{"id":262123,"date":"2026-01-09T10:46:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T15:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=262123"},"modified":"2026-01-09T10:46:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T15:46:24","slug":"wild-card-weekend-fantasy-football-playoff-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/01\/09\/wild-card-weekend-fantasy-football-playoff-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild Card Weekend Fantasy Football Playoff Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although most fantasy managers stop playing fantasy football in the regular season, there are multiple fantasy football playoff options, including<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fantasylife.com\/articles\/guillotine-leagues\/guillotine-leagues-playoff-strategy-guide-for-2026-guilloteenies\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fantasy Life\u2019s Guillotine Leagues<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and DFS options. Here are the top players available at each position for Wild Card Weekend. It is essential to note that these rankings are for this weekend only; they do not account for fantasy formats that benefit players who will play further down the line in the playoffs.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Fantasy Football Playoff Rankings: Wild Card Weekend<\/b><\/h2>\n<h3><b>Quarterbacks<\/b><\/h3>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rank<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Player<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Josh Allen<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Trevor Lawrence<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Drake Maye<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Jalen Hurts<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Matthew Stafford<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">6<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Brock Purdy<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">7<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Justin Herbert<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">8<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Caleb Williams<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">9<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Jordan Love<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Bryce Young<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">11<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>C.J. Stroud<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">12<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Aaron Rodgers<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The top two quarterbacks, Allen and Lawrence, face off in the opening round of the NFL playoffs with the highest over\/under total of the six-game slate, topping over 50 projected points combined. These were two of the best four quarterbacks in fantasy football this season, and come in as the top two in the Wild Card Weekend fantasy football playoff rankings for quarterbacks.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Maye was the overall QB2 on the season and is one of the favorites for NFL MVP. He will make his playoff debut against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/chargers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Chargers<\/a> on Sunday Night Football.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Purdy was elite down the stretch, having three straight top-four finishes between Weeks 15 and 17. However, he struggled against an elite <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/seahawks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Seahawks<\/a> defense in Week 18, only scoring five fantasy points. The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/eagles\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Eagles<\/a> have a good defense, so Purdy ranks outside of the top five quarterbacks.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Williams and Love battle it out in an NFC North slugfest. I am expecting a lower-scoring game, so I would avoid both of these quarterbacks this weekend.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Running Backs<\/b><\/h3>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rank<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Player<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Christian McCaffrey<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>James Cook<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Travis Etienne Jr.<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Saquon Barkley<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Josh Jacobs<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">6<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>D\u2019Andre Swift<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">7<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Kyren Williams<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">8<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>TreVeyon Henderson<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">9<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Omarion Hampton<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Rhamondre Stevenson<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">11<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Kenneth Gainwell<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">12<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Jaylen Warren<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">13<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Woody Marks<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">14<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Rico Dowdle<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">15<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Blake Corum<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">McCaffrey was the only player to top over 400 fantasy points in PPR leagues across all positions this season. He is the clear overall RB1 and overall top player for this weekend, even against a difficult Eagles defense. His opponent, Barkley, is also a top-four option this weekend.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a split backfield in <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/patriots\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">New England<\/a>, with both Henderson and Stevenson being very productive. I would expect both to play a critical role in the Patriots game plan.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/steelers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Steelers<\/a> are another team that has two effective running backs in Gainwell and Warren. However, they face one of the best defenses in the league, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/texans\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Houston Texans<\/a>. I would lower expectations for everyone on the Steelers offense in a game that has the lowest over\/under total of the week.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Christian McCaffrey had the best fantasy season by a running back since&#8230; Christian McCaffrey in 2019 \ud83e\udd2f <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/t77Ief8fS5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/t77Ief8fS5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NFL Fantasy Football (@NFLFantasy) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFLFantasy\/status\/2008641416537550887?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 6, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><b>Wide Receivers<\/b><\/h3>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rank<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Player<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Puka Nacua<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Nico Collins<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>A.J. Brown<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Davante Adams<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Stefon Diggs<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">6<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>DeVonta Smith<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">7<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Jakobi Meyers<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">8<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Christian Watson<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">9<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Tetairoa McMillan<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Khalil Shakir<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">11<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Jauan Jennings<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">12<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Ladd McConkey<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">13<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Parker Washington<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">14<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Luther Burden<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">15<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Rome Odunze<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is no surprise here that Nacua is the overall WR1 for Wild Card Weekend. His teammate, Adams, has been battling injuries, but he is at full strength for the matchup against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/panthers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Panthers<\/a>. Adams is a touchdown machine and is a top-four option in the fantasy football playoff rankings for wide receivers.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/jaguars\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Jaguars<\/a> passing game has run through Meyers and Washington, not BTJ, the last two weeks. With a high over\/under projected total, both Jacksonville receivers should get plenty of work and fantasy production.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s been a disappointing season for McConkey, having top-five fantasy points just twice in his final six games that he played in. However, Herbert and the Chargers will need a big game out of him if they want to beat the Patriots. Expect McConkey to get back on track this week. He had 34.7 fantasy points in the Wild Card Matchup last season against the Texans.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Tight Ends<\/b><\/h3>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rank<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Player<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>George Kittle<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Dallas Goedert<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Colston Loveland<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Brenton Strange<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Hunter Henry<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">6<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Dalton Schultz<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">7<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Oronde Gadsden II<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">8<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Dalton Kincaid<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">9<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Tyler Higbee<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Cole Kmet<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">11<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Pat Freiermuth<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">12<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Luke Musgrave<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the top six fantasy tight ends from the regular season in total PPR points all missing the playoffs, the tight end rankings for Wild Card Weekend are wide open. The top two guys, Kittle and Goedert, face off against one another. Goedert caught eleven touchdowns this season, while Kittle had six top-eight finishes in just his nine full starts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rookie tight end, Loveland, had a great finish to end the season, scoring over 20 fantasy points in each of his final two games of the regular season. He and quarterback Williams have established a strong connection and look for that to continue throughout the playoffs.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Mark Konezny-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wild Card Weekend Fantasy Football Playoff Rankings for quarterbacks, wide receivers, running backs, and tight ends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5257,"featured_media":250594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33912,33917,59],"tags":[33747,970,9531],"class_list":["post-262123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fantasy-rankings","category-advice","category-fantasy","tag-fantasy-football-advice","tag-nfl-playoffs","tag-starts-and-sits"],"modified_by":"Mike Kashuba","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262123"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262254,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262123\/revisions\/262254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}