2019 Power Rankings: Week 4

2019 Power Rankings: Week 4

Evening all! We’re just in time for the Thursday night game, so you had better… er… power through these rankings! Even on a short intro, there’s always time for and badly put together pun. Right, no time to lose, let’s go!

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12. Patistan (0-3) – Down 1

Best performance yet and would have gotten a result another day. Nice to see some waiver wire gems contributing as well. But this team needs to start winning fast, Coach Allen has been here before… Can Davante be the spark?

11. Space Jamal (2-1) – Down 1

They did have some tough matchups last week, but starting the Balt D against Kansas just wasn’t ideal. They pulled off a blockbuster trade this week, which involved more roster moves than we’ve perhaps ever seen from Coach Nunn before, certainly a positive!

10. Tom’s Tyrants (1-2) – Down 2

A third week in and they’re yet to test the waters in the 90’s, that’s bad. In a roster full of players playing below their potential and draft stock, the feeling is the only way is up, they just need to do something about it – fast.

9. The Dream Team (0-3) – No Change

Despite a third consecutive loss, the solid score led primarily by the 3 RBs showed cause for hope. The arrow has been pointing down since the draft, but if they keep scoring like that they will start to get the results they want.

8. Buccing The Trend (2-1) – Up 4

It’s another win and it was considerably more deserved than the first one! A solid scoring week despite another ‘meh’ performance from QB Baker. Plus, they finally got some good news on Melvin Gordon. A rankings boost was well and truly earned.

7. Burdettinators (1-2) – No Change

This team seems better to me than the points totals they have been putting up. They are a little more bark than bite right now. They’ll be looking for one of their receivers to step up and become a consistent weekly scorer.

6. Gayme On (2-1) – No Change

Did Russell Wilson make this win look better than it was? Absolutely. But, there were plenty of points elsewhere, including the bench. Coach Gardner needs to work on getting the right players on the pitch on any given week, but the pieces are there.

5. Gridiron Gang (1-2) – No Change

They got their win, it had been coming (and admittedly it was slightly handed to them), but they got it. They still look like a bit of a rag-tag bunch, but most of the best Gridiron Gang teams were, so we’ll trust in Coach Stubbs Sr. to keep making it work.

4. Bear Necessities (2-1) – No Change

Consistent and improving, that is a pretty good combination to have. At the moment the three teams above them have better weekly scoring potential than Bear Necessities, but they’re much closer to 3^rd place than 5^th.

3. Forge Flyers (2-1) – No Change

I said there was nothing to worry about! An emphatic win after the loss last week and a big welcome to Mike Evans who has just realised the season has started. The team I was worried about out of the blocks is a distant memory.

2. IKSAN (2-1) – Down 1

This just wasn’t their week and they were slightly blown out the water. That being said, it was far from the worst week in the world and the Cook/Henry tandem continues to look fierce. They need to find their answer to the Brees absence… maybe Rivers is the guy.

1. The Tuckfards (3-0) – Up 1

Rinse and repeat. Is anyone else getting déjà vu from last season’s Tuckfards? Because I sure am. Right now, this team doesn’t seem to have the implode button that the 2018 one did, but how will the Barkley injury affect them?

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And less changes in the rankings again, looks like I’m starting to get the hang of this. Now go out there and prove me wrong again! Until next week, peace out.

2019: Prepare, bye weeks are coming

We have a brand new guest on the LOC Report tonight, with new comer Coach Taylor joining Commissioner Stubbs to look back at week 3 and preview week 4. Now we're firmly into the season, the bye weeks are coming, and the LOC is as competitive as ever.

2019 Power Rankings: Week 3

2019 Power Rankings: Week 3

Good afternoon gents, and welcome to the latest edition of the Power Rankings. I’m going to keep intro brief because, well, it’s late and I couldn’t think of anything to say. Yep, Week 3 and we’re running dry, gonna be one hell of a season. Hopefully the rankings make for more entertaining reading; enjoy!

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12. Buccing The Trend (1-1) – No Change

Yeah, not the best score in Week 2. Kamara suffered from losing Brees, but he will get better and the AB news literally couldn’t be better. Mayfield may not be the star he was expected to be and could prove to be a hamstring for the team further down the line.

11. Patistan (0-2) – Down 1

Another underwhelming week from Patistan who wasn’t helped out by DeSean Jackson’s injury after his monster Week 1. Coach Allen has made some decent additions early in the season however, it is just about him getting the right combination of players on the pitch at the right time.

