NFL.com Playoff Challenge

Every year, NFL.com offers a free Playoff Challenge game.  It's basically standard fantasy football scoring with a twist thrown in.  Basically, each week you choose a QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, TE, K, and DEF.  If the person you selected gets eliminated in any round, then you can acquire a player on a team that is still alive.  For instance, if you choose Cam Newton as your QB this round and the Panthers lose, then you can select Aaron Rodgers or Russell Wilson for next week.

The twist is that players receive multiplier bonuses for however long they are on your team.  For example, if Jonathan Stewart runs for 100 yards this week, you would get 10 points.  If he does it in the Divisional Round, you would get 20 points (x2 multiplier for being on your team for two weeks).  If he does it in the Conference Round, you would get 30; and if he does it in the Super Bowl, you would get 40.  This makes strategy very interesting during Wild Card Weekend.  You can still select a player whose team is on a bye this week and just take a zero for that position this week.  Since they will have been on your team for two weeks, however, you would be guaranteed that x2 multiplier next week.

So, let's say that person A picks Jeremy Hill as their running back.  Hill goes off for 150 yards and a TD, which would give him 21 points.  Not bad...if the Bengals win.  If they lose, then person B, who chose CJ Anderson as their back, would need Anderson to run for only 45 yards and a TD to match that point total.  Person A might pick up Anderson to replace Hill, but would only receive 10.5 points since he would have only been on that person's team for one week.

You can see how advantageous it is to load up on players that you think will be in the Super Bowl.  I actually came pretty close to winning the whole thing last year, but chose too many Broncos and not enough Seahawks.  Loading up on one team is obviously high risk, high reward, but it's also the best chance you have of beating the thousands of people that enter this game.  Since it's free and you're not really risking anything, you might as well go all in.

My Wildcard Round Roster
QB - Aaron Rodgers
RB - Eddie Lacy
RB - LeGarrette Blount
WR - Jordy Nelson
WR - Randall Cobb
TE - Rob Gronkowski
K - Stephen Gostkowski
DEF - Seattle

Click here  to fill out your own entry!

Matty O