Dak's Track Attack:
This season has been tough for Dak's Track Attack. To be honest, most of the starters on this team don't seem to be true starters, with players like Austin Ekeler (what an injury year and a trade can do) and Khalil Shakir typically being mostly bench depth. Regardless of those plays, which have been made out of necessity, this team's players have dropped the ball all around, with multiple low single digit games each from Amari Cooper, Michael Pittman Jr., and even Breece Hall. After an amazing season last year, Sam LaPorta has disappeared, with only one double digit game so far (just 11 points at that). The team has replaced his namesake with another team's (though that name is old and should be updated for this year's theme...). This team is obviously still making moves and trying to make the best of what they've got. Unfortunately, in almost every aspect this year, there's not a lot here. Sorry, but the losing will probably continue, and the best hope is for a spike week in playoffs to avoid the Hen.
Prediction: 12th
The 49ers Gold Medal Miners:
The 49ers offense is less of a gold mine this year than past seasons, at least for the players this team chose. The Gold Medal Miners managed to pick all the injuries for their team this year. It's hard to see a season where CMC and Brandon Aiyuk are out, you start with a 2-5 record, and still make playoffs. This team can still definitely contend for the bye weeks to avoid complete humiliation, but with some major injuries, and eratic fantasy play from most of the players on the team, including Joe Burrow at the helm, this team will have lots of ups and downs. It's going to be a hard time digging out of the bottom ranks.
Prediction: 11th
City of Love:
This team has the 6th most fantasy points so far, but only 10th place to show for it. Not only that, but they're just 10 points off from 4th in scoring. A 2-5 record will be very hard to come back from, even with a pretty strong team. Just to compete for the last playoff spot with an even record, City of Love would only be able to lose two of the remaining games in the season. You wouldn't think a QB like Derek Carr could make such a difference, but the Saints have been looking bad with all the injuries around Alvin Kamara. While Carr himself would likely remain on the bench considering Jordan Love's recent performance, the injury also still does directly affect the team. Kyle Pitts has started to turn things around finally, and D'Andre Swift has been a good value, but this WR room is going to continue to be very volatile for the rest of the season. That's not good at all when you need to string a lot of wins together in a row. I think it's tough to see this team competing for playoffs considering their current record, though I think they might be able to manage a bye week in the consolation bracket, avoiding the dreaded Hen.
Prediction: 9th
Wushu Waddle:
After a very slow start over the first 3 weeks (0-3 record to start), Wushu Waddle didn't throw in the towel. Instead, they hit the halfway mark among the 3-4 teams still in fine contention for playoffs. Just 3 points behind 8th place, Wushu Waddle has plenty of room to continue their upward trajectory and compete for a spot. Like all the negative record teams, Wushu will need to win more than lose at this point, no coasting. After a worrying first week, Amon-Ra St. Brown has returned to perennial double digit scoring. Besides last week, Jayden Reed has been an amazing value, pushing the team's namesake down into flex, which is good since Waddle has been muted without Tua. Wushu is one of two teams employing the two RBs from the same NFL team strategy, and looking at the two, it's hard to want to sit either. Besides David Montgomery last week, neither back has been in single digits. I think the upward trajectory will continue and Wushu will make the comeback from that 0-3 start.
Prediction: 6th
Pukaing Up Seine Water:
The team name captures the feeling from the start. In week 1, the team's namesake and promising keeper went down. The quarterback is somehow still in real-world MVP contention despite a 6:8 TD/INT ratio on the season an never even surpassing Lamar Jackson's worst fantasy performance (almost the same for Baker Mayfield, who has only had one game worse than Mahomes's best performance). A lot of that may be attributable to every single Chiefs WR going down this season, but that doesn't really matter for fantasy. If this team can scramble for a better QB, they may be able to salvage the season; a 3-4 start isn't the best, but still has plenty chance at playoffs. I'm not sure if I agree with this assessment, but Yahoo puts this team in second for the power rankings, nestled between the top two point scorers so far. So maybe there's some hope for this team, even if it's not apparent. I really hope my prediction is wrong for this one (obviously).
Prediction: 8th
Darnold QB1:
This team is now one of the contenders for least lucky by the halfway point. While the top two scorers on the season are also languishing outside of the top three teams, Darnold QB1 is sitting outside of playoffs as it stands, with the third most points in the league. With the standings still not too far out of hand, a couple of wins could really change the tide for this team. Of course they will need a positive record going forward, like any of the bottom 6, if they want a chance at playoffs, but 4 wins is likely all that is needed, especially because it will be hard to get 4 wins and not at least somewhat maintain their points edge. With AJ Brown back from injury, and if the change of QB continues to help George Pickens, and if Tank Bigsby gets to keep the job, this team looks very set to get those wins over the course of the regular season here. That's also not to mention Jonathan Taylor coming back soon. This team looks like it has weathered the injury storm fine and is getting healthy again at the right time.
Prediction: 4th
Ja'Marr SteepleChase:
Each individual player on this team seems capable of great weeks, but none of them seem to have any fantasy football floor. Most weeks, this doesn't seem to work out for points, since this team has 3 double digit weeks so far and just one over 120 points. Luckily for the team, matchups have been easy, with most of the points against coming in blowouts in weeks 5 and 6. This team has been all over the standings, sitting in 1st at one point, and dropping all the way to 8th soon after. That's what can happen with such a volatile crew. This team might end up sneaking into the playoffs and winning it all on a few lucky post season weeks where everything just comes together for a few of these players at once, or they could continue to cycle good weeks for each player to keep the sums above 100 and get the wins needed for playoffs. The positive record so far helps, but they will probably need a positive second half as well unless their points for rises.
