diff --git a/scheduler/src/cook/config.clj b/scheduler/src/cook/config.clj
index eef8e1c0d0..637fa05215 100644
--- a/scheduler/src/cook/config.clj
+++ b/scheduler/src/cook/config.clj
@@ -472,6 +472,8 @@
                 (assoc :default-env [])
                 (not (:quotas pools))
                 (assoc :quotas [])))
+     :rank (fnk [[:config {rank {:number-to-force 1000}}]]
+             rank)
      :api-only? (fnk [[:config {api-only? false}]]
                   api-only?)
      :cache-working-set-size (fnk [[:config {cache-working-set-size 1000000}]]
diff --git a/scheduler/src/cook/kubernetes/api.clj b/scheduler/src/cook/kubernetes/api.clj
index 6fc920ef45..6da525b75f 100644
--- a/scheduler/src/cook/kubernetes/api.clj
+++ b/scheduler/src/cook/kubernetes/api.clj
@@ -766,8 +766,9 @@
 (defn num-pods-on-node
   "Returns the number of pods assigned to the given node"
   [node-name pods]
-  (let [node-name->pods (group-by pod->node-name pods)]
-    (-> node-name->pods (get node-name []) count)))
+  (->> pods
+       (filter #(= (pod->node-name %) node-name))
+       count))
 
 (defn node->resource-map
   "Given a node, returns the resource map used internally by Cook"
diff --git a/scheduler/src/cook/kubernetes/compute_cluster.clj b/scheduler/src/cook/kubernetes/compute_cluster.clj
index f1584b4e3e..a7d0f06eb1 100644
--- a/scheduler/src/cook/kubernetes/compute_cluster.clj
+++ b/scheduler/src/cook/kubernetes/compute_cluster.clj
@@ -291,7 +291,15 @@
   list of those pods with currently starting pods in the compute cluster added in"
   [compute-cluster pods]
   (let [starting-pods (controller/starting-namespaced-pod-name->pod compute-cluster)]
-    (-> pods (merge starting-pods) vals)))
+    (vals (into pods starting-pods))))
+
+(defn add-starting-pods-reverse
+  "Weird offshoot of add-starting-pods-reverse that is run when determining node capacity.
+  (We want to add the smaller set onto the bigger set. In this context, the bigger set is
+  the set of starting pods.)"
+  [compute-cluster pods]
+  (let [starting-pods (controller/starting-namespaced-pod-name->pod compute-cluster)]
+    (vals (into starting-pods pods))))
 
 (defn synthetic-pod->job-uuid
   "If the given pod is a synthetic pod for autoscaling, returns the job uuid
@@ -630,7 +638,7 @@
 
   (num-tasks-on-host [this hostname]
     (->> (get @node-name->pod-name->pod hostname {})
-         (add-starting-pods this)
+         (add-starting-pods-reverse this)
          (api/num-pods-on-node hostname)))
 
   (retrieve-sandbox-url-path
diff --git a/scheduler/src/cook/scheduler/scheduler.clj b/scheduler/src/cook/scheduler/scheduler.clj
index 69fe54b985..cd51e58c3c 100644
--- a/scheduler/src/cook/scheduler/scheduler.clj
+++ b/scheduler/src/cook/scheduler/scheduler.clj
@@ -1171,7 +1171,10 @@
 
 (defn handle-resource-offers!
   "Gets a list of offers from mesos. Decides what to do with them all--they should all
-   be accepted or rejected at the end of the function."
+   be accepted or rejected at the end of the function.
+
+   Returns true if we matched the head or didn't match anything (so that we will not reduce
+   max-considerable next iteration)"
   [conn fenzo-state pool-name->pending-jobs-atom mesos-run-as-user
    user->usage user->quota num-considerable offers rebalancer-reservation-atom pool-name compute-clusters
    job->acceptable-compute-clusters-fn]
@@ -1186,7 +1189,7 @@
         (timers/time!
           (timers/timer (metric-title "handle-resource-offer!-duration" pool-name))
           (try
-            (let [db (db conn)
+            (let [db (d/db conn)
                   pending-jobs (get @pool-name->pending-jobs-atom pool-name)
                   considerable-jobs (prom/with-duration
                                       prom/scheduler-handle-resource-offers-pending-to-considerable-duration {:pool pool-name}
@@ -1325,23 +1328,26 @@
               (reset! front-of-job-queue-mem-atom (or (:mem first-considerable-job-resources) 0))
               (reset! front-of-job-queue-cpus-atom (or (:cpus first-considerable-job-resources) 0))
 