10. The Book of Elliott (2-0) – Up 1

Not only did he get benched in real life, but poor old Eli can’t even get into a film title that his name is literally in. It’s not been his best week. Back to fantasy and Coach Nunn finds himself 2-0, with the tightest win of the season thus far. I’m yet to be entirely convinced by this team, but wins mean a hell of a lot more than anything I think…

9. The Dream Team (0-2) – Down 2

This team is better than its 0-2 record, but they need to start proving it. They were unlucky in an exceedingly tight game but will be happy to see Elliott back doing what he does. Mixon is on a horrible offense and is going to be tough to start, but the bench depth is near non-existent. Coach Nathwani made pick up and play RBs a staple of his roster last year, more magic required in 2019.

8. Tom’s Tyrants (1-1) – Down 2

Not the best week for sure. They’re in desperate need for someone (anyone) to establish themself as a consistent points getter, but the roster is looking decidedly average early in the season. On the upside, they get the honour of owning the DST that plays Miami this week.

7. Burdettinators (1-1) – Up 1

Well, it doesn’t seem to matter whether it is by arm or by leg, Lamar Jackson is going to single-handedly win games this year. Aaron Jones got the most touches of his career! Huzzah! Annnd Matt LaFluer said he wants to even back out the backfield touches, boo. This team is still finding their feet, but that was an important win for them in Week 2.

6. Gayme On (1-1) – Up 3

Another very apt name change! After an impressive Week 2, it very much is ‘Gayme On’ again. That was more what I was expecting when I ranked them #2 coming out of the draft. So much hinges on Julio and OBJ but there is a lot of upside on this roster. Encouraging to see Montgomery getting more work and hopefully providing some consistent volume for Coach Gardner.

5. Gridiron Gang (0-2) – No Change

A much better Week 2 than Week 1, but with the same result for Coach Stubbs Jr.. They put up a good box score and will get better results as the season goes on. Their lack of reliable RBs would have ruined them in previous season, can they make it work in the year of the superflex?

4. Bear Necessities (1-1) – No Change

I could almost cut and paste last week’s paragraph for Bear Necessities but replace the ‘unlucky not to get the win’ with ‘picking up a solid win’. There are contributors all over the pitch and some solid bench options too. Watson’s weekly performances look likely to be the difference between a good week and a great one.

3. Forge Flyers (1-1) – No Change

Hmm, a bit of a come down from the highs of last week, with a classic LOC performance that just lacked a couple of TDs from the better players. Dak continued to look strong and we probably saw McCaffrey’s floor rather than what is to come. Nothing to worry about here, still a good balanced roster.

2. The Tuckfards (2-0) – No Change

That was resounding. They already have so much firepower it seems wrong that they bag a 44 point DST week, but I did say I liked that Pats draft selection in Week 1. Can Baltimore slow down Mahomes? If not, then can anyone slow down this Tuckfards team?

1. IKSAN (2-0) – No Change

Well, maybe someone can slow The Tuckfards down. Another good win for IKSAN and they hold their place at the top thanks to a more balanced roster than the big scorers beneath them. This Week 3 game will be huge though. Minshew over Brees has to be a contender for most inspired, game week defining, roster move of the year, surely?

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Well, that was less traumatic that last week, we even saw some relative stability in the rankings! Long may it continue, but in the meantime, good luck Coaches! Peace out.

2019: Changing of the guard?

It was a pivotal week in the NFL, will it prove to be a pivotal one in the LOC? While there may have been a changing of the guard in the NFL, Commissioner Stubbs and Co Host Chris Leach will discuss if there was a change in the LOC also. We take a look back at Week 2, have a cup of tea in the middle, then preview the Week 3 games.

2019: Aaaaand the seasons already over for half of us

Welcome to the first in-season episode of the LOC Report! Commissioner Stubbs is joined by current champ Coach Burdettinators to recap all the happenings in the kick off to the 2019 season, where we have our first picture of the power in the LOC. We'll also look ahead to see what's in store for week 2

2019 Power Rankings: Week 2

2019 Power Rankings: Week 2

Happy Thursday everyone! Little late in the week for the Power Rankings but, you know, we’re all busy people. And, in all honesty, I’ve been slightly putting off writing this. You loyal followers come here for sage, expert opinion (right?) and what I offered in Week 1 was useless. My top 4 teams are now the bottom 4 teams in the league. Only one team I had in the top half of the rankings won, so thank you to whoever the marvellous coach of Tom’s Tyrants might be for sparing me from complete failure. Right, rant over, we’ll do better this week.

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12. Buccing The Trend (1-0) – Down 2

This feels harsh. Getting your first win in the LOC should be celebrated and I encourage that it fully, but I want no misconceptions, 72 points isn’t going to win many games. Mayfield will have bigger games and Jackson will earn a bigger snap share if he keeps running how he did in Week 1, but I’m struggling to find much excitement outside of Kamara on this roster. They need Gordon and/or Green back.

