Fantasy Football Playoffs: Ranking Easiest to Hardest Schedules At Every Position For Weeks 15-17

Who has the best and worst schedules for the fantasy football playoffs?

Our senior analyst, Chris Raybon, used 4for4's Adjusted Fantasy Points Allowed (aFPA) data to rank strength of schedules (SOS) from easiest to hardest. Let's quickly run through how, exactly, then dive into the rankings by each position and scoring format below.

Fantasy Strength of Schedule Methodology

4for4's aFPA metric adjusts every NFL defenses' fantasy points allowed to each position by strength of schedule for the past 10 weeks — or, summarized, it is a more sophisticated version of the raw metric that is just fantasy points allowed (FPA).

Raybon used this aFPA data to calculate a league average surrendered to each position, then ranked schedules for all 32 NFL offenses based on how many more or fewer aFPA points their Weeks 15-17 opponents are surrendering relative to that league average. (Note that the 1-32 rankings are from easiest to hardest.)

For example, the Dolphins face the Jets in Week 15, who are giving up 20.9 aFPA to quarterbacks — 4.4 more aFPA than the league average (16.6) over the same span. That's why Tua Tagovailoa has the No. 1 (aka the easiest) SOS among fantasy QBs for Week 15. But if you look at Weeks 15 through 17, then Matthew Stafford has the easiest schedule because all three defenses he'll face combine to give up more aFPA than any other fantasy QB's trio of opponents over that same stretch.

Note that these rankings are not for players, they're for teams' position groups, aka on a scale of 1-32. For example, every Jaguars running back will have the No. 1 ranking for SOS for Weeks 15-17 — not just James Robinson.

How To Use These Fantasy Strength of Schedule Rankings

We've included what should be every active player in the following tables for each position and scoring format, although some players may be missing while others may be sidelined for some combination of the final three weeks. That's why we included a search function in each table, so you can search for players on your roster(s) and see how their team's position group ranks against the other 31.

Columns labeled with a specific time period and "Rk" house the 1-32 rankings based on that aFPA data, while columns with a specific time period and "aFPA +/-" house how many more (+) or fewer (-) points a player's opponent(s) for that time period are surrendering based on league average.

There are columns for each individual remaining week of the fantasy football season, plus combinations of weeks, so you can sort these tables by various time periods.

Fantasy Football Schedules By Position

Quarterbacks

Running Backs: PPR

Running Backs: Half PPR

Running Backs: Standard

Wide Receivers: PPR

Wide Receivers: Half PPR

Wide Receivers: Standard

Tight Ends: PPR

Tight Ends: Half PPR

Tight Ends: Standard

Kickers

Defenses