Devin had a big week even with his #1 Draft pick, David Johnson, getting injured for possibly half the season. However, BTOP still has Todd Gurley and Kareem Hunt in his starting lineup, and West on his bench. Devin's team looked pretty solid for how up an down this week 1 was, totaling 152 points. Greg Olsen is the only concern, with only 2 catches. It might be the closing in on the end of an era for him, but Devin got his guy. I think Devin will remain a top 3 team throughout this year.
K. Beale (worst team name this league has ever seen), had a pretty solid week, leading the league in points with 155 with the help of amazing games from Brown, Fournette, and Hill. However, he lost one of his starting running backs at Danny Woodhead and every other running back in his lineup is a RB2 for their respected team or splits with 1 or several other players. My draft grade weakness for Kyle was his running backs, and now he is going to struggle in that area even more. Kyle also is last in the waiver wire this week, which ends up being a huge waiver wire week most years, so it is unlikely he will get a shot at any breakouts from week 1.
Jordan has definitely dropped down on the ratings after a bit above average week with 112 points. Some of who I thought would be Jordan's biggest threats didn't really show out too much (Baldwin, T.Y, Adams, and even Hogan). I do believe that Jordan will have a consistent team this year. Matt Ryan will be a solid QB1, Lesean McCoy has almost no competition at the running back position, T.Y will be good WR1 with Andrew Luck back, and Baldwin is on a solid Seattle offense. Just like most other teams in the league, he doesn't have anyone on his bench thats very reliable yet, but it seems like he'll continue to do well.
Don had a pretty good week like Jordan with 118 points. Matt stafford proved to be as good as he has been hyped up to be and we saw McCaffrey get a good amount of action. Don has the dynamic duo rookie running backs and they seem to be a good pay off thus far. Dalvin Cook actually broke Adrian Peterson's vikings rookie record for his first rushing game, but who knows how long he will keep this up. At this pace, he's the best rookie running back in the league, and even a top running back overall. Hunter Henry. Boy oh boy he laid a goose egg on Max's team while playing the tough Broncos D. Overall, Max's team looks like he could make a good push this year.
Picking up where he left off? I don' think so. These are power rankings and I continue to believe 1 week scoring doesn't matter. Duke had a slow week and a lot of it falls of his starting QB and WR1 being out of play, with their replacements combining for THREE points. With Winston and OBJ back in his lineup, there is hope. Montgomery is looking like a good PPR running back considering he plays in the slot half the time. A lot of the rest of this team looked very average, obviously not giving great numbers as Duke totaled a league low 78 points. It does however look like a lot of the league will be facing numbers below 100 very often (although it seemed like this week was particularly slow), with half the league under 100 this week. I see Duke making a comeback in the coming weeks.
Bernie is moving up since the preseason rankings because of one little thing. I think you all know. Zeke. Had Zeke not been facing off the field problems before the draft, he would have fallen to a top 5 pick. However, a lot of his team doesn't seem very reliable to me. But a lot of them also have a lot of potential. Julio Jones is always a threat, Kirk is "supposed" to break out, Fitz has been consistent for years but is starting to age, Thielen looks like a #1 target, and Graham is always good but worrisome. The problem I have here is that BB has 3 QB's. None of which are proven. Palmer is a joke, Kirk looks sluggish (even through the preseason), and Luck is out for who knows how long, and even when he is back he might not be great. Pretty much, Bernies team is totally up for grabs. I predict his team will be like an eel, I'll never be able to grab ahold of what is going on or how good he is.
Not a great week for SM, but there might be better to come. The number 1 overall draft pick had a disapointing week 1 with only 7.7 points, but I think everyone in the league knows that isn't a sign of things to come for Bell. However, The Steelers line does not look like it did last year. Le'veon was hit fairly often and fairly hard. Steelers' Bryant also looked sluggish this week, and might have a similar season to his last few. He relies on touchdowns too much, and a lot of those will be going to Antonio Brown, or Le'veon himself. Other than that, the rest of P.J's team did okay, and almost all of his bench players outscored a starter at the same position. My initial thought on SM's lack of depth may have been wrong.
Coburn's team might be one of the better teams on paper, but he didn't show out this week. Golden Tate was his only reliable player and 5 of his starters were in single digits. There was some decent bench play with Witten, Garcon, Tyrod, and Corey Davis all scoring at least 13. Brandon Marshall looked straight trash in his debut with the Giants, EVEN with OBJ out. That means that when OBJ is back, Marshall will be seeing even less action? Or it could draw a worse defender on him. Either way, I don't see Marshall having a great season with the shaky Giants. Eifert and the entire Cinci team looked god awful and I don't think that will get any better either. Dez Bryant has been and always will be a stretch, and with Dak facing a sophomore slump, he might be in trouble. Overall, I don't things are looking up for The Beef's team going forward.
Jake's team wasn't one of my favorites from the start, mainly because I personally don't like the players he chose, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt with a B draft grade. Abdullah, Gronk, Lacy, Cobb, and Jamaal Charles? I just didn't understand. Let me tell you about each of these guys. The Lions haven't had a running back run for 100 yards in a game in how long? 10 years? longer? I forget. Avoiding that all together was most peoples idea. Okay so Gronk is fragile, and everyone knows that. But even in a game with the top 2 Patriots receivers out of the game, he gets 5 points. Eddie Lacy got 0.3 points, he's fat, and he splits with like 3 running backs. I don't like Randall Cobb, but he's pretty good. However, the packers are often way too stupid to utilize him and his talents. He had a good week 1, but he is VERY consistent and being inconsistent (if it were me I'd trade now). And Jamaal Charles I have no idea what to say. He barley made the team. Jacob didn't even have a bad week at 89 points, and he might even get better with Landry in the mix. But for now he stays here.
A 1-0 team at the bottom of the list? This might not make sense to most, but I say it every year, this is the power rankings, not standings. The patriots are 0-1 but nobody says they're the worst team in the league. I had a chance to keep up with Team 10's team all weekend and I saw a lot of average players and an injured bench. Zach Erzt and Melvin Gordon were his saviors (also playing the team with the lowest score in the league). McFadden might not see the field now that Zeke is back in the game, Rawls has been up and down with injuries for a while now, and Allen Robinson is out for the year (Duke Johnson too). I don't see Crowell getting much more work at the back even with Johnson out. He's not passing down back. Charlie has the chance to bounce back up the power rankings next week if we see a strong performance from the retuning Mike Evans. We only have to wait and see.