With the NFL regular season over and many an owner counting their winnings from their fantasy football league title game, it's now time to clean the slate and look ahead to the Fantasy Football Playoff Rankings for 2014. If you've never tried a playoff league, I suggest you do so. Especially if you are as hardcore into fantasy football like I am.
There are usually 2 ways to draft a team. You can draft an entire team comprised of players from every NFL team who are in the playoffs, even those on bye for the first week. All points scored by each player will be accumulated each week. So if you take someone like LeSean McCoy, but the Eagles get knocked out in the first round, all the fantasy points he scored goes towards your total at the end of the playoff run. So you get to keep the points he scored against the Saints and take them into Week 2 of the playoffs.
Another league I've participated in allows you to take players from the first week only. And if those players make it to the second round, you get to change or keep that player spot for Week 2, while keeping the points from your first pick. So if your RB1 spot has LeSean McCoy and he makes it to Week 2 of the playoffs, you can either keep him, or opt to take a different player with more value (Ex: Marshawn Lynch). But if McCoy is knocked out, that spot freezes and you can't take anymore players as your RB1. Which means you will have to keep the points from McCoy only and essentially lose a spot on your roster.
I know both versions sound hard, but they aren't. Once you pick your team and you see how both work, you'll be able to understand fairly quickly.
With that said, here are the rankings for all the players in this years playoffs. As you can see, I included those players on byes. If you had your choice between an Alex Smith or Peyton Manning, you'd obviously take Manning because the chances of the Broncos going farther in the playoffs is pretty high. But if both teams only last one game, clearly Manning is going to outscore Smith (barring a miracle).
QUARTERBACKS
Peyton Manning
Tom Brady
Russell Wilson
Colin Kaepernick
Nick Foles
Aaron Rodgers
Cam Newton
Drew Brees
Andy Dalton
Andrew Luck
Philip Rivers
Alex Smith
RUNNING BACKS
Marshawn Lynch
Jamaal Charles
Knowshon Moreno
LeSean McCoy
Frank Gore
Eddie Lacy
Shane Vereen
Giovani Bernard
LeGarrette Blount
Donald Brown
Ryan Mathews
Stevan Ridley
Montee Ball
BenJarvus Green-Ellis
DeAngelo Williams
Danny Woodhead
Pierre Thomas
Mike Tolbert
Darren Sproles
Bryce Brown
Trent Richardson
James Starks
Robert Turbin
Chris Polk
Mark Ingram
Knile Davis
Kendall Hunter
Jonathan Stewart
Ronnie Hillman
Christine Michael
WIDE RECEIVERS
Demaryius Thomas
Eric Decker
Julian Edelman
Wes Welker
DeSean Jackson
Michael Crabtree
A.J. Green
Jordy Nelson
Anquan Boldin
Randall Cobb
Riley Cooper
T.Y. Hilton
Marques Colston
Doug Baldwin
Keenan Allen
Golden Tate
Steve Smith
Danny Amendola
Percy Harvin
Marvin Jones
Brandon LaFell
James Jones
Ted Ginn
Dwayne Bowe
Jarrett Boykin
Lance Moore
Andre Caldwell
Kenbrell Thompkins
Mohamed Sanu
Andrew Hawkins
Jason Avant
Da'Rick Rogers
Aaron Dobson
Dexter McCluster
Kenny Stills
Eddie Royal
Quinton Patton
Robert Meachem
Vincent Brown
Darrius Heyward-Bey
Tight Ends
Julius Thomas
Jimmy Graham
Vernon Davis
Greg Olsen
Zach Ertz
Coby Fleener
Zach Miller
Jacob Tamme
Brent Celek
Andrew Quarless
Tyler Eifert
Luke Wilson
Antonio Gates
Jermaine Gresham
Michael Hoomanawanui
Ladarius Green
Virgil Green
Joel Dreessen
Anthony Fasano
Sean McGrath
TEAM DEFENSES
Seattle Seahawks
Denver Broncos
San Francisco 49ers
Carolina Panthers
Kansas City Chiefs
New England Patriots
Cincinnati Bengals
Indianapolis Colts
Philadelphia Eagles
Green Bay Packers
New Orleans Saints
San Diego Chargers
KICKERS
Matt Prater
Steven Hauschka
Stephen Gostkowski
Adam Vinatieri
Phil Dawson
Graham Gano
Alex Henery
Mike Nugent
Ryan Succop
Shayne Graham
Mason Crosby
Nick Novak
