Expert DRAFTing Week 17

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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.

WEEK 17 - QUICK NEWS AND NOTES

We have finally reached the end of another great season of football as this will mark the final regular season of the year. Picking players this week will be somewhat tricky as only a handful of teams have meaningful games this week and knowing what players will see more action will be even more important this week. This week all 16 games and 32 teams will be on the slate.

The popular high scoring game to target this week is going to be Arizona vs LA Rams (49.0 O/U), Atlanta vs Tampa Bay (48.0), and New Orleans vs Carolina (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 16. 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.

HEAD-TO-HEAD DRAFT RANKINGS AND STRATEGY

1. Christian McCaffrey RB1
2. Michael Thomas WR1
3. Ezekiel Elliott RB2
4. Julio Jones WR2
5. Derrick Henry RB3
6. Davante Adams WR3
7. Dak Prescott QB1
8. Jameis Winston QB2 (Mahomes/Wentz should be considered)
9. Alvin Kamara RB4
10. Keenan Allen WR4

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. Michael Thomas WR1
3. Ezekiel Elliott RB2
4. Julio Jones WR2
5. Derrick Henry RB3
6. Davante Adams WR3
7. Dak Prescott QB1
8. Jameis Winston QB2
9. Alvin Kamara RB4
10. Keenan Allen WR4
11. Miles Sanders RB5
12. Robert Woods WR5 (Check the news on Rams resting players)
13. AJ Brown WR6
14. Aaron Jones RB6
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. Michael Thomas WR1
3. Ezekiel Elliott RB2
4. Julio Jones WR2
5. Derrick Henry RB3
6. Davante Adams WR3
7. Dak Prescott QB1
8. Jameis Winston QB2
9. Alvin Kamara RB4
10. Keenan Allen WR4
11. Miles Sanders RB5
12. Leonard Fournette RB6 -- Questionable
13. Robert Woods WR5
14. AJ Brown WR6
15. Aaron Jones RB7
16. Joe Mixon RB8
17. Saquon Barkley RB9
18. Kenyan Drake RB10
19. Tyler Boyd WR7
20. Courtland Sutton WR8
21. Kenny Golladay WR9
22. Amari Cooper WR10
23. DeVante Parker WR11
24. Nick Chubb RB11
25. Tyreek Hill WR12
26. Carson Wentz QB3
27. Patrick Mahomes II QB4
28. Ryan Tannehill QB5
29. Todd Gurley RB12 (Check the news for Rams resting players)
30. Matt Ryan QB6

10-TEAM DRAFT RANKINGS AND STRATEGY

1. Christian McCaffrey RB1
2. Michael Thomas WR1
3. Ezekiel Elliott RB2
4. Julio Jones WR2
5. Derrick Henry RB3
6. Davante Adams WR3
7. Dak Prescott QB1
8. Jameis Winston QB2
9. Alvin Kamara RB4
10. Keenan Allen WR4
11. Miles Sanders RB5
12. Leonard Fournette RB6 -- Questionable
13. Robert Woods WR5
14. AJ Brown WR6
15. Aaron Jones RB7
16. Joe Mixon RB8
17. Saquon Barkley RB9
18. Kenyan Drake RB10
19. Tyler Boyd WR7
20. Courtland Sutton WR8
21. Kenny Golladay WR9
22. Amari Cooper WR10
23. DeVante Parker WR11
24. Nick Chubb RB11
25. Tyreek Hill WR12
26. Carson Wentz QB3
27. Patrick Mahomes II QB4
28. Ryan Tannehill QB5
29. Todd Gurley RB12
30. Matt Ryan QB6
31. LeVeon Bell RB13
32. Phillip Lindsay RB14
33. Breshad Perriman WR13
34. Travis Kelce TE/WR14
35. Cooper Kupp WR15
36. Jarvis Landry WR16
37. Allen Robinson WR17
38. George Kittle TE/WR18
39. Michael Gallup WR19
40. Jared Goff QB7
41. Melvin Gordon RB15
42. Austin Ekeler RB16
43. Devonta Freeman RB17
44. Sony Michel RB18
45. Ronald Jones II RB19
46. Odell Beckham WR20
47. Carlos Hyde RB20
48. Drew Brees QB8
49. Tom Brady QB9
50. Aaron Rodgers QB10

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 17 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!