The Re-Draft Roundtables Series
The Footballguys staff looks at various strategies to help you in redraft leagues.
Participating in a redraft league is a process that starts with the draft and hopefully ends with a championship. The Footballguys staff has answered several questions about various strategies to help you achieve your championship dreams. From the beginning to the end and everything in between, we've got you covered to give you the tools and knowledge needed to dominate your redraft league.
What tool or resource do you use to help you with lineup decisions? Do you ever look at an opponent's lineup before setting yours? What is the benefit of doing so? Do you feel any benefit to starting (or benching) a player in a primetime game?
CRAIG LAKINS
When setting my starting lineups, I'm focusing only on what gives my team the best chance to score as many points as possible. The only reason I might care about who my opponent is starting is if he has the WR1 or WR2 of my starting quarterback. If my quarterback is going to go off, he's likely doing so through his top targets, and the points he scores for my fantasy team will be mitigated by the points his wide receiver scores for my opponent.
CHAD PARSONS
Start rate is an underutilized tool on your preferred hosting platform. My research has shown it is tough to beat the global start rate, which incorporates the decisions of hundreds, if not thousands, of fantasy leagues and decisions into a singular number. This includes player production, matchups, other options, etc. As for an opponent's lineup, I rarely look before setting mine. One reason is the sheer volume of lineups I am setting on a given Thursday or Sunday before kickoff. Another is with rare exceptions, the matchups are projected close enough where the focus should be to score the most points possible and safe plays can be an illusion. Whether impactful or not, I prefer to have a player or two left entering Sunday or Monday Night Football instead of sweating out my opponent having remaining players in a matchup.
BEN CUMMINS
I rarely look at my opponent’s lineup as I focus on starting my most optimal lineup no matter what. The benefit of starting a player in a primetime game is how much fun I have watching the game and rooting for that player to produce. On the strategy side, benching a player you’re not 100% bullish on starting on Thursday Night makes sense if you’re still waiting on injury news for other players on your roster. If your better player ends up playing on the weekend, it’s nice to have that flexibility of stating them rather than having boxed yourself out of one of your starting lineup spots.
JASON WOOD
I provide weekly in-season projections for the site, so as you can imagine, I let those be my main guide on whom I start each week. The strength of schedule becomes a factor after the first few weeks of the season (it's not at all predictive in the early weeks), and I generally double-check my start/sit decisions by looking at the global starting percentage estimates for a given site.
CLAYTON GRAY
If at all possible, avoid having a Thursday night player in your flex position. You want to leave as much flexibility as possible each week in case one of your Sunday starters is hurt, benched, or whatever.
JORDAN MCNAMARA
I have a hard time incorporating my opponent's lineup decisions into my own decisions, especially when I play a lot of leagues. I use our tools and incorporate the start rate on the individual site I am using as a form of market data. My lineup decisions are usually straightforward, so I tend not to fret too much about it. There is a lot of variance in the last spots of your lineups, so do the best you can, but do not let lineup decisions keep you up at night, because they balance out throughout the season.
ANDY HICKS
Poor lineup decisions can turn a winning fantasy football season into a nightmare. Most of us have had years where every 50/50 call goes the wrong way. That said, overthinking lineup decisions can be debilitating. I always check my rankings against the Footballguys projections. If a player I want to start ranks lower than players on my bench, I will reconsider, but if my analysis is sound, I will back my judgment. Looking at an opponent's lineup rarely has any benefit. If my opponent has three players on Monday Night Football and I have none, that is a hard game to watch. I start my best lineup, regardless of primetime status.
CHRISTIAN WILLIAMS
I largely ignore my opponent's lineup until playoff time. Once the playoffs hit, the opponent's lineup could impact my decisions for my flex plays, as I may target someone safer versus someone with boom-bust potential, depending on the situation. I traditionally rank my Top 50 at running back, wide receiver, and my Top 32 for quarterbacks and tight ends weekly during the season. I then use those rankings to construct my lineups. Footballguys projections are an excellent resource to double-check my sanity and ensure I am making sound decisions. Primetime games don't play into my lineup decisions, as I'm always attempting to start my best lineup, regardless of when the players are taking the field.
WILL GRANT
The Footballguys 5-second primer is my staple tool during the regular season. On Monday and Tuesday, I look at it to see if there are any key free agents I should be targeting. For any games during the week, I will check it again to see if I should start a player with a better projection than someone starting on the weekend. Finally, I'll check it on Sunday to make sure any injury updates didn't elevate a player I have or bring up a free agent I should quickly grab and start. This is especially true for kickers and defense.
I try not to focus on my opponent's lineup unless I'm down to two players with equal value for that week. One of the biggest keys to fantasy success is lineup efficiency - putting the best players from your team in the starting lineup each week. The closer you get to having your best ball lineup each week, the better. If your opponent outscores you, then there was nothing you can do. If starting a different wide receiver would have given you five extra points and the win, that's a tough loss to handle. I always start the team with the highest projected points.
The one exception for me will be if I have a receiver on a team where my opponent has that player's quarterback. In that case, I might swap that receiver for someone with similar weekly projections. If my receiver has a bad game, his quarterback probably had one too. If his quarterback goes crazy, my receiver will probably have a good game and benefit me.
GARY DAVENPORT
I don't have much time to ponder lineup decisions in-season, which is probably a good thing—overthinking backfires more often than not, and your first instinct is usually the one you'll have the easiest time living with. Find a source for the information you feel like you can trust (might I recommend Footballguys?), do a little research, and then make your call. At day's end, the only person who has to live with that decision is you. It's your team. Make it yours.