2017 Pre-FA Draft Power Rankins — 4th-1st

Nick Sarlo
Jul 27, 2017 · 8 min read

Here comes the home stretch. We have 4 teams remaining that no one should really be surprised by, except at the end of the season when the 7th ranked teams end up winning anyway.

#4 — Troy Altbaum

2014 Finish: 7th

2015 Finish: 12th

2016 Finish: 7th

Strengths:

  • TE — When healthy Jordan Reed is one of the most dangerous at the position
  • RB — The duo of Ezekiel Elliott and Leonard Fournette should be one of the best in the league, assuming Zeke is only suspended a few games
  • QB — Andrew Luck is coming off a surprisingly good 2016 and is more likely to stay great than revert to 2015 numbers

Weaknesses:

  • No real weaknesses, though could lack the depth to survive injuries or compete against the other 3 teams above them

Noteworthy:

  • Mealey rebuilt his team just in time for it to be taken over by Troy
  • This team has never been to the playoffs, but this is the highest they’ve ever been ranked

Comments:

It must have been a real struggle for Troy a few months ago when he was asked to ditch his sinking incestuous ship to take over this shiny up and coming team.

What Mealey lacked in paying attention to his fucking team any given week he made up for with “taking the obvious best player in the draft with the number 1 pick he got from sucking so much”. Combine that with Troy’s willingness to make big splashes and suddenly you have a team that has a solid mixture of young talent with big years ahead of them and older guys to round out the roster.

According to FantasyPros Troy isn’t the strongest at any given position, but has above average players across the board:

  • The 4th QB
  • The 2nd RB1
  • The 4th RB2
  • The 6th WR1
  • The 5th WR2
  • The 4th WR3
  • The 3rd TE
  • The 4th FLEX1
  • The 5th FLEX2

There are a ton of question marks here though:

  • Will Zeke face a suspension?
  • Will the Jags defense be improved enough for them to be able to lean on Fournette, a rookie?
  • Will Michael Thomas regress now that the secret he’s good at football is out?
  • Will the Dolphins continue to de-emphasize Landry in their offense?
  • Can Pryor continue to show improvement as a 28 year old Sophmore?

Troy has obviously created a contender, however whether they’re ready to win it all remains to be seen. Hopefully he doesn’t try too hard to prove himself as an independent owner to win right away, because his team might not be deep enough just yet.

#3— Dave Hallahan and Scott Lederer

2014 Finish: 11th

2015 Finish: 8th

2016 Finish: 1st

Strengths:

  • QB — A-aron Rodgers, what else is there to say?
  • RB — Easily the best RB corps in our league, though hold onto your butts if one of them goes down

Weaknesses:

  • FLEX — Surprisingly weak in the FLEX for a team that claims to be the “deepest ever”

Noteworthy:

  • Last season was their first trip to the playoffs where they swiped up the floor with everyone, much as they did all season
  • Their season was so strong last year that they went from not even making the playoffs two years in a row to having the 3rd most scoringest team in league history
  • Their success has been driven by being extremely active, leading the league with 45 trades

Comments:

I don’t think I’m more skeptical of any team at the top.

Not that they don’t look good. They are very likely to have the top QB again, and could easily have two RBs in the top 5 — a feat that isn’t easy to do at such a volatile position.

The reason I’m skeptical is they just don’t look great anywhere else, which is really weird for the team with the “deepest WRs ever”.

  • The 1st QB
  • The 1st RB1
  • The 1st RB2
  • The 5th WR1
  • The 7th WR2
  • The 5th WR3
  • The 5th TE
  • The 8th FLEX1
  • The 8th FLEX2

Am I supposed to believe a team that is (quite excitedly) looking to start some combination of Jamison Crowder/Pierre Garcon/Post-Hype Cobb/Desean Jackson in the flex is supposed to compete with other teams who are playing guys like Hopkins and DT in the same slots?

Their RBs carried the bulk of the workload last year, leading them to commanding victories almost every week without a single WR1 on their roster. And yet despite that some of their highest scoring WRs have been moved in a strategy that has them locking down top RB talent while trying to lean on value-guys in other positions. It’s a bold strategy that paid off in big ways last year, allowing them to take the league by storm and have plenty of left over players to move and still keep one of the best starting rosters. Whether its successful again remains to be seen, and while I remain a skeptic, there’s no denying they have a very well rounded roster and are returning with the top RBs.

