Expert DRAFTing Week 14

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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 games and only focus on the main slate on DRAFT, the Sunday and Monday games.

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 and as always best of luck in this week's contests.

WEEK 14 - QUICK NEWS AND NOTES

The bye weeks are officially over for the season so the next four weeks on DRAFT will be with all teams available to select, minus the Thursday night games. The Thursday night game this week is Jacksonville at Tennessee and will not be part of this week's discussion on expert DRAFTing. With no bye weeks to worry about now the player pool will be larger which will help open up your draft strategy. Another critical area to look at is injuries as the weeks go by and in Week 14 they are starting to pile up. There are a few names to worry about at the running back position this week as Melvin Gordon, James Conner, Joe Mixon, Chris Carson, Matt Breida, Kerryon Johnson, Josh Adams, Kenyan Drake, and Isaiah Crowell are either out or questionable. At wide receiver Keke Coutee, A.J. Green, Kenny Golladay, Emmanuel Sanders, Sammy Watkins, DeSean Jackson, and DeVante Parker are the names to keep an eye on. These are all big names to watch as we go into the weekend and with only having to roster five players it makes it hard to draft these guys with comparable options out there. It is almost better to see your opponents selecting these players with the questionable tag as it could give you a slight edge on the week.

The popular high scoring games to target this week are going to be New Orleans vs Tampa Bay (55.5 O/U), Baltimore vs Kansas City (51.5 O/U), LA Rams vs Chicago (51.5 O/U), and Pittsburgh vs Oakland (51.5 O/U).

HEAD-TO-HEAD DRAFT RANKINGS AND STRATEGY

1. Christian McCaffrey RB1
2. Todd Gurley RB2
3. Saquon Barkley RB3
4. Patrick Mahomes II QB1
5. Keenan Allen WR1
6. Davante Adams WR2
7. Antonio Brown WR3
8. Ezekiel Elliott RB4
9. Michael Thomas WR4
10. Ben Roethlisberger 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. I feel like this week you can almost just go with any of the top running backs with your first pick as McCaffrey, Gurley, Barkley, and Elliott are all excellent plays. This week at quarterback all the options we have Patrick Mahomes II back from his bye week and after the top running backs I prefer to go with him over the wide receivers. I view all the wide receivers at the top as equals as well as one doesn't stand out over the other.

3-TEAM DRAFT RANKINGS AND STRATEGY

1. Christian McCaffrey RB1
2. Todd Gurley RB2
3. Saquon Barkley RB3
4. Ezekiel Elliott RB4
5. Alvin Kamara RB5
6. Keenan Allen WR1
7. Davante Adams WR2
8. Antonio Brown WR3
9. Patrick Mahomes II QB1
10. Michael Thomas WR4
11. DeAndre Hopkins WR5
12. Aaron Jones RB6
13. Ben Roethlisberger QB2
14. Julio Jones WR6
15. Cam Newton 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 any of the quarterbacks at the end really doesn't matter much as their projections are all right in line with each other.

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. Christian McCaffrey RB1
2. Todd Gurley RB2
3. Saquon Barkley RB3
4. Ezekiel Elliott RB4
5. Alvin Kamara RB5
6. Keenan Allen WR1
7. Davante Adams WR2
8. Antonio Brown WR3
9. Michael Thomas WR4
10. DeAndre Hopkins WR5
11. Aaron Jones RB6
12. Patrick Mahomes II QB1
13. Julio Jones WR6
14. Phillip Lindsay RB7
15. Odell Beckham WR7
16. Tyreek Hill WR8
17. Adam Thielen WR9
18. Travis Kelce WR/TE10
19. Nick Chubb RB8
20. Ben Roethlisberger QB2
21. David Johnson RB9
22. JuJu Smith-Schuster WR11
23. LeSean McCoy RB10
24. Cam Newton QB3
25. Lamar Miller RB11
26. Tarik Cohen RB12
27. Mike Evans WR12
28. Aaron Rodgers QB4
29. Drew Brees QB5
30. Philip Rivers QB6

The running back position is weak at the top of the board this week as you have five big names in Christian McCaffrey, Todd Gurley, Saquon Barkley, Ezekiel Elliott, and Alvin Kamara that you want to target if you have a top four pick. After that it takes a drop to guys like Aaron Jones, Phillip Lindsay, Nick Chubb, and David Johnson. These are all nice options but nothing seems like a clear cut play this week so I feel if you miss out on one of the top five guys I might want to try to lock in on the next best option in Aaron Jones. After that I like Patrick Mahomes II at the top as he has so much touchdown even against one of the toughest defenses in Baltimore.

