There are a lot of highlights in any fantasy football season but the draft, week 1 and the first week of the playoffs are always some of the best! There was little doubt who the top 5 teams in the league were and it took the very last week to figure out the 6th. We have Bossman and HHH who both have 2 championships a piece, Rapids Plungers and teamAlaska each have one and then we have Big Papa and Starrfavrerodg searching for their first championships. Some of the storylines coming in are this, Will Bossman make it to the Super Bowl for the 4th year in a row and if so can they finally win one? Can anyone slow down Starrfavrerodg or will they continue their hot streak all the way to a championship? Will Big Papa who has been in the league since the beginning finally win their first ever championship? This is going to be a fun playoffs and it starts with two really good games. Let’s get to the preview.
(4) Big Papa vs (5) Rapids Plungers
Rapids Plungers had a down year last year as they finished with a losing record and outside of the playoffs. That is noteworthy simply because this team just finds a way to win each and every year. This is their 15th season in the league and they have had a losing record only 3 times. That’s impressive! One of those losing seasons was last year as they failed to make the playoffs but they are back where we expect to seem them which is fighting for a championship. Leading up to Week 12 it was looking like this team was primed for one of the 2 first round byes but they surprisingly struggled losing to a bad BIGBOY! team in Week 12 and to Starrfavrerodg last week to fall all the way to the #5 seed. This has been a good season for them but if they don’t pull off the win here there will be a lot of “what if’s”.
Big Papa has been a good team throughout their time in the league. They seem to consistently be in the hunt, they may have a down year here or there but they usually follow that back up with a winning season. They have now made the playoffs in 3 of the last 4 seasons and for a team that has made the playoffs a total of 7 times and not have any championships to show for it you would think they are due! They finished off their season really strong winning 5 of their final 6 games to ensure the playoff berth and most noteworthy is their win against Bossman in Week 9 which started the hot streak. This is a team that can make a run but if there is one thing that scares me it would be their reliance on P. Mahomes. If there is a person to rely on you would want it to be him but if they want to win not only this game but a Super Bowl they are going to need 30 point P. Mahomes to show up every week!
Prediction
Like usual for the playoff predictions I will spend a bit more time and break it down position by position (excluding K, D and DST). Let’s start with the QB position. Mahomes (Big Papa) vs J. Hurts (Rapids Plungers) is about as good as it gets when it comes to a QB matchup. Both of these QB’s were drafted in the 5th round and they finished the season as the #1 and #2 QB’s in the league with Mahomes being #1. This week we have Mahomes up against one of the worst teams in the league but also in a potential blow out spot and Hurts in a good spot as well but also a potential blowout. I look at this as about as even as it gets but I have to give an edge to someone so I am going with Mahomes here.
The WR position is probably the weakest position for both teams. That wasn’t always the case as Big Papa had at one point one of the best WR’s in the game with C. Kupp. Now they are left with their best WR being Z. Jones? Rapids Plungers counters that with a stud in C. Lamb but Gallup and Davis are dart throws that have been missing far more then hitting this season. I will give the WR edge to Rapids Plungers simply because of C. Lamb and the potential of a big game any week AND G. Davis has to have a big game in him sometime right?
The RB position is where both of these two teams have been strong most of the season. Conner / Stevenson has been really good for Big Papa and the same can be said for Etienne / M. Sanders for Rapids Plungers. Going to the matchups I like Conner / Stevenson a little better this week primarily because I don’t like Etienne’s matchup against a tough Cowboys D. For him to be effective from a fantasy perspective it may be his pass catching ability. Edge here to Big Papa… once again ever so slightly.
The TE position is strong for both teams but this position is simple, if you have Kelce you win! Rapids Plungers has Kelce and so they win this position. It is noteworthy too because Mahomes favorite target is Kelce and if Kelce can somehow keep up with Mahomes in scoring that would be huge for Rapids Plungers. I do like Hockenson and he has the potential to keep pace with Kelce but I don’t see it happening. If you are looking at one position that could really turn things in favor of Big Papa this week it is this one. If Hockenson can find a way to put up 15 to 20 points and match or outscore Kelce that would be huge for Big Papa’s chances of a win. I don’t see that happening and I am giving the edge to Rapids Plungers. “
The Flex position has two RB’s with Montgomery going against Z. Knight. This is why fantasy football is fun! Who would have thought in the beginning of the year that someone would be starting the third string RB from the Jets in the fantasy playoffs! Fun times! And to make it even more interesting, who would have thought that this 3rd string RB from the Jets may actually be a pivotal deciding point in this game? I like Z. Knight this week against Detroit mainly because of his pass catching ability. I am going to give Rapids Plungers the slight edge at the flex.
