Week 7 Power Rankings
We had our first trade of the season last week, so let’s talk about it.
First of all, I think it’s a sign of the maturity of the league that we did not flip out about it. Okay, maybe I flipped out a little. (I’m sorry, Chelsie!) But the rest of you were very mature. Remember, this is the league that eviscerated JT for trading away Carson Wentz for Gardner Minshew, roasted Nick for kidnapping Dalvin Cook from his own wife and nearly vetoed my exchange of Adam Vinatieri for the Cardinals D/ST. Blockbuster stuff, I know. 😜
But this week, we had a true blockbuster when Chelsie traded for her beloved Patrick Mahomes. You might recall that last year Chelsie drafted Mahomes 15th overall en route to a very successful 9-5 rookie campaign that ended with a third-place finish. This year, she passed on the chance to draft Mahomes, opting for Saquon Barkley instead at 13th overall. But after starting 2-4 through the first six weeks, she clearly sought to rectify that mistake and was willing to pay whatever price to get him back.
Enter Josh who “shot his shot” and hit the target. Not once, but twice. Not just Barkley who was originally taken 19 picks before Mahomes in this year’s draft. But fellow third-round pick Keenan Allen too. And while I acknowledge the relevance of draft-day value has probably evaporated at this point, Allen had actually outscored Mahomes by 8.24 points through the first six weeks. And that’s despite playing one fewer game due to the Chargers’ Week 5 bye. And he’s a receiver! Getting either guy? Sure. But both?!
That was my reaction at least. So I went to the history books to see if there was a precedent for such a trade. Hold my monocle while I pore over these yellowed scrolls. 🧐
In the history of the Worst League, there have been 23 trades involving a QB, but none that netted such a potent combo. I found a Russell Wilson trade for Stevie Johnson and Pierre Garcon in 2015. But those guys combined for barely half of what Wilson did in a Pro Bowl season. The best multi-player haul for a single QB is probably the 2021 Kyler Murray trade that netted Cordarelle Patterson (in his breakout season in Atlanta) plus a serviceable replacement in Carson Wentz and a flyer in rookie Justin Fields (before he was good). Though the initial results favored Murray, Patterson proved to be the best player in the deal. Here’s the full accounting.
More recently, I traded away Josh Allen to acquire Christian McCaffrey and Keenan Allen around this time last year—a surprisingly similar package to this year’s deal of Saquon Barkley and Keenan Allen. Until you realize that 17th overall pick Aaron Jones was also included in the deal. And Keenan Allen was out with a hamstring injury at the time.
But, Brandon, we’re talking about Patrick Mahomes here. Patrick freaking Mahomes. With all due respect to Russell Wilson, Kyler Murray and even Josh Allen, they’re no Mahomes. Fair point. But Mahomes has been traded for before. By Josh, no less! In Mahomes’ breakout sophomore season, Josh traded for him early in the season. And the price? 18th overall pick, A.J. Green. That’s it.
Bottom line: getting a top-10 RB or WR for a stud QB is not unheard of. In recent years, Josh acquired Josh Jacobs for Lamar Jackson (2022) and Alex got Leonard Fournette for Matthew Stafford (2022). Both ended the year as top-10 RBs. But this is the first time a team owner might have gotten two top-10 players for a QB.
Tip your cap to Josh on another deal well negotiated, right?
Well…
Not exactly. Of course, Patrick Mahomes went OFF in Week 7 with a season-high 33.86 points for Chelsie. Meanwhile, Keenan Allen (9.5 points) had his worst game of the season with both he and Saquon Barkley combining for five fewer points than Mahomes. And Josh’s new starting QB Jared Goff? He also had his worst game of the season with 9.36 points. Also, Justin Herbert (whose failed deal with Chelsie led me to complain endlessly in the group text) scored just 10.86 points in Week 7.
So I ask of you again—wUt dO i kNoW?! 🫠
The answer is nothing. Trade for the player you want on your team. Pay whatever price you think is fair that the other person is willing to accept. And people who live in glass houses shouldn’t play fantasy football. Because, inevitably, that thing you think you are 100% certain about will inevitably be dead wrong.
Case in point, I was rewatching this hilarious TikTok from @jonybrony that I shared in the group text earlier this year. If you didn’t watch it the first time, it’s a parody of “that guy” from your league who sends terrible trades for your best player. And at the time, which was Week 2, the worst trade he could think of was Semaje Perine, Nico Collins and Sam LaPorta for Justin Jefferson. Rewatching it just a few weeks later given Collins’ and LaPorta’s rise and Jefferson’s injury and uncertain future, I’m like…yeah, that’s not a bad deal.
It just goes to show that things can change fast in fantasy football. And nobody really knows what’s going to happen. So let’s all just have some fun.
Alright, let’s get to the Power Rankings…
Go Greased Lightnin’, you’re burning up the quarter mile! ⚡️
For the first time this season, Gray is alone at the top. Despite a ho-hum 6.1 points from fantasy’s RB2 Raheem Mostert, Gray still put up a respectable 128.2 points in Week 7, his fourth straight week of 125+ points. As a result, he now leads all team owners in TW% and points and is just one game back of Erik for wins. At least through the midpoint of the fantasy regular season, it appears Greased Lightnin’ is the team to beat.
What about the rest of the league? Let’s get to the news and notes:
Like Gray, Samantha is also riding a four-game winning streak following her 0-3 start.
For the third time in the last four weeks, Samantha finished second for the weekly prize. This time she came up just 2.82 points short, the result of a Jake Moody field goal.
