2018 Power Rankings: Week 15

2018 Power Rankings: Week 15

It’s playoffs time! We were all waiting for it and now a whole third of us get to take part! The playoff race has already been a rollercoaster, with Coaches Burdett and Merritt providing the ups and downs respectively, think how good the fight for Corona Bowl X will be. Right, back to the rankings, we are going to be doing things a little differently and 8 teams have now been officially eliminated, so there is only really any point in rankings 4 teams. What to do with the rest however…? Comparison to the Week 1 rankings of course! See how (not) well I did, I imagine it was pretty (far from) spot on. Let’s find out…

The Fallen

12. Patistan (2-12-0) – Down 8

Yeah, not a great start for me and not a great finish for Patistan. They nearly avoided the dreaded 2-12 season, but ADRZ crushed their hopes late Monday night. I liked this team but, the risky picks of Gronk and McCoy never paid off for them, I have no doubt that Coach Allen will learn from his risky strategy and come back stronger next season.

11. Gridiron Gang (3-11-0) – Down 9

Sheesh… my predictions get worse. Good news, mathematically they can’t get worse than this, although I could tie it. Better news, Gridiron Gang made it to 3-11, breaking the barrier to not join the history books… for the wrong reasons. They never truly recovered from early season injuries, whilst Howard and Miller underwhelmed. The trade for Gostkowski arguably landed them their most reliable player through the season.

10. Step Brothers (6-8-0) – Down 4

Wow, when they got their Week 1 ranking, this outfit still went by Southampton Narwhals, how times change. Whilst my ranking was too high, my analysis was roughly right, they were led by Zeke and Luck but the team was ultimately flawed by depth issues. Some peculiar pickups throughout the season led to some blank weeks, although the Ebron add was one of the best on the year.

9. IKSAN (7-7-0) – Bang On!

Finally, nailed one! Whilst ranking this low with a .500 record seems unfortunate, the points scored tells a truer tale. I said this team was going to rely on the receivers but might fall down at RB and, until the trade for White, that was more or less the case. Crowell put in some nice outings however, I don’t think anyone saw that coming, not even the Jets.

8. Forge Flyers (7-7-0) – Down 7

Yeah okay, this was another pretty terrible ranking from me, but this was prior to Bell performing the greatest Houdini since the man himself. If I could be bothered I would map out their season had they decided to pick James Conner in R15 as a handcuff, but instead I’m just going to say that the Flyers couldn’t recover from effectively forfeiting the first round pick. A lesson in handcuffing? Maybe.

7. Bear Necessities (7-7-0) – Up 5

Another team I got fairly drastically wrong, but this time it was an underestimation. I wasn’t far off with my analysis however, Kelce provided this team’s only star as such, although Tate, Johnson and Michel all had good stretches. They got really good QB play to help them through the season as well, but where I truly underestimated this team was midseason waiver acquisitions, Boyd and Mack (amongst others) made a real difference to their season.

6. Obi Wan Ganobi (7-7-0) – Up 1

Pretty close with this team’s first ranking and not far off the analysis either. I projected a team that get stronger through the season and cause some real selection issues. What I didn’t expect was super Mahomes who, at times, single handedly put the team on his back and carried them to victories they may not have expected. This team was a slightly cleaner bill of health away from the playoffs.  

5. The Tuckfards (7-7-0) – Bang on!

Another team that I nailed! Although, I must confess, they pretty much instantly climbed the rankings and only fell back right at the end – they looked like a sure fire playoff team for about 75% of the season, but here we are, on the outside looking in. In my first analysis I said this team was top heavy, turns out that they were and the rest of the team just couldn’t meet the standard that Gurley and Thomas set.

The Playoffs

4. ADRZ (9-5-0) – Down 1

Another playoff berth for ADRZ, they have cemented themselves as one of the strongest and most consistent teams in recent seasons. This isn’t the most dangerous ADRZ playoff team we’ve seen, but we know never to write off the master of the spot start and, this season, king of the handcuff. Don’t forget, ADRZ are without Hunt and Freeman, their top two draft picks, they would be looking a whole lot scarier with those two in tow.

3. Tom’s Tyrants (10-4-0) – Down 1

And another team crawling into the playoffs like to ADRZ. How convenient that those two play each other to kick things off, both starting waiver wire backups. The advantage for the Tyrants is that both of their primary backs will potentially be back in time for the Corona Bowl…/the third place playoff, depending on where the backups take them.

2. Burdettinators (8-6-0) – Up 2

They made it! In fact, it was kind of comfortable in the end, weirdly. I mentioned last week that they would have climbed higher were it not so unlikely that they made the playoffs, well they made it, so they climbed. This team is seriously hot right now and if the RBs keep playing the way they have been, they could even be untouchable. My one reservation is whether Winston and Watson can be consistent enough and not throw an ill-timed dud, pretty small reservation.

1. The Dream Team (11-3-0) – No Change

Firstly, congratulations on the regular season title! Secondly, they don’t just sit at the top of the rankings still on previous accomplishment; they are still there on merit. This is the most balanced team still, with good players at all positions, an excellent QB rotation and an advantage at TE over the rest of the field. If Thielen or Kamara or one of their other stars can put up one of their classic huge games, then pity their opponents. (They’ll now need it after Williams and TNF, don’t write them off however!)