Playoff fantasy football TE rankings for Conference Championships: Mark Andrews nearing a return

Playoff fantasy football leagues have reached their halfway point with the conference championships set to kick off on Sunday. The catch is that only about a quarter of the potential lineup options remain. With just four teams left in the NFL playoffs, players from the other 10 teams who have already been eliminated will no longer be available for weekly lineups.

This tricky situation is what makes playoff fantasy football leagues much more strategic than traditional season-long formats. In standard postseason leagues, managers are tasked with drafting a roster before the start of the playoffs that includes players from teams that make a deep run. A failure to do so will result in the inability to set legitimate lineups in the later rounds.

Survival playoff leagues present a similar challenge as managers must properly time when to use the most valuable players in their lineups. Each player can be used only once for the duration of the entire playoffs, so lineups require a specific strategy. It's equally important to save elite players for the later rounds as it is to make sure to use them before they are eliminated from the postseason.

Tight ends are often the most challenging position to navigate in any format, but even more so in playoff fantasy football leagues. It can be difficult to find reliable production from this position when all 32 teams are available, but with only four in the conference championship round, this challenge is elevated even further.

On the positive side, the tight ends remaining in playoff fantasy football leagues are among the absolute best in the entire NFL. They can also receive an additional boost if Mark Andrews is cleared to play. He has been out since November with an injury but is reportedly nearing a return and has a chance to play this weekend.

Andrews can potentially join Travis Kelce and George Kittle this week to give managers the three best overall fantasy football tight ends over the past few years in season-long leagues. Sam LaPorta and Isaiah Likely have also been major factors in playoff fantasy football leagues, making the limited options among the true elites.

Taking all of the various factors into consideration, here are the tight end rankings for the conference championship round. They can be useful in all postseason formats, as well as for DFS players.

TE rankings for playoff fantasy football in conference championships

TE rankings

1. George Kittle
2. Travis Kelce
3. Mark Andrews
4. Sam LaPorta
5. Isaiah Likely
6. Zach Ertz
7. Noah Gray
8. Brock Wright