EFL Power Rankings - Week 3, 2024
I Was Either Really Off or Really Close: Did You Move 5 Spots or 1?
Boy, oh boy, I tell you what: I had some of y’all pegged. Yahoo tried to tell us you were going to suck, and I just knew in my nuggets you wouldn’t. Yahoo tried to tell us you would be great, and I just knew you were mediocre.
But…
Boy, oh boy, I tell you what: some of y’all made me look a fool. The top half of our rankings are chalk full of teams I had negligible faith in.
Look at us. Just look at us. Who would’ve thought? Not me.
I love the parity in this league.
Read ‘em and weep.
2024 WEEK 3 RANKINGS
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1.
ThrowUpThe X
Current Record: (3-0, 2nd)
Post-Draft Rank: 2 (+1)
Y! Draft Grade: B-
Y! Projected Record: (7-7)
Manager: RD Gallant
Years in League: 15
Best Finish: Champ (1x - 2013)
ThrowUp The X is about as intruiging a team as you’ll find in this league. There’s boom or bust performers all over the roster, but the boom to bust ratio has been solidly in ThrowUp The X’s favor thus far.
In Week 1 it was Tyreek, Godwin, kamara and the Dallas Defense all scoring at least 7 points more than projected.
In Week 2, it was Kamara scoring 42 of ThrowUp The X’s 103 points.
In Week 3, it was Kyren Williams and Amari Cooper combining for 50.
ThrowUp The X has cracked 100 each week, sit at 3-0, and with a deep roster, feel like they’ll be the league’s most dangerous team for the foreseeable future. And, by the way, all this without CJ Stroud ever scoring more than 18 points and Tyreek being without Tua for a week and a half.
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2.
Sweet Carolina
Current Record: (3-0, 1st)
Week 3 Rank: 3 (+1)
Y! Draft Grade: D+
Y! Projected Record: (4-10)
Manager: Michael Schultz
Years in League: 4
Best Finish: 3rd (2021)
Sweet Carolina has ridden the consistency of Saquon Barkley & James Cook to three wins and a leage-best Points For. Barkley and Cook have combined for at least 40 points in each game thus far. Who’d have thought that it’s these two RBs (ones that play with quarterbacks who love to steal TD carries) would be the ones pacing the league?
It also helps that the entire Chiefs offense now revolves around Rashee Rice, who was originally drafted by Sweet Carolina to be a replaceable third WR option week to week and now feels like a better option than either Amon Ra St. Brown or Mike Evans.
Unsurprising but still notable is Lamar Jackson having a solid start to the season (games of 25, 17, and 25 points), which, in a year of a dearth of good QB play, is a huge win.
If you’re Sweet Carolina, you’re telling everyone you saw this coming. If you’re the rest of us, you’re wishing you had.
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3.
Jets Jets Jets
Current Record: (2-1, 5th)
Post-Draft Rank: 8 (+5)
Y! Draft Grade: D
Y! Projected Record: (3-11)
Manager: Tim Cook
Years in League: 16
Best Finish: Champ (1x - 2015)
Last season’s John Porta trophy recipient got thrashed by Yahoo’s draft analysis and then proceeded to start the season in familiar fashion to what we saw all of last year. But, two weeks later, Week 1’s 50-point loss looks like an anomaly.
Jets Jets Jets has enjoyed back to back convincing wins on the back of 8 of 10 starters in double digits in Week 2, and strong games from Purdy, Olave, Metcalf and Goedert in Week 3.
This team still needs to demonstrate consistency to be taken seriously as a potential contender, but this dramatic turnaround and strong WR Corps shouldn’t be ignored.
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4.
Stevie Kicks
Current Record: (2-1, 4th)
Post-Draft Rank: 6 (+2)
Y! Draft Grade: A+
Y! Projected Record: (12-2)
Manager: Stevie Collins
Years in League: 1
Best Finish: N/A
Stevie Kicks is our draft depth & waiver wire king through three weeks.
Remember this quote from our last rankings?
Outside of a phenomenal RB room, there are a lot of upside picks, but more riding on Anthony Richardson than I feel good about in my gut.
