Expert DRAFTing Week 3

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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, Sunday Night, and Monday Night games and only focus on the main slate on DRAFT, which is the Sunday games.

WEEK 3 - QUICK NEWS AND NOTES

It is Week 3 and that means we have no bye weeks and a loaded player pool with 13 games to choose from on the main slate. DRAFT has excluded the Tennessee vs Jacksonville, LA Rams vs Cleveland, and Chicago vs Washington games because they are not on the main Sunday slate. That still leaves us 13 games and 26 teams worth of players to choose from this week. This will be a good week to try all the different sized formats on DRAFT and to play in the four different tournament options that they have available.

• Third and Short - 6-man $3 (6 max)
• Hype Train - 6-man $5 (6 max)
• First and Ten- 4-man $10 (4 max)
• Five Wide - 5-man $55 (5 max)

The popular high scoring game to target this week is going to be Baltimore vs Kansas City (55.0 O/U). The next highest over/under is NY Giants vs Tampa Bay (48.0) which is a full touchdown of the total lower. Whenever you are in a position to choose between two players you feel have similar upside you might just want to choose the one that is from the highest total on the week as they all seem to ones that will have some high scores and lots of fantasy points from all the star players involved.

The running back and wide receiver depth this week is strong so you might not see as much edge in the smaller sized leagues such as H2H, 3-man, or 4-man. Anything above a 4-man I feel like you can use your rankings and draft skills to give you a nice edge over your competition in Week 3. Even in H2H, 3-man, and 4-man you will always have others that will just side with DRAFT's projections and you can use that to your advantage.

Injuries are more in play now with players getting banged up after two weeks of action. You will want to be monitoring news leading up to kickoff and be ready for any last minute swaps if necessary.

HEAD-TO-HEAD DRAFT RANKINGS AND STRATEGY

1. Ezekiel Elliott RB1
2. Patrick Mahomes II QB1
3. Christian McCaffrey RB2
4. Saquon Barkley RB3
5. DeAndre Hopkins WR1
6. Julio Jones WR2
7. Keenan Allen WR3
8. Dalvin Cook RB4 (also consider Kamara/Ekeler/Bell)
9. Davante Adams WR4 (Michael Thomas)
10. Lamar Jackson 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 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 you will find others that like to draft their favorite team, maybe they just follow DRAFT's 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. This week at quarterback I think Patrick Mahomes II is the top pick at the position and I would consider taking him first overall in a head to head format but I find it hard to not lock in Elliott at running back against the Dolphins.

I feel like Elliott and Mahomes are obvious picks at the top and even McCaffrey and Barkley fall nicely right behind them. If you feel like you want to lock in Mahomes I can see that but even if you miss out on him you can look to Lamar Jackson in the same game with almost the same upside.

3-TEAM DRAFT RANKINGS AND STRATEGY

1. Ezekiel Elliott RB1
2. Patrick Mahomes II QB1
3. Christian McCaffrey RB2
4. Saquon Barkley RB3
5. Dalvin Cook RB4
6. DeAndre Hopkins WR1
7. Julio Jones WR2
8. Keenan Allen WR3
9. Alvin Kamara RB5
10. Davante Adams WR4
11. Michael Thomas WR5
12. Lamar Jackson QB2
13. Travis Kelce WR/TE6 (or Hilton/Evans/Cooper)
14. Austin Ekeler RB6 (or Bell)
15. Dak Prescott 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 Deshaun Watson or Lamar Jackson at the end of the draft is still 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

