Week 3 Power Rankings
Fantasy football is a game of regrets.
The regret of a failed draft pick. Or passing on the guy you should have drafted instead. Or, more specifically, using the second overall pick on Christian McCaffrey. (I too would like to board a plane to Germany to escape my terrible fantasy football team sometimes.)
There’s the regret of the waiver wire. Of picking a defense that gives you negative points. Or dropping a handcuff one week before your star RB gets injured. There’s even the hypothetical regret that prevents you from pulling the trigger on a potential trade…followed by the regret of not making the trade that you were afraid you were going to regret in the first place.
But most regretful of all is the regret from benching a player who absolutely goes off. This week, that regret belonged to Josh. As we noted in the group text, Jauan Jennings’ 46.45 points were likely the second-most ever by a bench player in Worst League history, trailing only DeVon Achane’s 51.3 points last year.
But the good news for Josh? Even without Jennings, he narrowly held off Chelsie for a 1.56-point win. Which means the only ones truly regretting Jennings’ performance are the rest of us who all passed on Jennings on the waiver wire last week. (Actually, Josh even passed on Jennings at first, making his first waiver claim for Hunter Henry, instead).
Speaking of the rest of the league, Jauan Jennings wasn’t the only player on benches making noise in Week 3. Here are some of Week 3’s biggest bench scorers who made their owners regret their starting lineup decisions:
Jauan Jennings, SF WR: 46.45 points (Josh)
Jayden Daniels, Wsh QB: 28.06 points (Brandon)
Amari Cooper, Cle WR: 27.6 points (Erik)
Rome Odunze, Chi WR: 23.4 points (Kelly)
Jakobi Meyers, LV WR: 21.2 points (Kelly)
Terry McLaurin, Wsh WR: 20.0 points (Brandon)
Stefon Diggs, Hou WR: 19.92 points (Geoff)
DeAndre Hopkins, Ten WR: 19.3 points (Samantha)
Devin Singletary, NYG RB: 18.8 points (Kelly)
While Josh escaped unscathed this week, Brandon and Kelly both picked up losses that could have been prevented with the right lineup decisions, however unlikely.
But here’s the thing about regrets—they only matter if you let them. In fantasy football, as in life, you can’t undo a bad decision or go back and start the right player. What you can do is learn from it, adjust, and move forward. Because at the end of the year, win or lose, the only thing we truly regret is that the season is over.
As that trailer park kid from We’re the Millers might say, “no ragrets.”
Alright, let’s get to the Power Rankings…
Jess and Samantha, both 3-0, continue to distance themselves from the pack.
Scoring was at a premium in Week 3. Last year, teams averaged 116.8 ppg. But for the third straight week, league-wide scoring fell below that mark with Week 3 being the fewest total points scored yet, including five teams that failed to hit triple digits.
One team owner who didn’t have a problem putting up the points? Greco! With 159.28 points scored in Week 3, she put up the most points scored in a single game this season. And that’s with her second-round pick Puka Nacua still out with an injury. I guess it helps when you have the current WR1—Malik Nabers.
Some other interesting notes from around the league this week:
Jess picked up a “lucky win” over Brandon this week despite finishing in the bottom half of the league in scoring. But, she picked up enough true wins to keep herself in first place in the Power Rankings.
Despite just 0.3 points from Rhamondre Stevenson, Jess still led all teams in RB scoring in Week 3 thanks to 59.4 points from Saquon Barkley and Aaron Jones. She still ranks first in the league in RB scoring, leading Beth Ann by a healthy 5.9 ppg and Samantha (in third place) by a whopping 18.5 ppg.
Speaking of Samantha, she nearly caught Jess for first place in the Power Rankings. Thanks to a comfortable win over Erik (a matchup of our last two champions), she now finds herself at 3-0 for the first time in her career.
Team owners who start 3-0 go on to make the playoffs 82% of the time.
Greco’s first weekly prize this season is her third in the last five weeks, dating back to Week 13 of last year. She’s also now led the league in scoring for the 16th time in her career, trailing only Gray (35) and Brandon (21).
Thanks to her big week, Greco not only gets her first win of the season but catapults up the rankings into a tie for third place.
Tough week for Beth Ann who received an “unlucky loss” courtesy of a matchup with Gray. Her 116.68 points could have been much more if not for the fact that Anthony Richardson and Mark Andrews combined for just 5.08 points despite a projection of 27.6 points.
Gray is on the board! After starting the season 0-2 for the first time in his career, Gray picked up his first win of the season.
Yes, Rashee Rice went off for 29.1 points (one of the early contenders for best value pick of the draft), but it was Gray’s RBs that impressed with Derrick Henry, Zack Moss and Samaje Perine combining for 58.1 points. Can they keep it up? Gray will need it with Cooper Kupp and Tyreek Hill (by proxy) hampered by injury.
With Isiah Pacheco sidelined, D’Onta Foreman (0.5 points) didn’t exactly pick up the slack. But Chuba Hubbard (27.9 points) sure did. That was more than enough for Geoff to defeat Kelly and claim his second win of the season.
Tough break for Alex this week who was once again matched up with the weekly prize winner for the second time this season. With A.J. Brown sidelined, Alex scored just 8.8 points from WRs (Calvin Ridley and Jaxon Smith-Njigba)—the fewest by a WR corps this season.
Alex is also currently averaging just 15.0 receptions per game, last in the league. Get better soon, A.J. Brown!
Lastly, we noted Jake Moody’s big Week 1 for Alex. This week, the Packers D/ST scored 23.0 points for Alex. As a result, Alex is averaging 29.0 ppg from defense and kicker, easily tops in the league.
After her big Week 2, Chelsie fell back to earth, scoring 91.7 points in Week 3, nearly identical to her Week 1 total. Still, Austin Ekeler and the Bills D/ST nearly pulled out the win over Josh on Monday night.
As Chelsie noted, injuries are piling up. This week, it was Austin Ekeler and DeVonta Smith who suffered mid-game injuries. Then Davante Adams appears to have injured his hamstring in practice. Combine that group with Christian McCaffrey and you have half of Chelsie’s first eight picks out with injury. Brutal.
Brandon was this week’s biggest faller, dropping six spots after scoring just 81.58 points in Week 3. Like Chelsie, Brandon is dealing with injuries to two of his first four picks—Joe Mixon and Deebo Samuel.
On the plus side, Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin had breakout games on Monday night. Now Brandon just needs to figure out which QB to start. Through three weeks, he has yet to start the higher-scoring QB between Kyler Murray and Daniels.
Josh has yet to finish in the top half of the league in scoring. And yet, he’s 2-1. That means he’s got two of the league’s four “lucky wins” so far.
Like Chelsie, Erik has now sandwiched one good game between two bad ones. It’s early, but Erik’s title defense is so far not going according to plan.
Finally, Kelly is 0-3. Not only that, but she’s 0-33 in true games. That means she’s had the lowest score in the league in each of the first three weeks. Not only that, but she’s averaging just 74.7 ppg. Even in a low-scoring season, that’s still 37.0 points below this year’s league average.
Has anyone ever had a start this bad? In short, no. Previously the worst starts belonged to Geoff in 2015 and Alex in 2022. Both started the year 0-3 but with slightly better true records of 2-31. Neither won more than four games all season.
That being said, 21% of 0-3 teams still rebound to make the playoffs. Kelly is not out of it yet. But she needs to turn things around fast.
That’s all for Week 3. Good luck to everyone as we head into Week 4! May your lineups be regret-free, your bench warmers stay quiet, and your waiver wire picks hit big.