First of all, I completely nailed that. Secondly, I think I jinxed Stevie Kicks.
Anthony Richardson has been awful and within a week of this writing, Stevie Kicks was replacing both Christian McCaffrey & Kenneth Walker as starting running backs.
BUT, in drafting Anthony Richardson late, Stevie Kicks stocked up on capital early and got Devon Achane as a third RB, who, along with Zach Charbonnet picked up off of waivers, has allowed Stevie Kicks to thrive against all odds.
Sure, Week 3 wasn’t great, but given the injuries, I think we’d all be grateful to be 2-1 after three weeks of play. If Stevie Kicks can pick up a couple more wins before CMC returns, the playoffs are likely a lock. Not only is that very possible, but actually feels likely. Malik Nabers now looks like a top 5 fantasy WR, and Anthony Richardson can’t possibly score less points than he already has. And it doesn’t hurt to have the apparent reincarnation of 2015-2020 Justin Tucker in Kaimi Fairbairn.
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5.
Butt Fumble
Current Record: (2-1, 3rd)
Post-Draft Rank: 10 (+5)
Y! Draft Grade: D+
Y! Projected Record: (5-9)
Manager: Austin Owen
Years in League: 11
Best Finish: Champ (3x – 2016, 2017, 2021)
ThrowUp The X might be 3-0 but there’s a 100% chance they would trade places with 2-1 Butt Fumble just to be able to say they’ve ridden the success of Dem Boyz: Dak Prescott and Brandon Aubrey to a solid start to 2024. That’s right folks: I was dearly wrong about Dak Prescott, the fantasy quarterback, and got him confused with Dak Prescott, the real quarterback.
Prescott and Aubrey have combined for at least 30ppg so far this year. I’ll let you guess which has more points through three weeks.
Add to that King Henry doing King Henry things, Butt Fumble has found out that apparently WRs are completely irrelevant in fantasy! Who knew?! And that’s great news for them, because without AJ Brown who is nursing an injury, their WR corps is essentially completely irrelevant (which shouldn’t be a surprise with Deshaun Watson, Caleb Williams and Justin Fields the ones throwing to them).
Nonetheless, Butt Fumble will go as far as Dallas and King Henry will carry them.
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6.
Nick’s Fury
Current Record: (1-2, 8th)
Post-Draft Rank: 1 (-5)
Y! Draft Grade: C+
Y! Projected Record: (7-7)
Manager: Nick Gosney
Years in League: 6
Best Finish: Champ (1x - 2019)
Nick’s Fury’s season has been one of ‘almosts.’
In Week 1, Nick’s Fury didn’t play Jordan Reed, Jordan Mason, or Baker Mayfield. Those three combined for 80 points on the bench in an 8-point loss. Terry McLaurin scored a paltry 1.7 points in the FLEX spot.
In Week 2, to right his wrongs, Nick’s Fury did play Jordan Reed, not wanting to miss out on a potential breakout WR 1 in a muddy Green Bay WR room, swapping him for Terry McLaurin. Reed scored just 4.6 points. Nick’s Fury didn’t pay Baker Mayfield, assuming it was a one-week fluke. Josh Allen managed just 9 points in his stead.
Thankfully, in Week 3, Nick’s Fury decided he had done enough overthinking things, Nick’s Fury again played Allen and needed each of his 10 points over projection to beat Golden Boy (which almost helped us forget that he again played Reed over McLaurin, who scored 16 points on the bench).
Fantasy just roundhouse kicks you in the throat sometimes.
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7.
Pewter Pirates
Current Record: (1-2, 6th)
Post-Draft Rank: 4 (-3)
Y! Draft Grade: A+
Y! Projected Record: (11-3)
Manager: Sy Gallimore
Years in League: 16+
Best Finish: Champ (2x – 2010, 2020)
Yahoo said Pewter Pirates would only lose 3 games this year, but that tally is already 66% of the way fulfilled after Week 3. While still having the 6th highest point total in the league, Pewter Pirates is one of two teams in the league not to score 100 points in a game this year. That kind of consistency is not key.
