Preparing for Your Fantasy Football Playoffs

Fantasy football playoffs have a way of sneaking up on you unprepared. You may be so preoccupied with the week-by-week fantasy football games that when you do finally make it into the playoffs you are not really ready for it.

But let's face it. Fantasy football playoffs are a bit like the New England Patriots last year. It does not make any difference how many games you won or how many points you scored in the regular season. If you lose a game in the playoffs you are done. You lose; you take your ball and go home. And even if you make it to the big one, the fantasy football super bowl, like they say in racing, second place is the first loser.

So how do you prepare for the fantasy football playoffs? Well the first thing to do is prepare early. Usually by week 6 or 7 you have settled in on your core group of players and are busy shuffling your backup players to cover bye weeks. Now is the time to think about the playoffs.

Know your league's schedule: Historically, fantasy football playoffs have started week 15 of the NFL season. But some leagues will start a week earlier or even sooner. In most leagues, the fantasy football super bowl is week 16 of the regular NFL season.

Most fantasy leagues are done for the year by week 17 of the NFL regular season. This is because far too many good players are resting or don't play much the last week of the regular season. This is done to better prepare the players for the NFL playoffs. But if you are in a fantasy football league that has its super bowl week 17 it may have a big impact on who you play that week.

Player add/drop deadlines: In some leagues you cannot add or drop players after about week 11 or 12. Check your league's rules for deadlines. As far as the regular season goes this is usually no big deal. You have probably already done 99 percent of the adding or dropping that you are going to do by then anyway. But you need to worry about injury backups for the playoffs too.

The last bye week is week 10 so very soon after that you should make sure you are very solid with backups to cover injuries. Bye weeks often have a way of pushing your team and backups to the limit. But after the bye weeks are over you should have a lot more wiggle room.

Line up full injury backups for all positions. Have 2 kickers, 2 defenses and 2 tight ends on your roster with an eye toward week 15 and 16 NFL team matchups.

Game matchups: As I said earlier, in the fantasy football playoffs usually everything boils down to week 15 and 16 of the NFL season. Who are your good players going up against those 2 weeks? Analyzing the matchups those weeks may have an impact on your player depth chart.

During the regular season NFL game matchups have a way of averaging out. You probably want to play your stud running back independently of the run defense he plays against. But for the playoffs double-check the matchups to be sure.

Here is a good example. If you managed to get Michael Turner during your fantasy football draft you are probably very happy about it. You may even plan on smiling all the way to your fantasy football super bowl on the shoulders of the stud running backs you have lined up.

But guess who Atlanta plays week 16? Minnesota in Minnesota. No one runs against Minnesota. Other teams just pass the ball against them all day. Now I'm not saying not to play Turner that week but do you feel lucky? Well, do ya?

NFL teams that rest players: Some good NFL teams rest their star players during the last weeks of the regular NFL season. If the team already has playoff bye week sewn up resting is sometimes the best thing to do. That may help their team but does not do you any good for the fantasy football playoffs.

Sometimes it is best to have good players from average teams. Average teams are more likely to be in the NFL playoff hunt and playing hard during week 15 and 16 when you need them the most. Good players on good teams may be resting the week of your fantasy football super bowl.

Don't overanalyze: There is an old saying in fantasy football. Go with what got you there. Fantasy football is littered with coaches who overanalyze things, bench their studs and end up with a goose egg that week.

Sometimes the best thing to do for the playoffs is just play your studs, analyze game matchups for your second and third tier players and make sure you have all positions covered for injuries.

Good luck during the fantasy football playoffs and may the best team win.