Prediction: 10th
Yusuf DiKelce:
This team may have the most indirect injury luck I've seen, with Tyreek Hill being completely suppressed by Tua's absence and Travis Kelce on the flip side becoming fantasy relevant again because every single WR on the Chiefs is now injured. Somehow Baker Mayfield is the QB2 overall, but that may change, also because of indirect injuries (Godwin out for the season, and Evans barely avoiding IR at the moment). Since the team does own the stack, Chris Godwin's injury is actually doubly bad, possibly practically taking out two stars at once for this team last week. The team has scored the second most points on the season, almost catching up to first, and has a positive 4-3 record going into the back half. Despite the injuries, which may now keep the team from being one of the strongest overall, Tee Higgins, Joe Mixon, and Aaron Jones will likely keep this team afloat. With Tua coming back soon (also on this team in a stack with Hill) the team may also have peak Tyreek back. And if Baker Mayfield starts to struggle without his top 2 WRs, Tua may be a decent fill in for the position. This team is still strong, and has a great bench. (Along with everyone I mentioned, they also have Mark Andrews, who is looking very relevant again, behind Travis Kelce). Also worth a quick mention (or maybe just as "fan service"), but how about that combined performance from their top two picks last week at just 5.5 points between Hill and Kelce. Woof.
Prediction: 2nd
Purdy Good Olympics:
After a rough fantasy season schedule to start, Purdy Good Olypmics has been steadily climbing back up the ranks to much more closely reflect their performance in the first half of the season. Now with a positive record, the team is looking to keep the momentum through the second half and hopefully into the playoffs. The team might not be as strong as they were at the start, with a midseason Davante Adams trade that could go either way (moving away from a bad offense to the oldest QB in the league, but one he's had a great connection with before) and a season ending injury to Rashid Shaheed who was a great value pick to start the season. The reemergence of George Kittle and a fairly easy schedule for Saquon Barkley should keep the team well afloat and into the postseason. With just 3 wins, and the PF they already have to beat any ties, Purdy Good Olympics should have a decent shot.
Prediction: 3rd
Pole Vaulter's Chubb:
There are some real discrepancies between this team's current standings and their performance so far. Third place, but 8th in points, should be struggling to keep a positive record and should have some real playoff anxiety at this point in the season. Despite that, they're just 2-3 games away from clinching a playoff spot. Winning 2 of the next 7 games might keep them in contention, with an even record likely allowing them to battle it out for the last playoff spot. But if any team is going to lose that battle for points with the other even records, it would be the team that started in 8th for points and lost 5 of the next 7 games. Most likely, in order to keep their playoff standings, this team will need to win 3 games, just below even for the rest of the season. Even that one win difference makes this much less of a guarantee, so maybe they still can feel some anxiety, especially if they start the back half slow. This team's success has hinged on and will continue to hinge directly on the success of Derrick Henry. The rest of the team is a mess. (Until they just got Nick Chubb back, they've been playing Henry's handcuff as their second RB!) Henry is amazing, but the almost 30 point average per week may come to an end as he hits a much harder schedule in the second half. Pole Vaulter's Chubb might also have the hardest fantasy schedule coming up, with 6th, 4th, 1st, and 2nd in PF on deck next.
Prediction: 7th
Rachaad White & Blue:
A very consistent team, with no double digit scores, Rachaad White & Blue is only 4th in total scoring, but got their points with much less volatility than some. Winning counts the same whether it's by 5 points or 50 points, so while this team hardly overexerts itself, it is always ready to meet the challenge. This slow and steady method will likely make it to playoffs, but may make managing the post season volatility hard. It's really easy to predict playoffs for this team, with it needing wins in just 2 of 7 remaining games. As long as its consistent performers keep on, like Justin Jefferson who seems to get exactly 17 points weekly and Kyren Williams who hasn't had a game without a TD yet.
Prediction: 5th
Lamarathon Runners:
Off to a strong start this season in terms of wins, Lamarathon Runners is the only team with just one loss, a full game ahead of second and third. This is coming on the heels of a three-peat championship. It's crazy to think he is on his way to winning his fourth here. The first place position and number of wins is very lucky, with his 804 points on the season coming in just 5th and the lowest points against of any team, but this team is no stranger to this kind of luck (1st place regular season last year with 5th PF looks very familiar). And we all know what happened after that. In order for Lamarathon Runners to not make playoffs they would likely have to lose out all of their games. If they win one, then they will likely at least be able to fight for the last position with points. However they got their wins so far, their team's namesake and their recent addition of Kareem Hunt is looking very potent for future wins to coast to playoffs.
Prediction: 1st
We'll see how the predictions shake out. I almost tried playoff predictions, but that seems pointless since these will probably barely hold for a week or two anyway before things get shaken up again. This was an exciting first half of the season, with lots of changing fortunes, injuries, sruprise hits and trades. I'm sure we have plenty more in store over the second half here.
Comments
Post a Comment