Either you're in, or you temporarily lost your taste for football. It's playoff time! Chances are if you scored the likes of Michael Vick, Peyton Hillis, Brandon Lloyd, or Kyle Orton off of the waiver wire, you are in the playoffs. If you were savvy enough to draft the likes of Arian Foster, Hakeem Nicks, Philip Rivers, Dwayne Bowe, or Terrell Owens, you are probably wearing your dancing shoes. If you happened to be like one owner in my keeper league, who happened to keep Antonio Gates in the sixth round, draft Arian Foster in the second round, draft Peyton Hillis in the fifteenth round, pick up Michael Vick off of waivers after week 1 (and right after Andy Reid declared Kevin Kolb to continue being the starter once he got healthy following the concussion he suffered in the week 1 game versus the Packers), and trade Maurice Jones-Drew for Calvin Johnson and Ladainian Tomlinson before the week 4 games, chances are you a rolling pretty damn high into the playoffs with a 13-0 record and about to destroy many league records held by me.
Whatever the case, if you are in the playoffs, you should be obsessing about your roster, potential free agent pickups, matchups of not only this weekend but also of the entire fantasy playoffs (especially for fantasy defenses), and how the 13-0 team can be upset. This is the time of year where you start your studs, but many players can be benched for other players with great matchups. Just because you have been winning games on strong performances from Brandon Lloyd, Matt Ryan, LeSean McCoy, Steve Johnson, Chris Ivory, and Vernon Davis doesn't mean you should start them automatically. This is the time of the year where matchups are more important than ever. Hopefully, you were savvy enough to stock up your roster with players having great matchups during these next three weeks. The owner who thinks he should roll with all his top players throughout the playoffs, no matter what the matchups are is likely to come away disappointed, unless your starting roster is Michael Vick, Arian Foster, Peyton Hillis, LaDainian Tomlinson, Calvin Johnson, Sidney Rice, Santonio Holmes, Antonio Gates, and the Eagles defense like the owner in my league I mentioned above. I will try to give you some advice on certain players in the playoffs to increase your chances of winning.
Unbenchable Players
~~Once again we find him at the top of the QB stat sheets. The Packers lost their running game, so Rodgers took it upon himself to single-handedly dismantle his opponents. His domination will continue into the playoffs, especially in weeks 14 and 15 against the Lions and Patriots.
Michael Vick
~~There are many words to describe his season like unbelievable, phenomenal, redemption, and unstoppable. He is the second best QB in fantasy, and he has only played in seven and two half games out of the twelve. He can't be contained. Unbenchable is stating the blatantly obvious.
Philip Rivers
~~Undrafted rookie WR Seyi Ajirotutu. Do I need to elaborate?
Tom Brady
~~His playoff schedule starts pretty rough against the Bears and Packers in weeks 14 and 15, but has he ever been benched outside of bye weeks and 2008 since about midway through the 2002 season?
Peyton Manning
~~He has been humiliated over his last three games, throwing an uncharacteristic 11 interceptions in that span. Much of the blame can be placed on the lack of offensive skill starters due to injury, and lack of timing between Peyton and the replacements. However, if his namesake, history, or pure desire for excellence isn't enough to start him unquestionably, maybe his matchups against the soft-against-fantasy-QBs pass defense touting Titans, Jaguars, and Raiders can put you at ease.
Arian Foster
~~The best fantasy RB should stay on top the rest of the year.
Adrian Peterson
~~If you would ever consider benching him, even if he is playing at less than 100%, you need to quit playing this game and give up anything football related altogether, moron.
Peyton Hillis
~~The best fantasy fullback to have ever played the game...and we thought Mike Alstott made pretty sweet stats for a fullback back in the day.
Maurice Jones-Drew
~~So much for him underachieving. His remaining schedule is awesome just to boot.
Chris Johnson
~~He was limited in the last two games for God only knows what reasons. I don't care if my team is down by more than two or three touchdowns. If CJ2K is in my backfield, I will feed him the roc and allow the best playmaker on the field to try to make something happen. These last two games should be just a blip on the radar, and his matchups against the Colts, Texans, and Chiefs should make sure your not thinking pine with him.
Michael Turner
~~He hasn't been overly spectacular this season, but he is probably your top RB (maybe second with Arian Foster or Peyton Hillis), and his playoff schedule against the Panthers, Seahawks, and Saints is his easiest three game stretch all season.
Darren McFadden
~~He finally broke out this year and proved he could be a fantasy stud. His stats may have dwindled a bit lately, but he also has pleasant matchups against the Jaguars, Broncos (had 196 total yards and 4 TDs against them earlier this year), and Colts.
LeGarrette Blount
~~That's right...LeGarrette Blount is absolutely unbenchable for your playoffs. He just ran over the Falcons stout run defense for 103 yards and 1 TD, the same Falcons run defense that only allowed one RB all year top 100 yards against them before they got Blounted. That only makes me like him. Couple that effort with the fact that he will be able to carry that momentum into games against cupcake run defenses like the Redskins, Lions, and Seahawks and now I love him for the playoffs. Don't worry about that little chitter-chatter about Blount losing goalline work...he'll find TDs.
