Building a winner 2.25

Tony focuses his DFS play on FanDuel single-entry and 3-max contests. He thrives in unique formats and positional twists, always looking for hidden edges that others overlook

This article is designed to complement Mike’s weekly Fanduel Player Grid and other OWS Fanduel scroll content by giving you my view on the slate from my perspective as a Fanduel player who focuses on smaller-field, SE/3-max types of tournaments. My usual process is to build a handful of unique lineups for these types of contests each slate and a majority of my weekly DFS bankroll is dedicated to them.

As you will see as you go through the article, based on the week at hand, I find what I think is the critical starting point I want to use for my rosters. This could be a certain game environment, a specific position or positional dynamics, extreme chalk pieces, or low-owned stacks that I am interested in. Each week is unique, so the “Starting Point” for each week will be dynamic and the rest of my thoughts will build from there, helping you see how I am building my lineups and allowing you to form your own thoughts.

Starting Point

• Adding some of the elite NFL offenses (and QBs) to this week’s player pool is my first thought to consider as I start to build my main FD rosters for the week. We head into Week 2 with tighter pricing overall and more expensive star power to spend our funds on but there is still plenty of value to be had this week, especially at WR, and several ways to build strong teams that have paths to first-place finishes.
  • Adding teams like the Bills, Eagles, and Ravens to this week’s player pool now gives us access to three of the top four dual-threat QBs who were usually among the top passers drafted in fantasy leagues this summer. These are a few of the true difference-makers in fantasy football and they are logically the three most expensive QB options available this week. They should each be among the handful of highest-owned QBs on the slate with Lamar Jackson projecting to be the most-rostered QB by the field.
  • The Bills and Ravens, off of their legendary SNF game where they combined for an incredible 81 real-life points, have not been repriced to reflect Week 1 fantasy scoring or real-life usage. This is most impactful at WR, where the top-two fantasy scoring WRs from Week 1, Zay Flowers ($6,300) and Keon Coleman ($5,300), should be among the most-rostered players at the position this week. This will be especially true amongst their WR peers in similar price ranges.
  • The Eagles played in last week’s season opener. That game saw little passing volume for their WRs, causing some decreased prices in that group. Now, TE Dallas Goedert is slated to miss the week, which should afford star WRs A.J. Brown ($7,500) and DeVonta Smith ($6,400) considerably more opportunities than their four combined targets earned last week.
• There are simply more star players on this slate than last week, especially at QB. There are some fine lower-cost QB options and certainly some other game stacks that I’m interested in, but any of the big three QBs could end up being the guy you had to have on FD this week.

Running Back Approach