Originally Posted On beatchuckie.blogspot.com August 6, 2019
Author: Wings
After a long hiatus, the power rankings are back! The draft has meant that many teams have drastically changed compared to last season. And with a slew of post-draft trades I covered yesterday ages ago, and already with a bunch of other trades, draft grades are already outdated.
These debut power rankings are a collaboration between me and co-commish Chuck. Unless anything super significant happens in August, next power rankings will come right before the regular season begins in September.
Without further ado….
Tier 1- Immediate Contenders
1. Gio
Our boy Gio finally gets the number 1 debut spot I denied him so many times last season. While last season ended in a disaster that nobody found funny at all, Gio retooled his team through multiple trades and without a doubt has the best WR trio in the league. David Johnson and Leonard Fournette carry high ceilings going into this season. There is literally nowhere to go but down from here, will you be Lil Nas X or Lil Snupe? you decide.
2. Erik
Coming in a close second, just like at the end of last season, Erik managed to build a strong team around his keepers without a single trade this season. His most glaring hole it seems is his brittle bones
RB depth as 2/3 of his starters are in a heavy RBBC. But with CMC, he could have Chuckie out there running wheel routes at RB2 and still drop 200+ a game. You’re a wise man for saving your draft capital, you’ll be in a great position to buy at the deadline.
3. Chuck
Apparently Chuckie thought the MLB trade deadline applied to us as well after seeing him start the season blowing up not only the team he drafted, but also sacrificing a lot of draft capital in the process (His current picks: 1,2,3,4,4,8,9,9). Chuck’s made it obvious he is all-in this season and that nobody was going to out-splash him in names transferred. The once untouchable Saquon Barkley? Gone in favor of getting the championship duo of Gurley and Bell back together. Chuck played last season relatively low-risk compared to previous years, but now he’s swinging for the fences and unfortunately doesn’t have the Angels pitching to him.
4. Nauch
Nauch spent the infant 2019 season making some much-needed upgrades, deciding to roll the dice on a new Rams WR who hopefully won’t tear his ACL. Getting to swap running backs with Chuckie hopefully makes up for the pain and suffering that Gurley and Bell caused you last season with their various shenanigans, because you for sure won this trade in the long-term. Last season was a ?, this season is so far looking to start with a !
Tier 2 – Dark Horses
5. Joe
Joe is a cool dude with a cool team. (if you can’t tell this was the last one I wrote up)
6. Ant
Ant has been very busy to start the season, already making trades with 3 different owners and completely retooling his roster, shipping both his keepers out. With MT free of his holdout and making bank, Ant has one of the top receiving trios of the league. While lacking a true RB1, Ant is still very deep at the position and just needs one of them to break out this season to contend for the ship.
7. Wings
The champ is very far from #1 to start the season. It is no secret that I went on an improbable run full of extremely lucky breaks to steal a championship from the league (it is the greatest achievement of my life, degrees are overrated), but to have myself outside the top 5 is shocking even for me. The recent news of a Zeke holdout means I gotta treat these rankings with the assumption that he won’t play, which seriously jeopardizes my chances at a run this season. Until then, fear the might that is Alfred Morris.
8. Roberto
I will say that this team is already eons better than the trash heap you left behind in ESPN, but there is still some work to do to get this team into contention with the big boys- whether it’s this season or next. Pat Mahomes could just drop 60 a week and carry you to the 6 seed, though, it is a real possibility.
9. Hurtado
I think this is the lowest Hurtado’s been ranked in a while, but I did tear apart his draft for good reason, the end result was not ideal to immediately follow up a strong performance last season. Hurtado may not watch NBA, but he was channeling the spirit of Samuel Presti with his moves to open the season, moving his best pieces for very favorable draft capital packages. (His first few picks are 1,2,3,4,4,5,5,6,7,7,7,7,8). It is way too early to count him out of contention this season, though. There’s a world where he has a starting lineup of Gordon, McKinnon, Williams/White with Green and Jules, that is not a terrible team to field. For now though, we are very much on to the 2020 draft.
Tier 2 – Weege Alex
10. Alex
Welcome to the League Alex. You can’t entirely blame him for this considering the situation, but he definitely could have drafted better to fill out roster needs- a starting RB duo of Phillip Lindsay and Lamar Miller isn’t going to scare anyone. As the fantasy footballers like to say: you don’t win at the draft; but it is gonna be an uphill battle