User blog comment:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 425: Sabertooth X792, Review and Commentary/@comment-96.24.244.24-20150326054823/@comment-7418318-20150326172344

I think they are.

If he's infiltrating them, they must be enough of a threat to be worth the effort and if he's possessed/corrupted/otherwise evil he'd just wipe them out and take over if they were much weaker than him.

That is unless there's someone in the shadows pulling Avatar's strings secretly. If that's the case the guys we saw so far really might be weak.