Fantasy Football Playoffs strategy: Five step plan to playoff-proof your roster, prepare for Championship run

If you're reading this, you didn't suck at Fantasy Football this year.

That's because everyone who did wouldn't bother reading up on how to maximize your roster for the Fantasy playoffs. They're probably too busy whining to whoever is nearby about how they screwed up their season. 

Wahhhhh. No one cares about their sadness.

And no one cares about your potential for a Fantasy championship except you. And me.

During the first 14 weeks of the Fantasy year, we carried players because they had upside we were hoping to cash in on. Maybe we wanted some decent depth in case of injuries (how clutch was that depth this past week with George Pickens being ruled out Sunday morning, by the way?).

At this time of the year, the only focus is on winning, not stashing. We're only carrying players who can help us win now, not a month or two from now.

And anyone who can help us win now -- or help our opponents lose now -- is worth rostering.

Building your best bench

Every team playing this late in the year is good. Most lineup decisions are automatic at this point, but sometimes you might play the matchups and rotate who is on your bench in a given week. That's totally fine.

The bench is there to give you options from week to week as well as provide players in case calamity hits. The stronger your bench, the better you're doing.

If you've got six bench spots it wouldn't be wrong to allocate them this way:

• a backup WR you'd be OK starting
• a backup RB you'd be OK starting
• a backup TE you'd be OK starting
• a real-life backup with the upside to statistically replace one of your starting RBs (a handcuff)
• two utility spots: other backups at any position (including QB and DST)

I call this "playoff-proofing" your roster. As long as you have some confidence in the players you've got benched, you should be ready for a strong playoff run.

If you don't have a good backup RB ... You're in luck because the waiver wire happens to have a lot of decent RBs. Patrick Taylor might be the Niners lead RB until further notice and he's out there in every league. Tank Bigsby is already highly rostered but he's coming off a good game and the Jaguars might actually keep trying to win games. Sincere McCormick might be the Raiders' lead back the rest of the season. Isaiah Davis has outperformed Braelon Allen. There are others past these guys. It's a good time to stabilize this position.

If you don't have a good backup WR ... Hit waivers this week and get one. Any wideout with seven-plus target potential is serviceable with Adam Thielen the most recent example. Christian Watson, Keon Coleman, Elijah Moore and Jalen McMillan could also be useful backup wideouts. Romeo Doubs and Cedric Tillman would be as well once they're cleared from the concussion protocol. And I don't know when Marquise Brown will be activated for the Chiefs, but if I had an IR spot open I'd make sure he's on my team. Everyone I just named is available in at least 37% of CBS Sports leagues.

If you've been streaming TE, or if you don't have a good backup TE ... Your timing is rough. Hunter Henry and Jake Ferguson are out there in about 40% of CBS leagues. If they're taken, you might be left with the likes of Juwan Johnson, Dalton Schultz, Cole Kmet and Stone Smartt (yes that's a real person's name). They all have potential to catch a touchdown -- that's about the nicest thing I could say. I should also mention that the Titans, Panthers and Jaguars are among the teams with favorable Fantasy schedules the rest of the season according to my method of ranking in-season strength of schedules. If Evan Engram is on the shelf, Brenton Strange has already proven to replace him before and could do so again.

I would add that if you don't have a good backup TE but your waiver wire is deep with solid tight ends, you do not need to carry one. You can just hit waivers in the unfortunate event that your main tight end misses time.

If you've been streaming QB, or if you don't have a good backup QB ... I'd target one of Jameis Winston or Anthony Richardson, though both might be rostered in your leagues since they're available in less than 50% of leagues. If they're gone, I might not bother with a backup quarterback if you're choosing from Aaron Rodgers, Will Levis, Cooper Rush or Bryce Young (or worse). Someone will always be there on waivers.

I'll also note that the Raiders, Titans, Jaguars, Falcons, Jets, Panthers and Saints do have favorable matchups over the balance of the season per my Fantasy in-season strength of schedule rankings. Maybe Rodgers and Levis aren't lost causes.

Being smart with dropping players

I wouldn't drop anyone who you think would be popular among your leaguemates unless you think they're terrible. But anyone who you wouldn't normally start is absolutely fair game for the waiver wire.

