Post-Season Fantasy Football Guide: Complete Playoff Ranks
Whether your fantasy football season ended in a Gatorade shower or tears of disappointment, the NFL playoffs allow the excitement of fantasy football action to extend for an extra month. NFL playoff pools come in all shapes and sizes, but no matter the format or scoring system, the aim is to select players who will score the most points in the most amount of games. The maximum amount of games an NFL team can play in one postseason is four, if a team mashes its way through the Wildcard round all the way to the Super Bowl. Finding a lower-seeded team capable of making a Super Bowl run is tricky, but not impossible, and the current playoff bracket definitely offers some interesting options. Below, we will take a broad look at the NFL playoff field and then break down positional rankings in order to maximize fantasy point potential this postseason.
NFL Playoff Field
Since fantasy playoff games require a combination of high-scoring players on successful teams, a large portion of fantasy postseason success lies in picking the correct teams to advance to the Super Bowl. If I personally had the answer to this equation, I would be partying in a suite at the Wynn in Las Vegas with Johnny Manziel, but picking games is a difficult task. Alas, we must use the forecasting skills of the wise oddsmakers from Sin City to make the best educated guess as to how many games each NFL team will play this postseason.
The four teams that hold first-round byes (Carolina, Arizona, Denver, and New England) have the best odds to win Super Bowl 50, followed closely by Seattle, who would play an additional game if they advance to Levi’s Stadium on Super Sunday. Of course, winning three road games is difficult, but the fantasy options from Seattle could produce huge fantasy numbers if the Seahawks advance to a third-straight Super Bowl.
With Vegas favoring Seattle out of the teams playing on Wildcard weekend, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, and Green Bay are the three remaining favorites to advance to the Divisional round, making them solid bets to play at least two games.
From the Divisional round through the Super Bowl, I personally like Denver, Arizona, and Seattle as the top teams this postseason, so those players received an extra bump in the rankings below. Below each section of positional rankings, you will find a brief rundown of notable players and some values that stick out among the bunch. Good luck this postseason!
Quarterbacks
1. Russell Wilson (SEA)
2. Carson Palmer (ARZ)
3. Tom Brady (NE)
4. Cam Newton (CAR)
5. Peyton Manning (DEN)
– – –
6. Kirk Cousins (WAS)
7. Ben Roethlisberger (PIT)
8. Alex Smith (KC)
9. Aaron Rodgers (GB)
10. Brian Hoyer (HOU)
– – –
11. A.J. McCarron (CIN)
12. Teddy Bridgewater (MIN)
13. Andy Dalton (CIN)
14. Brock Osweiler (DEN)
Cam Newton has a tough slate of opponents with Seattle and Arizona likely in his path to the Super Bowl in the best case scenario. … Kirk Cousins has been on a roll and will provide decent value in draft formats. Cousins could see two games as the WAS/GB spread is very close. … A.J. McCarron appears in-line to get one start, but it will be against Pittsburgh’s 30th-ranked pass defense. Andy Dalton (thumb) will likely miss the Wildcard round but hasn’t been ruled out quite yet. I wouldn’t roll the dice on Dalton and risk taking a goose egg if Cincinnati gets bounced by Pittsburgh. … Seattle is the largest favorite among opening weekend teams, so Russell Wilson is a strong bet to play at least two games with top-tier production. … Peyton Manning may not light up the scoreboard these days but he should start and has a reasonable chance to play three games while leaning on his Denver’s stellar defense and running game. A Divisional round game against the Steelers would be a nice matchup for Manning as well. … Carson Palmer will not see Seattle in the Divisional round, which is a nice bonus.
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