2024 Week 9 Rankings

WEEK 9 RANKINGS

Does it feel like scoring is down this year compared to last year? Weren't there more 200 point games last year? Should I start thinking about selling players off this year's team to acquire players that I can keep for next year? I looked at those questions and came up with the following answers: No. Yes (kind of). Maybe.

The chart below illustrates what the 2024 standings through 8 weeks looked like and compared that to the same time period in 2023. The first thing that jumped out at me was the total points scored. Last year, all 10 teams combined for 11,400.58 points through 80 team games played (10 Teams X 8 Weeks). This year we have seen that point total sky-rocket to... 11,405.44. That's right! As much as rosters change, injuries occur and teams rise and fall, we have seen a net gain of only 4.86 points. That kind of consistency is amazing if you think about it. The one trend I did notice is that the top five teams have scored 285.54 points fewer than 2023 while the bottom five have increased their scoring by 290.4. That is a good thing and is leading to better competitiveness each week. Could it be our league is getting...smarter?

As for teams scoring 200 points this season, MKBA was the first to reach that mountain top this week. Last year, it happened 4 times through Week 8 and 7 times for the entire season. So as we saw with the total points scored, it seems like our league is becoming less top-heavy. Which leads to the third point...

Should my team buy/sell between now and the trade deadline? Last year, Stick Rock, Wrath of Kahn, Springfield Flanders and MKBA occupied the four playoff positions. Three of the four teams (Stick Rock/Wrath of Kahn/Springfield Flanders) ended up making the playoffs with MKBA missing out. The 4th team to crash the playoff party was Milford Football Team. They had to make up an insurmountable point differential of... 17.42 points. So basically, however well (or poorly) your team has played through the first 2 months of the season is pretty much how you will finish. You might be hoping that guy who has been hurt all year will come back healthy or the QB that has been under-performing will turn their season around, but unfortunately that is unlikely to happen. Here is how each team fared based on their 2023 Week 9 Ranking vs. Final Standings.

Final 2023 Record and Points in parentheses.

1. Stick Rock (10-3/2,027 Points) - Finished as the #1 Seed. Bounced in Round 1.

2. Wrath of Kahn (10-3/2,078 Points) - Finished as the #2 Seed. Bounced in Round 1.

3. Springfield Flanders (7-6/2,086 Points) - Finished as the #3 Seed. Lost in Finals.

4. MKBA (8-5/1,966 Points) - Finished in 5th Place. Missed Playoffs.

5. Milford Football Team (6-7/2,012 Points) - Won Championship.

6. Peeping Tomlins (8-5/1,869 Points) - Finished in 6th Place

7. '69 Olds (5-8/1,649) - Finished in 7th Place.

8. Dark Helmet (2-11/1,586 points) - Finished in 10th Place.

9. Black Ghostbusters (5-8/1,630 Points) - Finished in 8th Place.

10. Skoal Bandits (4-9/1,603 Points) - Finished in 9th Place.

So based on this, we can reasonably assume that MKBA and Ghostbusters will probably make the playoffs due to their commanding lead in their divisions and their robust point totals. Up until two weeks ago, I would probably have put Stick Rock in this category. But after 2 lackluster performances in a row and a messy WR group, Peeping Tomlins, Dark Helmet and Springfield Flanders have closed the gap considerably. My advice? If you are ranked 3 through 6, you should consider buying. Skoal Bandits and Wrath of Kahn should probably wait another week or two before deciding to see if they can get closer in the points race. MFT and '69 Olds should be playing Monty Hall (look it up on Wikipedia, Gen Y and Z-ers) between now and Thanksgiving.

This week's chart compares what our standings looked like through 8 weeks last year and compares that to what the current standings are for 2024 through 8 weeks. The variance column at the far right shows the net gain/loss per game between the standings over the 2 years, not what your specific team did. For example, the 1st place team this year (MKBA) is averaging 167.64. That is 2.29 more points than the 2023 1st Place team (Stick Rock) averaged last year (165.35).

Now on to our Week 9 Rankings:

1 . Mel Kipers Best Available (Last Week #1)

MKBA keeps rolling along as they followed up last week's season high score with the first 200-pt game of the season this week. Ceedee Lamb (39), Lamar Jackson (28) and Devon Achane (26) were the high scorers for the week. They are closing in on a division title and can all but seal up 1st place with a win and a loss by Skoal Bandits and Wrath of Kahn.

2. Ghostbusters (Last Week #2)

Another week, another win over a divisional rival. Ghostbusters improve to a 5-1 record in the Adams Division. With a win this week over Springfield Flanders, they can reduce their magic number for clinching to 1. Josh Jacobs (26), Kyler Murray (26) and Devonta Smith (22) led the offensive attack this week.

3. Stick Rock (Last Week #4)

The early season juggernaut experienced their 2nd poor outing in as many weeks as their once huge lead in the point standings has dwindled to just 54-points over the 5th place team. George Kittle (24), Jonathan Taylor (19) and Alvin Kamara (18) led an otherwise listless attack.

4. Peeping Tomlin's (Last Week #3)

The Tomlins got down early this week and were trailing 160-100 going into Monday Night's game. The Steelers D/ST (15), Chris Boswell (14) and Najee Harris (17) made things interesting but Pat Freiermuth was a no-show (3.9) and Tomlins lose 160-150.

5 Tie. Springfield Flanders (Last Week #5)

Flanders win their 3rd game in a row behind the play of QBs Trevor Lawrence (28) and Brock Purdy (27), with Joe Mixon (24) providing the final margin of victory. The return pf Puka Nacua should help strengthen an already good receiving group.

5 Tie. Dark Helmet (Last Week # 6)

The auto-draft darlings refuse to die. Just when it looked like they were starting to fade, they put up a huge 182-point effort in Week 8. Bo Nix (35), James Cook (29) and Deandre Swift (21) came up big as Helmet cruised to a 32 point win over '69 Olds. If Bo Nix can continue playing well, Dark Helmet will challenge for one of the wild card spots.

7. Skoal Bandits (Last Week # 8)

The Bandits climbed back into playoff contention this week with a 172-point outburst against his son CJ. The beating was so bad, I was forced to call child services on him. All's well that ends well as CJ was placed with a Amish Family in Western PA. Ladd McConkey (31), Baker Mayfield (28) and Bijan Robinson (23) were the high socrers.

8. Wrath of Khan (Last Week #7)

Wrath of Kahn followed up last week's low output with another subpar performance in Week 8, scoring only 128 points. And this time he wasn't fortunate enough to steal a win as MKBBA put up 208 to give Jim the worst loss in KAOS this season. Kirk Cousins (36), Travis Kelce (25) and Russell Wilson (15) played well in a losing effort.

9. Milford Football Team (Last Week #9)

A bad season continues to get worse for CJ as he now lives with an Amish family and has no access to internet. This will hinder his ability to research injury replacements for his roster. Any trade requests will need to be made via snail mail. Kyle Pitts (27), Josh Allen (23) and Zay Flowers (18) played well in a losing effort.

10. '69 Olds (Last Week #10)

The point total was higher (150), but the results were the same (loss). Jalen Hurts (37), Rhamondre Stevenson (23) and Patrick Mahomes (22) staked Ray-Ray to the early lead, but Helmet was just too good this wek as they send '69 Olds to a 182-150 defeat.