Playoff fantasy football primer: Ranking the top players to draft

Fantasy football's season may be over, but playoff fantasy football is just heating up! Michael Beller provides tips and advice for drafting your team and ranks the top players available.

It may be 2015, but we can’t quite call it a wrap on the 2014 fantasy football season just yet. There’s still one thing left to do before we can fully tie a bow on the season. Yes, there is indeed one more draft to conduct. It’s time for some playoff fantasy football.

• NFL Power Rankings: Wild-card edition | Complete NFL playoff schedule

There are a few different ways to play the playoff version of everyone’s favorite hobby, but all the formats share a few crucial traits.

1. Teams matter more than ever. A.J. Green is an elite WR1 in any regular season fantasy league. But with the underdog Bengals visiting the Colts, a team that beat them by 27 points in the regular season, in the first round, do you really want to be tied to Green for the remainder of the playoffs?

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​2. Project the unfolding of the playoff bracket. Point one naturally leads to this one. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but the Patriots and Seahawks are the favorites in their respective divisions for good reason. Would you rather have three games of Doug Baldwin or one of Calvin Johnson? How about three of LeGarrette Blount or one of Jeremy Hill? Before you can make your playoff rankings, you have to decide how far you think each team will advance.

3. Stacking teammates is critical. If you spread yourself too thin and end up with players from seven or eight different teams, all you’re really doing is guaranteeing that a handful of your players will only play one game. You need to find a team or two to bet on, and then ride those teams’ players. As an example, in a playoff draft conducted earlier this week, I took Marshawn Lynch in the fourth round, Doug Baldwin in the sixth, Steven Hauschka in the seventh and Paul Richardson in the 11th. I also have two Steelers (Ben Roethlisberger, Heath Miller), two Colts (Andrew Luck, Dwayne Allen) and four Lions (Golden Tate, Joique Bell, Matt Prater, Lions D). If Seattle goes to the Super Bowl and one of Pittsburgh or Indianapolis can make it to the AFC Championship Game, I’ll be in great shape.

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4. It would follow, then, that drafting players from certain teams precludes you from going after players that will be in that team’s way. For example, you wouldn’t want to spend high picks on players from the Packers and Cowboys. Yes, both of those teams are legitimate Super Bowl contenders with high-priced fantasy talent, but they’ll also meet in the divisional round if Dallas can knock off Detroit this weekend. You’re restricting your roster by loading up on players from both teams. This necessity becomes even more acute when considering teams that play in the wild-card round. Once you take your first Steeler or Raven, you probably should avoid the other team altogether since one of those teams is for sure only playing one game. It may be unavoidable at certain times, but you should do whatever you can to stay away from teams that will have to follow the same path to get to Glendale.

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​5. Kickers matter. So do defenses. In a traditional regular season league, you would rightly draw the derision of your fellow owners for taking a kicker or defense at any point before the final two rounds. Not so in a playoff league. Let’s say you think the Patriots are going to the Super Bowl, and that the Lions are going to lose to the Cowboys in the first round. Whose a more valuable commodity, Stephen Gostkowski or Megatron? It’s a ridiculous question in the regular season that might get you laughed out of the room or exiled from your league. In the playoffs, however, you can make an argument for taking Gostkowski over one of the most dangerous receivers in the league.

6. Pay attention to your leaguemates’ rosters. In general, there are no benches in playoff leagues. Once an owner fills his or her quota at a specific position, he or she will not be taking anyone else from that spot. Knowing who has filled what positions can help you avoid making an unnecessary reach later on in the draft.

With that, let’s turn to the playoff positional rankings.

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Quarterbacks

1. Tom Brady
2. Russell Wilson
3. Aaron Rodgers
4. Peyton Manning
5. Tony Romo
6. Ben Roethlisberger
7. Andrew Luck
8. Cam Newton
9. Andy Dalton
10. Matthew Stafford
11. Joe Flacco
12. Ryan Lindley

Running backs

1. Marshawn Lynch
2. C.J. Anderson
3. DeMarco Murray
4. Eddie Lacy
5. Jeremy Hill
6. LeGarrette Blount
7. Jonathan Stewart
8. Shane Vereen
9. Joique Bell
10. Justin Forsett
11. Boom Herron
12. Gio Bernard
13. Ronnie Hillman
14. Le’Veon Bell
15. James Starks
16. Robert Turbin
17. Reggie Bush
18. Josh Harris
19. Kerwynn Williams
20. Joseph Randle
21. Trent Richardson
22. Jonas Gray
23. Dri Archer
24. DeAngelo Williams
25. Juwan Thompson

Wide receivers

1. Demaryius Thomas
2. Jordy Nelson
3. Antonio Brown
4. Dez Bryant
5. Randall Cobb
6. Emmanuel Sanders
7. Julian Edelman
8. Brandon LaFell
9. T.Y. Hilton
10. Calvin Johnson
11. Doug Baldwin
12. Kelvin Benjamin
13. Golden Tate
14. A.J. Green
15. Martavis Bryant
16. Paul Richardson
17. Torrey Smith
18. Terrance Williams
19. Steve Smith
20. Wes Welker
21. Davante Adams
22. Jermaine Kearse
23. Michael Floyd
24. Cole Beasley
25. Danny Amendola
26. Donte Moncrief
27. Larry Fitzgerald
28. Hakeem Nicks
29. Mohamed Sanu
30. Reggie Wayne

Tight ends

1. Rob Gronkowski
2. Julius Thomas
3. Coby Fleener
4. Greg Olsen
5. Heath Miller
6. Luke Willson
7. Jason Witten
8. Owen Daniels
9. Dwayne Allen
10. Andrew Quarless
11. Tim Wright
12. Jermaine Gresham
13. Richard Rodgers
14. John Carlson
15. Eric Ebron

Kickers

1. Stephen Gostkowski
2. Steven Hauschka
3. Mason Crosby
4. Connor Barth
5. Dan Bailey
6. Shuan Suisham
7. Adam Vinatieri
8. Graham Gano
9. Justin Tucker
10. Mike Nugent
11. Matt Prater
12. Chandler Catanzaro

Defenses

1. Seattle Seahawks
2. New England Patriots
3. Green Bay Packers
4. Denver Broncos
5. Carolina Panthers
6. Pittsburgh Steelers
7. Dallas Cowboys
8. Indianapolis Colts
9. Baltimore Ravens
10. Detroit Lions
11. Cincinnati Bengals
12. Arizona Cardinals