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!

-

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.

-

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.