Going to start calling this midweek article the newsletter, since it includes more than just the power rankings. Also sorry it’s coming out so late–I’m on vacation!
Weekly Status Update
Current Playoff Seeds
If the playoff seeds were calculated today, here’s who would make the cut.
| Seed | Team Name | Criteria |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Pegasus | Division winner with best record* |
| 2nd | Bling Bling | Division winner with second-best record* |
| 3rd | Tricksters | Division winner with third-best record* |
| 4th | Kali Warriors | Division winner with worst record* |
| 5th | Not Lucky | Team with best record among remaining* |
| 6th | speed-demons | Team with most points for among remaining |
*Ties broken by Points For.
Title Belt Transfer
After Week 3, ownership of the title belt transferred to the speed-demons after their victory over the reigning belt holder, the Kali Warriors.
Week 4 saw another transfer of possession, as the speed-demons were narrowly defeated by Not Lucky in their low-scoring battle.
Scoring by Division
| Rank | Division Name | Points For | Wins | Average PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Division By Zero | 2104.52 | 7 | 175.38 |
| 2 | High Flyers | 2015.92 | 7 | 168.99 |
| 3 | The Resistance | 1967.94 | 5 | 164 |
| 4 | Cerberus | 1866.54 | 5 | 156.55 |
After Week 4, Cerberus continues to be the least-competitive division in the league.
Points Leaders
| Rank | Team Name | Points For |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pegasus | 779.50 |
| 2 | Not Lucky | 773.46 |
| 3 | Bling Bling | 756.54 |
| 4 | Tricksters | 690.90 |
| 5 | Kali Warriors | 681.60 |
| 6 | speed-demons | 677.70 |
| 7 | Winged Hussars | 648.20 |
| 8 | The Death Eaters | 632.10 |
| 9 | Necessary Roughness | 599.34 |
| 10 | Golden Eagles | 588.22 |
| 11 | Detroit Wolverines | 574.52 |
| 12 | Red Warriors | 552.84 |
Power Rankings Table
Note: Even though the Week 4 power rankings were not published, this week’s “change” from last week is based on power rankings computed for Week 4.
Also, now that we’ve had a decent handful of games this season, the expert ROS consensus ranking factors less significantly in the power ranking calculation compared to overall wins, current actual record, and scoring performance.
| TEAM NAME | POWER RANK | CHANGE | RECORD | OVERALL WINS | PPG | R.O.S. ROSTER |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bling Bling | #1 | 0 |
4-0 | 38-6 | #3, 189ppg | #1 |
| Pegasus | #2 | 0 |
4-0 | 36-8 | #1, 195ppg | #6 |
| Not Lucky | #3 | 2 |
2-2 | 31-13 | #2, 193ppg | #5 |
| Tricksters | #4 | -1 |
3-1 | 27-17 | #4, 173ppg | #4 |
| Kali Warriors | #5 | 1 |
2-2 | 27-17 | #5, 170ppg | #3 |
| speed-demons | #6 | -2 |
2-2 | 22-22 | #6, 169ppg | #2 |
| The Death Eaters | #7 | 1 |
2-2 | 19-25 | #8, 158ppg | #7 |
| Golden Eagles | #8 | 2 |
2-2 | 12-32 | #10, 147ppg | #11 |
| Winged Hussars | #9 | -2 |
1-3 | 21-23 | #7, 162ppg | #12 |
| Necessary Roughness | #10 | 1 |
0-4 | 12-32 | #9, 150ppg | #8 |
| Detroit Wolverines | #11 | 1 |
1-3 | 10-34 | #11, 144ppg | #10 |
| Red Warriors | #12 | -3 |
1-3 | 9-35 | #12, 138ppg | #9 |
Power Rankings Over Time
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Team-by-Team Breakdown
Bling Bling (1)
Bling Bling sits comfortably at the top for the third straight week, and is it any wonder? This past week, despite trading away a top-3 RB and starting Case Keenum, who scored fewer than 2 points, Paul’s was the only team to score more than 200 points, and his roster is still considered the strongest ROS by expert consensus.
