You’re staring at the draft board, and it feels wrong. Christian McCaffrey is sitting there, but you’re hesitating. In a standard league, you’d smash that button in a heartbeat. But this is different. This is a guillotine league, where the "points per game" gods can’t save you from a single bad week. If you finish last in scoring for just one week, your entire roster is deleted. It’s over. Your players are scattered to the waiver wire like digital carrion for the survivors to feast on.
Most people use standard guillotine fantasy football rankings that look suspiciously like their local home league cheatsheets. That's a mistake. A massive one.
In this format, the floor is everything. The ceiling? It’s a luxury you can’t always afford. When you’re ranking players for a guillotine draft, you have to throw out the "upside" playbook that tells you to chase high-variance rookies or injury-prone superstars who might miss three games but win you the playoffs. In a guillotine league, there are no playoffs. There is only Tuesday morning, and whether or not you’re still alive to see it.
The Floor is the Only Thing That Matters
Think about it this way. In a typical 18-team guillotine league, you don't need to be first. You just need to not be 18th. Then 17th. Then 16th.
Because of this, guillotine fantasy football rankings should prioritize "boring" consistency over "explosive" volatility. Take a player like Amari Cooper. Some weeks he catches 11 passes for 200 yards. Other weeks, he disappears for 3 catches and 30 yards. In a head-to-head league, you live with the duds because the blow-up games win you weeks. In a guillotine league, that 3-point floor is a death sentence. You’d much rather have a guy like Amon-Ra St. Brown, whose target share is so cemented that his "bad" weeks still keep you out of the basement.
Reliability is king.
If you’re drafting in the early rounds, you aren't looking for the guy who can score 40. You're looking for the guy who is guaranteed to score 12.
Why the Quarterback Position is a Trap
People love chasing the rushing upside of a Lamar Jackson or an Anthony Richardson. I get it. The points are intoxicating. But look at the injury history and the passing variance. If your QB1 leaves a game in the first quarter with a tweaked hamstring, your season is likely finished. In your guillotine fantasy football rankings, you might actually find more value in "statue" QBs who have high completion percentages and reliable volume.
Consider Kirk Cousins or Jared Goff. They aren't sexy. They won't run for 60 yards and a score. But they also rarely throw for 110 yards and three picks. They provide a steady stream of points that acts as a buoy. In the early weeks of a guillotine league, you just need to stay afloat while the chaotic teams drown themselves.
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The Waiver Wire Becomes a Supernova
The weirdest thing about this format—and the reason your rankings have to be fluid—is the waiver wire. Every Tuesday, a team dies. Their players are released. Suddenly, Justin Jefferson or Breece Hall is available for everyone to bid on.
This changes how you value depth.
In a 12-team league, you need a deep bench because the waiver wire is a wasteland of third-string tight ends and backup running backs. In a guillotine league, the "talent pool" actually gets better as the season goes on. By Week 6, the waiver wire is arguably better than your starting lineup was on draft day.
Stop overvaluing bench stashes in your initial guillotine fantasy football rankings. You don't need to hold a high-upside rookie RB who might take over the backfield in November. You won't make it to November if you're wasting a roster spot on a zero-point player. Use your bench for "insurance" starters—guys who can step in during a bye week or a minor injury and give you a guaranteed 8-10 points.
FAAB Management is the Real Game
Ranking players is only half the battle; how you value them in the auction is the other.
Most experts, including Paul Charchian, who basically pioneered this format, will tell you to be stingy with your Free Agent Acquisition Budget (FAAB). It is tempting to blow 40% of your budget on Saquon Barkley when he hits the wire in Week 3. Don't. Unless your team is literally bottom-feeding and desperate, save that cash. The prices for elite players drop as the season progresses because there are fewer teams left with money to spend.
Positional Scarcity vs. Survival Probability
Let's talk about the "Elite TE" strategy. In standard rankings, Travis Kelce or Sam LaPorta are gold because the gap between them and the TE12 is a chasm. In a guillotine league, the math shifts slightly.
