Fantasy football strategy, rankings, and podcasts

Thanks for reading drinkfive.com this year! This week's installment of the rankings brings us to the end of the line. Week 17 is used in some fantasy leagues to determine the champion, so we're still here to help out in those circumstances. Good luck, all! Great plays this week include Blake Bortles, Giovani Bernard, Golden Tate, and George Kittle.

Yes, the regular fantasy season has come to a conclusion for 2017 - but we're certainly not resting on our laurels with all of the exciting playoff football still ahead of us! Although postseason fantasy leagues can be set up in a variety of ways, my personal favorite is going with a single draft that accumulates points throughout the playoffs. In this case, the optimal strategy is to determine which teams you think will play the most games and draft accordingly.

I've had success in the past picking no more than 4 teams and trying to only collect players from those squads. Looking at the available teams this year, I would shy away from the Chiefs and Titans (since the winner will end up against the Patriots), and I don't think that the Bills, Falcons, Panthers, or Eagles will win their first games. That leaves us with the below teams:

AFC

New England (1)

Pittsburgh (2)

Jacksonville (3) Wild Card

NFC

Minnesota (2)

Los Angeles (3) Wild Card

New Orleans (4) Wild Card

So my suggestion is to choose 3 or 4 of these teams that you think have the best chance of making it to the Super Bowl (or, at the very least, of playing multiple games in the playoffs) and try to draft players from those teams exclusively. Stacking up players from a team that makes it to the Super Bowl is usually your ticket to some postseason fantasy winnings. It's possible that all of the wild card teams could lose in the 2nd round, but keep in mind that if you do end up picking players from a wild card team (New Orleans, for example), they will have the advantage of playing an additional game over the higher ranked teams with a bye in the first round.

You may rank the top playoff teams differently, but I would urge you to adopt a similar philosophy to the above in how to build your postseason fantasy team - you have to take a chance in order to land on top! Best of luck and we'll see you all next year for more fantasy insights, strategies, rankings, and podcasts.

Week 1 is finally here! We've had enough time off, right? I, for one, have been looking forward to the opening game of the 2018 season (Falcons at Eagles) for months now, and in the meantime have tweaked my rankings algorithms to continue to provide you with some of the most accurate fantasy football advice available on the web on a weekly basis. This particular week, remove Le'Veon Bell from your lineups and do anything you can to pick up James Conner and play him. He has a lot to prove and may be auditioning on Sunday for a starring role in the Steelers' high-flying offense. Other notable suggested starts include James White, Kenny Stills, Tyler Eifert, and the Tennessee Titans. Good luck and feel free to reach out on Twitter at @drinkfive with your lineup questions. Cheers!

It's Week 2 and there have been some surprises already this season, not the least of which is James Conner (RB) of the Steelers who started 2018 off with a bang after Le'Veon Bell's holdout kept him from starting the season on the stat sheet. Other breakout performances from week 1 will require a little more consistency to climb up in the rankings, but it's generally worth a roster spot or two to hold on to a guy who may be the next Alvin Kamara or Victor Cruz (Phillip Lindsay is a good example early this season). Some players that I have ranked above other experts this week include Alex Smith, Jalen Richard, and Chris Godwin.  Good luck and feel free to reach out on Twitter at @drinkfive with your lineup questions. Cheers!