Week 5 Recap

As Weissbard has pointed out, the divisions are extremely stratified heading into Week 6. 

Levine's newly-wounded juggernaut leads a division that has all three teams with 4 or more wins. While his team now has a question mark at the previously dominant QB position, he's in prime position to make a trade to fill that hole if necessary. Esco and Bennett have two of the best starting lineups in the league, but an untimely injury would likely sink their playoff hopes. Barnard's team may have started its annual collapse a few weeks early, and Ajay really needs CMC to milk that injury to hold onto any hope.

AGD's division is up for grabs, with three of the top four squads according to this week's rankings, and an Alan team that has showed off its ceiling in the first month of the season. Nick's season is a huge disappointment, but he still in good position to play spoiler down the stretch, if not make a shocking playoff run.

That leaves us with Gutman's division, a true masterpiece in how to draft a division, especially from the four-team slot. Marco and Zacherman are probably unlucky to be below .500, but what's done is done there. Gutman's team hasn't done great so far, but he should benefit from his series of trades now that Rodgers is back from bye, and he's my pick to win this shitshow. And then there's Billy, who should finally change his draft approach after getting burned so badly this year, but I have a feeling will be more like this.

Trade Grade 9
Gutman receives Wayne Gallman
Weissbard receives Benny Snell
Typical handcuff trade, but Weissbard acquired the backup RB on a good offense and Gutman acquired the third string RB on a terrible offense. Doesn't move the needle too much either way, but I'll lean towards the 2018 champ.
Grades:
Gutman: C-
Weissbard: C+

Because the league is so stratified, I'm breaking the rankings this week into the Have's and the Have Not's. There's about a month until the Trade Deadline, so I'll be listing the biggest weakness that each of the Have's need to address, while listing the biggest area of strength that each of the Have Not's can deal from.

Week 6 Power Rankings

Have's

1. Weissbard (Last Week: 2nd)
Biggest Weakness: TE
This is a very complete team. There's not a clear RB1, but Ekeler has that upside assuming he comes back healthy. Outside that, the namesake of this team is ironically the only question mark. There are a few teams at the bottom of this list that can provide an upgrade, so if Weiss really wants to make a move for a chef's hat, an RB for TE trade might make sense all around.

2. Levine (Last Week: 1st)

Biggest Weakness: QB

From biggest strength to biggest weakness in one week. Fantasy really is a fickle beast. Unfortunately for Levine, the QB trade dominos have pretty much already fallen unless Barnard wants to go nuclear. I don't hate Dalton but he's a big ginger question mark on an otherwise great and deep team.

3. Kumpf (Last Week: 6th)
Biggest Weakness: WR2
I'm sure I'll get shit for ending up third this week, but if you look at my roster, I'm above average at every position other than my second WR. Diontae is ideally a high-end flex player thrust into the role, but if he can stop getting hurt on his first touch of the game, he has WR2 upside. QB isn't ideal, but I can stream my way into a good matchup most weeks. Come at me AGD.

4. AGD (Last Week: 3rd)

Biggest Weakness: Upside

As mentioned a couple of weeks back, the core of this team is set from top to bottom. Hunt will fall off a bit, assuming the Browns can get a Chubb, but he's still a fine RB2 behind Jacobs. What's really lacking is the guy that can put up 30+ in a given week, but if every starter is putting up 15+, that might be enough.

5. Gutman (Last Week: 5th)

Biggest Weakness: RB2

Now that QB has been addressed, the glaring hole on this team is at RB behind Henry. Gut doesn't lack for options each week, but those options either need injuries ahead of them, for their teams to get better, or both, for that spot to be solved. Don't love Fant at TE either, but with Lock back the biggest issue is definitely in the RB slot.

6. Zacherman (Last Week: 7th)

Biggest Weakness: RB2

I can pretty much copy and paste Gutman's blurb for Zacherman. Z actually has the edge at QB, WR1, and TE, but Henry and Gutman's WR depth gives him a very slight edge here to me. Z does have Gaskin, which I've begrudgingly moved into flex-worthy territory in my mind, but I still don't trust him on a weekly basis.

