Good Fantasy Playoff Matchups

As the fantasy regular season winds down, lets take a look at some players that look to have good or bad matchups during the fantasy postseason. We will perform this exercise by assigning each team defense a score for both run defense and pass defense. We take the yardage allowed by the defense, then divide it by the league average. Thus, if a team gives up the league average amount of rushing yards per game, its run defense will receive a score of 1. If a team gives up 10% more passing yards than the league average, its pass defense will receive a score of 1.1.

Then, we look at teams opponents in weeks 14-16 (typical fantasy playoff weeks), and find the average opponent defense strength for the span.

Teams facing the worst pass defenses during this stretch include Washington (Chicago, NY Giants, and Minnesota), and Chicago (Washington, Minnesota, and Green Bay). So players like Jason Campbell, Santana Moss, Antwan Randel El, Bernard Berrian, and Muhsin Muhammad would be good, inexpensive players to add to your postseason fantasy roster.

Teams facing the worst run defenses include Cleveland (NY Jets, Buffalo, Cincinnati) , Green Bay (Oakland, St Louis, Chicago), New England (Pittsburgh, NY Jets, Miami), and Buffalo (Miami, Cleveland, NY Giants), so target players like Jamal Lewis, Ryan Grant, Laurence Maroney, and Marshawn Lynch as you try to build a post-season roster.

Teams facing the best pass defense during the fantasy playoffs include New England, Jacksonville, and Houston. I am not about to urge you to get rid of anyone in the Patriots' passing game, and if you are relying on Jacksonville's pass offense, you aren't in the playoffs. But you might want to have options to Matt Schaub and Andre Davis (but keep playing Andre Johnson regardless).

Teams facing the best run defenses include Chicago, Carolina, and Miami. Cedric Benson probably didn't carry you into the playoffs, but he won't help you once there either. Deshaun Foster and Deangelo Williams also won't be great options. You might even want someone to start instead of Jesse Chatman when he faces Baltimore and New England in weeks 15 and 16.