I'm considering dropping Tepig from the list, yes. However, I've tested Deerling and I cannot see it in high. For one it comes late (after the fifth gym) and it takes a bit of tedious training to get up to par. It has no real reliable offensive moves outside of Jump Kick (which isn't even STAB, and is a 2-3HKO against most trainer Pokemon for awhile) until Level 37. Sure it gets Energy Ball, but it goes off of its awful special attack. Takedown is very risky considering deer's frailness, and normal is a meh offensive type due to not being effective against anything.I agree with this list with two exceptions. Tepig is outclassed by darumaka as others have said and I think that deerling deserves another look. You get it early enough to be worth training and it has a very nice stat distribution. More importantly, as powerful as darmanitan and excadrill are they share both water and ground weaknesses, which means a team with both of them really wants a grass type to absorb hits. Sawsbuck has the bulk to take resisted hits without any problems and has great offensive capabilities compared to the other grass types you can choose from. 100 base attack with grass/fighting/electric coverage is pretty awesome and complements the other top end pokemon perfectly.
Sure it improves once you get Horn Leech, but also consider how poorly it does in the gyms ahead. Flying, Ice, Dragon, Deerling gets destroyed by everything. For these reasons, I can't really it above Upper Mid/Mid.
Cottonee is pretty much there just for Prankster. I haven't used it extensively though, so I could see it dropping to Upper Mid.imo, Cottonee should not be high or top, and at most should be at Upper Mid. It has utility, but Ingame is all about sweeping the opponents as quickly as possible. But I wouldn't complain too much if it was put there. These are the ones who show sweeping ability above the rest and have come early enough to boot: Archen, Axew, Darumaka, Drilbur, Deerling, Joltik, Oshawott, Petilil, Sawk, Sandile, Scraggy, Sigilyph, Tepig, Tirtouga, and Timburr. Out of these, right now 6 are in top, 3 are in high, 3 are in Upper-Mid, and 3 are in Mid. (And if you really want Cottonee, it is in Low iirc.)
Of the Pokemon you listed in your "sweeping list", Axew definitely isn't above Upper Mid. Comes too late, spending too much time not evolved and does poorly against both gyms.
Petilil is incredibly overrated just because of Butterfly Dance. Grass is a very poor offensive type due to how many Pokemon resist it, and that is literally all it learns (look at its movepool!). A Pokemon without any sort of flexibility is not top/high.
Tirtouga is also a Pokemon I can see in Upper Mid. Inferior to Archen at everything, and its stats are flat out bad until it evolves at Lvl 37. That period of mediocrity is too long for high.
Timburr is completely outclassed by Sawk, but its a Pokemon I'm looking into. Seems to be solid if you can trade it so I'll consider it being in high. I'll fiddle around with him first.
So I'll repost the list:
Archen, Cottonee, Darkumaka, Drillbur, Joltik, Lillipup, Oshawatt, Sandile, Sawk, Scraggy, Sigilyph, Timburr and Tepig
Italics means they're possibly dropping out. Bold means they're possibly being put in. I'm in the process of PM'ing Colonel_M about all this and I believe he'll have the final say. Then we'll move to the other tiers.