7. Esco (Last Week: 4th)

Biggest Weakness: RB2

Sense a theme here? Esco is similar to Gutman and Z as well, but doesn't have the QB upside that Z has, and his WRs are slightly worse than Gut across the board. He keeps trying to make RoJo a thing, and while TD regression is certainly coming, there's a reason everyone has gotten three trade requests with RoJo and John Brown for a better RB.

8. Bennett (Last Week: 9th)

Biggest Weakness: WR

I'm continually shocked at how much I like Bennett's team, but his WR situation does not inspire weekly confidence. OBJ has performed like a WR1 at times, and a flex option at other times, so I'm not sure what I would really consider him. To round out this roster, Bennett really needs a boring WR1 or high upside WR2 to pair with the mercurial Brown. I also low-key think TE is a weakness, but we all know Bennett won't trade Ertz for anyone.

Have Not's

9. Alan (Last Week: 11th)

Biggest Strength: QB

Alan's highs are high, but his lows are low. His placement here obviously makes him the most likely Have Not to move up the rankings, but to do so he may need to trade Josh Allen. I can't see anyone paying up for Stafford or Herbert, but Allen could get Levine to talk to Alan for the first time since 2015.

10. Ajay (Last Week: 10th)

Biggest Strength: TE

Like Alan, a move up the rankings will likely involve trading Kittle for help elsewhere. Kittle is still recovering from injury, and has some serious QB questions, but he would be an upgrade for every team but AGD and Zacherman.

11. Marco (Last Week: 8th)

Biggest Strength: Depth

This team's performance yo-yo's from week to week because outside of Russ, there's no consistency. I'm not proposing that Marco gives up Russ yet, as he has depth that can be parlayed into a starter if someone has injury issues. If I'm Marco, I'm eyeing CMC as a potential way to move up these rankings.

12. Barnard (Last Week: 12th)

Biggest Strength: QB/TE

Barnard has a similar situation to Alan and Ajay, with players who provide clear upgrades at both QB and TE. Given how badly he has been raped in trades so far this year, I can't see him actually pulling the trigger, but trying to convince Bennett that Edelman is a WR1 is not going to lead to a playoff berth.

13. Nick (Last Week: 13th)

Biggest Strength: Apathy/Spite

I still don't understand how Nick's team is 0-5. I prefer his roster to several teams above him, but his performance has not matched up with that. The Leveon/CEH situation is not ideal, but Nick would likely be best served to sit tight, continue not caring about fantasy, and play spoiler down the stretch.

14. Billy (Last Week: 14th)

Biggest Strength: CMC

McCaffrey and DJ Moore (and Ravens D/ST) are the only players on Billy's team that would be starting for pretty much any other team. If he can get three (or even two) starters out of a trade, I think it would be wise to do so, though I understand just chalking this year up as an L and not rocking the rest of the league.

Matchup of the Week: AGD vs. Kumpf

This is a potentially huge matchup in the division race, and will either confirm ESPN's confidence in me, or send me down to the Have Not's. Byes are wreaking havoc with the lineups here, with AGD getting hit hard losing Jacobs and Lockett. That gives me a huge edge at the RB position, and while it's great to see a guy named La'Mical in a starting lineup, Zeke closing things out on MNF means AGD won't feel safe unless they're up 40. My biggest concern is the Chark/Golladay duo lighting up their opposing defenses and Watson outdueling Tannehill, but I don't think that will be enough to make up for the bye situation. 

Pick: Kumpf
MotW Record: 4-1

Gambling Corner

Bears (+1.5) at Panthers

Vikings (-3) vs. Falcons

Colts (-7) vs. Bengals

Titans (-3) vs. Texans

Bucs (+3) vs. Packers

NFL Bets

Last Week: 1-4
2020 Record: 13-14-1 (-2.58 units)
Historical Win Percentage: 54.40% (+18.83 units)