If you spend a second-round pick on a tight end and they have a bad game, you have no recourse. However, the TE position is usually the first one to stabilize on the waiver wire as teams are eliminated. You can almost always find a "startable" TE on the wire after Week 4.
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Don't reach.
Your guillotine fantasy football rankings should be heavily weighted toward Wide Receivers in PPR formats. Why? Because receivers have a higher "weekly floor" in terms of target volume compared to mid-tier running backs who might get scripted out of a game if their team falls behind.
The "Zero RB" Argument in Guillotine
Is Zero RB viable here? Sorta.
It’s risky. If you start the season with a bunch of "pass-catching" backs who only get 5 touches, you're flirting with disaster. But "Hero RB"—where you take one rock-solid, high-volume beast and then load up on elite, consistent WRs—is often the gold standard for survival. You want the guys who are "touches-per-game" monsters.
- Christian McCaffrey (When healthy, the undisputed 1.01)
- CeeDee Lamb (Target monster)
- Tyreek Hill (Even a "down" game is usually okay)
- Breece Hall (Volume is too high to ignore)
These are the anchors.
Injuries are Season-Enders, Not Setbacks
In a dynasty league, an ACL tear is a bummer. In a redraft league, you hit the wire and hope for the best. In a guillotine league, an injury to your first-round pick in Week 2 is almost always an immediate exit.
Because of this, your guillotine fantasy football rankings should actively penalize players with "soft tissue" reputations or lingering preseason issues. You cannot afford a "wait and see" approach. If a player is a game-time decision on Sunday morning, they are a liability.
You should also be looking at offensive line rankings. A running back behind a crumbling line is one bad penetration away from a 1.2-yard-per-carry afternoon. In Week 1, that can get you chopped.
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The Schedule Doesn't Matter (At First)
Stop looking at "Strength of Schedule" for the fantasy playoffs. There are no playoffs. You should be looking at the first four weeks of the season.
If a WR has a brutal matchup against a lockdown corner in Week 1 and Week 2, move them down your list. You just need to survive those first 14 days. Once you get past the initial carnage, the league dynamic changes completely.
Putting It Into Practice: Tactical Steps
When you sit down to build your personal guillotine fantasy football rankings, don't just copy-paste a list from a major site. They are built for 12-team H2H leagues.
- Filter by Targets and Touches: Look at the last two years. Who are the players that almost never dip below 6 targets or 12 carries? Those are your Round 1-4 targets.
- Identify the "Danger Zone": Mark players who are touchdown-dependent. If a guy needs a 40-yard TD catch to have a good fantasy day (think Gabe Davis types), remove them from your top 100. They will eventually betray you.
- Check the Bye Weeks: This is a sneaky one. If you have four starters on bye in Week 9, you are going to be extremely vulnerable. Try to stagger your bye weeks more than you usually would.
- Value the "Borings": Guys like Brandin Cooks or Tyler Lockett have spent years being "boring" fantasy assets. In a guillotine league, their ability to show up and give you 9.2 points every single week is worth its weight in gold.
- Watch the Bottom 3: During the season, don't look at the top of the leaderboard. Look at the three teams at the bottom. Are you at least 15-20 points ahead of them? If not, you need to be aggressive on the waiver wire now, even if it means overspending slightly.
The strategy is simple to understand but incredibly difficult to execute because human nature wants us to "win" the week. You have to fight that urge. You aren't trying to win. You're trying to not lose.
Once you reach the final four or five teams, the game reverts back to a more traditional high-scoring sprint because everyone’s roster is loaded with superstars. But you can't win the sprint if you've already been decapitated in September.
Prioritize volume, obsess over the floor, and keep your FAAB in your pocket as long as you possibly can. That is how you dominate the guillotine format.
Go through your current rankings and highlight any player who had more than three games under 7 points last season. If they are in your top three rounds, move them down. Right now. Your survival depends on it. High-risk, high-reward is a great way to end up in the "chopped" pile before the leaves even change color. Focus on the "guaranteed" touches and let the other managers chase the ghosts of 30-point games until they inevitably hit the floor.