In conclusion, I expect this to be a really close game as there are so many similarities in the roster construction for both. It likely will come down to which of these non star players come up big? I am going to go with Rapids Plungers to come away with the win and move on to the final four!
(3) teamAlaska vs (6) HHH
I love this game! Brothers going head to head in the playoffs for a chance to move on and get a win away from the Super Bowl! Doesn’t get much better then that! Even better I get to watch football with all of them on Sunday so the all of those close calls and times when their player gets to the 1yd line only to find the backup coming in to vulture the TD and 6 points! I get to witness it all! Both of these two teams missed the playoffs last season but both finished this season with big wins to in the case of HHH get into the playoffs and for the case of teamAlaska push them up to the #3 seed. teamAlaska made the playoffs two seasons ago which was their first time since they won a championship back 10 years ago! They didn’t do well in the playoffs as they lost in the first round but they are now back and ready to contend for a title. HHH had a stretch of 3 straight postseasons from 2017 – 2019 but they lost in the first round in each of those seasons. Even though neither of these teams have fared well as of late when making the playoffs we know that one of these two teams will be moving on to the field of 4? Who will it be? Let’s find out.
Prediction
Starting with the QB position. We have Burrow (HHH) vs Lawrence (teamAlaska). Both of these QB’s looked good last week but Burrow has been playing really good over the past 4 weeks. If you remember it was Burrow who got hot late in the season last year and eventually led DaUnderdog to a championship. Lawrence has been good 2 of the last three games as well and feels like a QB capable of leading their team to a fantasy championship but he plays a tough Dallas D this week. That is enough for me to give the edge at QB to HHH.
The WR position is interesting… you be the judge. Who would you rather have starting for you in the playoffs, T. Higgins, D. Robinson, R. James OR D. Smith, J. Jefferson and J. Jeudy. Yeah, the fact that I probably should have included the first names of the players for HHH tells me all I need to know. Now, I need to be careful here because I don’t want this to come across as fantasy football advice but I am making an assumption that R. James and D. Robinson are not actually the starters in this one and that two bench players end up in the starting spot. That doesn’t change how I feel about the position overall but it does close the gap slightly. This one still however heavily favors teamAlaska.
The RB position is a little more even as HHH will be rolling with one of the better RB’s in the league this season in A. Ekeler and a the guy that just scores TD’s in J. Williams. teamAlaska counters with N. Chubb and Zeke. I look at Ekeler as having the opportunity to outscore both Chubb and Zeke combined as I don’t like the spots for either of them. The edge here goes to Ekeler and HHH.
The TE spot has been so tough this year. Basically if you didn’t have Kelce you don’t have a TE you can count on. Kittle for HHH has historically been one of the better TE’s and still may be but for fantasy purposes he has been average at best. This guy from TN who they call Chig can seemingly play football as shown by his 16 point effort last week. Is it possible that Chig Okonkwo can outscore Kittle this week? Possible? Absolutely! Probable? No. I don’t think I can pick Chig in this spot. He was good last week and the potential is there I actually kind of like Kittle though in a game that the 49ers may have to pass the ball a bit more in. Edge goes to HHH.
The flex spot. I just told you how tough the TE position has been and then I look at the flex and see that HHH is starting a TE there! Everett has been solid however getting a total of 14 targets over the past 2 games. teamAlaska looks to counter that with M. Carter who has been struggling. I know that there may be some roster moves for both teams and the flex tends to be the one that moves around the most but as it currently stands I like HHH with the edge here.
Ok, now to the fun part. Who wins? In what should be another really close game there is one player that I look at and is very hard to ignore. That is J. Jefferson! These type of players are the ones you want on your side come playoff time, the guys that can go for 40 any week and singlehandedly lead you to a victory. That to me is the deciding factor and I like teamAlaska to move on!
Good luck to all four teams this week!