Callen's Week Zero 2020 Power Rankings

markhambone | 0-0W/L | 0PF

A lesson I think I’ve learned about fantasy in the last couple of years is that leagues are won on upside. Depth is nice, but if you don’t have elite players, you will not win. You need a top 5 player at nearly every spot to compete for a ‘ship. I think Mark has the best 1-2 punch at RB in the league with Zeke and Chubb. Then he’s got a couple of target hogs in Thielen and Kupp at WR. Then he’s got Dak at QB, who finished as QB2 last year. His only potential weak spot is at TE, but Hurst is taking over the spot that produced at a high-level last year for the Falcons. Overall this team is crazy solid and even has a couple of high-value lotto tickets in CeeDee and Dobbins. I just like the lineup from top to bottom.

Manhattan (KS) Miracles | 0-0W/L | 0PF

Chris could very well end up with the top 2 most valuable fantasy players in 2020. Without much exaggeration, he could end up with a playoff team if Mahomes and CMC perform to their expectations, and everyone else plays averagely. But he’s also swinging Chark and Cooper at WR, who will both be fantastic as well. Like Mark, his weakest spot is at TE. Hooper had a good year in 2019, but he’ll undoubtedly lose some steam in Cleveland who hasn’t produced a great TE since Gary Barnidge.

🏆‼️ | 0-0W/L | 0PF

Travis might have the best stable of RBs as a whole in the league this year. He owns three outright bellows. His TE isn’t anything special, and on the surface, his WRs are also pretty mediocre as starters. But this is where my personal bias and some potential upside come to play. I think DeVante Parker continues a lot of the success he ended last year with, and I think Lockett has top 5 WR potential, but only if the Seahawks let Rus go to work. In recent years the Seahawks have been a run-first team even though Rus is everything to that offense. If they realize that and let him loose Lockett could have a huge season.

Salty Duck Egg | 0-0W/L | 0PF

So I am a lazy asshole and didn’t produce these rankings until after the first game of the season. That game took the biggest question mark of the first round and made it a sure thing. The Chiefs are gonna use the shit outta CEH. Matt backs that up with Chris Carson, who is great when healthy, plus another potential bellcow if Montgomery is healthy at some point. Stack on that a trio of Godwin, Ridley, and McLaurin at WR, and this team has a stupid good RB/WR roster. Tight end and QB might be a bigger question mark, but Matt is strong in the most important spots.

Court is in Sutton | 0-0W/L | 0PF

There are a lot of similarities with Matt and Caleb, and I just liked K-Man’s set up a smidge more. Both rosters have solid cores but are fuzzier on the edges than the higher-ranked teams. We all know Kamara’s upside, and I also think BoB will force-feed the ball to DJ to save face on his dog shit trade of Nuk. I ultimately think this team will depend on a group of high upside receivers. A-Rob had a great year in 2019, and I think he’s going to anchor things. I have Hollywood Brown as my breakout WR candidate this year, along with a bunch of other Twitter experts. Sutton is not quite as sure, but Drew Lock could certainly make him a valuable asset if he can put together a solid sophomore season.

Glizzy Guzzlers | 0-0W/L | 0PF

Scottie is going to think I’m a salty dude for putting myself one spot over him, and that’s probably true, but I also have justifications. I have two RBs who finished top-7 last year to his 1. I also think I clearly have the best single receiver in Adams between our teams, and I think Kelce still has the edge over Kittle at TE. More importantly, maybe, is that I have a high upside rookie in Akers, but honestly, the dude scares me. I basically don’t know shit about him other than he was a 2nd round pick and averaged over 7 yards a carry in college. I can already tell my biggest struggle this year will be juggling three good-not-great receivers in my WR2/flex spots (Gallup/Boyd/Jones). Overall, pretty average team, but with just a little luck I could end up higher in the standings.

