Join the Footballguys Daily Update
Start your morning with our roundup of the most important stories in football - with the fantasy insight you need to make league-winning decisions. Delivered straight to your inbox, 100% free.
This season, FanDuel kicked off its NFL contests with a new format called "FanDuel Mini." In a Mini NFL contest, you pick five players - one quarterback, two running backs, and two wide receivers (tight end included). FanDuel Mini comes in two styles, Mini and Mini Unlimited. In the standard FanDuel Mini contest, you just have to pick five players and stay within the salary cap ($60,000). It is similar to the regular FanDuel contest but just a smaller version with five players instead of nine players. In a Mini Unlimited contest, every player is priced so that there are no salary cap restrictions, so you can roster any combination of players you want.
The lobby is loaded with Mini games at all different price points and there is also a free Mini game called "FanDuel Golden 5" which you can enter each week to try to chase the week's perfect starting 5 lineup. Each week, the grand prize will increase by $20,000 until it's claimed, then it starts over at $20,000. FanDuel will award whatever cash is remaining on Week 17 to that week's top finisher - which will make for a guaranteed season-long payout of $340,000.
Week 8 | FanDuel Golden 5 - Prizes |
1st | $100 and $160,000 for Perfect Lineup |
2nd - 9th | Voucher to NFL Mini Unlimited Spider 2-Y Banana ($25 Value) |
10th - 359th | Voucher to NFL Mini Unlimited Fumblerooski ($2 Value) |
WEEK 7 FANDUEL MINI - REVIEW
Anyone can pick the top projected players each week at each position, but that would have landed you with a Week 7 team of Tom Brady (18.46), LeVeon Bell (20.70), Todd Gurley (23.40), A.J. Green (5.60), and Antonio Brown (14.50). These contests are run on the Sunday only main slate and do not include Thursday or Monday Night games. The key is to be able to think outside of the box and find the players that are in good matchups and mix them in with one or two star players on the week. Tom Brady was clearly one of the top choices at quarterback and he came through with 18.46 points and finished as the 8th best quarterback on the week. This week there was no QB/WR stack that ended up in the winning lineup. It was the stud running backs in Ezekiel Elliott and LeSean McCoy that landed in the top two spots at their position while O.J. Howard and Kenny Stills were two complete wild cards in the top receiver spots.
Top Projected Players - Week 7 | Actual Top Players - Week 7 | |||
QB | Tom Brady | 18.46 | Dak Prescott | 29.96 |
RB | LeVeon Bell | 20.70 | Ezekiel Elliott | 40.40 |
RB | Todd Gurley | 23.40 | LeSean McCoy | 24.70 |
WR | A.J. Green | 5.60 | O.J. Howard (TE) | 24.80 |
WR | Antonio Brown | 14.50 | Kenny Stills | 23.50 |
82.66 | 143.36 |
WEEK 8 - PROJECTIONS (DAVID DODDS)
Looking ahead to Week 8, we will use Dodds projections to see what players will likely be the highest owned in this type of format. In order to win one of these FanDuel Mini games, you are going to have to identify 1-3 of the top projected players from all the positions and likely pair them with a few lesser obvious plays. After six weeks we already see that there is a trend that you want to have a quarterback and stack him with one of his wide receivers and build around that. In Week 7 that trend actually didn't come true with Dak Prescott as the top quarterback but not one of his wide receivers at the top with him.
