Starting the fantasy football season back in September, I only had one team that I thought had a real shot to actually make the playoffs. The other teams looked like they could be competitive, but I wasn’t really sure they would have a chance to make the late season festivities.

As of right now, one of my two first place teams lost week 13, but they both still have spots in the playoffs. My lone Yahoo! team managed to win a tough match-up against the 1st place team in that league, keeping the playoff hopes alive there. The remaining team took another loss and falls to 11th place with nothing much left to do now.

I almost feel like I enjoy managing my losing team more than the others because I can take more chances while making as many waiver wire moves as possible in an effort to win. With my playoff-bound teams, there’s more a sense of urgency and the feeling that one wrong move can end a whole season of effort and that ultimately limits what I do with them at this point in the season.

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Among the projected playoff teams, it took enormous efforts from all my players, but these are the players that stood out.

Yahoo! Team (4th place, 8 wins/5 losses)

Ben RoethlisbergerBen Roethlisberger

Ben Roethlisberger

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He always came up big when it counted. With six games of 20 points or more, he was the cog in the machine that was my team.

David JohnsonDavid Johnson

David Johnson

I was hoping to see the David Johnson of last year when I drafted him, but I wasn’t expecting him to be better than last year. So far this year, Johnson has scored in double-digit fantasy points every game.

ESPN Team (1st place, 11 wins/2 losses)

Drew BreesDrew Brees

Drew Brees

Aside from his seven-point Week 13 performance, he has been great this year. Three games with four touchdowns and two with over 400 passing yards helped my team tremendously.

Ezekiel ElliotEzekiel Elliot

Ezekiel Elliot

I’m glad I jumped aboard the hype train when I picked Elliot in the 1st round. He’s been nothing short of spectacular, never failing to score in double digits every week. He was part of a three-headed running back monster with Melvin Gordon and DeMarco Murray.

ESPN Team (1st place, 9 wins/4 losses)

Kirk CousinsKirk Cousins

Kirk Cousins

Week 13 was a closely contested loss in which Cousins was on the way to lead my team to a slight victory when he threw an interception in the final moments of the game against the Cardinals, and I took the 99-97 loss in this point per reception league. Bad as that may have been, there have been way more positives than negatives about this 10th round pick.

Antonio BrownAntonio Brown

Antonio Brown

Brown was a consistent source of points every week, but I expected that after taking him first overall in the leagues draft. He was always scoring well over his projected weekly scores and usually led my receivers in scoring. He’s just one of those guys you want on your team every year.

That’s it for this week folks, I’ll see you next week with a little fantasy hoops action.