Week 4 Recap

It's the Era of Parity in FALAFEL, as for the first time ever, we have no 4-0 teams and no 0-4 teams. That means that the entire league is within 2 games of itself, and for all intents and purposes, the season has not started yet. 

That's not to say that we haven't learned things about each team. Over the next two weeks, I'll take shallow dive on each team's strengths and weaknesses, both the obvious and the below-the-radar. We'll start this week with strengths, and assume I remember to follow up next week with weaknesses.

Something to keep in mind this week (though I'm sure it will be ignored) is that the gap between teams 1-8 is very small in my mind, as is the gap between teams 9-13 (sorry Esco).

Week 4 Power Rankings

1. AGD (Last Week: 1st)
Obvious Strength: RB depth. Devin Singletary is probably the 5th best RB on this roster and would be in the starting rotation for at least 10 other teams.
Underrated Strength: Tight End. I've said it before, but I fully expect Hock to finish top 3 at the position. Outside of a weird game against the Ravens, he's had at least 8 targets every game.

2. Kumpf (Last Week: 13th)
Obvious Strength: Wide receiver. Kupp's random brilliance aside, Diontae and Hollywood have been top 25 so far this season and that's not even including AJB, who's primed for a breakout if he ever gets healthy.
Underrated Strength: Resilience. Despite my jokes last week, I somehow did lose another starter in Mixon. Losing a starter per week should make my roster look worse than Esco's yet I'm 1 of 4 teams to break 90 every week.

3. Weissbard (Last Week: 6th)
Obvious Strength: QB. Weiss went back to the well with his 2QB strategy, which worked last year but is still risky as it relies on both options to play well, and for someone to be willing to trade for them. So far so good on performance, but given how deep the position is, I can't see a top 40 RB or top 25 WR coming his way in exchange for Herbert.
Underrated Strength: TE streaming. I wasn't a fan of unnecessarily giving up Goedert in his trade with Alan, but he bounced back strong with a nice Hooper week followed by Dawson Knox improbably becoming a top 10 option.

4. Levine (Last Week: 2nd)
Obvious Strength: Depth. His bench is full of high-upside handcuffs and potential starters for other teams. In a 14-game regular season that figures to be a battle of attrition, Levine is positioned to weather the storm and capitalize via trade.
Underrated Strength: James Conner. Someone who looked like a timeshare at best has assumed goalline duties in the desert. Assuming that Kliff doesn't want Kyler to take any unnecessary hits, Conner should easily break 10 TDs this season.

5. Zacherman (Last Week: 10th)
Obvious Strength: Fab Five. I don't know that anyone can match up with Stafford, Zeke, JRob, Davante, and Ridley when they're running on all cylinders. We have yet to see that, but Ridley is primed for a big week in London and the rest have sweet matchups.
Underrated Strength: Non-zero RBs. We've seen a couple of teams (Barnard, Weissbard) have truly abysmal weeks at RB, where 5 points would be an absolute dream. Z's bench has non-sexy options like Mark Ingram, Tevin Coleman, and Philip Lindsay who would be no one's first choice, but will avoid a goose egg if things really hit the fan.

6. Marco (Last Week: 3rd)
Obvious Strength: Wide Receiver. Nuk and Amari have yet to really find their stride due to injuries, and Higgins has been banged up since Week 1, but the Mike Williams breakout gives you four above average options or better when they're all healthy. Just need to get there.
Underrated Strength: Tampa's play-calling. Bruce Arians hates running the ball, which means a geriatric QB is going to throw, throw, and keep throwing. Even in a monsoon where the opposing coach knows his weaknesses, Tom broke 10 points. I can't see him going under 20 again.

