Preparation for the fantasy playoffs has begun
Geoff Lambert discusses how to prepare for your fantasy football playoffs.
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You are entering Week 13 of the NFL season, and, for most of you, the last week of the fantasy football regular season. You picked up all the right waiver wire guys throughout the year. You started all the right guys each week. You avoided the injuries to your key players, and maybe one of your sleeper draft picks panned out and had a big year.
Congratulations, you are going to the fantasy playoffs.
Now, what?
Here are five things you need to do before the fantasy playoffs start…
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Prepare to Stream Your Kicker
Chances are you are like me. You draft your kicker before the season, you plug him into your lineup Week 1, and you don’t touch him again until his bye week. During the regular season, unless you own Justin Tucker or one of the top two-or-three guys, a kicker is a kicker is a kicker. They are an afterthought in fantasy football, and, in fact, some leagues I play in have done away with kickers entirely.
That changes in the fantasy playoffs. Every point is going to count and you are going to need every point you can muster. Take a look at the kicker you now have on your roster and look at his matchups over the next three to four weeks.
“Why do a kickers matchups matter, you ask?”
It matters if your kicker is playing on the road in Buffalo in Week 14 where snow could be a factor, or maybe he is on the road in Chicago where the wind is infamous, or maybe he is playing in Pittsburgh — a stadium notorious for being one of the worst places to kick. At this time of year, you want kickers playing in Dome stadiums or in fair weather places like San Diego. Try to get a jump on your league mates and add one of these kickers now, because, for only one more week is a kicker just a kicker. In the playoffs they could be the difference between a fantasy championship and a first-round exit.
Handcuff Your Running Backs
I know this is something we all do early in the season. We draft the backup to our stud running backs in case they get hurt, but somewhere during the course of the season, be it because of bye weeks or the need to replace an injured player, we have dropped our handcuff. It’s time to add them back if they are still on the waiver wire. The David Johnson owners need to add Andre Ellington, DeMarco Murray owners need Derrick Henry, Spencer Ware owners get Charcandrick West, and so on.
If your stud running back goes down during the fantasy playoffs, no free agent RB is going to have as much value as their backups. You no longer need that “high upside” guy sitting on your bench that you have held onto waiting for the breakout. Chances are he isn’t going to start anyway. Handcuff your RBs now before it’s too late.
Add a Serviceable Backup Quarterback
If you play in a standard 10-to-12 team league, chances are you may have gone all season with just one QB. There is pretty good chance that your one QB will be all you need in the playoffs, but on the off-chance your QB goes down, you want to have a plan B. Take a look at your waiver wire and see if there are any QBs still available that have been serviceable throughout the year and have great matchups during the playoffs. If you have the roster space to add one of these guys, it could go a long way to helping you win you league championship, even if you end up winning it by starting Robert Griffin III in Week 16 against the Chargers.
Prepare to Stream Defenses
Even the best defenses can struggle against a good offense, and because of this, streaming your defense during the playoffs can be a good idea. You don’t need to go out and add one yet, but I would look ahead and see what options might be available to stream during the playoffs. Outside of Denver Broncos owners, everyone should at least entertain the idea of streaming your defense if your incumbent has a bad matchup.
Pray
This may be the most important thing on this list. Even the best-laid plans can fail miserably. Just to further drive home this point, I’ll tell you a little story about my unfortunate demise.
The year was 2011. I drafted Aaron Rodgers, and he had the best statistical season in his career throwing for 4,463 yards and 45 touchdowns. My fantasy team tore through the regular season only losing the first game of the year. I reeled off 12 straight victories to end the regular season as the top seed with a 12-1 record. My league awards a first-round bye in the playoffs to the top two seeds, so I got to sit out Week 14 and watch the other teams battle it out, waiting on whoever my next victim would be.
Week 15 comes along. Aaron Rodgers and the Packers are 13-0 and heavily favored in a game against the Chiefs. Needless to say, the Packers lost one game that entire season and this was it. Aaron Rodgers throws for a mere 235 yards and only one touchdown and I get bounced out of the playoffs.
The moral of the story is, anything can happen in fantasy football and sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, but being ready for the “worst-case scenarios” is the only way to tip the scales of “luck” in our favor.
Good Luck!
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