Expert DRAFTing Week 2

Photo: Mark Hoffman, 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. When developing these rankings we will be excluding the Thursday Night, Sunday Night, and Monday Night games and only focus on the main slate on DRAFT, which is the Sunday games.

WEEK 2 - QUICK NEWS AND NOTES

It is Week 2 and that means we have no bye weeks and a loaded player pool with 13 games to choose from on the main slate. DRAFT has excluded the Tampa Bay vs Carolina, Philadelphia vs Atlanta, and Cleveland vs NY Jets games because they are not on the main Sunday slate. That still leaves us 13 games and 26 teams worth of players to choose from this week. This will be a good week to try all the different sized formats on DRAFT and to play in the four different tournament options that they have available.

• Third and Short - 6-man $3 (6 max)
• Hype Train - 6-man $5 (6 max)
• First and Ten- 4-man $10 (4 max)
• Five Wide - 5-man $55 (5 max)

The popular high scoring games to target this week are going to be Kansas City vs Oakland (53.0 O/U), and New Orleans vs LA Rams (53.0 O/U). The three teams I will be heavily focused on will be Kansas City, New Orleans, and LA Rams this week as their offenses are loaded with talent and they can score quickly and often. Whenever you are in a position to choose between two players you feel have similar upside you might just want to choose the one that is from one of these two games as they all seem to ones that will have some high scores and lots of fantasy points from all the star players involved.

The running back and wide receiver depth this week is strong so you might not see as much edge in the smaller sized leagues such as H2H, 3-man, or 4-man. Anything above a 4-man I feel like you can use your rankings and draft skills to give you a nice edge over your competition in Week 2. Even in H2H, 3-man, and 4-man you will always have others that will just side with DRAFT's projections and you can use that to your advantage.

***We want to monitor JuJu Smith-Schuster this week and if he is practicing come Thursday and Friday I think it is safe to move him up the rankings***

HEAD-TO-HEAD DRAFT RANKINGS AND STRATEGY

1. Alvin Kamara RB1
2. Saquon Barkley RB2
3. Ezekiel Elliott RB3
4. Michael Thomas WR1
5. DeAndre Hopkins WR2
6. Patrick Mahomes II QB1
7. Davante Adams WR3
8. Keenan Allen WR4 (or Kelce/Watkins)
9. Josh Jacobs RB4 (or Carson/Cook/Ekeler/Conner)
10. Deshaun Watson 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 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 you will find others that like to draft their favorite team, maybe they just follow DRAFT's projections/ADP and stick to those numbers just going down the list. I feel like this week you can almost just go with any of the top running backs with your first pick and follow it up with WR/RB depending on who you like with your top four picks. This week at quarterback I think Patrick Mahomes II is the top pick at the position, but I would still rather lock in my two running backs before I pulled the trigger on him. If you miss out on Mahomes I feel you can still safely select Deshaun Watson at the end of the H2H draft and feel pretty good about it.

I feel like the top three running backs along with Mahomes at quarterback are obvious picks this week but your fourth RB and your 3rd and 4th WR is more of a toss-up.

3-TEAM DRAFT RANKINGS AND STRATEGY

1. Alvin Kamara RB1
2. Saquon Barkley RB2
3. Ezekiel Elliott RB3
4. Michael Thomas WR1
5. DeAndre Hopkins WR2
6. Patrick Mahomes II QB1
7. Davante Adams WR3
8. Keenan Allen WR4
9. Josh Jacobs RB4
10. Chris Carson RB5
11. Travis Kelce WR/TE5
12. Dalvin Cook RB6 (or Conner/Ekeler)
13. Sammy Watkins WR6 (or Hilton/Cooper)
14. Deshaun Watson QB2
15. Lamar Jackson 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 Deshaun Watson or Lamar Jackson at the end of the draft is still 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. Alvin Kamara RB1
2. Saquon Barkley RB2
3. Ezekiel Elliott RB3
4. Michael Thomas WR1
5. DeAndre Hopkins WR2
6. Patrick Mahomes II QB1
7. Davante Adams WR3
8. Keenan Allen WR4
9. Josh Jacobs RB4
10. Chris Carson RB5
11. Dalvin Cook RB6
12. Travis Kelce WR/TE5
13. James Conner RB7
14. Sammy Watkins WR6
15. Austin Ekeler RB8
16. TY Hilton WR7
17. Amari Cooper WR8
18. Deshaun Watson QB2
19. Derrick Henry RB9
20. Julian Edelman WR9
21. Lamar Jackson QB3
22. Sony Michel RB10
23. Tyler Lockett WR10
24. Robert Woods WR11
25. Leonard Fournette RB11
26. Dak Prescott QB4
27. Jared Goff QB5
28. David Johnson RB12
29. Kenny Golladay WR12 ( or Smith-Schuster -Questionable)
30. Drew Brees QB6

