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DRAFT offers weekly snake draft contests with 5-man rosters (1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR/TE) with 0.5-point PPR scoring (the same as FanDuel). There is no salary cap on DRAFT which makes it unique to how you play compared to the other daily fantasy sites. Teams are built through live snake drafts that have 30-second timer per pick. The most common contest sizes are Head-to-Head, 3-Team, 6-Team, and 10-Team.
We will explore both the rankings and draft strategies for each of these four DRAFT sizes. To understand why players are ranked where they are, be sure to check out the overall rankings where I will have in-depth breakdowns of some of the top options and some personal favorites down the list. When developing these rankings we will be excluding the Thursday Night games and only focus on the main slate on DRAFT, the Sunday and Monday games.
If you want to follow me on DRAFT my username is "Eaglezzz" as I sometimes will post contests and would love to play along with fellow Footballguys like yourselves. Please feel free to contact me on Twitter with any questions or if you would like to discuss this article or draft strategies. I welcome constructive feedback on the article and as always best of luck in this week's contests.
WEEK 5 - QUICK NEWS AND NOTES
We have come to our second week where we have teams on bye weeks which this week we only have two with Chicago and Tampa Bay but it is something to monitor as it cuts into the player pool and might make certain positions even more valuable while drafting. Another critical area to look at is injuries as the weeks go by and in Week 4 they are starting to pile up. We have big names such as Joe Mixon, Giovani Bernard, Dalvin Cook, Devonta Freeman, Lamar Miller, and Alex Collins all at running back that have their questionable status up in the air. At wide receiver we also have some question marks now with Will Fuller, Davante Adams, Sammy Watkins, and Corey Davis. These are all big names to watch as we go into the weekend and with only having to roster five players it makes it hard to draft these guys with comparable options out there. It is almost better to see your opponents selecting these players with the questionable tag as it could give you a slight edge on the week.
The popular high scoring games to target this week are going to be Atlanta vs Pittsburgh (57.5 O/U), Oakland vs LA Chargers (53.5 O/U), Washington vs New Orleans (52.5 O/U), and LA Rams vs Seattle (50.0 O/U). It will be hard to not focus only on the Atlanta vs Pittsburgh game as there are so many big name players in that game and the over/under is so high. Whenever you are in position to choose between two players you feel have similar upside you might just want to choose the one that is from one of these four games as they all seem to ones that will have some high scores and lots of fantasy points from all the star players involved.
HEAD-TO-HEAD DRAFT RANKINGS AND STRATEGY
- Todd Gurley RB1
- Melvin Gordon RB2
- Alvin Kamara RB3
- Julio Jones WR1
- Antonio Brown WR2
- Christian McCaffrey RB4
- Michael Thomas WR3
- DeAndre Hopkins WR4
- Matt Ryan QB1
- Ben Roethlisberger QB2
For a head-to-head contest you need to look for the top 2 quarterbacks, 4 running backs, and 4 wide receivers/tight ends - For a total of 10 players. The main key to look at when drafting in H2H contests is to know what your opponent is doing. You want to watch if he takes WR/WR to start out the draft you know that you can draft your WR positions with your last two picks. Same goes if he drafts a QB or RB/RB, you know that you can leverage that information and wait at those positions.
In H2H drafts I typically come in with a game plan and like to stick closely to it, and let the other drafter I am up against decide what type of team I will build depending on their picks. Often times you will find others that like to draft their favorite team, maybe they just follow DRAFT's own projections/ADP and stick to those numbers just going down the list. I feel like this week you can almost just go with any of the top running backs with your first pick and follow it up with WR/RB depending on who you like with your top four picks and just take whatever quarterback is left out of Ryan or Roethlisberger with your last pick.
3-TEAM DRAFT RANKINGS AND STRATEGY
- Todd Gurley RB1
- Melvin Gordon RB2
- Alvin Kamara RB3
- Julio Jones WR1
- Antonio Brown WR2
- Christian McCaffrey RB4
- Saquon Barkley RB5
- Michael Thomas WR3
- DeAndre Hopkins WR4
- Odell Beckham WR5
- Matt Ryan QB1
- Ben Roethlisberger QB2
- Keenan Allen WR6
- Ezekiel Elliott RB6
- Cam Newton QB3
For the 3-man contests, you will need to look at ranking 15 total players consisting of 3 quarterbacks, 6 running backs, and 6 wide receivers/tight ends. The priority here is the RB and WR spots as quarterbacks will often fall and getting either Matt Ryan or Ben Roethlisberger (or even Cam Newton) at the end of the draft is a win.
The best advice for drafting in 3-mans would be to come up with your solid 15 player ranking list that you feel most comfortable with and don't get frustrated if the top players that you have on that list get taken right before your pick. If you have picks 1.01 or 1.03 you will be picking at the turn and can have an advantage in following your league mates roster construction closely and be able to know when to take certain positions or if you wanted to stack players you will have an easier time doing so with back to back picks.
