Mike Johnson (MJohnson86) has racked up nearly $500,000 in DFS profit as an NFL tournament player with success in all styles of contests
The whole idea behind this piece of content is that it is unique. Specific content and strategies for the “non-main slate” contests are very rare in the DFS industry and most players who enter them are casual players or doing so on a whim after their main slate entries have had things go wrong and they want something to root for or to chase their losses during the late games. Edges are getting harder and harder to find in DFS as information gets better, projections get sharper, and the field gets more experienced. These smaller slates present a clear opportunity for an advantage for those who focus on them, as most players will just take their thoughts from the main slate and approach these lineups the same way, without considering how much having seven to nine fewer games (depending on the week) changes the strategy. The biggest win of my career came on an “Afternoon Only” slate in January of 2021, and I once again posted the highest score of the “Afternoon Only” slate in Week 15 of 2024, while being in contention late into the slate several times each season. I hope to share some of my insights on the format to help you attack this niche corner of NFL DFS, and have OWS flags littering the leaderboards on this awesome slate.
The NFL took the fun away already, shortening the Week 2 Afternoon slate to only three games after last week’s awesome slate of four. I always prefer four to six game slates, but these shorter slates are still fun. The biggest difference in these smaller slates is the fact that it is far easier and more likely for a team to have four or five players in the winning lineup. If one game goes nuts, or two of the games are total duds, things really escalate quickly in terms of the one optimal game having more players who separate.
Finding ways to get creative on these slates can be a fun exercise that can help you evaluate game environments for the Main Slate as well. Pairing defenses with players from the same team, playing a defense against primary players from the other team, playing multiple primary pass catchers without their quarterback, and finding the cheap player who doesn’t see much volume but hits for a big play are all quick ways to differentiate yourself in large field tournaments where so many rosters will be built in similar ways.
Quarterback is always an important position, but that importance goes to another level on these small slates. There are two main reasons for this. First, on average, QBs obviously score the most points of any position and we can only start one of them. Second, as noted above, correlation is even more important as the slates get smaller and there are fewer scoring opportunities to go around. By choosing the right quarterback, you are also increasing the chances that you are right at two other positions. Again, the shorter slate condenses the scoring across all lineups, making each position more vital to separating and giving yourself a chance to win. This is why quarterback strategy has its own section:
