2021 CTDB: Power Rankings - Final Regular Season

And with that, the 2021 regular season in the books!  Before we officially kick of the 2021 playoffs, here's a quick power rankings recap.  For the most part, the rankings matched our final statistics except for two teams - Jammers and Gang Green.  Before we move into playoff and consolidation brackets, an interesting visit back to the season to see how one of these teams ended up solidly in the playoffs and the other, out (despite winning last year's championship).

The Jammers officially finished the season 3rd in the standings with a decidedly solid 8-6 record while Gang Green finished 8th with a 6-8 record.  However, taking a closer look,  Greg's team averaged more than 10 pts scored each week as compared to Lei's team and the final standings with one in the playoffs while the other playing in the consolidation brackets were basically a result of two matchups.  

For Greg, it was their week 6 matchup against the Monkeys and their week 13 matchup against Mastermind.  Gang Green combined for nearly 280 points in those two weeks but simply ran into bad luck and lost to juggernaut weeks.  On the flipside, the Jammers were able to eek out wins in weeks 9 and 11 despite scoring only 99.65 and 103.9 pts respectively.  Both crucial wins in the stretch run that flipped their record to 8-6 when they could've 6-8.  Lei won both games by less than 2 points.  Nuts.

Each lucky win (and unlucky loss) made a huge difference.  And with that - the final power rankings for 2021.  

2021 CTDB: Power Rankings Week 6

With the fantasy season, nearing it's half way mark, here's another look at the league's power rankings.  

1.  Chunky Monkeys.  After a middling start through the first 3 weeks (literally), the Monkeys are surging.  Jumping 4 spots to claim the top spot, the Monkeys have averaged 161 points scored in the last weeks along with a 3-0 run.  They currently have the best record but with injuries hitting Saquan and Gibson, there's some trouble brewing in the waters potentially ahead.  

2.  Fat Jubas.  Despite a blip in Week 4 where the Jubas failed to score 80 points, the Jubas have been a juggernaut the past two weeks.  Kyler and team have averaged a crazy 175 points in weeks 5 and 6 and show no signs of slowing.  In fact, they're the only team to have scored 150+ points in at least 4 games.   

3.  Gang Green.  The hottest team outside of the Monkeys.  Team Green has also surged in standings despite a still somewhat mediocre record though they're much improved from their start.  Green will be without CMC for awhile but they can still put up points even after a heart breaking loss to the Monkeys in week 6.  

4.  Battle Angels.  Will's team is faltering a bit esp after two pretty mediocre games in Week 5 and 6.  Week 6 was the biggest dud with no player eclipsing the 20 point mark.  The team has been hurt by injuries to Kittle and Russel Wilson and also week 6 byes have not been kind but the Angels need a bit of a pick me up.  

5.  Custom J.  Josh's team is one of the biggest fallers since the Week 3 rankings.  They're still scoring well but a .500 record is mostly what impacts their lower power ranking score.  They did just win the hard fault brother matchup in week 6.  We think there's a lot more run for the Js and expect to see them a solid playoff contender.

6.  Crunch Bunch.  Eddie's team has been remarkably consistent with a week 6 blip as the only sign of weakness.  Sporting a 4-2 record, the only reason the Bunch is this far down the rankings is that they haven't truly had a breakout week like the teams above.  For the first 5 weeks, the Bunch has scored no less than 127 pts but also, no more than 137 points.  The breakout will come - give it time.  

7.  Phreaks.  Ping's team moved up a slot stemming mostly from a week 4 blow out week with 162 points.  That being said, the bottom 4 teams are clearly a step below the top 6 teams.  The Phreaks, Buffy, Mastermind and Jammers all sport a 2-4 record and have sub 120 pt/week averages.  

8.  Jammers.  Lei's team swapped with Ping's.   The Jammers have shown a bit of life after back to back 120+ pt showings.  Darrell Henderson has been a steal and Ja'Marr chase is the runaway ROY of the year.  There's definitely talent here but likely will take another year before we're talking playoffs.  

9.  Mastermind.   Similar to the Jammers, Mastermind has shown life the past two weeks.   This will be tricky with the Cowboys on a bye but Masterminds needs to start pulling out some wins.  

10.  Buffy.  Last time we wrote that Buffy really needs some of his unorthodox draft picks and keepers to payoff.  They haven't yet and unfortunately, Buffy remains in the cellar in these rankings.  They've really struggled to break the 100 pt mark in recent weeks but despite Hunt on IR, they are getting reinforcements in Bobby Trees showing some improvement, the return of Michael Thomas.  Who knows - its fantasy football!