1. Ezekiel Elliott RB1
2. Patrick Mahomes II QB1
3. Christian McCaffrey RB2
4. Saquon Barkley RB3
5. Dalvin Cook RB4
6. DeAndre Hopkins WR1
7. Julio Jones WR2
8. Keenan Allen WR3
9. Alvin Kamara RB5
10. Austin Ekeler RB6
11. Davante Adams WR4
12. Michael Thomas WR5
13. Lamar Jackson QB2
14. Travis Kelce WR/TE6
15. LeVeon Bell RB7
16. Dak Prescott QB3
17. Chris Carson RB8
18. TY Hilton WR7
19. Mike Evans WR8
20. Amari Cooper WR9
21. Aaron Jones RB9
22. Sammy Watkins WR10
23. Sony Michel RB10
24. Deshaun Watson QB4
25. Zach Ertz WR/TE11
26. David Johnson RB11
27. Mark Ingram RB12
28. Kenny Golladay WR12
29. Matt Ryan QB5
30. Carson Wentz 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 backs this week in Elliott, McCaffrey, Barkley, or Cook and build your team from there. The top four backs stick out this week and getting a top-four pick looks to be of benefit this week as you can lock anyone of them up and feel good about the start of your draft.

Alvin Kamara has dropped out of that elite tier now with Drew Brees on the shelf for a few weeks as we don't quite know what to expect from the offense. The wide receiver position looks to be the toughest to fill this week as there is not a clear top play as all the elite wide receivers look to be clustered together this week. My main advice this week would be to go heavy on the running backs with your first and second picks and if Mahomes or Jackson is available at quarterback you might want to consider them and build around them.

The key this week will be going heavy on the running backs earlier so you don't have to deal with the uncertainty at the position at the end of your draft. I think by round 3 this week in 6-mans I will want to have a pair of running backs and hopefully either Mahomes or Jackson at quarterback and see what is left at wide receiver in the last two rounds.

10-TEAM DRAFT RANKINGS AND STRATEGY

1. Ezekiel Elliott RB1
2. Patrick Mahomes II QB1
3. Christian McCaffrey RB2
4. Saquon Barkley RB3
5. Dalvin Cook RB4
6. DeAndre Hopkins WR1
7. Julio Jones WR2
8. Keenan Allen WR3
9. Alvin Kamara RB5
10. Austin Ekeler RB6
11. Davante Adams WR4
12. Michael Thomas WR5
13. Lamar Jackson QB2
14. Travis Kelce WR/TE6
15. LeVeon Bell RB7
16. Dak Prescott QB3
17. Chris Carson RB8
18. TY Hilton WR7
19. Mike Evans WR8
20. Amari Cooper WR9
21. Aaron Jones RB9
22. Sammy Watkins WR10
23. Sony Michel RB10
24. Deshaun Watson QB4
25. Zach Ertz WR/TE11
26. David Johnson RB11
27. Mark Ingram RB12
28. Kenny Golladay WR12
29. Tyler Lockett WR13
30. Marlon Mack RB13
31. Adam Thielen WR14
32. Phillip Lindsay RB14
33. Chris Godwin WR15
34. Devonta Freeman RB15
35. Tyler Boyd WR16
36. Calvin Ridley WR17
37. DJ Moore WR18
38. Kerryon Johnson RB16
39. James Conner RB17 QUESTIONABLE
40. Joe Mixon RB18
41. Stefon Diggs WR19
42. Matt Ryan QB5
43. Josh Jacobs RB19
44. Carson Wentz QB6
45. Josh Allen QB7
46. Jameis Winston QB8
47. Russell Wilson QB9
48. Christian Kirk WR20 (or Kittle/Fitzgerald/J.Brown/A.Brown/Edelman)
49. Matt Breida RB20 (or White/Barber/D.Williams/Drake)
50. Tom Brady QB10 (or Rodgers/Murray/Stafford/Garoppolo)

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-three 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.

The 10-mans are always full of quality players even in the last couple of rounds at the start of the season. There are more games to choose from, players are healthy, and we have known the news for weeks leading up to the games. Week 3 is a great time to play 10-man drafts as you can find an edge in the 31-50 player rankings and find that perfect QB/WR stack you like to take you over the top.

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.

As always best of luck in this week's DRAFTs!