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When building your fantasy football playoff lineups, the first step is to forecast how far you believe every team can potentially advance. This exercise is highly critical in the Fantasy Football Players Championship (FFPC) Playoff Challenge, where you can only choose one player from every team.
To help you build out your squad, I have constructed my NFL Playoff Power Rankings for purposes of the FFPC Playoff Challenge. You can also use this as a guide for any fantasy football playoff format, including drafts. Roster requirements and scoring for the FFPC Playoff Challenge can be found here. My full Top 80 rankings for the FFPC Playoff Challenge are featured here.
These Power Rankings include my scouting reports on each team from NFL perspectives, so you can then further judge the postseason potential of every team in the field and then make your picks accordingly. Each team breakdown features my preferred picks from that roster.
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1. Buffalo Bills
The Bills have the second-best Vegas odds to win the Super Bowl, but even if they don’t win it all, Buffalo has a solid path to three, and possibly four postseason games. I have much more confidence in the Bills as a No. 2 seed to advance than I do in San Francisco in the NFC. Miami should be an easy out in the first round, and while beating Cincinnati is no given, a Bills-Bengals matchup could go either way. At the minimum, you get two games with a top-notch offense and four at the maximum.
Best Lineup Choices: (In order of preferred selections): Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs, Gabe Davis, Dawson Knox, Devin Singletary, James Cook
2. Philadelphia Eagles
Outside of Buffalo, which can advance from the Wild Card Game to the conference title game, I prefer Philadelphia as the best pick to play three postseason games. Jalen Hurts is the second-best dual-threat QB available, and A.J. Brown is set for a strong playoff run as his featured pass-catcher. Miles Sanders has emerged as a frequent TD producer, DeVonta Smith played well down the stretch in the regular season and Dallas Goedert can perform better in the playoffs than he did late in the regular season.
Best Lineup Choices: Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, Miles Sanders, DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert
3. Kansas City Chiefs
Kansas City has the best odds to win the Super Bowl and a solid chance to play three postseason games. When building out the core of your FFPC Playoff Challenge lineup, your biggest decision will be to go with either Patrick Mahomes or Travis Kelce. I lean toward pairing Kelce with Buffalo’s Allen because of FFPC TE premium scoring and his statistical dominance over the rest of the position.
Isiah Pacheco is not an exciting option, but his amount of potential games played is appealing. The WRs are a dice roll, from JuJu Smith-Schuster to Mecole Hardman.
Best Lineup Choices: Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Jerick McKinnon, Isiah Pacheco, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Kadarius Toney, Mecole Hardman, Marquez Valdes-Scantling
4. Cincinnati Bengals
This is the team that can get in the way of Buffalo or Kansas City winning the AFC Championship. The Bengals won the conference crown last season and are ready for the marquee matchups ahead after they dispatch the Ravens. Cincinnati is capable of downing Buffalo if Allen makes any costly mistakes, and its skill position group is better than Kansas City’s. If the Bengals make another push to the brink of a Super Bowl, you can get some very good numbers from their top fantasy selections.
Best Lineup Choices: Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Joe Mixon, Tyler Boyd
5. San Francisco 49ers
I am skeptical about the 49ers playing more than two games. Brock Purdy has been on a memorable six-game run, but he lacks upside in terms of passing yardage and there is a good chance he starts to struggle in playoff environments. I do think the Niners beat Seattle, though, and getting two games out of Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle in a TE premium format is a significant factor for playoff fantasy purposes.
Best Lineup Choices: Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, Deebo Samuel, Brock Purdy, Brandon Aiyuk
6. Dallas Cowboys
I do see a road to the NFC Championship Game for the Cowboys. If the Giants upset the Vikings, which I think is possible, Dallas could advance past the Divisional Round and make its first appearance in the conference title game since the glory days of the 1900s. Dak Prescott must avoid costly interceptions, but the offense was rolling until the regular season finale, which should be truly written off.
The Cowboys have an upside RB in Tony Pollard and Ezekiel Elliott, a dependable TD source who wants to make a deep playoff push.
Best Lineup Choices: Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Tony Pollard, Ezekiel Elliott, Dalton Schultz
7. Minnesota Vikings
I don’t have much faith in Kirk Cousins as a playoff QB and Minnesota has the worst defense of any playoff team. I don’t see more than one playoff game as a sure thing and would be a bit surprised if the Vikings play in three postseason games. But a run to the NFC title game would not be the biggest shock from a well-coached team. I want a fantasy investment in Justin Jefferson and Dalvin Cook if Cousins actually proves me wrong.
Best Lineup Choices: Justin Jefferson, Kirk Cousins, Dalvin Cook, T.J. Hockenson, K.J. Osborn, Adam Thielen
8. Los Angeles Chargers
I do expect Justin Herbert to outgun Trevor Lawrence in the Wild Card round. Of course, it will be great to roster Austin Ekeler and Keenan Allen for two games. But if Baltimore and Miami lose, which seems highly likely, then the Chargers can be a fun opponent for the Chiefs, but they won’t be ready to upend Kansas City yet.
Best Lineup Choices: Austin Ekeler, Justin Herbert, Keenan Allen, Josh Palmer
9. New York Giants
This is my favorite sleeper team for at least the first round. It took a 61-yard field goal for the Vikings to beat them in Week 16, and Brian Daboll is undoubtedly capable of guiding his team to an upset win. Saquon Barkley can be a fantasy playoff asset if he displays his best form and Daniel Jones passed for 334 yards in his last meeting with Minnesota. He is a nifty dual-threat option.
Best Lineup Choices: Saquon Barkley, Daniel Jones, Isaiah Hodgins, Richie James, Darius Slayton
10. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
We all know Tom Brady can potentially push this team further than expected, but the Buccaneers were essentially a .500 ballclub that was manhandled by the 49ers and Bengals before beating the Cardinals and Panthers to lock up the awful NFC South. But there is a decent chance that Tampa Bay can play two games. Mike Evans and the RBs are unreliable, though.
Best Lineup Choices: Tom Brady, Chris Godwin, Mike Evans, Leonard Fournette, Rachaad White
11. Jacksonville Jaguars
We cannot fully overlook the Jaguars, who truly earned their playoff berth with five consecutive wins and six of seven to finish out the regular season. Travis Etienne has a great opening matchup with the Chargers, who ranked 26th in Fantasy Points Per Game allowed to RBs during the regular season. Lawrence and all of his pass-catchers are capable of providing respectable fantasy production for one, and possibly two games.
Best Lineup Choices: Trevor Lawrence, Travis Etienne, Christian Kirk, Zay Jones, Evan Engram
12. Seattle Seahawks
If Purdy totally fizzles to the point where he is detrimental to the chances of San Francisco’s success, then the Seahawks could pull their biggest playoff upset since the Beast Quake game. That seems highly unlikely, but they won’t get blown out and Seattle’s WRs can perform well enough for one game.
Best Lineup Choices: DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, Geno Smith, Kenneth Walker III, Noah Fant
13. Miami Dolphins
They will surely be one and done, but at least the Dolphins can give you fantasy access to Tyreek Hill for a week.
Best Lineup Options: Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, Jeff Wilson Jr.
14. Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens are the most lacking team in the playoff field in terms of fantasy options with Lamar Jackson’s outlook being very uncertain.
Best Lineup Choices: J.K. Dobbins, Mark Andrews, Gus Edwards
Scott Engel's fantasy and betting analysis is also featured at The Game Day.
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