A quick bit of FFin60 housekeeping before we jump in: with the NFL playoffs starting this weekend and most fantasy contests now locked, we’re shifting from daily sends to 1–2 newsletters per week for the offseason. That cadence lets us bundle the most important updates while giving everyone a chance to recharge before we ramp back up for the 2026 season.

📝 News & Notes

The Dolphins fire HC Mike McDaniel
My take: That now leaves 8 HC vacancies, with Jim Harbaugh remaining the top HC candidate and Mike McDaniel possibly the top for OC vacancies. The timing of this firing interesting and may hint towards a run at Harbaugh (in conjunction with Chad Alexander interviewing for Miami’s GM role).

🏈 Playoff Fantasy Football

Looking for a free way to sweat the playoffs with a $25,000 prize pool?

Join the FanShares NFL Playoffs Challenge for free and compete against others by trading shares of NFL players. Think of it like a stock market for players - where your goal is to build the most profitable portfolio throughout the playoffs. This free contest will be their beta launch prior to letting you trade players for real money. Entries will be capped at 2,000 people for the closed beta so make sure you join now: https://www.fansharesapp.com/

It’s not too late to join the FFPC Playoff Challenge

Compete against me and others for the top prizes of $100,000 and $500,000 while adding a fun sweat to the NFL playoffs. And new users can get $25 back after signing up and entering with promo code FFin60.

Strategy Q&A

Thank you to everyone that submitted questions. Hopefully these responses help you in thinking about your strategy and entries.

1. Who are your top 3 Strong and/or Contrarian plays?

   1. George Kittle: The 49ers are 4.5 point underdogs and only projected to score 20 points. In a game the 49ers are playing from behind and not scoring as many points, it wouldn’t be shocking to see Kittle in TE premium formats keep up with CMC. And given the low quality of TEs in this playoffs, using that RB/FLEX spot elsewhere is likely more valuable than one mediocre game out of CMC.

2. It feels like seeing super teams on social media really kills the vibe and has some people myself included feeling like heavy volume isn’t necessary or right if you don’t get it in by a certain time. What do you think is a good toy model of the distribution of when we should be drafting 150 teams for a contest that’s open since week 16 (like I think gauntlet and DK milly were)

   1. When people talk about this during full-season best ball, I’m usually more dismissive of the concern as the rosters are larger, there is far more variance at play, and the championship isn’t about just getting all the pieces from one game. However, in playoff best ball, it definitely matters. The way that I handle this is I change my drafting strategy as we get closer to the season. I am drafting far less Jags pairings because those were so easily attainable at lower prices during the first couple weeks of contests being open that building supoptimal teams for the Jags and say Rams isn’t worth it. However, we can focus now on building teams optimized with the knowledge of the exact seeds and playoff paths. We also have more information on late round flyers like Tyley Higbee, Elijah Arroyo, or even JK Dobbins for the SB.

3. For the ffpc playoff contest, are there any projections for total points scored for each player that are helpful?

   1. I do not know of any full playoff projections that are not behind a paywall but if you subscribe to a site like Establish the Run, you can view them here. While I think they are helpful, they are not as important in these formats as projections vastly change when you assign a team an extra playoff win. It is far more about thinking through how the playoffs could play out and constructing a team that capitalizes on that outcome.

4. I’m joining a playoff pool where you can’t use the same player more than once. PPR, no K or DST. High score wins for each week starting with Wild card. Is there a name for this format? Ant advice?

   1. Sounds like a variant of a one-and-done and a pretty interesting format at that. I’ve done similar versions for the NBA where you have to pick one player every day but it’s also cumulative scoring which means you need to focus on balance throughout. For this contest, it sounds like you just have to win one week to be profitable? If so, in past years, has anyone ever considered just punting every week except for the SB and guaranteeing you have everyone available to choose from for that game? It could be a bit risky if you end up with two favorites in the SB that other people have been avoiding and tbh, the strategy doesn’t sound the most fun if it’s a casual league with friends. The more straightforward strategy is in the early rounds, focus on the teams that are more likely to lose that round as you can gain points from those players without losing out on needing them in future rounds. Let us know afterwards how it goes!

📊 Poll of the Day

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