Daily Fantasy Sports
Sharp App
Season Long Fantasy
Free Month
Wall of Champions
Discord

DFS Army Head to Head Basic Strategy Primer for NFL DFS on Draft

Head to Head Basic Strategy Primer by UW81

 Welcome to the DFS Army Head to Head strategy and primer. Play Draft specializes in two formats for NFL: Snake and Dream Team. This article is primarily going to cover head to head snake drafting strategies but know that there are also 3-man, 6 man, and 10-man variants available.

Not a member of PlayDraft yet? Join today through this link and get a free $3 entry!

Quick tips to know:

Scoring: It’s identical to Fan Duel.  What does that mean to the DFS Army? You can use our custom projections to help you make draft selections and set up your strategy. Our NFL Research Station by position will help you decide who to pick and why.

Format: Teams consist of exactly 1x QB, 2x RB, and 2x WB/TE. That’s it.

Pre-Draft Rankings: They are terrible. Do yourself a favor and set your pre-draft rankings as a backup in case you miss a scheduled draft. You never if you’re going to lose WIFI, have a bad signal, phone dies, etc. This site will auto draft for you if you don’t make a pick within 60 seconds. The pre-generated list of auto draft player rankings is not done very well. Plus, as a bonus, if your opponent gets tossed on auto draft, you’ll be able to take advantage and pick around what’s auto-generated.

Head to Head specific: Remember, you’re playing against one other person. There are no salaries which means there is no specific DFS value like on FD or DK. This means you’re picking plays based on a high floor and high ceiling, and you should put together a top-tier team every draft. In theory, you’re going to be picking between:

  • The top 2 QBs of the week
  • Top 4 RB of the week
  • Top 4 Receivers of the week

Not a member of PlayDraft yet? Join today through this link and get a free $3 entry!

Draft order specific advice:

Picking First:

Select the highest projected player of the slate that is a RB or WR. Never pick a QB first.

But why UW81? Aaron Rodgers is in the perfect spot? It doesn’t matter. The point differential between Aaron Rodgers and the next best option in any given week isn’t going to be big enough to create an edge. However, the difference between the #1 and #4 RB or WR is a huge difference.

Opposites strategy:

If you pick first and grab a WR, and your opponent drafts a RB with the second pick and a RB with the third pick, you should always draft a second WR and a QB. Here’s Why: Since your opponent already took two RB and he can only have exactly two RBs, they can’t ever pick up another RB leaving whoever you want to get wide open for your last picks.

Conversely, if you decide to not pick up a WR and QB in this scenario and instead pick up a RB as well, you’re giving your opponent the opportunity to draft a better QB and WR for free.

This is the same for the opposite Scenario. You grab a RB first, your opponent goes 2x WR, grab a QB and another RB with your pick 4 and 5.

If your opponent goes QB/RB or QB/WR, pick up a RB and WR on turn 4 and 5. Like the scenarios above, QB is locked out for your opponent now, moving QB priority for you to dead last because he can’t pick up a second QB at any point.

Want to try a free month of DFS Army VIP Membership? Learn how here!

Picking Second:

This is by far my preferred drafting position. Depending on what your opponent does in the first pick, you’re guaranteed a top pick in either RB or WR next. If they decide to grab a QB first (and people do), you get both #1 players in picks two and three.

Pick a RB and WR nearly 99% of the time. This gives you the highest value bar none on paper. You’re not giving your opponent any advantage because you haven’t locked out a position forcing them to decide on what to fill and close out first. Do they grab a QB in pick 4 or 5? Great now that’s your last pick. Do they lock our RB or WR? Awesome, you pick their opposite forcing them to get the 4th best option in either slot.

A note on Stacking: While stacking in DFS makes the most sense, stacking in a 5-player head to head matchup can and will often be a bad idea. Think of it. If you pick up Jordy Nelson and Aaron Rodgers, 40% of your team is dependent on one offense in one game. In cash games, we’re looking to maximize our floor by spreading the love around to multiple high point games, especially since there are a ton of players at all positions in great spots, every week. I’m not saying to never stack, but you’re taking an unnecessary risk when doing it. Speaking on this thread:

Pick up their targets if they are in a good spot: Did your opponent pick up Aaron Rodgers in the first round? Great, pick up Jordy Nelson in the second. It forces a negative correlation for your opponent in that for every pass he completes to Jordy, you’re offsetting his points. Plus, QBs have ways of getting negative points in a hurry whereas receivers, not as much.

 Not a member of PlayDraft yet? Join today through this link and get a free $3 entry!

One last specific juicy tip: You can take advantage of specific team synergies to wreck your opponent. A great example is the Steelers. Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell are both dynamic, top tier picks. But on a 5-person team, you don’t really want both on your roster. So, if your opponent picks up Bell with the first pick, you can safely leave Brown to your last pick. Either way, you win: You get Brown as your last pick or your opponent stacks 2 negatively correlated players on their team, exposing 40% of their lineup to one offense, and leaves you wide open to grab players in similar, if not better spots.

Join the DFS Army

Do you want access to the most advanced Daily Fantasy Sports tools and content in the industry? How about the chance to talk player picks and lineups with our DFS Pros, Coaches, and like-minded players? DFS Army VIP Members get all of that PLUS access to our best in the industry projections and optimization tools. Go to DFS Army VIP membership and join the Army today!  You won’t find a better deal or a better DFS team to join!

Want to try a free month of DFS Army VIP Membership? Learn how here!