Expert DRAFTing Week 1

Photo: Jeff Curry, USA Today Sports

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DRAFT offers weekly snake draft contests with 5-man rosters (1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR/TE) with 0.5-point PPR scoring (the same as FanDuel). There is no salary cap on DRAFT which makes it unique to how you play compared to the other daily fantasy sites. Teams are built through live snake drafts that have 30-second timer per pick. The most common contest sizes are Head-to-Head, 3-Team, 6-Team, and 10-Team.

We will explore both the rankings and draft strategies for each of these four DRAFT sizes. To understand why players are ranked where they are, be sure to check out the overall rankings where I will have in-depth breakdowns of some of the top options and some personal favorites down the list.

Please feel free to contact me on Twitter with any questions or if you would like to discuss this article or draft strategies. I welcome constructive feedback on the article and as always best of luck in this week's contests.

Week 1 - Quick News and Notes

The big question mark this week is what to do with LeVeon Bell? Bell is currently not reporting to the team and not practicing so it is unclear at this point what the team will be doing at the running back position come Sunday. Drafting Bell now has some built-in risks but also could come with some rewards if he falls later to you in drafts. There is potential that the Steelers just limit his carries if he does play so paying a premium in drafting him right now might not be the best case scenario.

If you are looking for a shootout style of game it might be the Kansas City vs LA Chargers one that you might want to hand pick and stack some players from. The Chargers are a 3.0 point favorite at home and the over/under line is set for 47.5 points. Also, both New England and New Orleans are big home favorites that will be filled with popular players this week as you can't go wrong with Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, or Chris Hogan in New England or Drew Brees, Alvin Kamara, or Michael Thomas in New Orleans.

Head-to-Head Draft Rankings and Strategy

1. Todd Gurley RB1
2. Alvin Kamara RB2
3. Antonio Brown WR1
4. Aaron Rodgers QB1
5. David Johnson RB3
6. Keenan Allen WR2
7. Michael Thomas WR3
8. LeVeon Bell RB4
9. DeAndre Hopkins WR4
10. Drew Brees QB2

For a head-to-head contest you need to look for the top 2 quarterbacks, 4 running backs, and 4 wide receivers/tight ends - For a total of 10 players. The main key to look at when drafting in H2H contests is to know what your opponent is doing. You want to watch if he takes WR/WR to start out the draft you know that you can draft your WR positions with your last two picks. Same goes if he drafts a QB or RB/RB, you know that you can leverage that information and wait at those positions.

In H2H drafts I typically come in with a game plan and like to stick closely to it, and let the other drafter I am up against decide what type of team I will build depending on their picks. Often times you will find others that like to draft their favorite team, maybe they just follow DRAFT's own projections/ADP and stick to those numbers just going down the list.

3-Team Draft Rankings and Strategy

1. Todd Gurley RB1
2. Alvin Kamara RB2
3. Antonio Brown WR1
4. Aaron Rodgers QB1
5. David Johnson RB3
6. LeVeon Bell RB4
7. Keenan Allen WR2
8. Michael Thomas WR3
9. DeAndre Hopkins WR4
10. Ezekiel Elliott RB5
11. A.J. Green WR5
12. Davante Adams WR6
13. Melvin Gordon RB6
14. Drew Brees QB2
15. Tom Brady QB3

For the 3-man contests, you will need to look at ranking 15 total players consisting of 3 quarterbacks, 6 running backs, and 6 wide receivers/tight ends. The priority here is the RB and WR spots as quarterbacks will often fall and getting either Drew Brees or Tom Brady at the end of the draft is a win.

The best advice for drafting in 3-mans would be to come up with your solid 15 player ranking list that you feel most comfortable with and don't get frustrated if the top players that you have on that list get taken right before your pick. If you have picks 1.01 or 1.03 you will be picking at the turn and can have an advantage in following your league mates roster construction closely and be able to know when to take certain positions or if you wanted to stack players you will have an easier time doing so with back to back picks.

