Week 6 is in the books, and we saw some of the most popular games really disappoint fantasy wise. The Bills/Chiefs game sort of got there in the end, but it was the Joe Burrow/Ja’Marr Chase stack that took down the big bucks in Battle Royale and Snake Draft tournaments.
For Week 7, Underdog Fantasy continues to give us a several different tournament options, with their main contest being $250,000 in total prizes and $50,000 to 1st Place. They have several other additional tournaments, and even a more cash game style contest with a “double up”.
Drafters Fantasy posted nearly $10,000 in total prizes for their Snake Draft tournaments for Week 7, including 2 QB tournaments and “winner moves on” tournaments starting this week.
There are also some Sit n Go options on DraftKings.
The goal of this article is to talk through strategy and ways to attack these specific snake draft style tournaments. By now most people are award of Daily Fantasy (DFS), and of course traditional season long snake drafts. But this is the first year we are getting truly huge in-season, weekly and daily snake drafts that are the perfect combination of the two.
If you are looking for rankings for these contests, we’ve got you covered there too. You can check out our Main Slate Draft Rankings or our Showdown/Single Game Draft Rankings to get a sense of some of the top plays and positional priorities. If you combine them with these strategy articles, our goal is that you’ll be able to put together drafts that give you a huge leg up on your competition who is probably not draft completely optimally for these types of tournaments.
Let’s get it.
Week 7 Snake Draft & Battle Royale General Strategy & Top Plays
The first thing to consider, by far, in these drafts is not just “who you like” or “who projects the best”, but how our opponents are handling the week in terms of ADP. There are only 36 players drafted in every draft, and so that means a HUGE percentage of the player pool goes undrafted most of the time. But many of these are still really quality options with upside, so we need to consider what is the best way for us to beat thousands of other teams that drafted VERY similar combinations.
*Note that Underdog also launched a 12 person Battle Royale draft – called the Goal Line Stand – which is still 6 players for each team, but obviously doubles the amount of players drafted. The exact players will change in that contest, but the strategy remains the same. Additionally, I increased our weekly rankings from a top 40 to top 60 to account for this contest and Drafters tournaments.*
Particularly on Underdog, you’re going to need to nail basically your entire roster for that week. You may not need the absolute perfect lineup in every tournament, but at least in their big $5 Battle Royale with more than 50,000 entries, you have to navigate your way to the nearly optimal lineup most weeks. However, most of the field is still drafting off ADP for the entire 6 round draft, meaning that there are so many players being drafted in nearly every draft, while so many other players (including plenty of quality options) are being undrafted.
Top Plays
Leonard Fournette – The Bucs inexplicably went run heavy against an XFL caliber Steelers secondary with a rash of injuries, but we saw another insane workload from Fournette. He is ceding some work to Rachaad White, but there’s so much go around in this backfield that he’s still one of the most elite RB fantasy options week in and week out. The Panthers, his Week 7 opponent, are in a state of total meltdown right now, and that helps Lenny become our 5th overall player this week.
Josh Jacobs – His ADP is about right, but Jacobs is still a player I want heavy exposure to this week. He’s taken over the Raiders backfield with dominant performances in the last two weeks, totaling 298 rushing yarrds and 70 receiving yards with 3 touchdowns. Now he’s fresh off a bye and squaring off with the lowly Houston Texans. He’s in competition to be the top back of the week.
Undervalued & Overvalued Players
David Njoku – Njoku actually leads all TEs in receiving yards over the last 4 weeks, and yet no one is treating him like a near elite TE option. Andrews and Kelce are our top two overall players, but they are drafted as such, so if you are unable to get them, Njoku is the most undervalued TE on the board.
Mike Evans – Mike Evans is a great talent, but there’s no reason he should be even a top 20 selection this week (ADP currently 16.6 on Underdog). He is not a target hog in the Bucs offense, and he draws a matchup with a Panthers secondary that’s actually quite talented despite their team being a disaster. He’s not even the lead receiver for the team (Chris Godwin), and we have him ranked more than 10 spots below his ADP.
Top Stacks
Kansas City Chiefs – The 49ers defense is all sorts of banged up right now, and they just got dominated by the Atlanta Falcons. Heck, they even gave up a touchdown to Kyle Pitts! Mahomes should be in for a big week if the Niners can’t get healthy in a hurry, and outside of Kelce this stack is not too difficult to get in drafts.
Baltimore Ravens – The Ravens are right there with the Chiefs as the clear cut top stacks, as they present the dual threat upside of Lamar Jackson with the number one player on the board in Mark Andrews at Tight End. Even if you can’t get Andrews, Rashod Bateman is very underrated this week because of his recent missed games and offers big upside in a stack with Lamar late in drafts against a bad Browns defense.
Off the Radar, Low Owned Plays
Ezekiel Elliot – If you know me, you know this is painful for me to even type, but it makes way too much sense. Zeke is not being drafted in every draft, but that should not be the case. Despite Tony Pollard showing well, Zeke continues to dominate the backfield touches for the Cowboys, and now he draws one of the best matchups in fantasy football for running backs (the Lions) and might be welcoming Dak Prescott back to elevate the offense.
Robert Tonyan – If you can’t get one of the top tight ends of David Njoku, Tonyan makes too much sense in tournaments. The Packers get a wonderful matchup with the Commanders pass defense, and we saw Tonyan draw elite volume last week with 10 catches for 90 yards on 12 targets to lead the team. We know he has shown multi-TD upside in the past, and now he gave us a glimpse into some real target upside and draws a great matchup here. Romeo Doubs and Allen Lazard make sense too, but Tonyan’s positional leverage sets him over the top.
