Jordan's 2009 Power Rankings - Week 1

In 2008, the Nelson saw one team finish over .500 during the regular season. The rest of the league finished either at .500 or a couple games below. In week 1 of 2009, no team scored 70 points, and every team but one scored at least 50.

This type of parity is really unusual. I have played in a number of leagues over the last twenty years. I have friends who have played in about a dozen more. Rarely do you find a league where more than a couple of owners really know their stuff, and consistently build teams that are threats to win the title.

Going on very little data, we can quickly gather that this year is going to be another scrum. No one made a statement in week one. To your laser-eyed correspondent, however, some emerged more equal than others. This week’s Power Rankings…

1. Fight-in Camels – They scored 107 total points last week, and had two good things happen. Roy Williams had a great game for Dallas, setting him up for a possible comeback year. And Ladanian Tomlinson went down with an ankle injury in week 1, increasing the value of Darren Sproles. The bad news is the injury to Donny McNabb, because Tony typically ties his fantasy team performance very tightly to the Eagles. Akers, Westbrook and Jackson are all here, and will be affected if the Philly offense struggles.
   
2. Northboro – The proud owners of the Stephen Cup squeezed out a win against the Dangerous Minds – the first time they’ve beaten the commish in a few years. Northboro has some balance and some bench – they scored 98 points total on the week. No one in the starting lineup scored over 13 points.
   
3. Dangerous Minds – They lost by a nose hair to Northboro week one – a game so close it took until Tuesday to determine the winner. The commish got 99 points from his guys in the first week, and has Percy Harvin and Patrick Crayton on the bench to spice up the starting lineup. Mike’s QB is on the shelf for a while, and Jay Cutler looks like a project. It’ll be interesting to track Mike’s waiver picks over the next few weeks.
   
4. Rocky Brook – Tom started the year by leading the league in scoring week 1 – 68 points will get you a W about 85% of the time in this league. There are two questions surrounding this team. First, the bench looks thin – 18 of his 28 bench points came from Joe Flacco, whose ass will not rise from the Oiler pine unless something hideous happens to Drew Brees (31 points!). Second, Brees scored almot half the team’s points by himself. He’s awesome, but he won’t score 31 every week. Tom needs Stephen Jackson to score well, and Jackson has precious little help in St. Louis right now.
   
5. Northern Spies – They are 1-0, but what goes for Rocky Brook also applies here. The Spies got 27 from AP, who is just a stud. They have even worse bench issues than Tom. That said, I love the starting lineup here, especially if Leon Washington gets some playing time over Reggie Bush. This is a good team that will struggle with the bye weeks.
   
6. Midwest – The Marauders had a good showing week 1, but were undone by the Brees explosion against hapless Detroit. This club will look better in the next few weeks – Tennessee will not be running Chris Johnson against Pittsburgh again until the playoffs. In fact, Johnson faces only 2 really tough run defenses the rest of the way – the Jets in week 3 and the 49ers week 9. The key to this team is Andre Johnson. If he performs as expected, Midwest is going to be a handful.
   
7. Garvey’s Gangsters – After scoring 37 points in the first week, it would have been easy to place them last in this week’s rankings. But they got 51 points from their bench, and that bodes well for the team’s outlook going forward. Rich should be praying that Delhomme gets his mojo back in Carolina, because Steve Smith is a very important player on this club.
   
8. Georgia Satellites - John is like the Yankees – they start slow and get better as the playoff draw near. He scored 61 points total between his starters and his bench. We look for better days from the seven time champ.