Anything can happen in fantasy, but this team looks unstoppable.
Pegasus (2)
On the subject of unstoppable teams, following closely behind Bling Bling in the power rankings is Pegasus, the only other undefeated team in the league. And I mean closely–the gap between these two teams is very slim compared to the gap between 2 and 3.
This week will see these two titans face off, so we’ll soon see who reigns supreme at the top of the league as the lone undefeated team.
Not Lucky (3)
Not Lucky has slowly but surely climbed their way up the power rankings and finally cracked the top 3. They have the second-highest PPG in the league, but they lack the consistency that the top 2 teams have. This past week they barely got the victory over the team who ended up putting up the week’s second-lowest score. Not Lucky got pretty lucky this week.
Nonetheless, the team is quite strong and deserves its #3 spot. We’ll have to see if they hang onto it.
Tricksters (4)
Despite having a better record, the Tricksters find themselves one spot lower than the 2-2 Not Lucky. The margin is slim, though, and they could easily switch positions next week.
Kali Warriors (5)
The Kali Warriors have had a modest start to the season–neither extraordinarily good nor extraordinarily bad. They have a match against the 3-1 Tricksters this week, which they really want to win to maintain their tenuous hold on the division lead.
speed-demons (6)
The speed-demons find themselves perfectly mediocre. With an official record of 2-2 and an overall record of 22-22, they are exactly in the middle of the pack.
Despite their middling status, they’re still in a good position to contend for a playoff berth.
The Death Eaters (7)
And now we get to the teams scoring below the league average. The Death Eaters has scored a modest 158 PPG, with a max of 165.10. The Death Eaters has a few solid weapons on their roster, but many of their other pieces have relatively low ceilings, so a boom week has been hard to come by. They still have a shot at playoff contention, being in the lowest scoring division, but the outlook doesn’t look good if they keep up their current average.
Golden Eagles (8)
The golden boys have moved up in the power rankings thanks to their win last week. The win was against the lowest-scoring team in the league, but a win’s a win. They made a solid trade this past week, sending Sammy Watkins, Demarcus Lawrence, and some picks in exchange for Ertz, Michel, and JuJu.
They’re making a concerted effort for a playoff run, but it’s tough to imagine them clinching a spot when they’re up against Pegasus, an undefeated team and top scorer in the league. It’s still early, though, so we’ll have to see what the Golden Eagles have in store.
Winged Hussars (9)
The Hussars have had a tough start to the season, but the season is still young. Even though clinching a divisional title seems unlikely at this point given Pegasus’s sheer strength, they trail the speed-demons by just 30 points in points scored this season, meaning that wild card spot is still attainable, assuming Not Lucky takes the record-based wild card seed.
Necessary Roughness (10)
After the Hussars, there’s a steep drop in power to the bottom three teams in this list. Necessary Roughness is the only remaining winless team in the league, but they’ve outscored the two worse teams at 150PPG.
They play the bottom team in these power rankings this week, so odds are good that they get their first victory soon.
Detroit Wolverines (11)
The Wolverines aren’t having the best year. They’re in a division with two of the top three scorers in the league, and they don’t look quite as strong. Barring significant turn-arounds in performance, I don’t see them cracking the top-6.
Red Warriors (12)
Yeah, the Warriors probably want to start looking to the future. Even though they’re in the least competitive division, they’re scoring nearly 28 points below the league average and are the only team in the single-digits in terms of overall wins (9-35).
Luck Chart
This week the Golden Eagles take the crown as the luckiest team in the league. Based on the moves they’re making, they’re aiming to turn their good fortune into a 2019 playoff run. Looking forward to seeing how it pans out–wouldn’t be the first time an Eagles team were underdogs and came out on top. 😉