This blog is all about tips and strategies for winning at daily and weekly fantasy football contests. One of the major differences between daily and seasonal Fantasy Football matches is the importance of playing the matchups. You may be thinking that matchups are important in seasonal leagues and you would be right. But options are limited for seasonal players. You aren’t going to sit Julio Jones just because he is facing Darelle Revis in a matchup for your seasonal fantasy league. There the right move is almost always to play your starters.
Daily fantasy contests are a different story.
In Fanduel you get a budget to set a lineup. The key to winning is to allocate your funds in the most efficient way. In the example above a seasonal fantasy team had Julio Jones facing off against Darelle Revis (This scenario will come up twice this season as Revis has Joined the Bucs) and starting Julio despite a tough matchup. In weekly fantasy games you would be smart to avoid that matchup. Julio Jones is a top 5 reviever and since the key to weekly lineups is a smart allocation of your resources (namely your team salary cap).
If you remember back in the 2012 Fantasy Football certain defenses became known for being terrible against the run or pass. The New Orleans Saints for example were terrible against both. One of the strategies I used was to grab players going up against New Orleans whenever possible. When Denver played New Orleans, Willis McGahee, generally a middling type fantasy RB, put up a monster score. Since McGahee had a low “salary” of $6000 (in the lower range of pricing for starting RB’s many of which cost upwards of $8000 in salary cap) I was able to allocate more of the cap towards a star type player at a different position.
Daily fantasy matchups are all about allocating your resources in the most efficient way. If you stretch for an Aaron Rodgers for $9500 in salary you will need to compensate by grabbing a low cost player at another position. If Rodgers doesn’t have a monster game you are not likely to win any tournaments. That’s why its so important to constantly be on the lookout for low cost players that have a chance to deliver a high impact. Back in the 2011 season in week 17 Aaron Rodgers was set to be rested for the final game of the season. The Packers were going to start Matt Flynn. Now since Flynn was a backup player his “salary” for that week was $5000. QB’s typically range between $7500 to $9500 in salary so Flynn was a spectacular bargain. I grabbed him in about half my lineups that week. I didn’t expect him to have a huge game but for the price if he put up an average performance it would hae been worth it because the savings could be applied to stars players in other positions. Flynn put up 6TD’s that day. I would venture a guess that every tournament winner that week had him in their lineup.
Key Takeaways:
When playing in Daily Fantasy Tournaments playing the matchups is the key to getting the best bang for your salary cap buck.
A high priced star player that doesn’t deliver the big points will hamstring your team and almost certainly cause you to lose your contest so be aware.
As always when playing in weekly fantasy tournaments come up with a list of players whose matchups you like then mix and match your lineups to give yourself the highest odds of hitting on the perfect “tournament winning” lineup.
Of course the easiest way for you to identify the best matchups on a given week is to come back here to the fandueladvisor blog or follow us on twitter @ffootballgeek Each week we will be posting our FanDuel Daily Fantasy bargain finds and matchups/players we like.