At wide receiver I like Keenan Allen, Davante Adams, Antonio Brown, Julio Jones, Michael Thomas, DeAndre Hopkins, Odell Beckham, Tyreek Hill, and Adam Thielen. The position is loaded at wide receiver this week and I think it makes some sense to go RB/RB with your first two picks this week. At quarterback it's Mahomes and if I miss out on that I might try for Roethlisberger or Newton in round four if they are there and if not it is a hard wait until the last round to take the best available.

After the big names at the top at running back you have some nice options at players who have been considered more of RB2 types this season but are in great matchups this week with the likes of LeSean McCoy, Lamar Miller, Tarik Cohen, James White, and Mark Ingram. There is less of drop off at wide receiverin the the next tier of players as you still have the likes of Travis Kelce, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Mike Evans, T.Y. Hilton, Zach Ertz, and Brandin Cooks. 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. Christian McCaffrey RB1
2. Todd Gurley RB2
3. Saquon Barkley RB3
4. Ezekiel Elliott RB4
5. Alvin Kamara RB5
6. Keenan Allen WR1
7. Davante Adams WR2
8. Antonio Brown WR3
9. Michael Thomas WR4
10. DeAndre Hopkins WR5
11. Aaron Jones RB6
12. Patrick Mahomes II QB1
13. Julio Jones WR6
14. Phillip Lindsay RB7
15. Odell Beckham WR7
16. Tyreek Hill WR8
17. Adam Thielen WR9
18. Travis Kelce WR/TE10
19. Nick Chubb RB8
20. Ben Roethlisberger QB2
21. David Johnson RB9
22. JuJu Smith-Schuster WR11
23. LeSean McCoy RB10
24. Cam Newton QB3
25. Lamar Miller RB11
26. Tarik Cohen RB12
27. Mike Evans WR12
28. Aaron Rodgers QB4
29. Drew Brees QB5
30. Philip Rivers QB6
31. T.Y. Hilton WR13
32. Zach Ertz WR/TE14
33. Brandin Cooks WR15
34. Amari Cooper WR16
35. Robert Woods WR17
36. Stefon Diggs WR18
37. James White RB13
38. Mark Ingram RB14
39. Dalvin Cook RB15
40. Deshaun Watson QB7
41. Joe Mixon RB16 (Questionable)
42. Julian Edelman WR19
43. Tevin Coleman RB17
44. Marlon Mack RB18
45. Austin Ekeler RB19
46. Courtland Sutton WR20
47. Jeffery Wilson RB20
48. Jameis Winston QB8
49. Carson Wentz QB9
50. Andrew Luck QB10

With the bye weeks now not an issue you are going to have a bigger player pool to select from but this week almost feels like we have a bunch of bye weeks built in as so many big name players are banged up. It looks like you should be able to snag a top running back this week and if you don't there are lots of RB2 types that have some nice upside this week that can be considered in rounds 2 and 3. At wide receiver, you can always seem to be able to find value late in these drafts so choosing a second receiver over your second running back seems foolish in the 10-man format. Also look to pair your final receiver spot with a quarterback in the last round to give your team a little boost.

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 look like strong options to play this week as there is plenty of depth to go around this week at the RB and WR positions and you should expect to be able to build some solid rosters because of the depth. Even with the injuries and no Jaguars and Titans players this week it should not effect your ability to build a very competitive 10-man team this week. Follow the news closely this week if you are playing 10-mans and fine tune those 31-50 player rankings as we lead up to the start of the week.

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