Just like every week the running back position is the one you want to pound early hoping that you can land one of the top backs this week in Kamara, Barkley, or Elliott and build your team from there. The top three backs stick out this week and getting a top-three pick looks to be of benefit this week as you can lock anyone of them up and feel good about the start of your draft.

Ezekiel Elliott still is the last option of the elite backs as he might still be working his way up to a full workload. After the top three you have Jacobs, Carson, Cook, Ekeler, and Conner all as very strong plays. Wide receiver is deep this week and also has plenty of big names at the top with Thomas, Hopkins, Adams, Allen, Kelce, Watkins, Hilton, and Cooper who all have very good matchups. I think Mahomes is the top quarterback play on the week with Deshaun Watson, Lamar Jackson, Dak Prescott, and Jared Goff behind him as far as matchups and opportunities go.

If I am picking at the turn I would be thrilled to land one of the top three running backs and pair him with either Thomas or Hopkins at wide receiver. The key this week will be going heavy on the running back and wide receiver positions and relying on your player rankings and hoping some of your favorite plays fall to you.

10-TEAM DRAFT RANKINGS AND STRATEGY

1. Alvin Kamara RB1
2. Saquon Barkley RB2
3. Ezekiel Elliott RB3
4. Michael Thomas WR1
5. DeAndre Hopkins WR2
6. Patrick Mahomes II QB1
7. Davante Adams WR3
8. Keenan Allen WR4
9. Josh Jacobs RB4
10. Chris Carson RB5
11. Dalvin Cook RB6
12. Travis Kelce WR/TE5
13. James Conner RB7
14. Sammy Watkins WR6
15. Austin Ekeler RB8
16. TY Hilton WR7
17. Amari Cooper WR8
18. Deshaun Watson QB2
19. Derrick Henry RB9
20. Julian Edelman WR9
21. Lamar Jackson QB3
22. Sony Michel RB10
23. Tyler Lockett WR10
24. Robert Woods WR11
25. Leonard Fournette RB11
26. David Johnson RB12
27. Kenny Golladay WR12
28. JuJu Smith-Schuster WR13 Questionable
29. George Kittle WR/TE14
30. Marlon Mack RB13
31. Mark Ingram RB14
32. Kerryon Johnson RB15
33. James White RB16
34. Allen Robinson WR15
35. Damien Williams RB17
36. Tyler Boyd WR16
37. Brandin Cooks WR17
38. Dak Prescott QB4
39. Jared Goff QB5
40. Phillip Lindsay RB18
41. Adam Thielen WR18
42. Drew Brees QB6
43. Aaron Jones RB19
44. Josh Gordon WR19
45. Ben Roethlisberger QB7
46. Tom Brady QB8
47. Russell Wilson QB9
48. Matt Breida RB20
49. Tyrell Williams WR20
50. Philip Rivers QB10

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-three 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.

The 10-mans are always full of quality players even in the last couple of rounds at the start of the season. There are more games to choose from, players are healthy, and we have known the news for weeks leading up to the games. Week 1 is a great time to play 10-man drafts as you can find an edge in the 31-50 player rankings and find that perfect QB/WR stack you like to take you over the top.

If you want to follow me on DRAFT my username is "Eaglezzz" as I sometimes will post contests and would love to play along with fellow Footballguys like yourselves. 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.

As always best of luck in this week's DRAFTs!