11. The Green Mile (1-0) – Up 1

Well Jacobs looks like he is going to be pretty handy, but equally Guice and Coleman going down has robbed this team of the vast majority of its depth. It was an impressive win, but one week into the season this team already looks like it can’t afford another injury.

10. Patistan (0-1) – Down 7

Right, the good news; Le’Veon Bell looked great as the featured back and already has Darnold’s trust in the passing game (seriously watchback the 2PT conversion) and DeSean Jackson should slide in for the injured Hill nicely. The bad news; most everything else. Jameis Winston is going to be one heck of a rollercoaster ride this season.

9. Prater God I Do Better (0-1) – Down 7

What an appropriately timed name change, right? Last week we saw the floor of this team and it was ugly. The lack of RB style consistency highlighted a roster that was more boom or bust that it first seemed. Boy did they bust hard last week. Better (much better) scores to come.

8. Burdettinators (0-1) – No Change

I said they had a lot of questions coming out of the draft, and I still have a lot of questions. The overall score was good no doubt, but any game where you have a 40+ point QB, you should really be winning. Lots of the starters looked underwhelming, but Williams and (particularly) Watkins look set for big years. Dropping Hollywood was expensive, but Coach Burdett did well to get his guy back.

7. The Dream Team (0-1) – Down 6

Well then, looks like I backed the wrong auto-draftee. Carson Wentz stopped this being horrible, but it was alarming to see not a single player live up to their draft stock. The good news is that Zeke will never have so few touches in a game again and Mixon seems to have avoided serious injury. Coach Nathwani will expect far more in Week 2.

6. Tom’s Tyrants (1-0) – No Change

Although they were my only top 6 team to win, it wasn’t overly impressive. The team showed some signs of balance however and Ekeler looks in for a good-sized role in wake of Gordon’s absence. If Murray doesn’t establish himself, this could turn into a season long game of QB roulette.

5. Gridiron Gang (0-1) – Down 1

The 69 points they put up in Week 1 sounds worse than it actually is, that’s not to say everything is sunshine and roses mind. Brady sliding into the lineup, would’ve turned this into a decent week, even with Freeman (3^rd round pick) putting up 1.1 points. Devin Singletary could be a ready-made answer, looking electric in Week 1, and potentially quite the draft bargain.

4. Bear Necessities (0-1) – Up 1

One of the more well-rounded performances of the week and unlucky not to get the win for his efforts. Based on the Week 1 scoring, and equally the generally high scoring Week 1 in the NFL, it looks like the 100-point mark will carry more weight than past seasons. Watson looked really hot in the season opener.

3. Forge Flyers (1-0) – Up 8

This was my greatest mistake in the Week 1 edition. Turns out that the Colts top players will be absolutely fine without Mr. Luck. McCaffrey is a superstar and picking up Dak (as costly as it was) means that the team is less reliant on the Panthers. Coach Leach probably enjoyed the best Week 1 in the league.

2. The Tuckfards (1-0) – Up 7

Well, as stated last week, this roster has all the makings of a classic, top-heavy Tuckfards team. The security of the early Mahomes draft pick could add the consistency that they lacked last year and mask the lower scoring players. The pick-up and play of John Ross has me reminiscing of the great Kevin Ogletree, will it go better than that did?

1. IKSAN (1-0) – Up 6

Coach Sherwood will have been very happy to see his stable of RBs dominating their respective snap shares, they could prove a dangerous trio. Combined with a stable QB in Brees and DST in the Bears, this team looks set up for consistent scoring. The receiver depth looks decent enough to play the matchups.

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Well, there you go, I’ve tried to keep the rankings from being too reactive, it was only one game after all, but it was reasonably unavoidable so lots of movers and shakers in Week 1 nonetheless. Stay tuned to see if future weeks prove me to be a little less hilariously wrong.

2019 - Draft Recap and The Beginning!

The season is finally here! Commissioner Stubbs is joined by Coach Merritt fresh off the 2019 LOC, and they're here to review the favourite day in the LOC calendar for you. After that, we kick it all off by previewing the week 1 matchups, with a little league news mixed in between of course.

2019 Power Rankings: Week 1

2019 Power Rankings: Week 1

The wait is finally over! After months of intolerable nothingness, the LOC returns and with it, Year 2 of the EDOTLOCCA Power Ranking experience! As you can tell, excitement levels are pretty high right now.

Now we don’t really do league news here, but two ground-breaking developments have rippled through the league and will definitely be impacting the Power Rankings. Firstly, the LOC’s perennial dark horse, fresh off four years of unrivalled success, has rode off into his very own, very dramatic, sunset. Leaving but hours to replace him, the reach and appeal of the LOC was on full display, with not just a new coach found, but also a draft day appearance! More on that later…

Secondly, and more briefly, we completely reworked the scoring system, likely making these Power Rankings utterly pointless dart throws, so yeah, that’s cool. For the first time in 2019, enjoy!

