During the fantasy football playoffs, which have begun in most leagues, the mantra “never bench your studs” tends to take precedence. I don’t mind sitting a stud player at any position if I feel the matchup is tough.
If I think the process is right, I’ll take the hit if a stud quarterback goes off on my bench while the dud I started over him has a bad game in a good matchup. I wrote a little about this last year for XN, in dealing with the allure of brand name quarterbacks.
Where I drafted a player in August doesn’t matter a whole lot to me in December. I’m okay benching a highly drafted player for a waiver wire pick-up. We need to adapt each week to what’s currently happening in the world of football, and that means to adjust our thinking constantly.
During the season I’ve put together rest of season rankings at the quarterback position, with strength of schedule help from our good friend Patrick Thorman of Pro Football Focus Fantasy. With the playoffs in mind I wanted to put together one last set of ROS rankings, with an emphasis on the playoffs.
I don’t want you to focus on the order of the rankings, really. But rather, pay attention to the color coded schedules of each quarterback to see who has the easiest and toughest matchup during the fantasy playoffs.
The purpose of the rankings and SOS schedule is help with start/sit decisions. Deciding who to start as your QB1 or QB2 or in Offensive-Flex slot can be tough. Knowing who your quarterback(s) faces that week, and whether it’s a potentially easy or tough matchup could make the decision a little less difficult.
Here’s the legend breakdown for the color coded SOS schedule:
Red – Must Avoids
Orange – Avoidance Advisable
Yellow – Proceed with Caution
White – Neutral
Light/Neon Green – Favorable Foes
Dark Green – Surefire Shootouts
*The more neon green/dark green matchups the better…
Below I’m going to highlight a couple of quarterback QB2 streaming packages that could potentially be a viable option in 2-QB leagues…
Thanks to @Pat_Thorman I submitted 2-QB playoff ranks w/ updated SOS charts to XN. A QB2 streaming pairs sneak peek… pic.twitter.com/6FntMhLPRI
— Sal (@SalPal2) December 6, 2014
*Shaun Hill/Colt McCoy combo:
Shaun Hill – Week 14 (WAS)
Colt McCoy – Week 15 (NYG) and Week 16 (PHI)
*The trio of Teddy Bridgewater (Week 14 – NYJ), Zach Mettenberger (Week 15 – NYJ), and Colt McCoy (Week 16 – PHI) would also make for a juicy starting quarterback Frankenstein. All three were most likely picked up off the waivers in 2-QB leagues, and there’s a chance some 2-QB owners have all three on their rosters.
*If you own a Drew Brees and Tony Romo quarterback duo in your 2-QB league you’re probably happy right about now.
Those are just some examples of how to use the above chart during the playoffs. Play around with it yourself to see what you can come up with.
Good luck in Week 14 and the fantasy playoffs. May you win all the fake football championships.