Dwayne Bowe
~~He posted a zero last weekend? Really!?!? He does have another tough matchup against the Chargers coming up, but he is hard to keep out of the endzone and therefore hard to keep out of your starting lineup.
Roddy White
~~He is a close second in targets behind Reggie Wayne.
Greg Jennings
~~Since week 6, he has absolutely been on a tear with four 100 yard games and 8 total TDs during that span. That momentum should continue against the Lions and Patriots the next two weeks.
Calvin Johnson
~~It doesn't matter who his QB is, who his opponent is (other than Darelle Revis who shut him down this year), or where he is playing. He is such a freak of nature playmaker that he is apt to break off a big TD play at any given time.
Reggie Wayne
~~Self explanatory
Andre Johnson
~~Self explanatory
Miles Austin
~~Dez Bryant is out, and the schedule gets easier. That is two factors that equal increased production.
Antonio Gates
~~Self explanatory
Jason Witten
~~He already has had a consistent amount of targets, and should get more with Dez Bryant out for the year.
Playoff Busts
Mark Sanchez
~~He has possibly the toughest remaining schedule for starting QBs. The Dolphins, Steelers, and Bears are all top defenses at limiting QBs.
The Lions QBs
~~Whether it's Drew Stanton, Shaun Hill, or Matthew Stafford, none of these guys are worth having faith in for the playoffs. Add a difficult remaining schedule into the mix only confirms that their butts will be planted firmly on your bench.
Lesean McCoy
~~He has had really huge games against some strong defenses, but he has also been a bit inconsistent. He faces the Cowboys, Giants, and Vikings in the fantasy playoffs, and all teams are strong at limiting RBs. You can bet the Cowboys and Giants will utilize their speed on defense to limit the running of both McCoy and Michael Vick. One of McCoy's big games this year was against the Giants. Do you think they will allow a repeat performance?
Jamaal Charles
~~He has been running at a torrid pace...everywhere except into the endzone. Take his lack of redzone usage and sprinkle in some Chargers and Rams, and he could cause you to pull your hair out.
Matt Forte
~~He is a victim of yet another tough remaining schedule against the Patriots, Vikings, and Jets. He can also be hit or miss in Mike Martz's offensive schemes.
Ahmad Bradshaw
~~OK, so the common theme amongst the potential busts is a tough remaining schedule. Ditto here, injuries, and Brandon Jacobs...enough said.
LaDainian Tomlinson
~~Tough schedule...is there an echo here? Besides, exactly how long can his overused legs hold up anymore?
Brandon Lloyd
~~With the promotion of RBs coach Eric Studesville following the unceremonious release of Josh McDaniels, it is quite apparent that the new direction of the Broncos offense will be much more run oriented.
Terrell Owens
~~Tough schedule, old legs, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Larry Fitzgerald
~~His situation can be easily explained by the multitude of QBs throwing him the ball. He will now have rookie John Skelton as his QB, likely for the remainder of the year. Even though Skelton should be the future franchise QB for the Cardinals, he is still very raw and untested, which will cause Fitzgerald to suffer the rest of this year.
Most of the players that have gone unmentioned will fall subject to the matchup game. For example, don't be afraid to bench Mike Tolbert against the 49ers in week 15 for Jonathan Stewart against the Cardinals. The only time you should consider benching a stud like Ray Rice or Steven Jackson is if you have a reliable backup with a cake matchup opposed to your stud having a difficult matchup.
Dynasty Corner
I will begin to add this section to my blogs. I haven't decided if it will be an every week thing or what kind of information and format will be used. For now I will just include dynasty league relevant thoughts and let it evolve from there over the weeks.
~~Welcome to elite status Philip Rivers, Michael Vick, Hakeem Nicks, and Dwayne Bowe.
~~Arian Foster and Peyton Hillis are not elite, simply because of the presence of Ben Tate in Houston and Montario Hardesty in Cleveland. Both of those rookies were drafted by their respective teams in the second round of the 2010 draft to be major cogs in those teams' offensive plans. Foster's success is so huge because of the Texans' zone-blocking system. Tate ran in a very similar system at Auburn and is faster than Foster. Hillis is having the best statistical season a fullback could have ever dreamed of mainly because of the Browns' offensive line, which is one of the NFL's best.
~~Now that Josh McDaniels has been fired, it is almost guaranteed that Kyle Orton's and Brandon Lloyd's stays toward the top of the fantasy world were merely visits and not permanent. Both players may still find success, but don't overrate them. This should be both players' best career season.
~~Staying with the same team, Tim Tebow's future is now in flux, but Demaryius Thomas' and Eric Decker's value should stay the same.
~~Watch for backups starting to get more opportunities once their respective teams are either eliminated from the NFL playoffs, or have their playoff seeds clinched. Watch for players like James Starks, Tashard Choice, CJ Spiller, Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker, John Skelton, Jimmy Graham, Joe Webb, Jared Cook, Golden Tate, Brian Brohm, Anthony Dixon, Bernard Scott, David Nelson, Ed Dickson, Taylor Price, Damian Williams, and Travis Beckham to get increased opportunities and see what they can accomplish.
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