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12. Jurassic Parks

So, films is the theme I hear, lots of strong potential there and coming out of the gate firing with a player no one has ever heard of photoshopped on top of a T-Rex. Oh yeah, we’re meant to be talking about the roster… Well, they were auto-drafted and as a result they have ended up with some risky picks outside the top few rounds. They’ll need the core of Adams, Thomas and Cooper to perform on a weekly basis.

11. Forge Flyers

In my eyes, this was a draft that showed an undeterred belief that large offseason changes will have little affect on the 2019 season: Williams will still be the workhorse with McCoy in town, Luck retiring won’t hold back Hilton or Mack – we shall see. One thing is for sure, if Carolina go 12-4 this year, Newton and McCaffrey might make the other roster spots irrelevant.

10. Buccing The Trend

And a big welcome to Coach Taylor (good old Facebook stalking)! Being thrown in at the deep end, no one would blame the rookie for showing signs of nerves, but he prevailed with a decent first draft. The positional depth is currently very light, but if and when Gordon and Green return to the starting line-up, this team could be formidable. Buccing the trend will be relying on the current starters to keep the team afloat until then. Justin Jackson should prove a key pickup.

9. The Tuckfards

Saquon Barkley and Pat Mahomes? Yeah, because that combination is fair. Luckily for the rest of the league, the rest of the roster isn’t quite so formidable; Coach Merritt will need some high scoring contributions from some of his upside players to hit the big weekly scores. The Pats DST was a sneaky good pick that could serve him long into the season. Oh yeah, and Dede was a reach, obviously.

8. Burdettinators

Few teams have as many question marks coming into the season as the current champions. Will the Cardinals be a good offense? Can LaFleur fix Green Bay and will Jones be the workhorse? Can the young WR2s emerge? Having said that, the upside is dripping off the team and Coach Burdett proved how vital getting hot at the right time is last season.

7. IKSAN

Rounds 1 and 2 (which Coach Sherwood has a habit of nailing) will make or break this teams year, Gurley and Cooks have the potential to be top 5 backs if they can stay on the field. The pass catchers are less of a strength than in previous years and they’ll be looking for Kittle to repeat last year’s monster numbers. Getting the Bears DST at a bargain price was a big win.

6. Tom’s Tyrants

The first Power Rankings edition is impossibly subjective and, as a result, this section is impossible to write without heavy bias. Having said that, I think that this is roster is lacking an obvious star; they are balanced and with good depth, but they will need either Conner or Fournette to really take the reigns if this team is to head back to the promised land.

5. Bear Necessities

With a draft focussed on value and best-player-available strategy, Coach Stubbs Sr. has assembled a balanced group of point scorers. He will need Chubb to keep being ‘the guy’ even when Hunt returns to the field and Watson to show some consistency that was missing last year. The veteran ceilings on the bench leave a little to be desired at this stage.

4. Gridiron Gang

A pass happy offense will see Gridiron Gang bounce back from last season’s disappointment with some world-beating WRs. The bench of this team has uncharacteristically low floors for a Coach Stubbs Jr. team, but there is plenty of potential throughout the roster for scoring points. Plus, that is what the waiver wire is for (he has already started of course).

3. Patistan

Despite an obvious draft day plan, Coach Allen seems to have a knack for picking up risky RBs. He’ll need the starters to stay consistent with a bench largely based on upside, but this is a very balanced Patistan roster which will offer weekly positional and formational dilemmas. The TD potential of Hill, Woods and Michel could make the boom weeks MASSIVE.

2. Vinatieri You A New One

Well, that’s going to fun to type each week. As one acronym leaves the league though, I think we have just witnessed the birth of VYANO. Another auto-draft team here, but not really, thanks to pre-emptive picks from Coach Gardner. The result was a deep squad with superstar receivers and a draft that highlighted bargain picks, none less so than QB Wilson. If Montgomery is the real deal, this team will be very good.

1. The Dream Team

Well, the best news of the week goes to resident Zeke owner Coach Nathwani. That high risk pick has turned into an absolute steal in a matter of moments. The bench depth isn’t the strongest (auto-draft strikes again) but the starting roster is stacked. Could a season of multiple TE sets get The Dream Team to that next step they have been close to? Maybe.

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Okay, that was really hard, never before have I felt team 1 and team 12 have been so close. I think that is partly a testament to the league’s continuingly increasing competitiveness, but mostly a reflection on how the new roster formats remove 90% of the comparable features of rosters… Tune in next week to see how wrong I was! Peace out.