Midseason (Week 7) Rankings

With Week 7 officially in the books, we have entered the Fantasy Football midseason. Per tradition, to honor this special occasion I include some in-depth first half analysis of each team position-by-position. I don't intend to break tradition this year, but to change things up (and honestly, to simplify an excessively tedious and time-consuming process) I have decided to use letter grades for each position to go along with the narrative for each week. Additionally, starting this week I will be including each team's best and worst performer for each week, who will be denoted as the STUD and DUD of the week, respectively.

Perhaps some of you more experienced owners will not find this year's edition overly exciting? Oh well, not to worry. I have something even bigger planned in the near future...

1. Goff My Lawn Guy (+1)

QB: B-
WR: A+
RB: A+
TE: B+
FLEX: F

The Lawn Guys clutched up on MNF (God, that feels weird to type out) and moved into a virtual tie for first place in the West. But there are no ties in these rankings, so welcome to the number one spot! It wasn't the strongest of starts out of the gate, but this team has caught real fire of late, currently on a 4 game winning streak and in position for an excellent second half, if they can get some production apart from the usual suspects.

STUD: AJ Brown (29.7) takes it, although Travis Etienne should get an honorary mention for his exceptional play in the first half.
DUD: Austin Ekeler (5.6) has been slow in the points department since returning from a 3-week injury, and he missed parts of this weekend's game as well. Not what you want to see from a first round pick.

2. Flying Geckos (+1)

QB: C-
WR: C-
RB: B+
TE: A-
FLEX: A

The Geckos, nursing bruised and broken wings, managed to overcome all odds against a familiar foe in Week 7, to maintain their stranglehold on first place in the East. While there are still seven weeks remaining in the season, the Geckos have built a commanding 3 game lead in their division, and if this weekend was any indication, they aren't going anywhere.

STUD: Christian McCaffrey (22.6) was questionable with an injury all week, but he shook it off and came back like nothing had happened, scoring a TD through the air and playing nearly every offensive snap.
DUD: Gabe Davis (1.6) has famously been one of the streakiest fantasy players in the game, but valleys this low are just painful to witness.

3. Got vax? (-2)

QB: B+
WR: A
RB: B
TE: A
FLEX: B

On the whole, it's been a very good first half for the Vax, but a loss to a division rival is a tough pill to swallow. The Vax can still pride themselves on having a top of the line offense, which comes in handy when tiebreakers are needed, but with that kind of production one would also hope for a little more separation in the standings. The work is far from finished.

STUD: Patrick Mahomes (34.86) was in peak performance against the rival Chargers, dishing the ball out to his favorite target at will, and getting his team the win. As good as they come.
DUD: Raheem Mostert (6.1) ran into the Eagles defensive line over and over again. When you enter the 2nd half with -0.7 points you are going to need a lot of good things to have a relevant fantasy day, and that didn't come to fruition this week.

4. So...what's going on? (+1)

QB: D-
WR: A
RB: C-
TE: F
FLEX: C-

What's going on, you ask? Good things this first half. For a rookie campaign, this one has been solid, with the ups and downs that naturally come with fantasy football. It can be a steep learning curve, but to be above .500 at this point is a great beginning.

STUD: Jalen Hurts (24.26) didn't exceed his projection by much this weekend, but he lead all his teammates by a wide margin.
DUD: No one. Pretty much everyone played within their projection margin this week. No shade to be thrown here.

5. Amon Joy (+1)

QB: C-
WR: B
RB: B+
TE: B
FLEX: B+

The Joy finally put together consecutive wins this season, doing so as the #1 performing offense. It hasn't been pretty, but this last week was the closest thing to a team effort that we have seen from them so far. But positive trends are fickle things, there one moment and gone the next. This second half will be the true telling of what this roster really is, without excuses to hide behind.

STUD: Lamar Jackson (33.88) put up 4 touchdowns, 3 through the air and 1 on the ground, against a (presumed) feisty Lions defense. Alvin Kamara (29.3) with an honorable mention for setting the tone early in this matchup.
DUD: Cooper Kupp (6.9) should never be mentioned on this. That he is in a winning week is very fortunate, but hardly repeatable.

6. Hooked on a Thielen (-2)

QB: B+
WR: F
RB: C+
TE: C-
FLEX: A+

The Thielens have been a wildly erratic team, which makes placing them quite a challenge. After a slow start, they went on a bit of a run only to fall into a few weeks of uninspiring play. That lead to this last week where they put together an overall solid performance, but were unable to come away with the victory. Are they a good team? A bad team? A good-bad team? A half-good half-bad team?

STUD: Jahmyr Gibbs (27.6) finally had a touchdown and a breakout performance in a game that in real life didn't have many stakes. But it helps ease the sting for his fantasy owners.
DUD: Calvin Ridley (1.5) has been a major disappointment outside of two performances against the Colts and Bills this season. The difficulty is the apparent high-upside that he keeps teasing.

7. The Pouncing Chubbs (0)

QB: A
WR: A+
RB: F
TE: A
FLEX: B+

The Chubbs have to be in panic mode at this point. That's 6 straight defeats despite what is still (somehow) the most points in the league. I guess that's why they say you shouldn't spend it all in one place...

STUD: Travis Kelce (35.9 and pictured above) had his way with the Chargers like they were a famous pop singer. Hmm... maybe that joke was in poor taste. [Note to self: edit this out before posting on Wednesday]
DUD: Bijan Robinson (0.3) à la The Atlanta Falcons, who just decided they didn't need to report that he was suffering from a headache. Would have been nice to know.

8. Doctor Pain (0)

QB: D
WR: B
RB: D
TE: B
FLEX: B-

A special congratulations to the not-so-good doctor on a new achievement: the lowest weekly point total in Boys League history. Frankly, I don't know if there could have been a more fitting way to end their first half of the season.

STUD: Romeo Doubs (11.00) was the only one to exceed his expectations, so well just give it to him.
DUD: The entire rest of the team. Literally everyone. Historically bad performance. 76.6 points...