The bracket: Which division has the best fantasy football roster? (Finals)

I started with eight divisions in my quest to find the best divisional fantasy football roster and I’m down to two, which means I’ve had six division-vs.-division showdowns. And notable about the six matchups so far is that at least four of them have been very obvious decisions.

The NFC beat the AFC in all four first-round matchups, and three of the four (East vs. East, North vs. North — both in Part 1 — and South vs. South — in Part 2) were fairly decisive. In Part 3, the NFC East pretty comfortably beats the NFC North. In other words, these have not been the toughest of matchups.

The finals, between the NFC East and NFC South, poses a slightly more difficult matchup. Reminder, these are deeper PPR rosters — two QB, three RB, four WR, two TE, one defense. I built the rosters using ESPN’s consensus rankings.

NFC East vs. NFC South

Quarterback

NFC East: Dak Prescott, Carson Wentz
NFC South: Tom Brady, Matt Ryan

In Prescott, the East has the highest upside. That said, in Wentz, there is significant (relative) downside, given Wentz has missed time to injury in each of the last three seasons and just added a potentially involved backup in Jalen Hurts this offseason. On the South side, Drew Brees doesn’t even make this roster. Ryan has a very high floor, though his ceiling is arguably lower than some similar quarterbacks. And then there’s Brady, who turns 43 in August and is now on a new team in a new offense with (mostly) new teammates … but then the teammates are potentially really good. What I’m saying is, there might be no bigger gap between a quarterback’s floor and his ceiling than Brady.

Ultimately, Prescott has the highest floor of these four and the highest ceiling, and while it’s close overall, I think that’s enough to make the decision.

Winner: NFC East

Running back

NFC East: Saquon Barkley, Ezekiel Elliott, Miles Sanders
NFC South: Christian McCaffrey, Alvin Kamara, Todd Gurley

The NFC East has two top-four running backs! But then the NFC South has two top-five guys, including the clear No. 1. The NFC South has a No. 3 guy who led the league in points per game in 2017 and 2018 … but was released after a disappointing 2019 and is now on a new team. The NFC East has a guy on an Eagles team that has never really utilized a single bell cow under Doug Pederson … but then there isn’t an obvious timeshare guy in the roster … but then they’ve been linked to (snicker) LeSean McCoy and Carlos Hyde in recent rumors.

This one can go either way very easily. I would argue Sanders and Gurley are a wash, Elliott and Kamara are a wash, and Barkley and McCaffrey are close to a wash. But given that McCaffrey just had one of the best seasons of all time, I will give him just the slightest edge in what might have been our closest matchup to date.

Winner: NFC South

Wide receiver

NFC East: Amari Cooper, Terry McLaurin, Michael Gallup, Sterling Shepard
NFC South: Michael Thomas, Julio Jones, Chris Godwin, Mike Evans

Okay look. There has never been a division with the wide receiver firepower than this year’s NFC South has. That is four top-eight receivers on this roster, plus D.J. Moore, who comes in ninth in the overall rankings but fifth in the division and off this roster. The guys in the NFC East, primarily 10th-ranked Cooper, all have plenty of upside and are nice pieces, but you would take every receiver on the NFC South’s roster over every receiver on the NFC East’s. After how close the running back position was, this one is a clear walkover.

Winner: NFC South

Tight end

NFC East: Zach Ertz, Evan Engram
NFC South: Rob Gronkowski, Jared Cook

The NFC South arguably has two fantasy-starter tight ends! That’s really good! It’s also pretty clearly two tight ends who are near the back end of the starters and, in Gronkowski, a huge wild card — nobody would be very shocked if he comes out there and puts up huge numbers, but nobody would be very shocked if he plays three games and re-retires, either. So while the NFC South performs well here, the NFC East — with a top-three tight end in Ertz and a huge-ceiling mid-range starter in Engram — clearly wins this matchup.

Winner: NFC East

Defense/special teams

NFC East: Dallas Cowboys
NFC South: New Orleans Saints

The Saints aren’t likely to have a monster fantasy defense in 2020. It’s good, but more like a starter you use when it makes sense, not one you grab and hold all year. But that’s still much better than the best the NFC East has to offer, which in the Cowboys is likely to take a big step back from last year owing to Byron Jones’ departure. Neither choice is great, but one is still far better than the other.

Winner: NFC South

Final decision: NFC South

NFC East team population: Cowboys 5, Eagles 3, Giants 3, Washington 1
NFC South team population: Buccaneers 4, Saints 4, Falcons 3, Panthers 1

Quarterback and running back are both so close in this competition as to consider them a wash. Defense basically is, too, since it’s “meh” vs. “meh.” So this decision comes down to tight end (where both East guys beat both South guys) and wide receiver (where all four South guys beat all four East guys). And I would argue once you frame it like that, it becomes obvious — wide receiver is more important for these purposes than tight end, and “four beating four” is more impressive than “two beating two.”

Here’s the final chart, NFC South (fuschia) vs. NFC East (green):

There we go. In the end, the NFC South has the best divisional fantasy roster in the league.

Oh, and just for fun, I wanted to show you what that chart would look like with the best division (the NFC South, fuschia) vs. the worst (AFC East, blue):

That’s … that’s just funny. Come on, AFC East, step up your game.