What is Samantha doing so right? Of the 10 top-scoring WRs in the league this season, Samantha has three of them (Amon-Ra St. Brown, Davante Adams and Puka Nacua).
Not far behind Gray and Samantha is Erik. We’re starting to see a little separation in the Power Rankings with this trio. Over the last four weeks, they are a combined 12-0 with a true record of 103-29 while averaging 134.7 ppg. 🔥
Congrats also to Erik who is officially off to the best start of his career! This week, he broke a personal record he set in 2012 when he started 5-2. At 6-1, he is just three wins away from breaking his record for most wins in a regular season, which is eight.
Until Gray last year, no 6-1 team had ever missed the playoffs. Don’t pop the champagne yet, but it’s definitely looking like a banner year for Erik. 🎉
Speaking of reasons to celebrate, this is Alex’s first weekly prize since Week 4 of last year. He is now the sixth team owner in seven weeks this season to win a weekly prize.
Alex’s 154.68 points scored in Week 7 were a season high for him and came despite first-round pick Tony Pollard on bye.
In fact, that was the most points scored by Alex in a game…EVER! Hard to believe and I had to check the numbers twice, but it’s true. I think that’s partially because some of Alex’s best teams, including the Thanos squad, came during pre-PPR scoring.
Brandon holds serve at fifth getting a much-needed win over Jess due in part to a Jahmyr Gibbs breakout game (27.6 points). Thanks to nine receptions from Gibbs, Brandon got a season-high 34 receptions in Week 7.
Following his worst game of the season (90.94 points), Nick drops to sixth.
With Justin Fields and Kyren Williams both injured, this team could use a spark. But if there is a silver-lining for Nick, it’s that this team has faced the second-toughest schedule so far and has the easiest schedule remaining through the back half of the year. That includes five of his seven remaining games against the bottom five teams in this week’s Power Rankings.
Greco moves up two spots into seventh, showing some encouraging signs that she’s deserving of her lofty 5-2 record. Remember 16 out of 17 teams that started 5-2 have gone on to make the playoffs. Only Gray in 2012 fell short. 🤞
Greco’s 130+ points were especially impressive considering Joe Mixon was on bye and both Deebo Samuel and David Montgomery were hurt. The last two times her team topped 130 points this season, she yo-yo’ed back to fewer than 100 points the next week. Let’s see if she can keep the momentum going this time.
Since Justin Jefferson’s Week 5 injury, former champ Beth Ann is in a bit of a free fall, having lost two straight games. She also ranks last in WR scoring during that time with just 12.8 ppg from the position compared to a league average this season of 39.2 ppg.
Despite the trade for Saquon Barkley and Keenan Allen, Josh couldn’t come home with the win in Week 7, and he even dropped a spot in the Power Rankings to ninth. His 68.66 points this week were easily a season low for him and probably the most surprising outcome this week to me. 😲
Josh got just 1.0 point combined for his TE, defense and kicker. Their underperformance gives me the most reason for optimism for this squad. Plus, Adam Thielen and Derrick Henry should be returning to the lineup in Week 8, though it will be a real weekly battle at the flex for this super-deep team.
Despite Mahomes’ big day, the rest of Chelsie’s lineup was anemic and therein lies the problem. Truly the antithesis of Josh’s team now, Chelsie is strong at QB but got just 38.7 points combined from her RBs and WRs. Mahomes nearly outscored all five of them. The good news? First-round pick CeeDee Lamb will be back next week.
Chelsie has now lost four straight games, the longest losing streak of her short career. Reminder that Chelsie lost just five games all season last year plus a sixth loss during the playoffs. She is currently 2-5.
Jonathan Taylor (21.0 points) is back! While Jess didn’t pick up the win, she still scored enough points to move into 11th place in this week’s Power Rankings.
Uncharacteristically down days for Austin Ekeler (5.6 points) and Cooper Kupp (6.9) ultimately doomed Jess this week, but I remain bullish on her chances to stage a dramatic comeback or at least play spoiler. She will need to win almost every game remaining on her schedule, however.
For those 2-5 and 1-6 team owners out there, 15% and 14% of teams with those records, respectively, have gone on to make the playoffs (or would have if a six-team playoff existed). Notably that includes Brandon (2012), JT (2015) and Alex (2021), who were all 2-5 and Nick (2016) who was 1-6. Alex in 2021 even finished second. So don’t lose hope yet!
Finally, we have a new last-place team owner—Geoff. As recently as Week 4, Geoff was tied for fourth in the Power Rankings. But this week, he’s dropped to the bottom.
This is not only Geoff’s third straight loss, it’s his third straight week with the worst score in the league. That hasn’t happened since Erik did it four weeks in a row in 2011.
Bijan Robinson wasn’t the only with a headache on Sunday. Geoff’s 52.38 points this week were the fewest by a team owner in nearly three years. Not since Nick scored 46.72 points in Week 13 of 2020 to cap the Worst’s worst season of all time has a team owner scored so few points. In fact, it’s the fourth-fewest in the PPR era.
But if there is hope, gotta think Robinson will bounce back. And hey, Najee Harris got into the end zone. At 3-4, Geoff is definitely not out of it. He just needs to break out of this slump. Though he will have to face Jess this week. Is this a battle of two team owners staging their comebacks? Or a Poop Bowl preview? Only time will tell.
That’s it. We are officially halfway through the regular season. Last year at this time, the majority of eventual playoff teams had either a 4-3 or 3-4 record and half were in the bottom half of the Power Rankings. Meanwhile at the top, three of the top four in the Week 7 Power Rankings missed the playoffs entirely. So there’s still a lot of fake football left to play.
