They’re finally here in most leagues! The 2010 Fantasy Football Playoffs! Week 14 is, for most leagues, the first week of elimination games as the quest for the Trophy continues. So now that we’re at this point, it’s more important than ever we make the right decisions regarding our starting fantasy lineups each week going forward.
Some people rely on playing the matchups. Some use the generalized fantasy football rankings found on a lot of websites and in newspapers. Some use names written on scraps of paper and picked out of a hat.
I don’t recommend that last one. Actually, I don’t recommend any of those. I believe that at this point it is time to categorize every payer on my fantasy rosters. I analyze their performances for the season and mentally put each player into one of 4 categories:
Stud
Reliable
Inconsistent
Scrub
We’ve had 13 weeks to discover which category each player falls into. And after making these designations for each player, it becomes pretty clear who to start going forward. I start with the top category (Stud) and insert them into my lineups regardless of matchups. After I’ve exhausted them, I fill in remaining spots with Reliable players. Who has the best matchups from this group? Matchups play no part for Studs, but after that, the matchup is the tiebreaker when choosing between players. If I still have any open slots after that, I move onto those players categorized as Inconsistent and again, look at their matchups. Barring a rash of injuries and poor decisions during the course of the season, I never end up looking at the Scrubs.
It’s fairly simple, and it prevents a lot of the stress and agony fantasy owners put themselves through making those important starting lineup decisions during the playoff weeks.