6-TEAM DRAFT RANKINGS AND STRATEGY
- Todd Gurley RB1
- Melvin Gordon RB2
- Alvin Kamara RB3
- Julio Jones WR1
- Antonio Brown WR2
- Christian McCaffrey RB4
- Saquon Barkley RB5
- Ezekiel Elliott RB6
- Michael Thomas WR3
- DeAndre Hopkins WR4
- Odell Beckham WR5
- Keenan Allen WR6
- James Conner RB7
- David Johnson RB8
- Matt Ryan QB1
- Adam Thielen WR7
- Ben Roethlisberger QB2
- Davante Adams WR8
- Kareem Hunt RB9
- Cam Newton QB3
- TJ Yeldon RB10
- AJ Green WR9
- JuJu Smith-Schuster WR10
- Marshawn Lynch RB11
- Jared Goff QB4
- Carlos Hyde RB12
- Stefon Diggs WR11
- Philip Rivers QB5
- Golden Tate WR12
- Aaron Rodgers QB6
Just like every week the running back position is the one you want to pound early hoping that you can land one of the top three backs in Gurley, Gordon, and Kamara and build your team from there. This week also has two big name wide receivers in Julio Jones and Antonio Brown that you don't want to avoid at the end of the first round. The next three running back in Christian McCaffrey, Saquon Barkley, and Ezekiel Elliott are all excellent plays as well and you really can't go wrong with any of them. It seems to be a week with six really good choices at running back and two elite choices at the wide receiver position.
If I am picking at the turn I would be thrilled to land a pair of those top six running backs and almost think that gives you an advantage over the competition. I don't like the running backs after James Conner or David Johnson as I think there is a major drop off and not many stand out above the rest as you can almost lump RB9-RB20 together. The wide receiver spot is much different as there are several options at the end of the 6-man or 10-man drafts that you would feel good about. Looking at names such as Davante Adams, AJ Green, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Stefon Diggs, or a Golden Tate make for much better plays than having to rely on the likes of Hunt, Yeldon, Lynch, or Hyde at the running back position. As for quarterbacks I think you can wait again this week (like most weeks) as you have Matt Ryan and Ben Roethlisberger at the top but it doesn't matter which one you land really and if you miss out on them you still have options with Cam Newton, Jared Goff, Philip Rivers, and Aaron Rodgers all in good spots this week.
10-TEAM DRAFT RANKINGS AND STRATEGY
- Todd Gurley RB1
- Melvin Gordon RB2
- Alvin Kamara RB3
- Julio Jones WR1
- Antonio Brown WR2
- Christian McCaffrey RB4
- Saquon Barkley RB5
- Ezekiel Elliott RB6
- Michael Thomas WR3
- DeAndre Hopkins WR4
- Odell Beckham WR5
- Keenan Allen WR6
- James Conner RB7
- David Johnson RB8
- Matt Ryan QB1
- Adam Thielen WR7
- Ben Roethlisberger QB2
- Davante Adams WR8 (Questionable)
- Kareem Hunt RB9
- Cam Newton QB3
- TJ Yeldon RB10
- AJ Green WR9
- JuJu Smith-Schuster WR10
- Marshawn Lynch RB11
- Jared Goff QB4
- Carlos Hyde RB12
- Stefon Diggs WR11
- Philip Rivers QB5
- Aaron Jones RB13
- Golden Tate WR12
- Aaron Rodgers QB6
- Jarvis Landry WR13
- Tyreek Hill WR14
- Matthew Stafford QB7
- Amari Cooper WR15 (Questionable)
- Brandin Cooks WR16
- Chris Thompson RB14
- Cooper Kupp WR17
- Robert Woods WR18
- Deshaun Watson QB8
- Joe Mixon RB15 (Questionable)
- Calvin Ridley WR19
- Drew Brees QB9
- Matt Breida RB16 (Questionable)
- Bilal Powell RB17
- Jay Ajayi RB18
- Lamar Miller RB19 (Questionable)
- LeSean McCoy RB20
- Corey Davis WR20
- Carson Wentz QB10
10-man contest become more and more difficult as bye weeks and injuries start to pile up and in Week 5 we are dealing with both of those issues. The drop off is bigger than normal at the running back position so you are going to want to make sure you have that position filled by the end of round three if possible. At wide receiver you can always seem to be able to find value late in these drafts so choosing a second receiver over your second running back seems foolish in the 10-man format. Also look to pair your final receiver spot with a quarterback in the last round to give your team a little boost.
Stacking is something you will want to look at in these 10-man leagues as you will be looking for advantages to put up big points and get on top of the leaderboard. You can look to stack a QB/WR from the same team or if you are attacking a certain game you can try to draft players from both teams. In the 10-man leagues, you are shooting to win it of course but these leagues offer top-3 prizes to land in the money. Even finishing in third place out of 10 teams can be a very profitable outcome so building a team with a high floor with a couple of high ceiling type players and a possible stack can help you get there.
Best of luck in this week's DRAFT's!