Headlining the disappointments thus far are losing Puka Nacua to IR in Week 1, #2 WR Brandon Aiyuk failing to hit 5 points in a single game so far this year, watching Patrick Mahomes land at QB #13 in points this season to date, and intriguing backup QB Tua to IR after his Week 2 concussion.
A great running game from Jonathan Taylor, Aaron Jones, Devin Singletary and JK Dobbins is keeping Pewter Pirates afloat (just barely) until the aerial attack turns it around.
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8.
Golden Boy
Current Record: (1-2, 7th)
Post-Draft Rank: 9 (+1)
Y! Draft Grade: D-
Y! Projected Record: (4-10)
Manager: Kyler Stock
Years in League: 3
Best Finish: 3rd (2023)
If you look at Golden Boy’s scores week to week, there may not be any notable flash. But when you look deeper, you realize that this team is One-Hit-Wonder-Central-Station.
If you look at Golden Boy’s Week 2… it’s astonishing. In a year where nobody can find a decent third WR, Golden Boy had six (as in, the number after five) WRs in double digits including their bench. Coincidentally, Week 2 was also Golden Boy’s sole win on the year thus far.
The problem is, none of them want to repeat their performances. And that conundrum doesn’t only lie with the WRs. In Week 1, Golden boy got 26 points from their kicker, 14 from their defense and 11 from Rachaad White. On the bench, Brian Robinson Jr. scored 15. Neither of the games sense have been even in the same ballpark for any of those players.
Outside of those flash-in-the-pans each week, the rest of the roster seems content with scoring about 4 points a piece, which meant it took Week 2’s Herculean-WR ouput for Golden Boy to get a win. The other two weeks weren’t enough.
Only Breece Hall has been consistent for this team all three weeks. Oh, and Jayden Daniels, who has scored 28 points on the bench for Golden Boy, twice.
If Golden Boy can get the orchestra to play together…watch out.
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9.
Ruthlessberger
Current Record: (0-3, 9th)
Post-Draft Rank: 7 (-1)
Y! Draft Grade: B
Y! Projected Record: (7-7)
Manager: Ian Svendsen
Years in League: 8
Best Finish: Champ (2x - 2022, 2023)
2024 hasn’t been kind to the defending champs. Besides kicking off a three-game losing streak to start the year, Ruthlessberger lost his starting QB, Jordan Love. Jared Goff has yet to score 15 points in replacement duty.
In Week 2, Ruthlessberger rebounded with 117 points but still came up 5 points short to Stevie Kicks, which was unlucky for 3 reasons: A) because Stevie Kicks’ Houston defense and kicker combined for 35 points in the game, B) Travis Kelce managed just 0.6 points, and C) Ruthlessberger’s backup kicker scored 6 more points than their starter (again, Ruthlessberger lost by just 5 points). Oh, and to top it off, Ruhtlessberger lost Pacheco to IR.
In Week 3, it was Rhamondre Stevenson and Jerome Ford combining for 7 points. Ruthlessberger has a good team, but at 0-3, they desperately need to get healthy before the season slips away.
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10.
Turn down for Watt
Current Record: (0-3, 10th)
Post-Draft Rank: 5 (-5)
Y! Draft Grade: B+
Y! Projected Record: (10-4)
Manager: Joshuwa Shelton
Years in League: 10
Best Finish: 3rd (2018)
Things just haven’t gone according to plan here.
Hurts has been inconsistent, Ja’Marr Chase, Waddle & Dell have yet to have more than one player between them score over 6 points on any given week, Gibbs is getting outplayed by David Montgomery in Detroit, and Christian Kirk, Kyler Murray, Kittle and Kmet only seem to score on the bench. The lone bright spots, giving some solace to Josh’s poor soul, are James Connor (former Steeler) and the Steelers’ defense. But, one of those bright spots just scored less that 2.6 points in Week 3.
What gives?!
It’s still early for a team with this talent, but 0-3 certainly isn’t where Turn down for Watt thought they’d be going into Week 4.
Maybe it’s preemptive, but… you know your commish supports outlandish trade requests flying around the league. RD, where you at?