How Do The Fantasy Football Playoffs Work? When Do They Start?

August 18, 2024

Andersen explains how the fantasy football playoffs work and when the fantasy football playoffs start. Learn how to interpret the annual fantasy football playoff bracket as you hunt for the championship.

Every fantasy football manager dreams of winning their league championship, but that can't happen without first making the playoffs.

In fact, missing the fantasy playoffs often comes with its fair dose of embarrassment, especially in formats where at least half of the league makes the bracket.

But how do the fantasy football playoffs work? When do they start? Here's what every fantasy football manager should know about the road to the championship.

How Do Fantasy Football Playoffs Work?

The exact specifics of playoffs will vary by league, but for the most part, bracket play is held in a similar fashion as the regular season: a series of head-to-head matchups.

Playoff seeding is usually determined by the standings, followed by a variety of tiebreakers determined by the league commissioner. Potential tiebreakers include head-to-head records or points scored.

In the first round of an eight-team playoff, the matchups will be set in a bookend sort of format, with the best team (No. 1 seed) playing the worst (No. 8), then the next-best versus the next-worst (No. 2 versus No. 7), and so on.

The bracket may not always work out in a way that allows each manager to play a matchup in each round. For example, in a six-team playoff, the top two seeds would earn a first-round bye while the remaining four teams battle for two spots in the next round.

Of course, the winner of each playoff matchup advances to the next round. Some leagues may rearrange the schedule after each round so that the worst remaining seed continues to play the best remaining seed. Other leagues may set a bracket at the start and simply advance teams from their matchup to the next adjacent branch on the bracket.

We should also note that some leagues will hold multi-week rounds. In theory, this reduces the chance of a team advancing to the next round because they had one good week (or eliminating a powerhouse due to one bad week). In a multi-week round, the winner of the matchup will be determined by cumulative points over the entire round (usually two weeks).

There are pros and cons to multi-week leagues. One perk is the aforementioned ability to reduce the chances of luck influencing your bracket. On the other hand, there's an argument to be made for the element of luck and unknown that comes with advancing teams to the next round after just one week.

Regardless of individual settings, managers should ensure that they understand how their playoffs work before the season begins. Similarly, commissioners should not adjust the playoff settings once teams have been drafted (unless there is a mistake that clearly needs to be fixed). Strategy plays a major role in fantasy football and some managers may set their year-long strategy based on the league settings.

During the playoffs, how fantasy football managers look at each other:pic.twitter.com/MHl8f3tFeJ

— Moody (@EricNMoody) December 17, 2022

When Do Fantasy Football Playoffs Start?

Naturally, fantasy football playoffs typically occur near the end of the NFL season when managers have completed a full schedule of matchups, the standings have taken shape, and it's time to crown a champion. However, the exact start date of the fantasy football playoffs could vary from league to league.

When the NFL expanded its season to 18 weeks, it became common for fantasy playoffs to begin in Week 15 — specifically in leagues with six to eight playoff teams where each matchup lasted just one week.

With a three-week playoff starting in Week 15, leagues can crown their champion in Week 17. This is a common practice in fantasy football, given that many NFL teams rest their starters or change their approach for Week 18, depending on whether they have clinched a certain playoff status. If the Kansas City Chiefs are guaranteed to be the AFC's No. 1 seed, they'll likely rest Patrick Mahomes (or only give him a few plays) to preserve his health.

This, however, would create a major disadvantage for fantasy managers with Mahomes on their roster. Far fewer teams rest their players in Week 17, making that a much more fitting time to hold the fantasy football championship.

Leagues with more than eight or less than six playoff teams may choose to move up or push back the start of their playoffs, respectively. Similarly, leagues with multi-week matchups may start their playoffs earlier to make sure they stay on track to crown a champion by Week 17.

We would caution commissioners against starting their playoffs too early, of course. In 2024, a whopping six teams have a Week 14 bye, meaning some managers could be without key players that week.

Having players on bye during the playoffs puts managers at a massive (and very unfair) disadvantage. After all, it would be rotten to lock up the best record thanks to Lamar Jackson's dominance, only to get eliminated in the first round of the playoffs (Week 14) because he was on a bye, and you had to start a waiver-wire quarterback instead.

The best-run leagues will do whatever they can to ensure the playoffs don't begin until Week 15, even if that means shortening each round from two weeks to one.

Try to be extra nice to strangers this week; decent chance at least a few people you'll run into on the streets are in a fantasy football league that inexplicably started their playoffs in Week 14 and they have to deal with Jonathan Taylor on a bye

— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) December 7, 2021

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