Building A Winner 8.25

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

• The Week 8 main slate is another 10-gamer with six teams on bye. Seven games will kick off in the early window, and three will kick off later in the afternoon. There are six home teams favored by six points or more and the Bills are 7.0 point favorites on the road in Carolina. That leaves only three games projected to be decided by fewer than six points:
  • 49ers (19.75) at Texans (22.25)
  • Buccaneers (25.0) at Saints (21.5) 
  • Cowboys (23.75) at Broncos (27.25)
• Several of the teams playing as large favorites have really strong RB options that can be considered for this week’s FD lineups, including two elite backs priced above $10k, two more priced in the low $8k range, and the slate’s most popular cheap RB option. There are also some strong RBs playing on the road and in the closer-projected games.
• The starting point for my SE/3-Max rosters this week is all about the RB position. I’ll go into greater detail on some of the strong plays and possible ownership angles below, but there are so many strong plays to account for. It will be important this week to be aware of who you are NOT playing in that specific lineup, so you can consider accounting for their team’s scoring in different ways by playing one of their pass-catching teammates or their team’s D/ST. Playing a Colts WR, TE,  or their D/ST in a lineup without JT, for example.

Running Back Approach