Guest writer Bob is back with more thoughts to help you pave the way to playoffs success. Take a look at the data he's compiled and some trade suggestions that you might mull over.
It’s that time of the Fantasy
Football season where you have a pretty good idea of whether you will make the
playoffs in your league or not. If you are still in the hunt, you may be doing
all you can just to make the playoffs. That means choosing waivers that can help you this and next week. Some of them may be short term and subs for
injured players. You don’t really have
the luxury of looking at what your playoff lineup may be. And if you’re already out, well, meh…there’s
always next year.But if you’re one of the fortunate ones that have already
locked into the playoffs, GREAT! Now you
have the benefit of planning for the playoffs a couple weeks out, and that can
make a big difference. It gives you
another week of waivers and a few days to make some trades before your trade
deadline. This may be too late for some
of you but most have until this Sunday.
So this is when I accumulate as much
data as I can on the matchups for the playoff weeks of 14-16. There are Strength of Schedule charts out
there that I use to accumulate the best and worst matchups for all teams and
players. For the chart below I derived
the percentage of relative strength from FFToday. I usually don’t wait this long to use it
going forward but the stats kept changing so I waited as long as possible
leaving some time to make any strategic trades.
And here are the results as of last
week’s stats…
Some things to understand about the
chart…
Remember that these are combined
strengths of opposing defenses for the weeks of 14, 15, and 16 only. A high percentage means a good matchup for
the player listed. A negative percentage
is a real bad set of matchups. Also, the
percentage shown is a relative percentage with regard to all teams. So you will see the top matchups for QBs,
RBs, WRs, TEs, and Defs. I also color
coded some teams to highlight that they have multiple favorable matchups, which
basically shows that those teams simply play the best schedule overall. So, for instance, Dallas looks like the team
with the best matchups during the playoffs. Add to that, they will probably be in the hunt for the division, and
that spells some big points coming for those players. New Orleans looks good too, except for running
the ball.
Then at the bottom you can see the
six worst matchups per player. So if one
were smart, they would consider trading a stud from the lower list for one of
the top players in the top list. For
instance, Peyton Manning has the 2nd worst matchups, and I would
consider trading him for Drew Brees, who has the 2nd best. There may be some takers there. Here are a few more to consider, given the
data…
Cam Newton for Ryan Tannehill or
Matt Ryan?
Mark Sanchez for Matt Stafford or
Brian Hoyer (remember the Gordon factor)?
Jeremy Maclin for Julio Jones or
Josh Gordon?
DeMaryius Thomas for Dez Bryant?
Colin Kaepernick for Tony Romo?
Julius Thomas for Jason Witten?
Greg Olsen for Delanie Walker?
Dolphins for the Lions?
Colts for the Cowboys?
All of these trades are trading a
player from the bottom 6 matchups for a player in the top five matchups. In this way you are getting equal talent with
better matchups during the playoffs. And this will give you an advantage during
the playoffs. So use this info wisely,
it may be the best moves you make all year, and bring you that coveted prize of
FF King or Queen!!!
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