Happy Thanksgiving! The Thanksgiving edition of the Power Rankings is here, and we have a bountiful week of NFL and LOC football for you. 3 games on the day itself and the first ever Black Friday game to go with the normal LOC slate. We're only 3 games from the LOC Playoffs too, and the playoff picture is getting spicy folks - with more teams now being officially eliminated from contention in the traditional wildcard and division race. Will we get a correspondingly spicy power rankings to match? Read on to find out.
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12. Tom's Tyrants (4-7) - no change: Fantasy is give and take - though it is rarely even in that regard, giving some teams more, and taking more from others. It has certainly taken from Coach Barnes over the last week. Losing Burrow for the season, now Kupp is banged up, Wilson might somehow have a QB downgrade, and outside of Allen, Cook and Robinson the team is pretty barren. On the plus side, Coach Barnes can enjoy his birthday and the Thanksgiving turkey whilst turning his focus to next season. This is one of the teams officially eliminated from the division and traditional wildcard.
11. IKSAN (6-5) - down 4: After winning 2 crucial games the floor fell out from Coach Sherwood's team at the worst possible time. To make matters worse, Jones is injured (again) - albeit seems to have avoided severe injury. Ekeler however looks more and more like he's running with a piano on his back. His current line-up as of writing features Mattison and Watson - neither of which should be anywhere near a playoff teams starting line-up this season. On top of that, Mahomes is being let down by his receivers and it's killing both the Chiefs and IKSAN. This team is 2 games behind in the traditional wildcard and the division - but IKSAN face a severe points shortage in comparison to much of the other playoff teams, so it will be hard to turn it around from here.
10. Buccing The Trend (2-9) - up 1: Heyyy ohhhh! Now that's what we call in the fantasy business positive fantasy regression! Coach Taylor didn't concede an obscene amount of points for once, and put in a solid performance as they have done on multiple occasions this year. Whilst long since eliminated from the traditional wildcard and division, with a win last week they stave off setting a new record for the worst start to an LOC season, and can now at worst tie the worst seasonal record. Look, it's still not a stellar roster, but Barkley proved he can still pop up (which I didn't think he could at this point in the Giants season) - Jacobs may be able to do the same, and others on this roster can pop up too. They may yet win a game or 2 more to close the season.
9. Forge Flyers (3-8) - up 1: What happened last week? Another team with an upset win last week - and in fine fashion! Don't expect the score line to be repeated again, but they could certainly be a berserker team over the last 3 weeks here. Another team now officially eliminated from the traditional wildcard and division, Coach Leach is freewheeling as I predicted - the QB room is rebuilt, the Hunt trade provides another usable option, and he's got players certainly capable of having a nice day. Let's see if last week was a flash in the pan or the beginning of a trend.
8. U R Gould (9-2) - no change: The new #1 seed checks in at 8 without moving. They also hold the longest active win streak in the LOC with 5. And they (checks notes) still have the fewest points conceded in the league, to go with the 6th most scored. Yes yes, I acknowledge the fear factor. You know what else? This team is 1 win, or losses from certain other teams, away from guaranteeing a playoff berth. But I'm not going out on a limb saying this is probably the weakest amongst the playoff seeded teams. Purdy has been playing well and they have Fields in the wings, but beyond Brown there is no reliable skill position - that's not to say there's some useful players here - but you don't want 4 just "useful" players week in week out. Still, once you get to the dance, anything can happen...
7. Lazy Townsend (4-7) - up 2: See, seeeee! I've been in on the berserker coach Nunn side for weeks now, and it came through with a nice win last week. Unfortunately they lost Andrews along the way, and Higgins no longer has Burrow - but hey, 4 of the 5 skill positions are still really good, to go with a Dak Prescott who has been really good of late. There's enough here for them to reliably compete down the stretch, and believe it or not they're mathematically still alive for the division (but not the traditional wildcard). Let's see what Coach Nunn has in store for us over the last few weeks.
6. Bear Necessities (3-8) - no change: Still the owners of the longest losing streak in the LOC, a number that now stands at 7, they were hard done by not breaking that streak last week - all while playing a bye week player. It's a great shame, this certainly has the look of the team that should be firmly in the playoff hunt, yet they're eliminated from the division and traditional wildcard, and are not realistically in the race for the points forward wildcard either. Depending how much they tinker with the team will dictate their effectiveness to close the year, but they should at the very least be competitive, and it would be mildly surprising if they ended the year with a ten game losing streak.
5. Burdettinators (6-5) - no change: Coach Burdett has quietly dropped 4 of his last 5 games, also 5 in the last 7, after a white hot 4-0 start. No one can be surprised with the raft of injuries they've suffered - and in all honestly, they've been a little unfortunate in their opposition in a lot of the games they've played as well. Looking at the team, it all rests on Hurts, Swift and Ford. There's a lot of complimentary options to go along with them, but they've not been contributing a good deal for Coach Burdett of late. At 6-5 however they are still firmly entrenched in the playoff race, and sit a mere 37 points out of a playoff spot - which isn't much over 3 games.
4. Patistan (8-3) - down 1: Coach Allen drops their first game in 3 weeks at an inopportune time, losing grip of the division - but still finding themselves in the wildcard spot with a 2 game buffer. Another team where it's very hard to see them not making it at this point. A slight knock down here due to losing Walker for some period of time, and with it looking like Jefferson's return won't come until at least week 14. Fortunately they have Charbonnet (which actually with the heightened workload might be an upgrade over Walker). They could be deadly come the playoffs.
3. Great Scott (6-5) - up 1: Another one of the playoff hopefuls on the wrong end of an upset last week, Coach Scott's team turned in a good performance with Trevor Lawrence actually showing up for once - typical. There's some interesting dynamics with this team right now - Chase has lost Burrow, so what will he be? Achane is injured again (at least for the short term), but if anything this clarifies the backfield and makes Mostert a better option. The rest of the team remains strong - Gibbs is finally delivering on his draft capital. They are vying for probably the points forward wildcard though, currently holding that position, as they are 2 behind in the division and traditional wildcard after dropping 3 on the bounce.
2. Gridiron Gang (7-4) - no change: After a missed opportunity to take the lead in the division a week before, they didn't slip up again, beating their father no less and placing a slightly better grip on the division. Remaining the highest scoring team as well, this is another one of the teams knocking on the door of playoffs. The new OC in Buffalo may well be what saves Allen, the Bills, and potentially my season. Dell has been a revelation, and the trifecta of Monty McCaffrey and Pacheco is back. They have enough options to play with behind this to make a strong line-up top to bottom each week.
1. The Dream Team (8-3) - no change: Coach Nathwani had 1 foot in the playoffs last week, with a win and other divisional losses they now have the other foot in. Given their points lead this might be enough to help them close the door - another win this week certainly would. It feels a little bit like it's Viv's world and we're all living in it at the moment. Singletary went from the waiver and into the line-up seamlessly. Whilst not all the key players are bulletproof, it doesn't really matter when there's ones next to them blowing up. We could be looking at the next entrant to the 2x win club, only a couple years after their first.
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And there you have it - hope the power rankings go down nicely with your pumpkin pie. A little bit of wiggle at the top, and some rearranging at the bottom. This week doesn't pit many playoff teams against each other, but that means we'll be on upset watch again. Best of luck folks, gobble gobble!
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