Bijan Mustard | 0-0W/L | 0PF

Scottie’s team may have jumped a spot or two if I did these rankings right after the draft. I am still 100% confident Henry and Kittle are gonna get theirs. But at this point, I’m less sold on the rest of the roster. The obvious big blow is Fournette leaving Jax. Even if he takes over the job in Tampa, they are still going to be so pass-heavy with Evans, Godwin, and Gronk on the team that I don’t think there’s any way you get his ADP out of him. I’m just not convinced he’s going to get the 250+ carries he was drafted for in this offense. I am also not sold on Diggs as a WR1. I don’t know the last time Buffalo produced a receiver worth starting consistently at all, let alone worth relying on as a WR1. There is some decent potential in the other receivers, so maybe Jeudy or Ruggs will step up sooner than expected.

BigOleDoinks | 0-0W/L | 0PF

Cral’s team was probably the hardest for me to rank this year, and I think that almost entirely hinged on Jonathan Taylor. His WR core is fantastic, so no worries there. Then Lamar Jackson and James Conner were two of the best keeper values in the whole league this year. But beyond that shit just falls off super fast. If Taylor doesn’t take over the Colts’ backfield you are now relying on - Kerryon and AD? Tight end options are Gesicki and Fant? Both mids players on offenses that aren’t set up to do a ton of scoring. This team is just very top-heavy without a lot of upside in the middle. If Taylor does take over and one of those tight ends pans out, I could see this being my biggest miss of these rankings.

CDC Lamb | 0-0W/L | 0PF

By now, you may see my bias coming through of needing to see top-flight RBs present to show up high in my rankings. They are just that important to doing well in fantasy. Andrew somewhat matches Carl’s same issue in that he has Reek/Nuk/Woods for a stupid good receiving core. But depending on Singletary and RoJo at RB is asking for trouble. I think Mark Andrews will be nice again this year, and of course, Gibson in Washington’s backfield was maybe the biggest sleeper pick among analysts this offseason, and it looks like that may be happening. So yeah, not a horrible team, but fantasy is as deep at WR and shallow at RB as its ever been. This team isn’t missing a ton, but it is missing pieces at the most important position.

lrich91 | 0-0W/L | 0PF

I guess our league is just reaching peak efficiencies because even at the #10 spot, I don’t think this team is bad by any means. But when I look at it, I just see an entire roster of guys who are going to be very average-ish. As I’ve already said, I think you need extreme upside to win in fantasy. Josh Jacobs will probably repeat what he did in 2019, and Gurley may be good, but he may also get knocked out of the season at any time. JuJu better hope Big Ben can stay healthy, cause last year he was doo doo immediately when the backup QBs came in. And Zach Ertz was top 5 at TE last year, but I felt like he never really took over games (and he was on my team). So yeah, not even a lot to bash here, just not enough upside for my liking.

The Mixon Administration | 0-0W/L | 0PF

I’m sorry to say it, but this may have been one of John’s weakest draft in league history. I can’t believe not taking his RB2 until the 8th round won’t come back to bite him. After last year’s performances, I can’t buy into OBJ or DJ Moore yet either, which leaves a very tiny margin of error for Julio and Golladay to carry a huge load. Julio is notoriously inconsistent on a week to week basis, and Golladay is going to miss week 1. Mixon will be good, Julio will be good, Russ will be good, but more importantly, I think that if any manager in this league can turn around a less than awesome draft into a playoff team, it will be John. We may just be looking at the beginning of his greatest rebuild yet.

almostwinning | 0-0W/L | 0PF

What can I say here? This might actually be the best draft Trond has ever had, and he didn’t pick a single player on his roster. If anyone else was managing this team, it’d probably be average to above average in the rankings based purely on talent. But I can’t in good conscious push anyone else down a single spot knowing that Trond will either neglect or mismanage his roster into a spot near the bottom of the standing like we see every year. Who knows? Maybe this draft picked up enough talent that he can just let it ride. If his players avoid injuries and he gets some good luck in the scheduling, it wouldn’t even surprise me to see this team make a playoff run this year, which is weird to see next to Trond’s name.