst game of his season.
Geoff is currently last in WR scoring with just 26.6 ppg, but it seems like there’s room for improvement on a team that includes Jaylen Waddle, Amari Cooper and the now-healthy Christian Watson.
That’s two losses in a row for Chelsie, who is quietly barely better than Jess over the last three weeks and actually scoring fewer points.
In that time, she’s getting league lows in points from QB (11.1 ppg) and RB (13.6 ppg). I guess it doesn’t help when you start an inactive Saquon Barkley. Oops! Happens to us all. 🤦♀️
And then...there’s Jess. Following a close loss to Beth Ann, she’s now 0-5. 😬
She’s just the third 0-5 team in league history, joining Trevor (2017) and Nick (2020). Neither made the playoffs.
There’s still time to rebound, but considering that since the regular season expanded to 14 games, only two out of 12 playoff teams have had at least seven losses, there’s a good chance Jess needs to go 8-1 or at the very least 7-2 down the stretch to sneak in.
But the good news? Cooper Kupp was back and looked great. Now if Jonathan Taylor can get up to speed too, maybe there's hope. Not to mention Austin Ekeler is back. And maaaaaybe Tee Higgins will be too. Damn, this team has had a lot of injuries. Pray for Jess. 🙏
On to Week 6!
