It's been two weeks since the draft, and we've finally had our first week of football in a year. It's way too early to make judgements, but we're going to anyway. Yahoo gives us each a letter grade for our draft, hands out an A+ to everyone with a backup kicker for the bye week, then has AI write some nonesense to back the grade up. I can answer a captcha, and have a week of results to work with, so maybe my grades will make more sense.
The Draft:
Yusuf DiKelce: A
Waiting on quarterback seemed to work out for Yusuf, so far at least. I had Tua last year, and he got off to a hot start then too, so we'll see if it lasts. At least you always have Taysom Hill to fall back to in your QB slot as well. Mixon and Godwin look like great values if they keep it up, and each has a good chance to. We'll see if Kelce is finally just too old now. Probably not going to get 150+ points every week, but I think you're going to have a hard time missing playoffs.
Darnold QB1: C
Currently second place with a high point total and a win week 1. If star kicker Jake Moody keeps up that 31 point a game pace, Darnold QB1 will likely finally dethrone Greg and take that trophy. He'd better hope for that, because past the first two picks in AJ Brown and Josh Allen, things look pretty mediocre. Chuba Hubbard and the Panthers are not going to be a great flex going forward, and there's not much help from the bench. If they get unlucky with the Kenneth Walker injury, that will be hard to fill too. Speaking of old TEs, maybe Mark Andrews is getting there this season too. Seems Likely?
Puka From The Seine: B-
The minus is for the bad luck of 12th round pick Puka Nacua getting sent to IR halfway through the first week. Rhamondre Stevenson looks like a great RB2, making this one of the stronger RB sets, and maybe Brock Bowers will be a value as one of the last TEs taken, but with the injury and Terry McLaurin looking like a 4th round dud, this team will have a hard time filling with WRs from an apparently shallow bench. Puka From The Seine did show why it's great to pick an elite kicker "early" though, with 25 points from Aubrey leading the team.
Lamarathon Runners: A
The team's namesake seems to be a great running back once again. If the dud from Olave was just a fluke, this team should be pretty good. Despite that, this bench is stacked. Lamarathon's biggest problem will probably be figuring out which good option to start weekly. Waiting on RB seemed to pay off, with what look like 4 good starters now. The only spot that really looks bad is TE for this team. Just a reminder everyone, this is Greg's team. We need him to lose this season.
Ja'Marr SteepleChase: C-
SteepleChase is already picking up a few injuries. Achane was noted as an injury risk before the draft, and it seems like that was an accurate assessment. He was also really good though, so if he can get healthy again and stay healthy, this team might rise a whole letter grade. Ja'Marr Chase's team, the Bengals, showed up on Greg's list of possible panic teams, but in the end, everyone agreed it was the least worrisome of the bunch. We'll see if Chase and the Bengals can pick it up too, otherwise this might be a tough season for SteepleChase. Javonte Williams seems like a dud, but at least there's a little flex help on the bench, especially if Achane is out for stretches.
Pole Vaulter's Chubb: D+
The Pole Vaulter's Chubb said this team was an F grade halfway through the week, but we grade on a curve, and they played against the true F team (more later) to eek out a win this week. There are some big issues with this team, but a couple of bright spots that might keep it afloat. I thought London was going to have a great year with Arthur Smith gone, and maybe he still will, but this week makes that harder to believe. Raheem Mostert doesn't seem poised to repeat his wild 2023 run, especially with an early injury. And Pole Vaulter's Chubb went all in on the Houston offense, with three underperforming players. With all that though, Kupp may help carry them, especially with Puka out for a while. If the team's namesake comes back from injury and returns to form, and if Lamar Jackson Jr. keeps up the 2 rushing TD a game pace, then not all is lost.
Purdy Good Team: A-
What an introduction to the league?! It always sucks to lose the week with the second most points. I don't know if Saquon Barkley will be able to continue at 3 TDs a week, but he looks like a great pickup. We'll see how Davante Adams ends up doing this year, after getting only the third most targets on his own team and catching passes from Gardner Minshew, but Rashid Shaheed looks great instead, especially with those sweet return yards counting in our league. This seems like a solid team, though the bench is a bit thin. Hopefully they'll have better matchup luck the rest of the year.
Rachaad White & Blue: C+
It looks like Justin Herbert might have a hard season without Keenan Allen and Mike Williams anymore. Purdy didn't have a great first week either, but should be okay filling in if needed at least. This running back group looks decent, though Etienne might be in a timeshare. The Jordan Mason pickup before the season looks like it may have been great. We'll have to see if McCaffrey stays out much longer. If McCaffrey is out for a while, or reaggravates his injury, Mason may give this team a big boost.
TJ Hock's Pro Skater: D+
Amon-Ra was possibly the most consistent WR last year, so this first week was probably a fluke. Still crazy to see just 13 yards for him, while Jameson Williams had a night instead. I'm less sure about Metcalf. On the other hand, Reed might make his way into the starting lineup so the Pro Skater won't have to miss Metcalf anyway. His blind team loyalty seems to have gotten him into some trouble with Zamir White, and he might have to hit the waiver wire for TE. Too bad Likely already got scooped.
Diggs Dug: C
Looks like there was only one Worthy rookie reciever for this team in the draft, and it wasn't Harrison Jr. One apparent dud should be well offset by a mid round gem. Diggs Dug will have to rely on what looks like a pretty broken 40 year old at QB due to an early Jordan Love injury. Alvin Kamara still seems to have it, and looks like a great value, but Dug better hope that DJ Moore and D'Andre Swift show up better in the future, since there's not much on the bench to replace them.
The 49ers Gold Medal Miners: B
Everyone has agreed that the panic meter is still low on the Bengals and thus Burrow, and the Miners have the reliable Matt Stafford in relief. The mysterious absence of McCaffrey did not help last week, and it's hard to tell what will happen going forward. A lot of this draft grade depends on the number one overall pick. Thankfully, with Zeke being an okay play, the running backs still don't look terrible, but anything is a huge downgrade from CMC. We'll have to see if the other big 9er on the team recovers from his holdout as well. I think better days are ahead for this team, but if McCaffrey ends up out for a while, this grade obviously has to take a hit.
Dak's Track Attack: D
With Tyjae Spears being a dud and no one to replace him at RB2, Dak's Track Attack might have one of the weakest RB sets, despite having one of the top RBs (maybe the top RB prospect overall if CMC is out for a while). It does seem like Amari Cooper and Michael Pittman just had down weeks at the same time, and really bad kicker and defense points made this look worse than it probably was. If the WRs do pick it back up, and their namesake can get a few more air yards while passing to one of the best WRs, they should be okay. There's lots of possible points of failure though, and not many replacement parts.
Checking my work, the distribution doesn't seem too bad actually.
A - 3
B - 2
C - 4
D - 3
I don't think any team is an F yet. Maybe we'll do mid season grades too.
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