Wildcard Playoff Challenge Rankings: Popular rules for playoff leagues, draft strategies and more

The regular season is over but we can still have fun setting lineups from now until the Super Bowl

By Jamey Eisenberg

Jan 10, 2024 at 4:41 pm ET • 3 min read

USATSI

I love Playoff Challenge leagues. It's a way to continue your Fantasy fun through the postseason, and there's plenty of strategy involved. Who wouldn't want to set a lineup or check stats for another four weeks?

NFL.com discontinued their Playoff Challenge, but I'm taking part in three leagues this season, including the FFPC. The other two leagues are done privately, including one with our CBS Sports staff. Unfortunately, we do not have a Playoff Challenge game on CBS, so we did the draft the old-fashioned way (sort of) with a spreadsheet.

The biggest thing involved with any Playoff Challenge is knowing your rules. The lineup requirements might be for the entire postseason, or you can change your lineup weekly.

The FFPC league is where you can only pick one player from an NFL team to fill out your lineup, and you get their total points for as long as they advance through the playoffs. For example, I have Josh Allen at quarterback, and he's the only player I can use from the Bills. Christian McCaffrey is one of my running backs, and he's the only player I can use from the 49ers. And so on.

In my other non-CBS Playoff Challenge, the rules are you set a lineup for each round of the playoffs, and once you use those players for that week they are done. So you want to save players from the teams you think will advance to the Super Bowl. For the Wild-Card round, I'm going to use guys like Tyreek Hill, Puka Nacua and Nico Collins since I don't expect the Dolphins, Rams or Texans to advance.

Below, you'll see my postseason PPR rankings, and these are for the entirety of the playoffs. They are based on how many games I expect each team to play.

For example, I have the Bills reaching the Super Bowl in the AFC, which would give them four games and make players on their roster valuable in any total-points format. In the NFC, I expect the 49ers to play in the Super Bowl, which means San Francisco should play three games. I also have the Cowboys playing three games since I expect Dallas to reach the NFC Championship Game.

In my playoff projections, Baltimore, Kansas City, Cleveland, Detroit and Tampa Bay will also play two games, which is why I'm slightly higher on those players in my rankings than guys from Houston, Miami, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Green Bay and the Rams, who might play just one game. But if you play in any leagues with total points through the playoffs then I encourage you to do your own rankings and map out how you expect the postseason to play out. That's a big part in how you might choose players in your Playoff Challenge.

Every Monday, I'm going to update these rankings and provide a playoff stock watch. And I'll also be giving you DFS plays on DraftKings and FanDuel throughout the postseason. Like I said, even though the regular season is over, we can still have fun setting Fantasy lineups in a different way from now until the Super Bowl.