-              (let [matched-head-or-no-matches?
+              (let [no-matches? (empty? matches)
+                    matched-head-or-no-matches? (or no-matches? matched-considerable-jobs-head?)
                     ;; Possible innocuous reasons for no matches: no offers, or no pending jobs.
                     ;; Even beyond that, if Fenzo fails to match ANYTHING, "penalizing" it in the form of giving
                     ;; it fewer jobs to look at is unlikely to improve the situation.
                     ;; "Penalization" should only be employed when Fenzo does successfully match,
                     ;; but the matches don't align with Cook's priorities.
-                    (if (empty? matches)
-                      true
-                      (do
+                    _ (when-not no-matches?
                         (swap! pool-name->pending-jobs-atom
                                remove-matched-jobs-from-pending-jobs
                                matched-job-uuids pool-name)
+                        ; Force this list to happen async.
+                        (let [number-to-force (get-in config/config [:settings :rank :number-to-force])]
+                          (->> (get @pool-name->pending-jobs-atom pool-name)
+                              (take number-to-force)
+                               doall))
                         (log-structured/debug (print-str "Updated pool-name->pending-jobs-atom:" @pool-name->pending-jobs-atom)
                                               {:pool pool-name})
                         (launch-matched-tasks! matches conn db (:fenzo fenzo-state) mesos-run-as-user pool-name)
-                        (update-host-reservations! rebalancer-reservation-atom matched-job-uuids)
-                        matched-considerable-jobs-head?))
+                        (update-host-reservations! rebalancer-reservation-atom matched-job-uuids))
                     ; Absolute maximum jobs we will consider autoscaling to.
                     {:keys [max-jobs-for-autoscaling autoscaling-scale-factor]} (config/kubernetes)
                     ; The fraction of jobs we tried to match that didn't actually get matched.
@@ -1967,17 +1973,20 @@
   "Return a map of lists of job entities ordered by dru, keyed by pool.
 
    It ranks the jobs by dru first and then apply several filters if provided."
-  [unfiltered-db offensive-job-filter]
+  [unfiltered-db offensive-job-filter number-to-force]
   (prom/with-duration
     prom/scheduler-rank-cycle-duration {}
     (timers/time!
       rank-jobs-duration
       (try
-        (->> (sort-jobs-by-dru-pool unfiltered-db)
-             ;; Apply the offensive job filter first before taking.
-             (pc/map-vals offensive-job-filter)
-             (pc/map-vals #(map tools/job-ent->map %))
-             (pc/map-vals #(remove nil? %)))
+        (let [jobs (->> (sort-jobs-by-dru-pool unfiltered-db)
+                        ;; Apply the offensive job filter first before taking.
+                        (pc/map-vals offensive-job-filter)
+                        (pc/map-vals #(map tools/job-ent->map %))
+                        (pc/map-vals #(remove nil? %)))]
+          ; Force the first N jobs.
+          (doall (take number-to-force jobs))
+          jobs)
         (catch Throwable t
           (log/error t "Failed to rank jobs")
           (meters/mark! rank-jobs-failures)
@@ -1985,13 +1994,14 @@
 
 (defn- start-jobs-prioritizer!
   [conn pool-name->pending-jobs-atom task-constraints trigger-chan]
-  (let [offensive-jobs-ch (make-offensive-job-stifler conn)
+  (let [number-to-force (get-in config/config [:settings :rank :number-to-force])
+        offensive-jobs-ch (make-offensive-job-stifler conn)
         offensive-job-filter (partial filter-offensive-jobs task-constraints offensive-jobs-ch)]
     (tools/chime-at-ch trigger-chan
                        (fn rank-jobs-event []
                          (log/info "Starting pending job ranking")
                          (reset! pool-name->pending-jobs-atom
-                                 (rank-jobs (d/db conn) offensive-job-filter))
+                                 (rank-jobs (d/db conn) offensive-job-filter number-to-force))
                          (log/info "Done with pending job ranking")))))
 
 (meters/defmeter [cook-mesos scheduler mesos-error])
diff --git a/scheduler/test/cook/test/benchmark.clj b/scheduler/test/cook/test/benchmark.clj
index 70e6432523..8ba9ad3d6f 100644
--- a/scheduler/test/cook/test/benchmark.clj
+++ b/scheduler/test/cook/test/benchmark.clj
@@ -49,12 +49,12 @@
             offensive-jobs-ch (sched/make-offensive-job-stifler conn)
             offensive-job-filter (partial sched/filter-offensive-jobs task-constraints offensive-jobs-ch)]
         (println "============ rank-jobs timing ============")
-        (cc/quick-bench (sched/rank-jobs db offensive-job-filter))))
+        (cc/quick-bench (sched/rank-jobs db offensive-job-filter 0))))
     (testing "rank-jobs minus offensive-job-filter"
       (let [db (d/db conn)
             offensive-job-filter identity]
         (println "============ rank-jobs minus offensive-job-filter timing ============")
-        (cc/quick-bench (sched/rank-jobs db offensive-job-filter))))
+        (cc/quick-bench (sched/rank-jobs db offensive-job-filter 0))))
     (testing "sort-jobs-by-dru-helper"
       (let [db (d/db conn)
             pending-task-ents (->> (queries/get-pending-job-ents db)
diff --git a/scheduler/test/cook/test/scheduler/scheduler.clj b/scheduler/test/cook/test/scheduler/scheduler.clj
index bdc07a31e9..4f9230357a 100644
--- a/scheduler/test/cook/test/scheduler/scheduler.clj
+++ b/scheduler/test/cook/test/scheduler/scheduler.clj
@@ -873,7 +873,7 @@
         offensive-job-filter (partial sched/filter-offensive-jobs constraints offensive-jobs-ch)]
     (testing "enough offers for all normal jobs."
       (is (= {"no-pool" (list (tools/job-ent->map job-entity))}
-             (sched/rank-jobs test-db offensive-job-filter))))))
+             (sched/rank-jobs test-db offensive-job-filter 5))))))
 
 (deftest test-mesos-virtual-machine-lease-adapter
   ;; ensure that the VirtualMachineLeaseAdapter can successfully handle an offer from Mesomatic.