Playoff Challenge Tips & Rankings

The playoffs are here and if there is football on TV then there is fantasy football to be played. The playoff challenge is interesting. Postseason means a limited player pool and if a member of your roster is eliminated from the competition,  then there are no more points from that guy for the remainder of the postseason.

Playoff Challenges mean no head-to-head matchups and the team with the most points at the end of the Super Bowl wins.

Since this is a different format, in order to be successful in this format it is necessary to make a few changes from regular season fantasy football. Here are a few thoughts that work for me.

Rule 1: Prioritize Team over Ability

Draft players who will play in more games rather than the better fantasy player on a per game basis. Take a look at the teams that are favored by Vegas to make an appearance in the Super Bowl. Patriots, Vikings & Steelers are currently the top three. That means players like Brandin Cooks (2/1), Stefon Diggs (4.5/1) and JuJu Smith-Schuster (6/1) are likely going to play in more games than Tyreek Hill (16/1) Julio Jones (20/1) and Devin Funchess (25/1). In season long fantasy football Julio Jones would be drafted well ahead of the rest of these receivers but in the playoff challenge Cooks is easily the best pick. I will personally be taking crappy Patriots’ Players over studs on teams I don’t believe will make it past the first game.

Rule 2: Diversify between AFC and NFC

Only two teams make the Super Bowl. One from the AFC and One from the NFC. By picking only players in the AFC that limits the potential upside of having more fantasy players during the Super Bowl. Stacking Patriots and Steelers does not have the potential upside that stacking Patriots and Saints would have. The Steelers could never play The Patriots in the Super Bowl but The Saints and Patriots could meet in SB52. On a side note, going all in on one team can be a risky yet rewarding strategy. This strategy worked well for fantasy owners who drafted the Falcons players last year.

Rule 3: Prioritize Position

Quarterback is the most important role in the playoff challenge. QB’s generate the most points, so selecting a signal caller who can go through multiple games provides a huge advantage throughout the playoffs. In other words, don’t get stuck with Marcus Mariota. This does not mean you sacrifice Rule 1 to get a QB, as in taking Alex Smith over Le’Veon Bell would likely be a mistake.

Speaking of Bell, the second most important position to draft would be Running Back. The RB position gets very thin quickly. The only exception to this rule would be taking Rob Gronkowski ahead of some of these other positions just based on the sheer advantage the tight end provides.

Rankings:

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