Week 5 Power Rankings

Week 4 heightened the early separation among the tiers, with a first round of 150+ scores and a the maintenance of the undefeated clique atop the rankings.   Two winless trawl the depths and two still without a 100 point game. But as we saw last year, streaks can happen. Teams can change direction radically and rapidly.  It's possible that one or several top 10 players (by points at year end) at any skill position are currently un-rostered, or will hit the wire in the next few weeks. The winners can't rest, the losers can't give up and the middle just keeps on grindin'.

1.  (2)  Phat Girlz - (4-0) - Luck is the league's fantasy QB1 by a comfortable length, now sporting back to back 30+ point games. Aesthetically, the Girlz well-rounded form is pleasing. A top passer with a double-titration option. A blue chip RB in Forte. A borderline WR1 in Cobb.  And a little bit of depth with Tate/Sankey/Greene. 

2. (3) Aethernauts - (4-0) - The Nauts win the Golden Goose award with a Vegas worthy pick of the lesser Manning, sparsely rostered this week, much less started.  It was a powerful gamble that paid off in a smashing Thursday Night bonanza.   Eli's hardly dependable and Cam continues to look less than start-able. But Murray is fantasy's RB1, and Ivory has a firm hold on his job as well. Signs of life from the Cheesehead offense upgrade Jordy's potential, when he's Rodgers' top endzone target the Nauts will be breathing rare air.

3. (2) TakingTigerMountain  (4-0) - The Tigers joined their undefeated brethren in a nice crooked number in week 4, but lack some of the construction for dependability of the other two early elite teams. Specifically, the increasing likelihood that AP will not return to buoy their ground game - Brown's unexpected WR1 has hidden some of their scoring deficiencies, but can't be expected to continue forever. Week 4 is a good illustration of the Mountain's potential as a TD dependent high-mid swing team.  The axis of production returns to the Crescent City Connection - Brees to Graham.  If it's interrupted the Tigers will need this win cushion to prevent another calamitous fall out of the playoff race. 

4.  (5) BuildingDwellingThinking  (3-1)- Romo looked his best in multiple years on Sunday Night and no-surprise BDT rises on that tide. They've got a solid strategy of young RBs backing Morris in the RB2 slot. Khiry, McKinnon, Brown and Gerhart - they'll work hard to hold onto that depth. Realistically how far they can go depends entirely on Romo continuing his trend of improved play. 

5. (4)  SanFranciscoFerries (2-2)- The Ferries got crushed by PG's big offense, but still put up triple digits. The Bay Area Boatmen are still searching for that high end potential.  But a first double digit game from Lacy, along with a sparking Packers offense, are the life-signs they need.   Welker's recovery and re-placement in Denver's offense will go along way toward establishing a high-water mark.

6.  (7) Old Future (1-3)  - The Future put up another +110 effort and again got clipped by another good team. Their losses have come at the expense of three of the top four teams currently, so there's bound to be better days ahead.On Manning's bye, it's no big surprise to drop a game, but Matty-Ice filled in reliably nonetheless. With that job done it should be interesting to see if Ryan (currently #2 QB by points) is worth more as trade fodder or bench insurance for the uncertain future.

7. (10)  Homespun Neckbloodz (2-2) - Doping up a second straight win and return to .500 are the Bloodz.  It was a "just enough" kind of day for the Spinners, who saw Foles show the cold side of Mercury, and V-Jax save a nothing day with a dramatic TD catch. Smith Sr. and Donnell did the heavy lifting  With Nio-Gio and Ellington on bye the Bloodz caught a big break cherry-picking a win here and putting their season back on track.

8. (9)  Polk High Panthers (1-3) - The Panthers were Tiger bait in the cat battle. Megatron got decoy duty and Green was on bye - top two weapons not firing is a recipe for rout.  The good news is that R-burger looks up to playing QB2 and Jamaal came through his return looking ready to be the arrowhead. 

9. (11)  Dijonaise All Stars (2-2)   - The Mustard Men took a nice clean win from the Shocks in week 4. Rivers is playing near QB1 status so far, if Arian can get healthy enough, they'll spread a few wins around if teams linger in the  mid-range. 

10. (7)  Trichs  (0-4) - like their top draft pick Shady, this season has started as a slow motion disaster. A second straight miniscule performance from the blue chip RB leaves the Trichs in a big hole. If the Eagles can figure out how to block for McCoy,  at least Martin appears healthy as a companion ground attack. With a mobile QB2 and a brace of RB2s there's still hope for the initial game-plan here. The Trichs are the best pick to pull a SFF streak and pluck their way back into the race.

11. (9)  Pelican Brief (0-4)-  No player is more central to a team's success than Lynch on the Brief, so it's hard to find fault in loss where he's on bye.  But a bold (WOPR? WLKR?) based decision to sit Brady in favor of Cousins was correct, but not pretty.   The bigger concern is that the Brief hasn't broken its hundo cherry yet. There's precious few teams to beat in double digits. 

12. (12) Shock_Pix  (1-3) -  Fresh off a world-shattering win, the Shock went on a line-up-setting spree. Freshening up the roster and cutting dead weight.   Hill, Harvin, and Demaryius on bye, this was an unlikely time for a second straight upset. With a decent QB, WR1 and a collection of RBs-with-jobs we may not have seen the last shock of this season.