Fantasy football power rankings: Offense

You can find more from Michael Salfino at Comcast SportsNet Chicago.

Environment is the major key to fantasy football production. These rankings, updated weekly throughout the season, assess the foundation upon which fantasy football statistics rise (or fall). NFL offenses are ranked 1-32 in the following categories: red zone trips per game, third-down conversion percentage, yards per rush attempt, yards per pass attempt, sack percentage allowed, rushing TDs per game and passing TDs per game. Also use these rankings to target weak offenses when selecting a fantasy defense for the coming week.

Executive Summary: Let’s look at recent trends, since you see before you only the seasonal ones.

The major outlier in red zone possessions, the stat that I think best reflects offensive environment, is the Giants. The past three games, New York has averaged a sub-par 2.7 red zone possession per game (right at the median).

On a more positive note, the Vikings the past three games are tied with the Saints as the best offense in football in moving the ball into the red zone – 5.3 possessions per game. Remember, it took Brett Favre(notes) about a month to get comfortable with his new supporting cast.

The most explosive passing offenses in the NFL recently include the Bengals at a sparkling 8.3 YPA. Struggling of late at or below that very marginal 6.0 YPA threshold are the Eagles, Falcons and Cardinals. So the trend lines on those three passing offenses are all decidedly down. I know, DeSean Jackson(notes) is very explosive. But Philly is too boom or bust.

The Eagles are running it great of late, though there’s a long Jackson end around gumming that up. Teams that rank much worse of late in run efficiency than they do overall are the Dolphins, Broncos and Bills.

Looking at sack rate of late, you can see the underlying weakness of the Eagles attack – Donovan McNabb(notes) has been dumped on over 10 percent of attempts (fifth worst during this three-game span). Jacksonville can also trace recent struggles in the passing game to poor pass protection – sacks on 10.3 percent of attempts. Getting the Chiefs this week should help the Jaguars and Mike Sims-Walker(notes) right the ship – for now.