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This season, FanDuel kicked off its NFL contests with a new format called "FanDuel Mini." In a Mini NFL contest, you pick five players - one quarterback, two running backs, and two wide receivers (tight end included). FanDuel Mini comes in two styles, Mini and Mini Unlimited. In the standard FanDuel Mini contest, you just have to pick five players and stay within the salary cap ($60,000). It is similar to the regular FanDuel contest but just a smaller version with five players instead of nine players. In a Mini Unlimited contest, every player is priced so that there are no salary cap restrictions, so you can roster any combination of players you want. 

The lobby is loaded with Mini games at all different price points and there is also a free Mini game called "FanDuel Golden 5" which you can enter each week to try to chase the week's perfect starting 5 lineup. Each week, the grand prize will increase by $20,000 until it's claimed, then it starts over at $20,000. FanDuel will award whatever cash is remaining on Week 17 to that week's top finisher - which will make for a guaranteed season-long payout of $340,000. 

WEEK 6 FANDUEL MINI - REVIEW

Anyone can pick the top projected players each week at each position, but that would have landed you with a Week 6 team of Tom Brady (17.18), LeVeon Bell (26.60), Kareem Hunt (13.50), DeAndre Hopkins (8.90), and Antonio Brown (25.50). These contests are run on the Sunday only main slate and do not include Thursday or Monday Night games. The key is to be able to think outside of the box and find the players that are in good matchups and mix them in with one or two star players on the week. Tom Brady was clearly one of the top choices at quarterback and he came through with 17.18 points and finished as the 8th best quarterback on the week. This week there was no QB/WR stack that ended up in the winning lineup. Antonio Brown was the only projected top scorer that found his way onto the winning lineup as he finished with 25.50 points thanks to a late touchdown reception.

WEEK 7 - PROJECTIONS (DAVID DODDS)

Looking ahead to Week 7, we will use Dodds projections to see what players will likely be the highest owned in this type of format. In order to win one of these FanDuel Mini games, you are going to have to identify 1-3 of the top projected players from all the positions and likely pair them with a few lesser obvious plays. After six weeks we already see that there is a trend that you want to have a quarterback and stack him with one of his wide receivers and build around that. In Week 6 that trend actually didn't come true with Kirk Cousins as the top quarterback but not one of his wide receivers at the top. 

TOP QB/WR STACKS FOR FANDUEL MINI - WEEK 7

• Case Keenum and Adam Thielen, Minnesota Vikings
• Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown, Pittsburgh Steelers
• Tom Brady and Brandin Cooks (Rob Gronkowski, Chris Hogan), New England Patriots
• Drew Brees and Michael Thomas, New Orleans Saints
• Carson Palmer and Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona Cardinals
• Philip Rivers and Keenan Allen, Los Angeles Chargers
• Dak Prescott and Dez Bryant, Dallas Cowboys
• Brett Hundley and Jordy Nelson (Davante Adams), Green Bay Packers
• Russell Wilson and Doug Baldwin, Seattle Seahawks
• Matt Ryan and Julio Jones, Atlanta Falcons
• Andy Dalton and A.J. Green, Cincinnati Bengals
• Trevor Siemian and Demaryius Thomas, Denver Broncos
• Cam Newton and Kelvin Benjamin (Devin Funchess), Carolina Panthers

It will be hard to throw in a single entry into these Mini contests as there will be so many options that you will want to use to help you cover all your bases. I like trying to narrow it down to your favorite stacks on the week and playing those. You are going to want a QB/WR combo in your lineup and another option would be to stack the team's opposing WR with your QB/WR combo. For example this week you could look at a Tom Brady/Rob Gronkowski/Julio Jones stack or switch it up with Matt Ryan/Julio Jones/Rob Gronkowski. You could also do the same with the Arizona against LA Rams game which has a close point spread and one of the higher over/unders with 47.5 points. That would cover three out of five positions for your team and you would have to look at plugging in a pair of running backs to complete your roster. For choosing my running backs I want a combination of someone who has a high projection for the week but also someone that has already shown that they will get a high volume of touches (rushing attempts + receptions).

RUNNING BACK VOLUME

With both Ezekiel Elliott and LeSean McCoy on bye this week the focus for chasing volume running backs will be on LeVeon Bell, Todd Gurley, Leonard Fournette, LeSean McCoy, Melvin Gordon, and Jordan Howard. These six guys need to be mixed and matched in your lineups this week as they are seeing more volume than any other running backs in the league. The tricky spot is with Melvin Gordon in a tough spot against the Broncos defense but his volume and production has been skyrocketing of late. If you want to dig a little deeper you could also think about using Carlos Hyde against the Cowboys who is predicted to have a big role this week and will be much lesser owned than any of the first six names that I mentioned. Remember to be different when constructing your FanDuel Mini lineups and try to think outside the box. Maybe for this week you want to fade the Matt Ryan and Julio Jones stack and plug in Devonta Freeman instead. In this type of format those are the kind of plays that could win you a big payday.

Don't for get to take your Free shot at "FanDuel Golden 5" contest for Week 7 and chase the $140,000 perfect lineup. The other main contest that should get your attention is the $15,000 Fumblerooski that is a $2 entry fee and has a first place prize of $1,500.

Best of Luck in your Week 7 DFS contest!