Most-Rostered Fantasy Football Championship & Playoff Players

Now that the fantasy football season is behind us, it’s time to take a breath and look back at what went right and what went wrong. Were you doomed from the second you drafted a particular player who underperformed, or did you defy the odds to win it all despite a stud flopping massively?

Thanks to our My Playbook data, we can analyze hundreds of thousands of teams and know exactly how often each player made the playoffs and won championships.

• Fantasy Football Advice
• Weekly Fantasy Football Rankings
• Fantasy Football Advanced Stats
• Fantasy Football Trade Tools

2025 Fantasy Football Recap & Takeaways

Most Common Playoff Players

Making the playoffs isn’t just about drafting well; it’s also about making the smartest waiver wire pickups along the way, and that was reflected in Colby Parkinson being rostered on teams that made the playoffs in 73.4% of the leagues he was rostered in, which was the second-highest amount for any player.

From Week 10 through Week 14, Parkinson was the TE4 in half-PPR leagues, averaging 9.6 points per game. Unfortunately, that didn’t translate to playoff success with Parkinson finishing as the TE37 in Week 16 against the Seahawks, a matchup that looked fantastic and should have propelled managers to championships.

Michael Carter came in as the sixth-highest player in this category, making the playoffs in 68% of leagues. The schedule looked excellent for Carter with games against the Falcons and Bengals in Weeks 16 and 17, but Carter put up a combined 11.8 points in those games. Again, he wasn’t someone you needed to win a championship.

The most commonly rostered player wasn’t actually a player but a defense, with the Saints D/ST making the playoffs in 75% of leagues. The Saints were a popular streaming pick in the playoffs due to games with the Panthers, Jets and Titans. Unlike some of the pickups we’ve already covered, the Saints D/ST delivered with 20 points in Week 16 and 14 points in Week 17.

It’s slightly surprising to see Rashee Rice made the playoffs in 61.3% of leagues, which was the 15th-highest rate on My Playbook leagues. Managers with Rice on their rosters weathered a six-game suspension, as well as losing Rice in Week 10 for his bye week. Unfortunately, this wasn’t all good news with Rice losing Patrick Mahomes for the stretch run and turning in performances of WR46 in Week 14, followed by WR36 in Week 15 before sitting out the rest of the season with a concussion.

Best and Worst Advance Rates

It should surprise nobody that if you hit on your early picks, you were propelled towards the playoffs. Five players gave you a rate of advancement to the playoffs at 60% or higher. Jonathan Taylor was a stud for much of the season, but fell off down the stretch without Daniel Jones at quarterback.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba put up an All-Pro breakout season and only had four finishes outside of the top-15 weekly wide receivers, and had only one game with fewer than 70 yards all season. Christian McCaffrey had over 100 receptions this year, making up for his lack of efficiency in the running game, but assuaged any doubts about his ability to still be a top running back.

Jahmyr Gibbs was very volatile but showed enough to likely be no worse than the RB3 heading into 2026. George Pickens set himself up for a monster payday in free agency after tying Ja’Marr Chase for the fourth-most wide receiver fantasy points.

On the other end of the scale, four players from the Baltimore Ravens were in the bottom 20 of ranked players for advancing into the playoffs: Lamar Jackson, who missed multiple games; Derrick Henry, who finished strong but had quiet spells, and Mark Andrews and Rashod Bateman, who were non-factors for most of the year.

Alvin Kamara advanced to the playoffs at a miserable 38% rate, and had the very definition of a running back dead zone type season.

Most Common Championship Winning Players

What really mattered, though, above all else, is who actually helped managers win championships. Bijan Robinson led the way with a championship-winning rate of 18.52%. Roughly meaning that if you drafted Robinson, you had a one in five chance of winning it all. Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba both finished outside of the top 10 wide receivers in Week 17, but both put up enough strong numbers to represent strongly here.

The top 12 featured five running backs in a strong year for the position. It’s now been two strong years in a row for running backs, and it shouldn’t be surprising if the top 24 picks this year in average draft position (ADP) feature more running backs than in recent years.

Two quarterbacks found their way into the top 12, with Brock Purdy winning a championship 14% of the time and Drake Maye landing at 12.72%. This reinforced another strong year for waiting on quarterbacks, thanks in part to injuries to Joe Burrow, Jayden Daniels and Lamar Jackson, combined with Josh Allen letting fantasy managers down when they needed him in the playoffs.

Allen was the QB11 in the playoffs, winning championships just 7.21% of the time, a lower rate than Jaxson Dart managers, making for a disappointing end to the season, even if he helped teams advance to the playoffs at a strong 56% rate.

At tight end, it will surprise nobody to hear Trey McBride led the position with a studly rate of 13.93%, with only George Kittle (10.8%) and Harold Fannin Jr. (10.54%) also cracking double-figures. McBride’s 18.6 half-PPR points in Week 17 made him the TE1 overall in what always looked like a smash spot against the Bengals. It was simply very difficult to surpass McBride teams if you came up against him.

We’ll end things on a tale of optimism, perhaps, with the fact that there were teams out there who won despite rostering letdowns such as Justin Jefferson or Saquon Barkley. Jefferson teams won their leagues 3.54% of the time in 2025, and Barkley teams hit at a rate of 4.66%.

While this isn’t what we hoped for when rostering those types of studs, it’s a good tale of perseverance that the fate of your season doesn’t rest with just one individual player. Make the right picks elsewhere in the draft, stay active and make smart moves through the season, and any roster can win you a championship.