Here are a few players that stand out as having a difficult playoff schedule and ones with an easy one. For managers with no trade deadline, here's a chance to try and out-smart yourself with playoff match-ups. For everyone else, take a look at your players and you can start to get excited or nervous about your match-ups in the upcoming weeks.
QUARTERBACKS:
The Good -
Drew Brees vs Atl (4), Dal (13), TB (5): It seems somewhat unfair that the second best fantasy QB out there would also have the easiest playoff schedule, but that's how it it. I wouldn't be surprised if half the teams with Brees win their championships considering the schedule he has. Enjoy Brees owners.
Kurt Warner vs SF (15), Det (1), Stl (11): Another QB1 without a single bad match-up. Not only does Warner have a nice schedule, but he's been on fire the last handful of weeks besides his injury issue, which looked like it wasn't a problem anymore on SNF.
Philip Rivers vs Dal (13), Cin (17), Ten (2): Rivers has a fairly good playoff schedule, but what really stands out is that ripe match-up in the championship week against Tennessee.
*Matt Schaub vs Sea (9), Stl (11), Mia (7): Schaub as an asterisk because I'm not sure how his shoulder injury will affect his play. I have to imagine it will negatively affect him a decent amount. But if he can shrug it off, he has a very nice schedule throughout all three weeks.
Alex Smith vs Ari (10), Phi (19), Det (1): For all you Peyton owners that are worried about seeing Jim Sorgi in Week 16, Alex Smith is your savior. I've already picked him up on one team with the intention of playing him in the championship week (assuming I make it). He gets to face Detroit that week, pure fantasy gold for quarterbacks. Plus I was at the San Fran game this weekend and they look like they've completely abandoned the run. How do you give Frank Gore only 9 carries in a game where you're only losing for 6 minutes of the game? I think they easily ran more than half their plays out of the shotgun.
Chad Henne vs Jax (8), Ten (2), Hou (20) &
Ryan Fitzpatrick vs KC (3), NE (21), Atl (4): These two would fall under the desperate category. But for those of you in very deep leagues and 2-QB leagues, keep an eye on these two, as they have a a couple great match-ups and have each shown some ability (albeit not consistent) to put up strong enough numbers in a game at some point the last few weeks.
The Bad -
Tony Romo vs SD (26), NO (29), Was (28): Romo doesn't have even one decent match-up in all three weeks. It might be hard to bench him, but if you have someone close his caliber, you might want to consider it.
Eli Manning vs Phi (19), Was (28), Car (27): A couple of tough match-ups in the last two weeks look scary for Manning owners. He's played just as well as Romo over the past few weeks, so again, if you have someone close to the same caliber, consider plugging them in for weeks 15 & 16.
Donovan McNabb vs NYG (22), SF (15), Den (31): Another QB who has played just as well as Romo and Manning the last handful of weeks. What really scares me about McNabb is the potential of trying to win a championship with your QB facing the 2nd worst defense for QBs to face. Depending on how Alex Smith plays the next couple weeks, I might plug him in for McNabb for Week 16.
The Ugly -
Peyton Manning vs Den (31), Jax (8), NYJ (32): I was reading a fellow fantasy football blog a week ago or so and he mentioned that in one of his dynasty leagues, the guy who owns Peyton Manning has made the playoffs the last 7 years and made the championship game 3 of those years, yet he doesn't have a single championship. It's a drastic case (I won one of my keeper leagues last year with Peyton as my QB, so it's possible), but still makes a decent point, especially with Indy sitting at 12-0 and the closest team to them in the AFC is sitting at 9-3. Let's just say I'm definitely worried. I already picked up Alex Smith for Week 16 just in case. Week 15 doesn't worry me too much because even if Manning doesn't play the whole game, he should still get solid stats in a partial game against Jacksonville. It's Week 16 that worries me, even if Peyton plays a whole game, it'll be against the #1 defense against QBs. Not a great scenario all around. Manning owners, start making backup plans and we'll discuss this subject as we approach Week 16.
Matt Ryan vs NO (29), NYJ (32), BUF (30): Absolutely brutal, that's the only way to describe the playoff schedule that Ryan would've faced if he didn't get injured. Ryan owners, take solace in the fact that the injury actually helped you. Now you won't be tempted to insert Ryan in your lineup against one of the top 4 fantasy pass defenses with the playoffs on the line. Hopefully you found someone to take his place a week ago, and that that someone wasn't Chris Redman who is going to have to face these three defenses. |
 | » posted by: Fantasy Football Blog (Dunn) |
Monday, December 7, 2009