Seton Hall
The approach for the fantasy football playoffs
Date: December 3, 2019By: Jorie Mickens
Congratulations! After a long and grueling fantasy football season, you have made it to your fantasy league’s playoffs. Now is not the time to get cute, you may have gotten some easy wins throughout the regular season because of lazy owners not setting their starting lineups, but the playoffs only feature the best of the best. No easy wins here.
So, what are some rules an owner should follow to lead their team to a fantasy football championship?
First, start your studs. Start the players that rarely let you down during the regular season. With a lot of them fighting for playoff spots and positioning for their own NFL teams, stars will elevate their game to help secure a playoff spot in the final weeks of the NFL regular season.
We’ve watched Lamar Jackson and Deshaun Watson torch the daunting Patriots defense, Christian McCaffery rush for 117 yards and a touchdown against the almighty 49ers’ run defense. A loss feels a lot worse when the player you took in the first round of your draft is on your bench with thirty fantasy points because you thought he had a bad matchup. Start your stars.
Second, continue to look on the waiver wire for players who have been dropped that should not have been. Those in the consolation bracket may have given up on their fantasy team weeks ago and might release a player that could help you win your week. Make sure you continue to check the waiver wire often for any players with nice matchups that you believe have potential to outscore someone on your roster.
Another tip in terms of the waiver wire, look ahead to see who has good matchups during your championship round. Although it is no longer the regular season and you should take the playoffs game by game, if you see a D/ST facing the Dolphins, Bengals, Redskins, etc., and you have room on your roster, don’t be afraid to stash them!
Lastly, something that a lot of fantasy players do not factor in when setting their lineups is weather. Owners could get away with starting players who play in Northern cities throughout the year, but it’s December now. We saw some snow in the Packers-Giants game last weekend (although it did not seem to affect Aaron Rodgers) and that can have a huge impact on a player’s performance and team’s game plan.
Games/teams likely to be affected by weather during Week 14: Cowboys-Bears at Soldier Field, Bengals-Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium, Dolphins-Jets at MetLife Stadium, Ravens-Bills at New Era Field, Redskins-Packers at Lambeau Field, Chiefs-Patriots at Gillette Stadium and Giants-Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field.
Jorie Mickens can be reached at jorie.mickens@student.shu.edu.
