Playoff-Only Top 70 Rankings and Strategy

Jan 12, 2023

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Unlike season-long lineup decisions, playoff-only leagues require projecting for the entire postseason prior to locking in your lineup ahead of Wild Card weekend. That includes weighing which players will go deepest into the playoffs, potentially jostling their overall ranking a full 10-15 spots higher because they capped the year off with a full game’s worth of snaps over their peers and, in some formats, double the points in the Super Bowl.

The Official FFPC Playoff Challenge — a format that’s invoked an equal amount of time, joy, and misery from myself over the past few seasons — homepage describes it best:

Each team will choose twelve (12) players from any of the 14 NFL playoff teams but ONLY ONE PLAYER PER TEAM. To be clear, if you choose Tom Brady as your QB, you may NOT have any more Buccaneers players on your roster, including Kicker & Defense. Each team will consist of twelve (12) NFL players in a FFPC starting roster format: 1-QB, 2-RB, 2-WR, 1-TE, 4-Flex, 1-K, 1-D (Flex can be RB, WR or TE)

The following Playoff-Only Top 70 is based on full-PPR scoring (and 1.5-PPR for tight ends) and takes into account an estimation of injuries, role changes, and games played for every player throughout the postseason. Keep in mind that your own personal adjustments are equally as important as this list; quarterbacks are almost entirely subjective since their number of starts will tip the scales, emphasizing the importance of mapping out which teams you think will win the most games correctly. We should also consider game scripts since some players are easily avoidable if projecting an offense to log only 60 minutes of action. Focus on using those (perceived) eliminated pieces at a lower scoring position like defense and kicker (unless building for top-heavy payouts in larger fields, where getting contrarian is good).

Scroll down for additional thoughts on optimal tournament strategy:

Player, Team (Projected Games Played) – Positional Rank

1. Christian McCaffrey, 49ers (4) – RB1

2. Travis Kelce, Chiefs (3) – TE1

3. Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs (3) – QB1