7. Nick (Last Week: 7th)
Obvious Strength: Core Four. You may not have the fifth member that Z does, but Chubb, Saquon, Lockett, and Diggs look primed to carry you if they can stay healthy. I've actually been impressed with the way that Jason Garrett has used Saquon, and Diggs has a 2-TD day coming if any of Buffalo's opponents can stay within 20, so your floor is pretty high barring injury.
Underrated Strength: Upside. Between Trey Lance, Kyle Pitts, Josh Gordon, and even Joe Burrow, there is a lot of untapped potential here. It may stay untapped until next year, but if one of those guys breaks out, you have a bargain basement starter.

8. Billy (Last Week: 4th)
Obvious Strength: RB. Duh.
Underrated Strength: QB. Carr has cooled off, but this has not been a bad year to live the streaming QB life. It will backfire in some weeks, but given how fucked the rest of the league is at RB, it's not the worst place to be.

9. Mejia (Last Week: 5th)
Obvious Strength: Three Musketeers. Rodgers, Dalvin, and Kelce is a top notch trio, though Dalvin's injury woes seem like they could linger throughout the season.
Underrated Strength: Fat Lenny. If he is going to keep playing a role in the passing game, he's actually startable.

10. Barnard (Last Week: 8th)
Obvious Strength: Mahomes and Tyreek. Duh.
Underrated Strength: WR depth. Reek and shockingly Deebo have been studs, but if anyone is actually primed to trade WR for RB, it's Barnard. He will likely have to part with one of his top 2 to get a starting RB, but that still leaves him with Odell, Sutton, Jakobi, eventually Gallup, and maybe even Michael Thomas. We can all expect to see "Michael Thomas for RB1" trade offers next week, but realistically, Deebo for RB2 is very doable.

11. Ajay (Last Week: 9th)
Obvious Strength: Tight End. Duh.
Underrated Strength: RB roulette. Ajay's RB situation is not ideal by any means, but he's not totally fucked. He just needs the right players to get hurt at the right times. That has already worked out with Mattison, and I can see Darrel Williams getting some starts in KC. RoJo is not included in this strength.

12. Alan (Last Week: 11th)
Obvious Strength: Josh Allen. After a slow start, he looks every part the top tier QB he was last year.
Underrated Strength: Improbably RB? Alan was screwed at RB just two weeks ago, but the Kareem Hunt trade and Zach Moss's emergence has actually left him in relatively decent shape. If he really wants to make moves, combining two of his three RBs for an upgrade would a ballsy trade. Kareem and Sanders for Dalvin?

13. Gutman (Last Week: 12th)
Obvious Strength: Competency. While there is minimal upside on this roster, it's competent across the board. Injuries and underperformance have hurt so far, but at 2-2, I can still see a playoff push if the cards break right here.
Underrated Strength: Eagles. If that playoff push doesn't happen, at least the Eagles don't appear to fold even when they're down big. Garbage time Jalen to Devonta points count the same as if the game is close.

14. Esco (Last Week: 14th)
Obvious Strength: Kyler. The MVP frontrunner with a rushing baseline that makes him the safest start in the league. I still think he's overrated as an NFL QB, but in fantasy that doesn't matter.
Underrated Strength: Third down backups? I'm struggling here, but as it stands Esco doesn't even really have handcuff RBs on his bench. He does have a few 3rd down backs that don't start between Drake, Evans, and Snell, so I guess that's good for half PPR?

Matchup of the Week: AGD vs. Marco

Holy divisional matchups! After a dry spell to start the year, we have four of them this week, any of which would make a good MotW candidate given how tight the standings are. But while no team can win the league this early, it is possible to create a massive hole to dig out of, and that's what Marco's potentially looking at.

It's also a juicy matchup based on roster construction as we have cross-team matchups of Brady and Amari vs. Dak and Godwin. I think that's probably a wash overall, and while Marco gets a slight WR edge with a healthy Nuk, the rest of the matchup is all AGD. Kamara vs. Washington D will be one-sided enough that Marco should finally give up on his home town squad, and this one will be decided long before Pittman gets to close things out on MNF.

Pick: AGD
MotW Record: 3-1
Rivalry Week Record: 3-4