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There is still an opportunity to participate in NFL playoff leagues for fantasy football, as the Fantasy Football Players Championship (FFPC) Playoff Challenge 2 begins with this week’s Divisional Round matchups. When constructing your fantasy football playoff lineups for this bonus competition, the first step is to forecast how far you believe every team can potentially advance the rest of the way. This exercise is very important in the FFPC Playoff Challenge 2, where you can only choose one player from every team.
To help you build out your squads, I have constructed my NFL Playoff Power Rankings for purposes of the FFPC Playoff Challenge 2. You can also use this as a loose guide for any fantasy football playoff format that is still ongoing. But because you can pick only one player per team, and the FFPC format boosts TE scoring to 1.5 points per reception, my rankings of players by team are customized specifically for FFPC Playoff Challenge purposes. Roster requirements and scoring for the FFPC Playoff Challenge 2 can be found here.
These Power Rankings include my in-depth 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. I have also included my overall outlooks for the rest of the NFL Playoffs and share some lineup building strategies.
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Green Bay Packers
The Packers are looking to snap a four-game losing streak in the NFC Championship Game, and the weather is already looking to provide an advantage in the Divisional Round. Early forecasts at nflweather.com are indicating it will be nine degrees at kickoff with winds of 11 mph at Lambeau Field on Saturday night. The matchup against the 49ers could be a close one, but Aaron Rodgers can still be the ultimate difference-maker for Green Bay. The Packers were the only undefeated team at home during the regular season, which bodes well for them making it to the Super Bowl. Davante Adams has eight career TD catches in 10 playoff games. Aaron Jones has five TDs from scrimmage in four postseason games. AJ Dillon had 1,116 yards from scrimmage in the regular season. Green Bay has an RB duo made for the postseason to balance with the Rodgers/Adams combo.
Top Lineup Choices (in order of preferred selection when taking into account potential games played, comparisons to other players at their position, and injuries): Davante Adams, Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Jones, AJ Dillon, Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb, Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
Tennessee Titans
Most observers already seem to believe that the winner of Bills-Chiefs will represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. That’s disregarding what an impressive job Mike Vrabel has done guiding his team to the No. 1 seed despite Derrick Henry missing 10 games. The Titans won 12 games for the first time since 2008, but they are not “sexy” enough on offense to have many backers outside of Tennessee. The Titans ranked second in the league in run defense (84.6 yards per game) and still managed to rank fourth in rushing offense (141.4 rushing yards per game) without Henry for more than half the season. Now with their best player expected to return, we can possibly see a better version of Ryan Tannehill, and A.J. Brown should now benefit from not being the clear No. 1 focus of defensive game plans. If Julio Jones can stay healthy for the playoffs, it may be a mistake to overlook Tennessee.
Top Lineup Choices: Derrick Henry, A.J. Brown, Julio Jones.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Despite some key personnel issues, the Buccaneers sailed to an easy win over the Eagles and remain the team best equipped to knock Green Bay off. Tampa Bay ranked second in the NFL in scoring offense (30.1 points per game) and total offense (405.9 yards per game) and led the NFC in rushing defense (92.5 yards per game allowed). They still look like a very formidable team on both sides of the ball. Including the playoffs, Mike Evans has 15 TD catches this season. We only rank Tampa Bay behind Tennessee because the Rams look like a tougher out than the Bengals. The RB depth has been impressive, but injury outlooks may require you to pivot to another team at the position to play it safe.
Top Choices: Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Mike Evans, Leonard Fournette, Ke'Shawn Vaughn.
Kansas City Chiefs
The danger in picking the best, and usually very tempting players from the Chiefs and Bills is that one of them will be out after one game, and this AFC Divisional Round matchup is the toughest to call. Kansas City, however, has won 10 of its last 11 games including last week’s wild card win over Pittsburgh. There have been times when Buffalo has not looked as good as we have expected. The Bills downed the Chiefs 38-20 in Week 5, so you know Kansas City is ready for payback. Andy Reid’s 18 career playoff wins are the fourth-most ever by any head coach. Travis Kelce has 100-plus receiving yards in his last four postseason games. Tyreek Hill had 172 receiving yards in the 2020 AFC Championship Game against the Bills. This week’s game will surely be tight, but Kelce is still the class of the field at TE and that makes him the clear best call from the Kansas City roster in this FFPC format. This is another team to consider fading at RB because of injury outlooks.
