Expert DRAFTing Week 5

Photo: Imagn Images

MAIN SLATE

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 5 - QUICK NEWS AND NOTES

It is Week 5 and that means we have both Miami and Detroit on bye weeks. With only two bye weeks we still have a large player pool with 12 games to choose from on the main slate. DRAFT has excluded the LA Rams vs Seattle, Indianapolis vs Kansas City, and Cleveland vs San Francisco games because they are not on the main Sunday slate. That still leaves us 12 games and 24 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 - 8-man $5 (8 max)
• First and Ten- 4-man $10 (4 max)
• Five Wide - 4-man $55 (4 max)

The popular high scoring game to target this week is going to be Atlanta vs Houston (48.5 O/U). The next two highest over/under is Arizona vs Cincinnati (48.0), and Tampa Bay vs New Orleans (47.0). 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 5. 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. Christian McCaffrey RB1
2. Ezekiel Elliott RB2
3. Dalvin Cook RB3
4. DeAndre Hopkins WR1
5. Julio Jones WR2
6. Keenan Allen WR3
7. Deshaun Watson QB1
8. Alvin Kamara RB4
9. Michael Thomas WR4
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. This week we have some high end running backs at the top of the draft so it might be ideal to try to get two early and build around them.

3-TEAM DRAFT RANKINGS AND STRATEGY

1. Christian McCaffrey RB1
2. Ezekiel Elliott RB2
3. Dalvin Cook RB3
4. Alvin Kamara RB4
5. DeAndre Hopkins WR1
6. Julio Jones WR2
7. Keenan Allen WR3
8. Mike Evans WR4
9. David Johnson RB5
10. Deshaun Watson QB1
11. Michael Thomas WR4
12. Lamar Jackson QB2
13. Amari Cooper WR5
14. Chris Godwin WR6
15. Carson Wentz 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 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. Christian McCaffrey RB1
2. Ezekiel Elliott RB2
3. Dalvin Cook RB3
4. Alvin Kamara RB4
5. DeAndre Hopkins WR1
6. Julio Jones WR2
7. Keenan Allen WR3
8. Mike Evans WR4
9. David Johnson RB5
10. Deshaun Watson QB1
11. Michael Thomas WR5
12. Lamar Jackson QB2
13. Amari Cooper WR6
14. Chris Godwin WR7
15. Leonard Fournette RB6
16. Le'Veon Bell RB7
17. Derrick Henry RB8
18. Aaron Jones RB9
19. Joe Mixon RB10
20. Julian Edelman WR8
21. Carson Wentz QB3
22. Dak Prescott QB4
23. Adam Thielen WR9
24. Tyler Boyd WR10
25. Alshon Jeffery WR11
26. Matt Ryan QB5
27. Melvin Gordon RB11
28. Austin Ekeler RB12
29. Allen Robinson WR12
30. Aaron Rodgers QB6

This week is heavy with the big names up top at running back and at wide receiver but after the top four at each position there is a pretty significant drop-off. You have your superstars in McCaffery, Elliott, Cook, and Kamara with Jones, Hopkins, Evans, and Allen also at the top.

10-TEAM DRAFT RANKINGS AND STRATEGY

1. Christian McCaffrey RB1
2. Ezekiel Elliott RB2
3. Dalvin Cook RB3
4. Alvin Kamara RB4
5. DeAndre Hopkins WR1
6. Julio Jones WR2
7. Keenan Allen WR3
8. Mike Evans WR4
9. David Johnson RB5
10. Deshaun Watson QB1
11. Michael Thomas WR5
12. Lamar Jackson QB2
13. Amari Cooper WR6
14. Chris Godwin WR7
15. Leonard Fournette RB6
16. Le'Veon Bell RB7
17. Derrick Henry RB8
18. Aaron Jones RB9
19. Joe Mixon RB10
20. Julian Edelman WR8
21. Carson Wentz QB3
22. Dak Prescott QB4
23. Adam Thielen WR9
24. Tyler Boyd WR10
25. Alshon Jeffery WR11
26. Matt Ryan QB5
27. Melvin Gordon RB11
28. Austin Ekeler RB12
29. Allen Robinson WR12
30. Aaron Rodgers QB6
31. Zach Ertz WR/TE13
32. Mark Ingram RB13
33. Devonta Freeman RB14
34. David Montgomery RB15
35. Phillip Lindsay RB16
36. Larry Fitzgerald WR14
37. JuJu Smith-Schuster WR15 -- Questionable
38. Marquez Valdes-Scantling WR16 (assuming Adams is Out)
39. James White RB17
40. Sony Michel RB18
41. Jordan Howard RB19
42. Tom Brady QB7
43. Kyler Murray QB8
44. Andy Dalton QB9
45. Evan Engram WR/TE17
46. Marquise Brown WR18
47. Stefon Diggs WR19 -- Questionable
48. Calvin Ridley WR20
49. James Conner RB20 (or J.Samuels if Conner is inactive)
50. Kirk Cousins QB19

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 5 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!