6-Team Draft Rankings and Strategy

1. Todd Gurley RB1
2. Alvin Kamara RB2
3. Antonio Brown WR1
4. David Johnson RB3
5. LeVeon Bell RB4
6. Ezekiel Elliott RB5
7. Keenan Allen WR2
8. Melvin Gordon RB6
9. Michael Thomas WR3
10. Leonard Fournette RB7
11. Christian McCaffrey RB8
12. DeAndre Hopkins WR4
13. Aaron Rodgers QB1
14. A.J. Green WR5
15. Davante Adams WR6
16. Drew Brees QB2
17. Kareem Hunt RB9
18. Tom Brady QB3
19. Rob Gronkowski TE/WR7
20. Odell Beckham JrWR8
21. Travis Kelce TE/WR9
22. Deshaun Watson QB4
23. Saquon Barkley RB10
24. Dalvin Cook RB11
25. Russell Wilson QB5
26. Mike Evans WR10
27. Tyreek Hill WR11
28. T.Y. Hilton WR12
29. Joe Mixon RB12
30. Cam Newton QB6

There looks to be plenty of wide receivers for 6-man drafts this week so making them a high priority is probably not your best bet. I would try to build your 6-man team from RB/RB and end it with WR/WR/QB. There is no quarterback that I have to have this week as I would be fine with Rodgers, Brees, Brady, Watson, Wilson or Newton as none of them stand out as clear-cut favorites at the position. If I could pick out of that mix of names though I would look to target either Rodgers or Brees and it would most likely be Brees that would be the one that fell to you later in the draft. DRAFT has Deshaun Watson as the highest projected player at 22.3 points this week so most likely you will have to take him in the earlier rounds if you want to go in that direction.

10-Team Draft Rankings and Strategy

1. Todd Gurley RB1
2. Alvin Kamara RB2
3. Antonio Brown WR1
4. David Johnson RB3
5. LeVeon Bell RB4
6. Ezekiel Elliott RB5
7. Keenan Allen WR2
8. Melvin Gordon RB6
9. Michael Thomas WR3
10. Leonard Fournette RB7
11. Christian McCaffrey RB8
12. DeAndre Hopkins WR4
13. Aaron Rodgers QB1
14. A.J. Green WR5
15. Davante Adams WR6
16. Drew Brees QB2
17. Kareem Hunt RB9
18. Tom Brady QB3
19. Rob Gronkowski TE/WR7
20. Odell Beckham JrWR8
21. Travis Kelce TE/WR9
22. Deshaun Watson QB4
23. Saquon Barkley RB10
24. Dalvin Cook RB11
25. Russell Wilson QB5
26. Mike Evans WR10
27. Tyreek Hill WR11
28. T.Y. Hilton WR12
29. Joe Mixon RB12
30. Alex Collins RB13
31. Lamar Miller RB14
32. Jordan Howard RB15
33. LeSean McCoy RB16
34. Kenyan Drake RB17
35. Adam Thielen WR13
36. Doug Baldwin WR14
37. Larry Fitzgerald WR15
38. Amari Cooper WR16
39. Stefon Diggs WR17
40. Chris Hogan WR18
41. Cam Newton QB6
42. Carlos Hyde RB18
43. Royce Freeman RB19
44. Ben Roethlisberger QB7
45. Matthew Stafford QB8
46. Demaryius Thomas WR19
47. Philip Rivers QB9
48. Derrick Henry RB20
49. Brandin Cooks WR20
50. Kirk Cousins QB10

Week 1 is always more unpredictable so you want to be cautious in your player projections and there is no need to panic and take players further down the draft board than you have to. Stacking is something you will want to look at in these 10-man leagues as you will be looking for advantages to put up big points and get on top of the leaderboard. You can look to stack a QB/WR from the same team or if you are attacking a certain game you can try to draft players from both teams. In the 10-man leagues, you are shooting to win it of course but these leagues offer top-3 prizes to land in the money. Even finishing in third place out of 10 teams can be a very profitable outcome so building a team with a high floor with a couple of high ceiling type players and a possible stack can help you get there.

Best of luck in this week's DRAFT's!