Playoff fantasy football RB rankings for Divisional Round: Christian McCaffrey is clearly the top target

Playoff fantasy football leagues have grown rapidly in popularity in recent NFL seasons. They offer many similarities to traditional season-long leagues, such as roster formats and scoring settings, but require an additional layer of strategy. As teams are eliminated from the NFL Playoffs, their players are no longer available for fantasy football lineups.

This massive twist requires managers to draft accordingly, as it becomes wise to target players they believe are on a team that can make a deep postseason run. The player pool shrinks as each round of the playoffs passes, so it's important to draft players who are still playing in the later rounds. Failure to do so will make it extremely difficult to fill out a lineup.

Another variation in playoff fantasy football leagues that some managers participate in is survival formats. These unique leagues combine most of the format from a traditional league with elements of DFS and Eliminator pools. Managers must set a DFS-style lineup each week, but the catch is that they can only use each player once for the duration of the NFL Playoffs.

Regardless of which format of playoff fantasy football is being played, managers must always have a solid strategy for the running back position. They are always among the most important fantasy players due to their polarizing outcomes. Most of them are capable of huge performances in certain weeks but can also carry bust potential into the wrong matchups.

It should come as no surprise that Christian McCaffrey tops the running back rankings for the Divisional Round. He was the highest-scoring running back during the regular season by a wide margin, so the playoffs shouldn't be much different. He led all players in fantasy points per game this season and was able to perform at a high level, even in the most difficult matchups.

Aaron Jones is a running back to keep an eye on this week after his breakout performance in the Wild Card round, finishing as the RB1 with three total touchdowns. He may find it challenging to repeat his performance in round two against one of the best overall defensive units in the entire NFL.

All of these types of situations have been factored in for every running back option in the Divisional Round. This helped to produce the running back rankings for this week of playoff fantasy football leagues and can also be useful for DFS players.

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RB rankings for playoff fantasy football in Divisional Round

RB Rankings

1. Christian McCaffrey
2. Isiah Pacheco
3. Aaron Jones
4. David Montgomery
5. Rachaad White
6. James Cook
7. Jahmyr Gibbs
8. Devin Singletary
9. Gus Edwards
10. Clyde Edwards-Helaire
11. Justice Hill
12. Dameon Pierce