The Fantasy Football Players Championship (FFPC) Playoff Challenge is entering its 22nd year and it has grown to a point where the prize pool is larger than most season-long tournaments on other sites. There are actually two different tournaments, with the only difference being the entry price ($200 or $35) and prize pools. There is no draft or salary cap, you just choose 12 players that you will roster throughout the entire playoffs to the Super Bowl.
FFPC scoring rules are a bit different than other formats, the most obvious being TE premium scoring (1.5 pt per reception for TEs). It is also 4 pts for passing TDs and 1 pt for every 20 yards passing, so QB’s that pass for large yardage totals become a little more valued than most scoring formats. It is also full PPR (points per reception), so target leaders become very valuable.
Each week’s score will be added to your team’s total so points carry-over each week and accumulate for the duration of the contest. Super Bowl points will count as DOUBLE the points toward each team’s total.
Playoff Challenge Rosters
Each team will choose twelve (12) players from any of the 14 NFL playoff teams but ONLY ONE PLAYER PER TEAM. So there’s no stacking, if you choose Patrick Mahomes as your QB, you may NOT have any more Chiefs players on your roster, including Kicker & Defense.
The playoff rosters consist of: 1-QB, 2-RB, 2-WR, 1-TE, 4-Flex, 1-K, 1-D (Flex can be RB, WR or TE). This contest is going to take a blend of projection and uniqueness that is very similar to building DFS GPP line-ups, but again, without stacking.
We want two high-scoring players in our line-ups from the Super Bowl teams because the points count as double, but we also want to lean toward rostering players with low ownership percentages to differentiate from the crowd. We will most likely want our QB, three flex players (RB, WR, TE) in the semi-final (AFC/NFC Championship) round.
Because the points accumulate throughout the tournament we don’t really need to worry about whether we are at the top of the leaderboard after Wildcard Weekend. We can make-up those points throughout if we have enough high-scoring players advancing.
Build your bracket
When you are constructing a line-up it’s most valuable to know who you believe will make it to the Super Bowl. You are going to have to assume you are right about your playoff and Super Bowl predictions. When in doubt just assume the higher seed will win. It is actually most important to pick the teams that will lose in the first round.
It’s nice to see the Denver Broncos in the playoffs again, but they probably wouldn’t have made it if the Kansas City Chiefs hadn’t already clinched the number one seed and played their starters in Week 18. It’s just not logical that they beat the Buffalo Bills, on the road, in the first round. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers are entering the playoffs on a down-note, the Steelers have lost their last four games while the Packers have lost their last two. Neither of these teams seem ready to win a road playoff game. After deciding which teams will advance and play multiple games we can work backward, eliminating players from losing teams from the important positions from the player pool.
Choosing a Kicker
There are three games that should be tightly contested; LA Chargers at the Houston Texans, the Washington Commanders at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Minnesota Vikings at the LA Rams. We should be taking our K and DST from this group. Coincidentally the Chargers, Texans, Steelers and Broncos also have the four best kickers of the remaining playoff teams. Cameron Dicker ends the regular season as one of the best and most consistent kickers, both in fantasy and on the "real life" field. The Chargers play in a dome in Houston for their first game, obviously the Texans do as well, but this might come down to the decision of whether you would like to fade Ladd McConkey (WR, LAC) or Nico Collins (WR, Hou).
Choosing a DST
When choosing a DST in a tournament like this one is to choose a team that will lose, but might have an electric kick returner or has a few pick-6’s throughout the season. It’s usually better to have your DST be a losing team because we would rather have a WR continue through multiple weeks and leave the high variance DST take the goose-egg (0). The most consistent DST’s from the group of teams we have identified are the Broncos, Steelers, Packers, Texans and Chargers. Given their opponents in the first round the Texans look like the optimal choice, but again we have to decide if we want to fade Nico Collins.
Choosing a TE
Travis Kelce is the only real “difference maker” at the position that I expect to play more than one game. Of the remaining teams, Kelce was the best scoring TE over the course of the season in this format (1.5 PPR - TE premium). Not only is Kelce the best remaining TE, but he outscored everyone else on his team by about 3 fantasy points per game and should go back to being heavily used in the playoffs, no more resting for the big guy.
Because this is a TE premium format we can also consider TE’s in our flex position, Mark Andrews, T.J. Hockenson, Zach Ertz, and Sam LaPorta can be considered, but LaPorta and Hockenson are not the optimal players on their teams and Ertz is likely one and done. The 2021 Champion of this tournament actually had Dallas TE, Dalton Schultz and last year Jake Ferguson turned the tables with a dominant 10 reception, 93 yard, 3 TD performance in the first round.
Choosing a QB
You probably want a QB in the Super Bowl since they are usually the highest scoring, but we need to factor in opportunity cost at other positions. If we choose Patrick Mahomes at QB we are really just forgoing Travis Kelce, that could mean a ton in the TE premium format.
Playing Jalen Hurts means passing on Saquon Barkley, AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith, or Dallas Goedert. Going with Jared Goff would mean fading Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs, Jameson Williams, or LaPorta. Mahomes and Goff also have a bye in the first week so we will NEED them to perform well in the Super Bowl to cover the Wildcard round deficit.
Playing Josh Allen, means passing up on RB, James Cook. There are several others we could use, but Cook is the primary choice alternative. Allen has been dealing with an injury to his non-throwing hand and doesn’t really have a primary WR, so getting to the Super Bowl seems unlikely when Baltimore and KC are standing in the way.
Lamar Jackson seems like the only other viable QB to use, but forgoing Derrick Henry seems sub-optimal. If we look over the course of the season, most of Henry’s production comes when the Ravens are already leading and looking to put the game out of reach. We can feel relatively positive about the playoff games being close and Lamar being the catalyst of Ravens victories.
Choosing your RB’s
We would like a running back from a team that is going to play 2-3 games, catch passes, have high value touches, hopefully lower rostered, but we don’t necessarily need him in the Super Bowl.
Jahmyr Gibbs is going to be a popular choice after his dominant Week 18 performance, but he also has some high performing teammates and David Montgomery should be returning in the Divisional Round which will cap Gibbs upside when it counts the most.
Saquon Barkley was the most dominant player at any position all season. Barkley might be the chalkiest play of the tournament and his teammates are dominating players in their own right, but we need players that have slate-breaking potential every week.
Derrick Henry, Kyren Williams, Bucky Irving, Aaron Jones, and James Cook are other viable options, but it will likely depend on what you want to do with their teammates.
Choosing you WR and Flex
This is where we can differentiate the most. Vikings WR, Justin Jefferson and Lions WR, Amon-Ra St. Brown were the WR2 and WR3 in PPR scoring over the course of the season, but their WR teammates Jordan Addison (Min) and Jameson Williams (Det) have had great seasons with some high upside games and should be rostered far less often.
LA Rams WR, Puka Nacua was the WR1 from weeks 12 through 17 and by far the most dominant player on his team. Mike Evans was the WR3 over the same time-frame and had top-6 WR games against the Commanders and Eagles early in the season.
There are a plethora of options here, if you’ve stacked the other positions with consistent points this is where you want to differentiate your team. Most players are picking the chalk in this tournament and many years the top prizes end up getting split. This is where you decided if you want to win and split with 20 other people or risk it for the biscuit!
Winning it All
When it comes down to it you are going to have to use your own intuition to finish in the money of these tournaments. Anyone who watches football knows it could very-well be a player like Tucker Kraft, Kenny Gainwell, JuJu Smith-Schuster, or Jaylen Warren that ends up winning it for this year's Champion.
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