Fantasy Football Playoffs

Playoffs? Yes, it’s that time of year again. Those of us in leagues with fantasy playoffs need to be preparing for the second season. That is the focus of today’s article. We’re going to use the Razzball tools to evaluate the playoff schedules for QBs, RBs, and WRs. Hopefully this will help you make any last-minute tweaks to your roster to better prepare you for what’s to come.

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Let’s start our playoff preview with the QBs. I analyze the QB vs DEF coverage matchups. In English, that means I look at every team’s defensive coverage data and apply those to the QB matchups for the fantasy playoff weeks. Here are the composite QB rankings across the three weeks (Wks 15-17):

If your starting QB is Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes, or Dak Prescott, don’t fret. This doesn’t mean your playoffs are going to be a complete bust, it just means their overall matchup across all three weeks are amongst the toughest for QBs.

Let’s pick through the three weeks and take a closer look at matchups that stand out to me:

Week 15 QB Matchups

As of today, some of the top QB matchups for Week 15 are projected to be:

Matthew Stafford (vs Detroit) – another “revenge game” narrative in place as Stafford and the Rams look to clinch the #1 seed in the NFC. Detroit may also be fighting for their playoff life here as well.
Sam Darnold (vs Indianapolis) – Starting Darnold with your playoffs on the line will be a tough call regardless of the matchup. If it makes you feel any better, the Colts CBs are among the most generous in the league.
Drake Maye (vs Buffalo) – The class of the AFC will still need to prove themselves worthy when the host the Bills this week. Maye has failed to throw a TD pass in just one game this season (14.9 fantasy points). You guessed it, Week 5 in Buffalo. Since then, he’s only had one game with less than 21 fantasy points. He’s a safe start for your playoff matchup here.

Week 16 QB Matchups

Brock Purdy (vs Indianapolis) – Here’s that “Indy” matchup again. Purdy looked a little rusty in his return, but I suspect he’ll be firing on all cylinders by the time the 49ers travel to the heartland for this MNF contest. San Francisco is still well in the playoff hunt so this will be a big one. His weapons are finally healthy too!
Jordan Love (vs Chicago) – The Packers will be meeting the Bears for the second time in three games here, including back-to-back road games (in Denver for Week 15). Keep an eye on the weather and Week 14 results as you make the decision to start Love in your semi-finals.
Jacoby Brissett (vs Atlanta) – The Cardinals won’t be playing for anything but pride in Week 16 but then again, so will the Falcons. If you own Brissett and don’t have a better option, continue starting him with confidence – since he probably got you to this point anyway. I mean, all he’s done since Week 6 is averaging 315 passing yards per game with a 11:3 TD:INT ratio.

Week 17 QB Matchups

Congratulations on making your fantasy league championship game. It was worth the grind to get here, now finish the job.

Brock Purdy (vs Chicago) – If Purdy got you here, keep rolling with him in this tilt at home vs the Bears.
Bo Nix (vs Kansas City) – We just saw what Dak did to the Chiefs secondary. This should be a blueprint for every other team on their schedule. Bo may be in a position here to cement the Broncos playoff seed and pound a stake into the KC dynasty.
Jayden Daniels (vs Dallas) – I haven’t talked about Jayden Daniels yet but there’s a good chance he’ll be back under center in the next couple weeks. These late-season DAL-WAS games are always full of drama. How fitting would it be to see Daniels magic once again and cripple the Cowboys’ playoff comeback?

Now it’s time to shift to RBs. As for this group, just as I have all season, I’ll give you both the Zone and Gap rushing matchups to focus on during the fantasy playoffs.

Week 15 RB Matchups

Zone Matchups

San Francisco (vs Tennessee) is already a lock for Christian McCaffrey owners. Knowing CMC runs behind Zone blocking 65% of the time should make you feel even more comfortable.
Derrick Henry (64% Zone) and Keaton Mitchell (49% Zone) just logged rushing TDs vs the Bengals.
Kenneth Walker III (57% Zone) and Zach Charbonnet (66% Zone) should find room to run vs Indy’s bottom-third Zone Defense.

Gap Matchups

Jonathan Taylor (57% Gap) and the Colts currently log the most Gap yards per game (60 ypg) but will face a top 10 Gap Defense in Seattle. Something will give here. We’re all going to start Taylor regardless, so I’ll lean his way.
Kyren Williams (55% Gap) and the Rams aren’t too shabby in Gap rushing either (50 ypg). Like Seattle, Detroit is also a top 10 Gap Defense.
We haven’t really seen an “unleashed” RJ Harvey (56% Gap) yet but against a bottom-third Gap Defense in Green Bay may be the time.

I’ll certainly be getting more in-depth with these RB matchups in the coming weeks so for now, here are tables with the best Zone and Gap rushing matchups for the other two playoff weeks:

Week 16 RB Matchups

Week 17 RB Matchups

To round out our fantasy playoff coverage (for now), let’s look at the WR Slot v Wide matchups. Here are the three-week Playoff WR (Slot and Wide) rankings for each team:

WR Slot Matchups

So, which WRs benefit most (and least) from these rankings? You can search the full list yourself at our WR Fantasy Points Scored Slot vs. Wide tool. Here’s a snippet:

Favors:

PHI: DeVonta Smith (46% Slot)
NYG: Wan’Dale Robinson (65% Slot)
IND: Josh Downs (76% Slot)
JAX: Jacoby Meyers (53% Slot)
MIN: Jalen Nailor (71% Slot)

Disfavors:

DEN: Troy Franklin (41% Slot)
BLT: Zay Flowers (43% Slot)
BUF: Khalil Shakir (53% Slot)
LAC: Ladd McConkey (58% Slot)
WAS: Deebo Samuel (54% Slot)

WR Wide Matchups

Same exercise for Wideouts:

Favors:

WAS: Terry McLaurin (96% Wide) – if he returns
ATL: Darnell Mooney (76% Wide)
MIA: Jaylen Waddle (87% Wide)
MIN: Justin Jefferson (76% Wide) and Jordan Addison (73% Wide)
SF: Kendrick Bourne (74% Wide) and Jauan Jennings (68% Wide)

Disfavors:

PIT: D.K. Metcalf (88% Wide)
BLT: Rashod Batemen (90% Wide)
ARZ: Marvin Harrison Jr. (84% Wide)
TB: Emeka Egbuka (78% Wide)
CIN: Tee Higgins (93% Wide)

That’s All Folks

We covered a lot of ground here today and the RazzballNFL boys and I will dissect this even more in the weeks to come. For today, I wanted to give you a high-level view of the upcoming fantasy playoffs, based on projections from some of our FREE tools.

I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE YOU to dive into the data yourselves so you can better understand the trends your players are performing. This will help you immensely as you prepare for the fantasy playoffs.

Remember, our #1 priority is the CHAMPIONSHIP! Nothing else matters.

As always, the show airs LIVE on the Razzball YouTube channel this Sunday from 11:00 am EDT (8:00 PDT) right up right up to gametime. Sky – @SkyGuasco, Matt – @Stiles08, Dave – @Crewser128, Jeff – @Jefferson__21 and I will be there to answer all your fantasy football questions. Don’t miss it.

As always, look for my articles right here each week and be sure to follow me on Twitter/X @Derek_Favret. I’m also on BlueSky as well (@dfavret.bsky.social).

Until next time, my friends.