Running backs might've played a consequential part in propelling your fantasy football team into the playoffs. Wide receivers then took the baton and led the day in the two-week, opening-round matchups in ESPN standard leagues.
From Weeks 14-15, three of the seven players who scored at least 50 fantasy points were wide receivers, and two of them, Puka Nacua (the No. 2 overall scorer) and Amon-Ra St. Brown (No. 5), were players drafted among the first 11 picks on average in ESPN leagues during the preseason. Another wide receiver, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, finished just shy of the 50 point threshold (46.4) and was 10th overall in scoring, again a player who was drafted relatively early (37th overall) and heavily started during the semifinals round.
Naturally, as a group they claimed three of the top seven spots as far as players who can most commonly be found on ESPN championship-matchup rosters. Smith-Njigba, the season's top-scoring wide receiver and No. 5 in fantasy points overall (305.7), leads the way by residing on finalists' rosters in 44.3% of leagues. Nacua, whose 22.1 fantasy points per game average is fifth-best overall this season, has a 41.9% such roster rate, second best in the league. St. Brown, third among wide receivers in fantasy points for the season, is in the championship round in 34.0%, the seventh-best rate overall.
That's in stark contrast to our list of players on the most ESPN playoff teams, where running backs occupied the top two and five of the top seven spots overall. Jonathan Taylor delivered a pair of pedestrian performances (11.4 and 13.1 fantasy points in Weeks 14-15), while Christian McCaffrey dealt with a Week 14 bye and a back issue that landed him on the injury report the day before his Week 15 contest. The Nos. 1 and 2 players on playoff rosters two weeks ago, Taylor's 32.7% finalists' roster rate ranks 11th overall, while McCaffrey's 30.8% rate ranks 13th.
Nacua and St. Brown have history as fantasy playoff standouts. Nacua was the sixth most-rostered player in 2023 ESPN championship matchups, during his breakthrough rookie campaign, while St. Brown has placed among the top five overall in the round in each of the past two seasons.
Here are the top 50 players found on the roster of an ESPN standard championship-matchup team. Included are their preseason ADPs and year-to-date scoring totals.
Additional takeaways
The bye week might've proven a hindrance to McCaffrey's fantasy managers, but it otherwise wasn't a significant problem for those who rostered players who were off in Week 14. That's perhaps a product of the limited number of true superstars found on the rosters of the four teams on bye. The Carolina Panthers, New England Patriots, New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers, combined for only five of the top 50 players in terms of fantasy points per game for the season.
McCaffrey, the league's leader in that category (24.6 points).
Drake Maye (20.0, tied for 10th), 26th overall on the list of individuals on ESPN playoff rosters (52.6% of leagues), is 22nd on the list for the championship round (27.3%).
Jaxson Dart (17.8, 23rd), 69th with a 40.2% rate of advancing to the playoffs, is 41st with a 23.6% finalists' rate.
Rico Dowdle (14.0, 48th), whose 59.9% playoff rate placed ninth, dropped only three places to 12th with his 31.9% number.
Wan'Dale Robinson (13.6, 50th), 55th with a 43.2% playoff rate, moved up to 35th with a 24.5% championship-round rate. It's testament to fantasy managers' ability to find single-week replacements, even when the overall rates of players in the championship round this year reflects mostly early draft picks playing key roles.
Though quarterbacks had sparse representation atop the list of playoff qualifying teams, Josh Allen is the position's clear leader among championship-round appearances. His 39.0% is more than 10 points better than the No. 2 quarterback, Matthew Stafford (28.8%), and it's thanks to Allen totaling 62.36 fantasy points in Week 14 and 15, third-best among all players, and joining Nacua as the only players to score at least 24 points in each of the two weeks. It's not the first time that Allen has amped up his play in these critical December/January weeks, as among his 15 career games of 35-plus fantasy points, seven have occurred after Dec. 1.
Dowdle's high roster rate keeps him well in the hunt for the honor of fantasy pickup of the year, but a late-season breakthrough has his eye on the coveted "playoff hero" label. Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Michael Wilson, whose 115.5 fantasy points over the past five weeks lead his position, resides on championship-matchup rosters in 27.8% of ESPN leagues, 20th most overall and fifth most among wide receivers. Those represent substantial jumps from his Nos. 103 overall and 36 wide receiver rankings among playoff qualifiers (31.0% rate). Wilson's fantasy managers are surely hoping that Marvin Harrison Jr. (heel) remains sidelined for Weeks 16-17, as Wilson averaged 27.2 points in Harrison's four absences the past five weeks (Harrison was available for Week 13, when Wilson scored 6.6 points).
Quarterback isn't the only position where the leader in the chart above has widened the gap between himself and the next-closest player. Cardinals tight end Trey McBride finds himself on finalists' rosters in 40.8% of ESPN leagues, third best overall, nearly 14% more than No. 2 Jake Ferguson (27.1%). McBride has substantially widened the scoring gap between himself and the second-best scorer for the season, as what was once a 60.9 point advantage over Travis Kelce through Week 13 has expanded to 93.3 since (Kelce remains second). McBride, by the way, gets that dream Cincinnati Bengals tight end matchup in Week 17.
How did the top-scoring player overall from Weeks 14-15 -- and, in fact, the leader over the past three weeks -- fare as far as championship appearances are concerned? Trevor Lawrence, who scored 44.30 fantasy points last week, and joins Jacoby Brissett as the only players with at least 19 points in each of the past three weeks, is remarkably in the finals in only 8.0% of ESPN leagues (146th overall). That's still a noticeable improvement over his 198th ranking among playoff teams (6.4%), but it signals how few managers actually exploited the Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback's hot streak. Will any of those 8% of managers be so bold to start him in Week 16 against the Denver Broncos, the sixth-toughest schedule adjusted defense against quarterbacks for the season?
Check back here in two weeks, when we'll update the list of most-rostered players on fantasy league champions. Best of luck to everyone in the finals!