Guilloteenie Cheatsheet: Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson are Cheat Codes

Paul Charchian produced a Guillotine League Playoff Cheatsheet for fantasy managers participating in Guilloteenies.

Note: Playoff Guilloteenies are one of two playoff games at GuillotineLeagues.com.  You can learn more about our other way to play, the CHOPionship, by clicking here. 

Playoff Guilloteenies: How They Work

Key rules to know:

• You'll conduct a live draft with up to four other teams.
• No bench. All players score points in every week they're alive.
• Eight roster spots, 1 QB, 2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1 TE, and 2 flex (no QB flex)
• Like a regular-season Guillotine League^TM, each week, your league's lowest-scoring team will be chopped at the end of each round. 
• That team's roster will become available on the waiver wire.
• You'll have $1,000 in FAAB with which to bid on chopped players after each round.
• Get the full ruleset here. 

Join a Guilloteenie League here!

Basic Strategy

Obviously, but you'll want to choose players from teams that will play the most playoff games. Players who only play one playoff game can't accumulate many points for you—even great players.

Your top priority is to identify Super Bowl-bound teams because those teams will play at least three times. Ideally, you want to find a non-No. 1 seed that will advance to the Super Bowl, because those teams will play four times. 

Advanced Strategy—Specific to the Guilloteenie format

Unique to this format, you're going to be able to augment your roster after every round with chopped players from eliminated teams. That should put roughly three, four, or five starter-level free agents into the pool after each round. 

That's not a lot of guys, so you can't be assured that you'll land them in free agency. But remember, these are very small leagues, with little competition to get those players. 

Because you can improve your roster after each round, you can spread out your players across more NFL teams. In this format, it's a far more viable strategy to pick players from teams that might lose. Maybe you love Puka Nacua, but you're worried the Rams will lose to Minnesota. You can still draft Nacua, grab his points in the Wild Card Round, and if the Rams lose, replace Nacua on the waiver wire next week.

Because you can grab any Lions and Chiefs who get chopped in the Wild Card round, orient your draft to emphasize the teams playing in the Wild Card Round.

I recommend massively deprioritizing the two No. 1-seeded teams, the Chiefs and Lions. Even Jahmyr Gibbs. Remember, there's no bench and you'll get zero points from Chiefs and Lions in the Wild Card Round. And that could get you chopped next Tuesday morning.

Because you can improve your roster later, prioritize drafting players with strong Round 1 opportunities. 

Emphasize good players players from the teams likely to score the most points. As I'm writing on Monday, here's the implied totals for each team in the Wild Card Round:

1. Baltimore: 27.5
2. Buffalo: 27
3. Tampa Bay: 27
4. Philadelphia: 26.5
5. Minnesota: 24.5
6. Washington: 24
7. LA Chargers: 23.5
8. LA Rams: 23
9. Green Bay: 21
10. Houston: 21
11. Denver : 19.5
12. Pittsburgh: 17

Even though you can bid on different players at the end of the week, of course, choose players with a higher probability to advance.  

Wild Card Round combo-platter players who can score big points and are likely to survive to Round 2: 

• Ravens (-9.5): Lamar Jackson and Mark Andrews
• Bills (-8.5): Josh Allen and James Cook
• Chargers (-3): J.K. Dobbins and Ladd McConkey
• Buccaneers (-3): Baker Mayfield and Bucky Irving
• Eagles (-5.5): Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown
• Vikings (-1.5): Sam Darnold and Justin Jefferson

Running back is a problem position you'll want to solve. There are five teams in your league and they each have two starting running backs (plus flex players). That's a minimum of 10 runners. There are only 12 teams playing the Wild Card Round. And I'm not sure the Broncos' runners actually exist. In my Guilloteenie mock drafts, it's been tricky to land two reliable Wild Card Round runners. 

To that point, you could employ an "RB bully" approach and draft four runners, which would create a major problem for other teams.

I know I just said to prioritize running backs, but also consider prioritizing a tight end. Four of the top five tight ends aren't in the playoffs: Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, George Kittle, and Jonnu Smith. So the tight pool gets thin really fast. Mark Andrews should be a pretty hot commodity. 

With only five teams in your league, it's viable to deprioritize the quarterback position—after all, there are 12 NFL teams playing this weekend and each Guilloteenie can only roster one quarterback at a time. To be clear, if your first quarterback gets chopped, you can bid on another one next round. But you can only have one on your roster at any time. 

It's still very advantageous to roster Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, and Jalen Hurts. Those guys could play four games and each could be single the highest-scoring player. But after those three, I'd punt the position. 

Also, know this: In the Guillotine League scoring system, quarterbacks score about 50% more than other positions. 

And adding to the risk of waiting for a quarterback, when your quarterback does get chopped, you'll likely be bidding against other teams with the same issue, which will drive up the price on available quarterbacks.

Guilloteenie Mock Draft

Here is a sample mock Guilloteenie draft, with each team heading into the draft with a different approach.