There is no reason to stop the fantasy football train from rolling. If you haven't started playing daily fantasy football yet you are really missing out. There are great contests, better competition and a ton of cash prizes to win all throughout the NFL playoffs. Play against us over at Draft Kings and get your hands on some of those greenbacks.
The biggest difference between a regular season slate of NFL games and the playoffs is the design of your lineup. That sounds incredibly general so please allow me to elaborate.
Normally we are aiming to take advantage of the very best matchups and exploit the deepest weaknesses of each team each week. In the playoffs we don't necessarily have that luxury. There are, for the most part, real good teams doing battle now. So what we have to do is figure out how the game is going to go in order to uncover which players to use in our lineups.
For example, the Cowboys running game is the best in the NFL. But, they are going against a very tough front four in the Lions and could have a real tough time running the ball. Thus, it is likely the Cowboys exploit the weakness in the Lions secondary which should mean a big day for Dez Bryant.
Since we are working with a small player pool, I am only going to post my actual optimal lineups throughout the playoffs. Anything less wouldn't be helping you make these tough decisions. For now, I will post my Draft Kings and Fanduel lineups only. If you'd like me to post lineups from other sites just let me know in the comments section or hit me up on Twitter (@Jeff_Mans).
So here you go, the first DFS NFL Playbook of the 2014 NFL Playoffs:
DRAFT KINGS
| POS | Player | Team | Price | Comments |
| QB | Ben Roethlisberger | Steelers | 7,300 | Without Bell, Steelers will attack Ravens via the air |
| RB1 | Jeremy Hill | Bengals | 6,200 | Colts giving up 131 yards per game over last four |
| RB2 | Giovani Bernard | Bengals | 5,600 | Using both Bengals RB's & love Bernard in full point PPR |
| WR1 | Dez Bryant | Cowboys | 8,500 | The Cowboys must attack Lions secondary to win |
| WR2 | Kelvin Benjamin | Panthers | 5,900 | Cardinals gave up 4th most receiving yards in 2014 |
| WR3 | Torrey Smith | Ravens | 5,400 | Steelers give up 9th most pts to WR's |
| TE | Dwayne Allen | Colts | 3,800 | Rested, underpriced and a TD machine |
| FLEX | Martavis Bryant | Steelers | 4,100 | Ravens give up 5th most points to WR's |
| DST | Arizona | Cardinals | 2,800 | Cards stop run, are cheap & rank 7th in INT's |
FANDUEL
| POS | Player | Team | Price | Comments |
| QB | Ben Roethlisberger | Steelers | 7,300 | Without Bell, Steelers will attach Ravens via the air |
| RB1 | Jeremy Hill | Bengals | 7,400 | Colts giving up 131 yards per game over last four |
| RB2 | Joique Bell | Lions | 6,600 | Need more TD opportunities with .5 PPR on Fanduel |
| WR1 | Dez Bryant | Cowboys | 9,100 | The Cowboys must attack Lions secondary to win |
| WR2 | Kelvin Benjamin | Panthers | 6,900 | Cardinals gave up 4th most receiving yards in 2014 |
| WR3 | Martavis Bryant | Steelers | 5,600 | Ravens give up 5th most points to WR's |
| TE | Greg Olsen | Panthers | 6,400 | Cardinals give up most yards to TE's |
| K | Mike Nugent | Bengals | 4,600 | Cheapest kicker on the board is fine by me |
| DST | Arizona | Cardinals | 4,900 | Cards stop run, are cheap & rank 7th in INT's |