The anticipation of best ball season has lasted all offseason but with the offseason coming to a close, it is time to turn our attention toward in-season daily and weekly draft tournaments and win some money.
The NFL season kicks off with the former Super Bowl champions, Los Angeles Rams (-2.5 favorites), facing a super bowl contender, the Buffalo Bills. One thing is for certain, the NFL knew what is doing when creating the schedule. This is expected to be a great game featuring two of the best offenses in the league. Nothing brings people to their TVs more than offensive firepower (52.5 total o/u) and with the nation starved of football, there is no better time.
Lucky for us, Underdog Fantasy released multiple Thursday Night tournament options, including a $5 entry point with a $10,000 Top Prize.
Let’s dive in.
Draft Strategy for Week 1 Thursday Night Football – Bills @ Rams
It appears there is a very clear top 4 in these drafts, which makes for interesting strategy given that each draft is just 3 teams (3 team of 4 players).
It has typically been Cooper Kupp, Stefon Diggs, Gabriel Davis, and Allen Robinson off the board in some order. With only the aforementioned 3 teams in each drafts, you really need to either get a faller from that group or grab a lower probability bet to not have a duplicate lineup. Van Jefferson has not practiced and is trending toward missing week 1.
Strictly due to projection, people will gravitate to Ben Skowronek & Tutu Atwell, but people are letting the pre-season darling (and rookie), Lance McCutcheon, go undrafted in most drafts. I would like to have exposure to all three but will be consolidating more on McCutcheon.
In terms of the 3-headed committees for both backfields, I have been mixing in Zack Moss in case he does have the goal-line role that we saw some of in the preseason. Since Underdog is 0.5ppr, TDs are so important and if he gets 5 carries and 2 TDs, he could break the slate as an under-owned piece. Kyren Williams is set to be the 3rd RB for the Rams on the other side, and while he didn’t flash like Moss in the preseason, it wouldn’t be surprising if he had a role since he was held out of the Rams’ final preseason game.
Most importantly, since only 12 players are selected in total (4 per team), you want your roster to tell a story. Think about how each individual player hits their ceiling outcome and what that means for players on their team vs. the other team. For this particular game and the high over/under, there are paths that both teams are going back and forth which will involve both passing games, especially late. Or someone like Devin Singletary could be the de facto #1 with a high snap share until James Cook gets more NFL game experience under his belt.
Top Plays for Drafts
- Cooper Kupp – The WR1 in all of fantasy
- Devin Singletary – Saw his upside down the stretch last year as the lead back of this team
- Dawson Knox – Multi-TD upside and leverage off more expensive Bills receivers
- Tutu Atwell – Van Jefferson ruled out and offers the big play upside we are looking for at a cheap price
Players That Could Differentiate Your Lineup
- Devin Singletary – At his price, he makes a great pairing with Diggs, Davis, or Kupp and has workhorse upside
- Cam Akers – Projection is it is a split backfield, but McVay has typically leaned on a workhorse
- Tyler Higbee – Every snap player and red zone target
- Jamison Crowder – If he can earn slot snaps over McKenzie, he should not be going undrafted as he is
- Rams WR3 Options – Who is involved in 3WR sets without Jefferson?
- Zack Moss– If the goal line role from the preseason continues, he is a steal
- Kyren Williams – Does he get a role with the camp injuries to Akers and Henderson?
