User blog comment:Kaido King of the Beasts/Chapter 857: The Art of the Deal/@comment-68.11.130.102-20170302133152/@comment-24769684-20170303195229

I think the sentiment that the Big Mom Pirates are "weak" or "underwhelming" is a flawed notion, because it's based on the expectation that everyone in a Yonko's crew is supposed to be much more powerful than any baddies we've faced before, and if that were to be the case that would be really bad writing. Just because Zoro took down 100 bounty hunters operating in the Grand Line right after he himself had entered the Grand Line for the first time didn't mean the Grand Line was overhyped - it's full of a wide variety of people, and its reputation is cemented mostly by the extremely powerful lords in control of it. You have the semi-decent washup Arlong ruling East Blue, and the frequently assassinated mafia bosses ruling West Blue, in contrast to the autonomous entities of Big Mom and Kaido ruling the New World, who the World Government allows to run the place out of fear. No one has ever doubted the effectiveness of Big Mom or Kaido themselves (well except some crackpots on Big Mom), but their crews are entirely different entities altogether.

Circumstances have resulted in the Straw Hats not having even met most of the Big Mom Pirates, and when they've confronted the BM Pirates in bulk it's turned out very poorly (see: Chopper vs. the tree homies, Luffy vs. the enraged army). Collectively, a Yonko crew has not disappointed so far. But one on one introduces a lot more variability which I will now get into.

One on one is a different story, and Luffy as we know is capable of fighting evenly with a Sweet Commander. Far from out of the blue, given that he's an extremely proficient New World pirate who took out the likes of Doflamingo. While most Yonko crew members are undoubtedly strong, given that they operate in the New World, it's been established since long before that just because they serve under a Yonko does not mean they have repute. Look at Rockstar, no one in WB's crew had ever heard of the guy. When the Whitebeard Pirates came knocking on Marineford's door, the only subordinates that the Marines seemed to pay any attention to were people like Marco and Jozu, who for all intents and purposes were equivalent to the Sweet Commanders/Disasters. No one gave a shit about Namur or Speed Jiru despite them being of the same rank.

Brulee has been an interesting case in this arc, as her battle prowess is rather unique. Her Devil Fruit is so OP that no one could match her in direct combat and Nami and Carrot both had to resort to surprise attacks to defeat her. As a result, in order to balance her, she's a glass cannon. Same could be said for Cracker, though he's strong enough that his weakness is significantly harder to exploit.

And people like Bobbin, Diesel, and Randolph did manage to massacre other islands, but it doesn't take someone as strong as Luffy or Cracker to tear through the average person. Even if they are far from the highest tier, they should be able to terrorize most islands, though not places like Zou of course.

And I see no reason to assume the worst just because we haven't seen much from Smoothie and we haven't seen Katakuri at all. Their roles will all come in due time.

Finally, there's also the simple fact that it'd be stupid for all of Big Mom's crew members to be close to her in strength. Unless she played her cards exactly right, she'd be out the door in no time once someone got restless.