Consider this list of players rostered in at least 50% of leagues as drop-worthy:

C.J. Stroud
Russell Wilson
Geno Smith
Kirk Cousins
Derek Carr

Nick Chubb
Travis Etienne
Kareem Hunt (unless you have Isiah Pacheco)
Jaylen Warren (unless you have Najee Harris)
Javonte Williams
JK Dobbins
Ameer Abdullah
Ray Davis (unless you have James Cook)
Alexander Mattison
Devin Singletary
Raheem Mostert
Austin Ekeler (stash on IR)
Jerome Ford

Deebo Samuel
Xavier Worthy
Tank Dell
Nick Westbrook-Ikhine
Chris Olave (stash on IR)
Tyler Lockett
Marquez Valdes-Scantling

Kyle Pitts
Dalton Kincaid
Mike Gesicki

Playing keep-away

We're at the point in the year where it's a good idea to look at your opponent's roster and look for weaknesses. Are they struggling at a certain position? Did they lose a starter to injury last week? Does their current DST have an impossible matchup?

If they're weak somewhere, you should exploit it as best as you can by going after the same players they're going after off waivers. For example, if they were forced to start Nick Westbrook-Ikhine in place of George Pickens last week, and Pickens appears unlikely to come back this week, you should try to get your hands on Adam Thielen or Christian Watson or whoever you wouldn't want to play against in Week 15. Because if you get them, then they can't be started against you.

This works for any position. In one of my competitive analyst leagues, I noticed before Week 12 that my Week 14 opponent had C.J. Stroud and Anthony Richardson. I rostered Will Levis just so he couldn't and carried him through Week 14. Did that work out for me? No, because Levis got hurt and wasn't productive against the Jaguars. But if he hadn't have gotten hurt, he might have scored enough for my opponent to beat me.

You should feel comfortable spending one of those "utility" bench spots on a player that your opponent would otherwise like to have. You could always keep the player through your next game, or dump him for someone else. However, do not prioritize playing keep-away over what's best for your team.

DSTs matter

Let's start with the end of our lineups, the DST. Never underestimate the difference a Defense/Special Teams unit can make. Choose wisely, and for the right reasons, and your team will perform better.

You always should start a good defense -- sometimes people get way too wrapped up in the matchups and go with a DST that's not very good. Those are the DSTs that could keep you from winning, as anyone who streams the position will tell you. The best defenses consistently harass the quarterback and create turnovers. As long as you have a defense that can do that, you're doing fine.

These DSTs have not only been very good for Fantasy managers already but have at least a tolerable schedule and are thus worth sticking with:

However, these DSTs might have been very good for Fantasy managers but have some tough matchups moving forward and thus are droppable:

If you're going to drop one of those DSTs, you better know which DST to replace them with. Here are some DSTs that are on the waiver wire who you should target ... and they're ranked for Week 15:

Keep in mind that many of these DSTs will be good for one or two weeks before you'll ditch them in the dirt for another. One strategy is to carry two DSTs -- one for the matchup you'll have this week, one for a matchup into the future.

Using the table above I can see that I could use the Ravens in Week 15 but grab the Falcons off waivers right now so I could use them in Week 16. Both teams play the Giants, arguably the best matchup on the board since New York has scored 11 or fewer points in two of its past three games without Daniel Jones, and over 21 points just twice all year. Actually, once this week is over I could cut the Ravens for the Colts and then I'll use three different DSTs with the same matchup to get me through Week 17.

Here are several DST combinations you might wish to use for the next three weeks of the season.

Don't be passive or dismissive when it comes to your DST. Consider the matchups as usual, but don't trust a bad DST if you can help it. And it's reasonable to carry two DSTs on your bench if you're planning ahead -- one for this week, one for a week down the line.

Kickers matter

I don't write much about kickers anymore, in part because a lot of leagues have taken them out of Fantasy Football. But kickers might still be a part of your lineups and should be addressed.

It's really easy to stick with a kicker who's been reliable. Chris Boswell, Ka'imi Fairbairn, Jake Bates and Jason Sanders are great examples. Will Reichard is another; he averaged over 9.0 Fantasy points per game before he got hurt, then his replacement averaged 10.5 points per game. Now Reichard is back, and being the Vikings' kicker is a good thing.

If you don't have a kicker you're committed to, then you should be open to playing the matchups. How can you play the matchups with kickers? Here's how I do it:

• use kickers from high-scoring teams
• use kickers who will play indoors or in warmer climates
• use kickers who play teams that allow a lot of points per game to kickers (usually teams with bad defenses)

Kickers who have this criterion will vary from week to week, but for Week 15 you could give Younghoe Koo, Wil Lutz, Jake Moody and Anders Carlson a longer look than normal.