Jordan's Power Rankings 2010 – Week 5

Scoring by Position

This week features a great matchup between two undefeated clubs - Garvey’s Gangsters and the Georgia Satellites. Both clubs got to 4-0 last week, with John scoring a few more style points than Rich – he won by 24 while Mr. Garvey spent his Monday night praying in front of the TV set, as he squeaked by Tony.

After I got through screaming at the internet to tell me why Arian Foster was sitting on the bench sipping Gatorade Frost while Derek Ward was scoring on short TD runs, I conducted a short study of scoring by position. The methodology is this – take the scoring over the first four weeks, arrange the RBs and WRs in descending order of points scored, and compare results across the clubs. The results were interesting – even a little surprising.

A few bullet points that apply league-wide before we take a spin through the individual teams:

• So far this year, teams are averaging 57 points per week.
• The top scoring position in our league is QB (416 points for all teams through 4 weeks), followed very closely by RB1 (400 points). This means that almost 45% of all points scored in our league are scored by the QB or the top scoring running back.
  
  
• WR1s averaged 9.78 points per week through the first 4 weeks. So, if you feel good about that 85 yard, 1 TD effort from your stud wideout – save the trash talk because you’re just holding serve.
  
  
• Kickers score about half as many points as QBs – 7.16 points per week.
  
  
• RB3s and WR3s average less than 3 points per week. This was a shocker – very few teams do well in these slots. Looking at the numbers, I realized that this is really a 6 on 6 matchup league, because production from these slots is very unusual.
  
  
• Average Number of Points by position: QB (13), RB1 (12.5), RB2 (5.7), RB3 (2.41), WR1 (9.78), WR2 (4.72), WR3 (2.06), K (7.16).

This week’s rankings…

1. Garvey’s Gangsters – They win the Battle of the Byes this week in their matchup with the undefeated Satellites. Mr. Garvey will be playing this one at full strength while John comes to Levittown without Rashard Mendenhall. The Gangsters are banged up, though – Leshon McCoy and Ahmad Bradshaw are both questionable heading into the weekend.
   
   The highest scoring position in our league through 4 weeks is Rich Garvey’s quarterback slot (17 points per week) – regularly populated by this Peyton Manning guy. The third highest scoring position in our league is Rich Garvey’s RB1 slot That’s how you go undefeated, people. The interesting part of that RB1 number is that it’s been a different guy every week - McCoy scored 24 on Northboro week 2, Maurice Jones-Drew led the Garvey running backs in scoring last week, and Ahmad Bradshaw got it done in weeks 1 and 3.
   
   
2. Georgia Satellites – John will be trying to beat the league’s top-ranked team without his best running back. John has won games throughout his career in circumstances that would make a lesser man despair, so we will not be counting him out this week. Let’s line ‘em up and play!
   
   The Satellites are getting league-average production from their quarterbacks, and they are slightly ahead of the league average in the RB1 slot (13.75 ppw). The strength of this team is elsewhere. They are tied for second in the league in points from the WR1 slot (11.75), and they are leading the league in points from the RB2 slot at 8.5 points per game. Ladanian Tomlinson, baby.
   
   
3. Northboro – For the first time this year, the Steroids are a little banged up. Peyton Hillis, Jahvit Best, Michael Vick, and Darren McFadden are all hurt to one extent or the other. There little to whine about here, because they will face a Rocky Brook squad who is playing without Tom Brady. The Randy Moss trade means we get an extra week from one of the most explosive wide receivers in the league.
   
   Statistically, there’s good news everywhere. Seven of the top 24 players in the Nelson League are Steroids, including #2 (Arian Foster), #3 (Phillip Rivers) and #4 (Michael Vick). The Steroids are leading the league in points, and are scoring above the league average at every position except RB3.
   
   
4. Dangerous Minds – The Minds are rolling. Aaron Rogers is the #5 ranked player in the league, and Antonio Gates has scored more points than any wide receiver in the Nelson. Mike’s minions are scoring above the league average in six positions. He’s getting 13.5 points per game from the WR1 slot, which leads the league by almost 2 points. (Rocky Brook is second at 11.5). The Commish lines up against a stunned and prone Midwest team this week.
   
   
5. Fight-in Camels – Of the four remaining teams, this is one that comes out looking the best in statistical analysis. Tony has a deep receiving corps, and is leading the league in scoring from the WR3 slot, at 4.25 points per game. He is competitive at QB and, of course, RB1 where Adrian Peterson resides. The issue is the lack of explosiveness among his receivers. Outside of Deshawn Jackson, none of Tony’s receivers has scored 10 points in a game yet this year. Tony matches up against a struggling Northern Spies team this week.
   
   
6. Rocky Brook – This week’s analysis shows up some serious weaknesses with certain clubs, and Tom’s club is definitely one of those. Rocky Brook has scored 203 points through the first four weeks. The top 4 positions on this club (QB, RB1, WR1 and K), have scored 177 of those points. This means that the other 4 slots are scoring only 12.8% of Rocky Brook’s points. The good news is that if Tom can find someone – anyone – to help in those 4 slots, Rocky Brook becomes dangerous. The bad news is that if any of the big scorers has an off week, the Oilers will struggle. This week, Tom takes his schizophrenic ball club to Northboro – not an easy matchup.
   
   
7. Midwest Marauders – The defending champion has been struggling all year with injuries and poor luck, but this week could be a little different. The matchups are pretty scrumptious – Stephen Jackson against Detroit, Jamaal Charles against Indianapolis, Cedrick Benson against Tampa Bay.
   
   This has to raise some of Hugh’s per-position averages, because the numbers are really appalling in spots. For example, Midwest’s RB3 spot has contributed all of 3 points to the cause in the first four weeks of the season. The biggest hole, however, is at Quarterback – a position weakness this writer called out in the week 2 column. Midwest is averaging 5 points per week at this critical position – a stat that goes a long way to explaining the 0-4 start.
   
   
8. Northern Spies – The Spies have many of the same problems as Midwest, with the special added bonus of having fought injuries all over the roster all year. This week, Brandon Marshall is on the bye, but they should be fine plugging in Dustin Keller, who has been a Red Zone force so far.
   
   

   There’s hope. Ryan Torain is going to get a lot of touches as the replacement for the broken Clinton Portis, and last week’s 9 point performance was promising. Keller should never leave the starting lineup – he’s pretty much Antonio Gates once the Jets cross the 20 yard line. And Visanthe Shiancoe will enjoy roaming free underneath with Randy Moss drawing double coverage for the rest of the year. This club could be far more nasty as the season matures.