The NFL regular season may be coming to an end, but that doesn’t mean fantasy football has to do the same. We’ve got four weeks of postseason action consisting of 13 total games. Before we endure the long seven-month hiatus from fantasy, why not squeeze in a little bit more action?
Playoff fantasy football certainly pales in comparison to the popularity of regular season, but for those of us who love fantasy, it’s a way to continue playing the game we love — albeit in a slightly different format — for just a little bit longer. There are several formats you can use. Today, we will discuss the “one-and-done” playoff fantasy football format.
What Is One-and-Done NFL Playoff Fantasy Football?
If you’re a fantasy football veteran, even if you’ve primarily played in similar league types, you probably know the menu of league possibilities is lengthy. While playoff fantasy football doesn’t have as wide of an array of options, there are still several different league types you can opt to participate in this time of year.
There are formats where you select a full roster before the playoffs start, either by just picking whoever you want or via a draft. There are Best Ball formats where you select or draft a roster and automatically get the highest-scoring players in your lineup. Then there’s the one-and-done format, which has become a favorite of mine in recent years.
In this specific format, there is no pre-playoff draft. You don’t select a full roster ahead of time.
Fantasy managers have the entire player pool at their disposal each week. You can choose anyone you want to fill your lineup. There will inevitably be overlap between rosters. The catch — because, of course, there’s a catch — is you can only use each player once.
This type of fantasy playoff format allows for large-scale pools. If you’re drafting players where each player is only on one manager’s team, there’s a limit to the amount of people that can play.
The one-and-done format can result in pools that are hundreds of people large. It makes strategy important and the prize fund nice and hefty.
What Is the Optimal Strategy for One-And-Done NFL Playoff Fantasy Football Leagues?
Playoff fantasy football inherently has more nuance than regular-season fantasy because you need to think about more than just who the best players are.
In Best Ball, where you pick your entire roster, you can strategically be contrarian and go all-in on a certain number of teams. If you have a draft, you still have to go all-in on a team or two, but the draft room may dictate which team you have to bet on.
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In one-and-done formats, you don’t have to worry about losing players as the tournament progresses. You also don’t need to overly concern yourself with what other people are doing — at least not at first.
You do need to consider what teams are likely to win, though, which makes it not as straightforward as selecting the players you think will score the most points each round of the playoffs.
Select the Best Players on Teams You Think Will Lose
Some fantasy managers will inevitably burn the best players on the best teams in the early rounds. This could work out if the best teams falter early. But much like regular-season fantasy football, you should always be making decisions based on what is most likely to happen.
I’m sure selecting CeeDee Lamb in the first round of this year’s playoff feels enticing. But the Dallas Cowboys are likely to be favored in their first two playoff games.
What if they reach the Super Bowl, and you’ve already burned Lamb, Dak Prescott, and Tony Pollard? You’ll probably be left with choosing between Michael Gallup and Jalen Tolbert — not exactly where you want to be.
This is what makes this format so difficult. You want your players to score as many points as possible. That typically involves touchdowns. But touchdowns help their teams win.
You want their teams to lose so you benefit from their stats, but no one else gets a chance to use those players in future rounds while simultaneously preserving the available player pool for you to choose from later on.
Of course, this is easier said than done. For example, if you expect the Los Angeles Rams to get bounced in the first round, it’s a great spot to use Kyren Williams. But if they pull off the upset, then you’ve not only lost the ability to use Williams in Round 2, but you’ve missed out on using the top players on the team they defeated as well.
It’s certainly not easy, but you need to try and predict the outcome of these games to maximize your point potential.
Choosing the Right Players at the Right Time
Perhaps the trickiest part of the one-and-done playoff strategy is navigating when to use the elite players. Obviously, you want the elite players available for the Super Bowl when there are only two teams to choose players from. However, there’s also value in choosing players on their highest-scoring week.
We have a real-life example of this with last year’s Travis Kelce. Now, this isn’t the best example because Kelce did come through for fantasy managers in the Super Bowl. However, the optimal time to use Kelce last year was actually in the Divisional Round, where he caught 14 passes for 98 yards and two touchdowns.
Sure, it was definitely nice for those fantasy managers who gambled on the Kansas City Chiefs reaching the Super Bowl, saved Kelce, and had him available.
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But when the goal is to score the most total points, you would’ve been better off with Kelce’s 35.8 points in the Divisional Round and Dallas Goedert’s 12 points in the Super Bowl as opposed to a random tight end in the Divisional Round and Kelce’s 20.1 points in the Super Bowl.
I’m not suggesting you had any way of knowing this ahead of time. I’m merely pointing it out as an example of why holding the best players until the Super Bowl isn’t automatically going to result in you maximizing your point total.
There’s no objectively correct answer here, and there’s no way to know what the optimal strategy was until after the playoffs are over. The point is to illustrate the complexities of optimizing your weekly point total while also maximizing player availability as the field dwindles.
How Can I Win My One-and-Done NFL Fantasy Playoff League?
In what is undoubtedly an oversimplification, you need good preparation, knowledge of these players, and, as always, a little luck on your side.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of resources to help guide your selections and process. A great place to start is with sportsbooks. We have a ton of betting content at PFN, which can actually help you plan out your approach for your fantasy pools as well.
Places like Underdog Fantasy also provide player projections that provide a general baseline of what type of production you might get from a player.
Plan out projected matchups and when you might need to use certain players. Figure out how you might be able to adjust your strategy if the games don’t go as you expected.
Hopefully, you found this useful in preparing for your playoff league. As always, I’m happy to answer any questions you may have in the free PFN Fantasy Discord. Good luck, and enjoy the NFL playoffs!
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