QB | RB | WR/TE | |||
Carson Wentz | 21.5 | LeVeon Bell | 20.9 | Antonio Brown | 17.7 |
Tom Brady | 20.5 | Ezekiel Elliott | 19.9 | A.J. Green | 16.8 |
Russell Wilson | 20.3 | LeSean McCoy | 19.1 | Julio Jones | 15.0 |
Cam Newton | 19.7 | Mark Ingram | 17.2 | Doug Baldwin | 13.4 |
Kirk Cousins | 19.6 | Devonta Freeman | 16.4 | Mike Evans | 13.3 |
Dak Prescott | 19.2 | Melvin Gordon | 16.1 | Michael Thomas | 13.2 |
Drew Brees | 19.1 | Jordan Howard | 15.1 | Rob Gronkowski (TE) | 13.0 |
Jameis Winston | 18.8 | Joe Mixon | 14.0 | Dez Bryant | 12.9 |
Tyrod Taylor | 18.5 | Doug Martin | 13.0 | Zach Ertz (TE) | 12.8 |
Matt Ryan | 18.4 | Carlos Hyde | 12.9 | Brandin Cooks | 12.7 |
TOP QB/WR STACKS FOR FANDUEL MINI - WEEK 8
- Jameis Winston and Mike Evans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown, Pittsburgh Steelers
- Tom Brady and Brandin Cooks (Rob Gronkowski), New England Patriots
- Drew Brees and Michael Thomas, New Orleans Saints
- Derek Carr and Amari Cooper (Michael Crabtree), Oakland Raiders
- Philip Rivers and Keenan Allen, Los Angeles Chargers
- Dak Prescott and Dez Bryant, Dallas Cowboys
- Carson Wentz and Alshon Jeffery (Zach Ertz, Nelson Agholor), Philadelphia Eagles
- Russell Wilson and Doug Baldwin, Seattle Seahawks
- Matt Ryan and Julio Jones, Atlanta Falcons
- Andy Dalton and A.J. Green, Cincinnati Bengals
- Trevor Siemian and Demaryius Thomas, Denver Broncos
- Cam Newton and Kelvin Benjamin (Devin Funchess), Carolina Panthers
It will be hard to throw in a single entry into these Mini contests as there will be so many options that you will want to use to help you cover all your bases. I like trying to narrow it down to your favorite stacks on the week and playing those. You are going to want a QB/WR combo in your lineup and another option would be to stack the team's opposing WR with your QB/WR combo. For example this week you could look at a Dak Prescott/Dez Bryant/Jordan Reed stack or switch it up with Kirk Cousins/Jordan Reed/Dez Bryant. You could also do the same with the LA Chargers vs New England game which has a close point spread and one of the higher over/unders with 48.5 points. That would cover three out of five positions for your team and you would have to look at plugging in a pair of running backs to complete your roster. For choosing my running backs I want a combination of someone who has a high projection for the week but also someone that has already shown that they will get a high volume of touches (rushing attempts + receptions).
RUNNING BACK VOLUME
Week 1-7 | Rushing Attempts | Receptions | Total Touches |
LeVeon Bell | 169 | 33 | 202 |
Todd Gurley | 145 | 27 | 172 |
Jordan Howard | 139 | 11 | 150 |
Ezekiel Elliott | 131 | 18 | 149 |
Kareem Hunt | 124 | 25 | 149 |
Melvin Gordon | 117 | 29 | 146 |
LeSean McCoy | 110 | 32 | 142 |
Carlos Hyde | 100 | 27 | 127 |
Mark Ingram | 89 | 24 | 113 |
Lamar Miller | 98 | 15 | 113 |
The clear top volume running back is LeVeon Bell as he is averaging 28.9 touches a game and has 30 more touches than the next guy on the list in Todd Gurley. Ezekiel Elliott and Kareem Hunt are the next big names on the list but they are behind the unlikely Jordan Howard on this list. Howard now has 150 total touches on the season and could be a sneaky play this week against the Saints. He will be the focus of the offense early and often and should see 20-25 touches and if the game is close in the second half he could even approach 30+ touches. Melvin Gordon and LeSean McCoy are both in really good matchups and they have to be considered this week as well. Carlos Hyde, Mark Ingram, and Lamar Miller round out the top 10 volume running backs this week and outside of Ingram both Hyde and Miller should be played with caution.
Don't for get to take your Free shot at "FanDuel Golden 5" contest for Week 8 and chase the $160,000 perfect lineup. The other main contest that should get your attention is the $15,000 Fumblerooski that is a $2 entry fee and has a first place prize of $1,500.
Best of Luck in your Week 7 DFS contest!