2021 Power Rankings: WK3

With the first three games in the books, we're rolling out the CTDB 2021 power rankings which combines average score, score variance, and of course, win percentage.  We’ve got some teams rising back thanks to strong drafts and a few that definitely are work in progress. Without further ado:

1.  Custom J.   Josh's team is surging back after a very mediocre 2020 season.  Early picks of David Montgomery and TJ Hockenson have yielded reliable starters at the flex and TE positions and Custom J earns the top spot mostly due to his blow out week 1 performance of 182 points.  Josh is also tied for the best record and second highest average weekly scores.

2.  Battle Angels.  Will's team is a close second and is basically the opposite of Josh's Jekyll and Hyde team.  Angel's first 3 week scores - 136.6 , 138.5, 138.6.  He's consistently good   (and technically getting better!) Will's team has weathered a somewhat poor start with their running game with a strong pass game.  At this rate, Will might break 140 by week 5.

3.  Fat Jubas.  Eric's team has been our unluckiest team.  Despite having the league' highest average score of 148.4 points per week, the Jubas have only a 1-2 record to show for it.   While Carson and Taylor have been really disappointing, Kyler is the early favorite for MVP and Mike Williams has been the find of the draft so far (D'Andre Swift is probably a close 2nd).  Eric's team likely going to move up the rankings as his luck evens out so watch out rest of league

4.  Crunch Bunch.  Eddie's team came in to the draft strong and has started off the year strong.  He hasn't had a blow out week (highest score of 137.5) and hasn't seen really a bad week either.  Steady Eddie shall we say?  Ekeler and Aaron Jones have taken turns carrying the load while they wait for their pass game to come together.

5.  Chunky Monkeys.  The Monkeys have a very similar power rankings score to the Crunch Bunch except they've had a bit more variance to their weekly scores.  The running backs with Saquon and Antonio are showing life while the passing game is also hoping showing signs of improvement with finally a big game from Josh Allen in week 3.  If Tyreek and Diggs can combine for big games, the Monkeys just might have a shot.

6.  Jammers.  The league-drafted Jammers are showing some pop in their lineup (despite not playing Jamarr Chase!). They’re 2-1, had a strong score in week 2 and have shown an ability to put up some wins.  Key now is whether they can find a run game.  Gordon is in a time share and Singletary has regressed each week this season.  The team has talent and needs to get healthy - the Jammers are a borderline playoff team right now.

7.  Gang Green.  Last year's champion has had a middling start esp now with CMC hurt for a few weeks.  However, Green still sports a dangerous offense averaging nearly 135 points per week - good for 4th best in the league.  His power rankings mostly reflect Greg's 1-2 start but we wouldn't be surprised if Gang Green started pushing for a 1st week bye in the playoffs when the team gets healthy.

8.  Phreaks.  This is the part of the league that needs some work.  The next three teams average significantly lower scores and have some of the lowest weekly scores in the league so far (i.e. high variance).  Harris hasn't had quite the start the #1 overall pick was projected to have and Ping's Eagles-centric draft strategy really has hurt the team's onfield performance.  Devonta Smith, Eagles D and Jake Elliott have all been, well, bad.  If Najee and Javonte come on in the second half, that could make things interesting.

9.  Mastermind.   Mastermind has a very similar power ranking score to the Phreaks.  They haven't broken 130 yet and had a near-dud in week 3 with a score of 99.4 points (there've only been 4 scores under 100 this year). The team has some legit firepower with Brady/Dak at the helm but 50% of the bench is being occupied by QB, DEF and K players.  Mastermind needs another full time starter or two before we see them start climbing the ranks.

10.  Buffy.  Roger's had a tough start to the year after a self admitted 'unorthodox' draft.  Like Mastermind, Buffy hasn't been able to score more than 130 points a week and in fact, find themselves at the bottom of the rankings due to a horrific week 1 score of 72.8 points (only score under 90 so far this year).  Buffy doesn't have a standout player at any position - in fact, their best player in week 4 looks to be Chuba Hubbard who is slotting into a juicy role now that CMC is hurt.  Buffy really needs some of his 'unorthodox' keepers to start paying off - Tonyan, Steelers DEF have not delivered the goods so far.