Top Lineup Choices: Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill, Patrick Mahomes., Byron Pringle.
Buffalo Bills
In the reactionary world of NFL observations, the Bills are suddenly back on track to the Super Bowl in the eyes of many after a super-impressive throttling of the Patriots in the wild card round. But the Bills also lost three of four games against other playoff teams and were being questioned as a top contender as recently as after Week 14. Buffalo has rebounded to win five in a row overall since then, though, and their Week 5 victory over the Chiefs was their most impressive win of the year. Both the Bills and Chiefs are risk/reward plays in this FFPC format. Their top players may be out after one game or could net you double points in the Super Bowl in a potential three-game run. The Bills were the only team to rank in the Top 5 in offense and defense during the regular season. Josh Allen has two-plus TD passes in each of his three career games vs. K.C., including the postseason. Dawson Knox tied Kelce for the NFL lead with nine receiving TDs during the regular season and added two more in the wild card round.
Top Lineup Picks: Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs, Dawson Knox, Devin Singletary, Gabriel Davis, Emmanuel Sanders, Cole Beasley.
Los Angeles Rams
Los Angeles looked as good as they hoped to in the wild card round, but advancing to the Super Bowl will likely take knocking off the Packers and the Buccaneers, and that may prove to be too tall of a task. This is a team built to win now, and it was good enough to do so against the Cardinals, but the challenges get much tougher starting this week. The Rams are 1-4 against the current active playoff teams. Matthew Stafford is the key to any more success after he comes off the first postseason win of his career. He could either lead the Rams to the Super Bowl or flame out badly as soon as this week. The amazing re-emergence of Cam Akers does give Los Angeles a very good RB duo to ease pressure on Stafford, but their split workload makes both RBs less desirable selections.
Top Lineup Choices: Cooper Kupp, Odell Beckham Jr., Matthew Stafford, Cam Akers, Sony Michel, Tyler Higbee.
Cincinnati Bengals
The dazzling offense has many predicting the Bengals will beat the Titans, but there is a very good chance that Cincinnati’s season ends this week, and it is highly unlikely the Bengals will play more than two games in the rest of the postseason. Get as much upside as you can from the Bengals while they still remain in the field. The matchups get more daunting than Las Vegas beginning now.
Top Lineup Choices: Ja'Marr Chase, Joe Burrow, Joe Mixon, Tee Higgins, C.J. Uzomah.
San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers actually were third in the NFC in offense, compared to Green Bay, which was sixth. They have the ground game to remain competitive in adverse conditions at Lambeau Field this week. But the Niners are less equipped to take out Green Bay and Tampa Bay than Los Angeles is. Take a game from Deebo Samuel as your one pick from the San Francisco roster.
Top Lineup Choices: Deebo Samuel, Elijah Mitchell, Brandon Aiyuk, George Kittle.
Overall Outlook and Lineup Building
It is apparent that I believe Tennessee is an underrated team, and you should get two playoff games out of them with a respectable shot at a third. The key will be how effective Henry is, and if he is fully cleared for action I will not hesitate to make him my top RB choice. The Titans are not built to play from behind, though, and that could be their undoing against Buffalo or Kansas City. I have the Titans ahead of those two teams because they have a better shot to survive the Divisional Round and should have a decent chance of beating the Bills-Chiefs winner. In the NFC, I think it will come down to Rodgers vs. Brady, where I am in line with the popular projection there.
You can only use one QB, and Brady would be my preference so Adams can also be rostered. Kelce is the top TE, and while Josh Allen may be the best overall QB in the field, Brady has a better chance to play two to three more playoff games. Kupp and Samuel will certainly fill out two more lineup slots with Henry at one RB spot. I would want the upside of Chase at the second flex spot, so Singletary would then slot in at the second RB position. He has played well recently and may be much less widely rostered than many other RBs in the field. So one final lineup may consist of Brady, Henry, Singletary, Kupp, Samuel, Chase, Adams, and Kelce. But of course, that is just one approach, especially for those who diversify with more than one entry.
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