Did your fantasy football season end before you were ready to hang up the helmet and pads? Were you one of those poor souls who rode Dwayne Bowe to the postseason, only to have him crush your championship hopes and dreams with two straight goose eggs in Weeks 13 and 14? Well, NFL.com has the perfect solution for your fantasy blues.
Welcome to the NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge!
The NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge takes all of the thrills of the postseason and wraps it into a fantasy football package that could take you all the way to Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, Indiana! I don't know about you, but I'd love to win a trip to Lucas Oil Stadium to watch the world's greatest sporting event live!
Once you **sign up** (and let's be honest, why wouldn't you?), it's time to take a quick overview of the game. The **rules** for this competition are simple. There are four postseason rounds: Wild Card, Divisional, Conference and Super Bowl.
You'll be required to select a team that consists of one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end, one kicker and one defense/special teams unit from the postseason rosters for each of the four rounds.
If your players' team wins in the Wild Card round, you have the option of keeping that player(s) active into the Divisional Round or dropping him for another player. If you retain that player(s) from the Wild Card round, you'll receive double points in his Divisional Round game, triple points in the Conference Championship round and so on. The NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge does have a new wrinkle this season, though, as you can start players in the Wild Card round that have byes (Patriots, Steelers, Falcons, Bears).
Why would you do this? Well, it's all part of the strategy. If you think the Patriots are going to win the Super Bowl, you can start someone like Tom Brady or Benjarvus Green-Ellis in the Wild Card round. While they will receive no points in that round, Brady and Green-Ellis would be eligible to have their points doubled for the Divisional Round and tripled for the Conference Championship round. And if the Patriots do reach the Super Bowl, you would get quadruple the points in that round. The ultimate goal, of course, is to select the players who will advance the furthest into the postseason. It's also important to accumulate points with the same players from round to round.
If you're not sold on the Patriots (or maybe you're just a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers), starting Drew Brees or some of his Saints teammates make sense. After all, they'll be a gigantic favorite in the Wild Card round against a Seahawks team that won just seven games in the regular season. And if the Saints win as expected, their players would be eligible for double points in the Divisional Round. On the other hand, if you drop Brees, add someone like Ben Roethlisberger and retain him starting in the Divisional round, the Steelers quarterback would be eligible for double points in the Conference Championship round and triple points in the Super Bowl round.
Remember, should the team of a player you've selected in the Wild Card round be knocked out, you're allowed to replace him with a player who's team is still alive. Your new starter would not be eligible to have his points doubled until his team wins a game, however. So throughout each round, you will be able to field a complete fantasy roster.
The NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge rewards four points for passing touchdowns and six points for all other touchdowns, one point for each 25 passing yards and 10 rushing and receiving yards. It also rewards two points for all two-point conversions, three points for all field goals regardless of length and one point for all extra points. On the defensive side of the football, points will be rewarded for punt, kickoff, fumble-returned and interception-returned touchdowns. Other scoring categories include interceptions, fumble recoveries and sacks.
Points will also be handed out for shutouts and holding opponents to 17 or fewer points. If your defense allows 22 or more points, though, it will be penalized points (up to 10 points if it surrenders 46-plus points in a game). In another twist, defensive teams will also be rewarded an additional five points per game if their team wins the game on the field.
The NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge is all about your prowess and skills as a fantasy football general manager, not to mention your abilities as a pro football prognosticator. And we all know, picking games in the NFL can be tough these days.
The players with the best chance to reach the Super Bowl, such as Brady, Brees and Matt Ryan, will of course be highly regarded. But to find ultimate success, you'll need to find at least one or two players whose teams last three or even four rounds. That means picking a Wild Card team that has a chance to make it all the way to the Conference Championship Round, or even better, the Super Bowl. And in recent years, that hasn't been unusual.
Since 2000, six teams (Cardinals - 2008, Giants - 2007, Colts - 2006, Steelers - 2005, Panthers - 2003, Ravens - 2000) that played in the Wild Card round have reached the Super Bowl. Four of those teams won it all. One team that didn't win the championship, the 2008 Cardinals, were still very fruitful in the NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge.
Kurt Warner and his talented offense rolled up a ton of fantasy points in wins over the Falcons, Panthers and Eagles en route to Super Bowl XLIII. Larry Fitzgerald was especially productive for fantasy owners, posting 100-yard performances in the first two rounds and a 152-yard, three-touchdown explosion in the NFC Championship.
He went on to catch seven passes for 127 yards and scored two more touchdowns in the Super Bowl, albeit in a losing effort. If you added Fitzgerald's impressive numbers together, along with the bonuses you'd receive for keeping him active in four straight four rounds, he'd have easily been the MVP of your NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge team.
So there you have it - you now know the rules and some of the strategies involved in finding success in the NFL Fantasy Playoff Challenge. Now it's up to you to sign up and accept the challenge.
Who knows, you might be on your way to Super Bowl XLVI.
Michael Fabiano is an award-winning fantasy football analyst on NFL.com. Have a burning question for Michael on anything fantasy football related? Leave it in our comments section or send it to **AskFabiano@nfl.com**!