#2 — Dave Falcon and Chris Black

2014 Finish: 12th

2015 Finish: 11th

2016 Finish: 5th

Strengths:

  • Literally everywhere

Weaknesses:

  • Literally nowhere

Noteworthy:

  • Even after last year’s strong season they remain 9th in points for in league history
  • Also sport the lowest win percentage in league history at .308

Comments:

This is the year. The Falcon is tired of losing. He didn’t fleece the shit out of the league in the early years when people were adjusting to the format only to not cash in on all that grease. If there’s any doubt, just try to trade for his RB6 or WR12 and see if they’re available. He’s all in in 2017.

No one would fault you for thinking he has the best team in the league right now. He’s going to have to decide between a handful of studs every week just to fill out his FLEX. He has:

  • The 3rd QB
  • The 3rdRB1
  • The 2nd RB2
  • The 3rd WR1
  • The 3rd WR2
  • The 1st WR3
  • The 2nd TE
  • The 1st FLEX1
  • The 1st FLEX2

And the worst part is he doesn’t even have to worry about going into 2017 too deep because he already has likely two great 2018 picks.

Now, I think there are a lot of question marks here that make Falcone my “most likely in the top 4 to miss the playoffs”. McCoy and Murray are probably safe bets, but:

  • Mike Evans is a huge regression candidate, being a top-12 fantasy scorer in just one of the final eight weeks of last season, along with having many more offensive weapons on his team and a much-improved defensive unit
  • FantasyPros loves Jordy, but I’m wary of a 32 year old WR on a team still loaded with weapons
  • Dez Bryant has basically lost his job as the focal point of the Cowboys offense and will almost certainly never see the usage he did up until 2015
  • Travis Kelce gets a lot of love for a guy whos never found the endzone more than 5 times a season
  • Todd Gurley looked awful in 2016 and his situation certainly hasn’t improved
  • Deandre Hopkins still has no one throwing to him

Maybe Falcon knows what he’s doing holding onto his depth after all.

#1— Cleve Bryan

2014 Finish: 3rd

2015 Finish: 1st

2016 Finish: 3rd

Strengths:

  • TE — Gronk gonna Gronk
  • WR — Ridiculous depth at WR playing guys at WR2/3 that most don’t even have at WR1
  • QB — I’m tired of the recent trend of trying to pin the Pats success on their defense and take away Brady’s contribution. Its crazy how someone can simultaneously be one of the greatest and underrated QBs
  • FLEX — DT and Larry Fitz are probably WR2s on other top 6 teams

Weaknesses:

  • RB — Definitely a glaring weakness

Noteworthy:

  • Probably the best team in the league’s history so far — the most points in league history, the highest win percentage (0.667), 3 straight playoff berths, a championship, and the best average finish of 2.3

Comments:

A lot of people have been talking about your Calhouns, Falcones, and Hallahans the past year, but I’m going to contend the real team that should top everyone’s “oh shit” list is the one thats been there since the league started.

Cleve has managed to put fear the hearts of his opponents over the past few seasons while people not really talking about it too much. Last pre-season Calhoun and Falcone were the talks of the league; this off season Hallahan’s dominant performance was fresh in everyone’s minds. And as we get closer to the 2017 season we’ve heard plenty about Troy and Falcone, along with another expected strong performance by Hallederer.

Maybe it’s because he isn’t overly active on the trade market (why fix what ain’t broke?). Maybe it’s because he fizzled out of the playoffs last year with a weak score of 150 when his team was decimated by injuries. Maybe it’s because he is forced to start Doug Martin who is typically propped up by some sort of crutch, literal or pharmaceutical.

Despite his glaring weakness at RB, checkout where the rest of his roster stands.

  • The 2nd QB
  • The 5th RB1
  • The 8th RB2
  • The 1st WR1
  • The 1st WR2
  • The 2nd WR3
  • The 1st TE
  • The 2nd FLEX1
  • The 2nd FLEX2

Outside of RB he is either 1st or second at literally every major position. At first I wanted to put Falcone here, but at the end of the day I think Cleve is going to be the team to beat in 2017.

Of course, injuries are always a possibility, and Cleve is far less suited to survive major injuries than Falcone. But at this moment it’s hard to see Cleve dropping many games — we could be about to witness the most dominant season by a team in HDL history.

Heinbail Dynasty League

The official blog for the HDL

Nick Sarlo

Written by

Heinbail Dynasty League

The official blog for the HDL

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