The regular fantasy football season is almost over. Whether you had a terrible season and want to save face or you just can't get enough of a good thing, playing fantasy football during the actual NFL playoffs with an entirely new roster of players is well worth trying. Note: this is different from those leagues that extend their normal schedule into the playoffs using teams they drafted back in August. That's just plain stupid. The teams with Chris Johnson, Frank Gore, Roddy White, Vernon Davis, etc. have zero chance in such a format because they will be on vacation until minicamps begin once Week 17 wraps up. It makes no sense.

 

There are some online fantasy football playoff leagues popping up with pre-set rules that you can find, but playing with your buddies by rules with which you are better acquainted is pretty simple. Any variation to the rules described below will work, but here are some suggestions to use as a starting point.

The Schedule
There simply isn't a head-to-head schedule. Playoff fantasy football is best played roto-style. Every team accumulates points throughout the entire NFL playoffs. The team with the most points at the end of the Super Bowl wins.

Transactions
This part is quite simple because there are no transactions. Once your draft or auction is over, all the rosters are locked for the duration of the playoffs. Obviously, as teams are eliminated from the postseason those players will no longer be of any value, so choose wisely.

Team Composition
With some creativity you can play with any number of teams, but the ideal scenario is to play with either six or 12 teams. The reason is simple: there are 12 NFL teams in the playoffs. If you play with six teams, everyone can have two quarterbacks, two tight ends, two kickers, and two team defenses. If you play with 12 teams, everyone gets exactly one quarterback, kicker, and team defense.

Scoring
You can use your existing scoring system to tally the points. Conversely, this might be a good time to get your league to test drive different scoring variations. Perhaps you can inject some different yardage bonuses or distance scoring. Perhaps you could even (gulp!) use individual defensive players instead of a team defense. It's not rocket science; just total everyone's points from the start of the Wild Card round through Super Sunday using this thing called “addition” and the squad with the most points is the winner.

The Draft
Of course, you can draft players the same way you do now. Or even better, you can distribute players via an auction. Either way, just pick a date and time that all the owners can gather between the end of the Week 17 games and the start of the playoffs, and then re-draft your teams per usual with one difference—you only get to chose players from those squads that are going to be in the postseason.

Rosters
You need to use team quarterback because transactions are not allowed, and if an injury occurs, everyone should still have a viable quarterback.

 

Here's a suggested roster for a four, five or six-team league:
2 team QBs
4 RBs
4 WRs
2 TEs
2 Ks
2 team defenses

If you've got seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, or 12 teams, you can use this roster:
1 team QB
3 RBs
3 WRs
1 TE
1 K
1 team defense