One of the most important factors in fantasy player acquisition is schedule strength.
In an effort to assist fantasy managers in their fantasy playoff team building efforts, I have put together fantasy playoff schedule strength charts that measure matchup strength on a 1-100 scale, with 100 being most favorable.
The scale takes into account a number of metric elements, including many of the blocking elements detailed in my fantasy blocking review and preview articles, however the overarching goal of the system is measure the impact matchups will have on fantasy performance.
Click here if your league's playoffs run from Weeks 14-17, or read on if your league's playoffs run from Weeks 14-16.
For example, the running back matchup grades are largely based on a number of advanced rushing defense metrics, but other factors can override those statistics. Some of Arizona's rush defense metrics are fairly strong this year, but the Cardinals offense has been so inept for much of the season that Arizona's opponents have been able to lean on the ground game early and often. It's why the Cardinals rank last in running back fantasy points allowed per game and why this system will view them as a favorable rush defense matchup in spite of their solid advanced rushing defense metrics.
The system also gives bonuses for facing a large volume of opponents with strong offenses, as this increases the penchant for high-scoring games that offer more fantasy scoring opportunities (except on D/ST, where the bonus is given for facing a large number of opponents with weak offenses).
This week's review covers schedule strength for the fantasy playoffs. This article includes charts for leagues that use Weeks 14-16 for their playoff contests, while another article offers charts for the leagues that use Weeks 14-17 to complete their fantasy postseason matchups.
In determining which players are going to appear on this list, the overriding mindset will be to include the players who are most likely to play the bulk of a team's games during the entire time frame.
Now that we have the preliminaries out of the way, let's take a look at the rest of season schedule strength charts.