One thing we haven’t talked about much is the difference between the Salary Cap leagues and Draft leagues. Do you have a preference as to which you play? Do you even bother with the Draft leagues?
Andrew Garda: I tend to avoid the Draft leagues. I mean it’s a fun concept and it’s a way to go – I won’t kill you for it – but I just want to get in and get out. I want to control my roster completely and I also don’t want to spend however long to draft every week when I can just put a team together at my leisure and tweak it if I want to as well.
Maurile Tremblay: I've never played the draft leagues. I like auctions better than snake drafts in season-long fantasy, and I also like the idea of salary-cap leagues better than draft leagues in daily fantasy leagues. For one thing, I like being able to set my lineup on my own time instead of going back and forth and taking turns with other people.
Chad Parsons: I do not bother with draft formats in DFS. I want to adjust my lineups as the week progresses as I wish plus enjoy the challenge of creating the best roster possible within the cap independent of another person's impact.
James Brimacombe: It is all salary cap leagues for me as that is the life I have started from the get go in DFS. If I want a draft league I would have done some MFL10's or standard leagues before the season started. During the season I am on the go more often and like to tinker with lineup construction working the salaries and salary cap. When I first started playing DFS the salary cap was a hard adjustment but over the past 3+ years it is all part of the fun for me trying to figure out the perfect lineup.
Can you trust Sam Bradford? As an Eagles fan the answer is probably no, but as a DFS player, the question is tougher to answer. His last four games have produced two 20+ point games, one 15 pointer and one 9 pointer. Carolina isn’t a bad defense at all and Bradford keeps making bad decisions. Even at $6700 do you risk him?
AG: I think it’s not a bad risk and the picks haven’t heard him all that much the last few games. He’s still looking lost and that’s why Eagles fans are nervous but he does enough to keep you happy on a matchup basis. Even against Carolina, I think he can put up some decent points.
MT: I don't trust anybody. With every player that I consider rostering, it is with the understanding that he could produce zero points in a given week. It's all about risk versus reward based on expected production and price. That said, I don't expect to have Bradford in any of my FantasyScore lineups this week, whether cash games or GPPs. Carolina has a tough pass defense, and there are other quarterback at the same salary or cheaper that I like better -- Blake Bortles ($6,700), Joe Flacco ($6,500), Josh McCown ($6,300), Derek Carr ($6,200), Ryan Tannehill ($6,200), Ryan Fitzpatrick ($5,700), Brian Hoyer ($5,000)... I would prefer any of them to Bradford this week even if they had the same salary.
CP: After watching Bradford closely the first few weeks of the season - and even playing him in DFS - I am out on him in cash games. In a tournament, stacking with Jordan Matthews when the matchup is right, I am fine with. Instead of Bradford, I prefer going with a sturdy higher-priced option or bottom of the barrel prices at quarterback with optimal matchups.
JB: I am an Eagles fan and a DFS player and I have to answer NO on both accounts here on Sam Bradford. The only thing the Eagles are caring about is winning football games right now and if that means a three headed RB monster or a 5 WR offense where no one single player is standing out than so be it. The same stands true about Sam Bradford right now is that he is lacking in production and might start becoming more of a game manager if he can't correct the turnovers.
A lot of the top WR plays appear to have cooled off a little bit, so are you shifting to playing more value at the position? Is there another position you’re pouring that money into?
AG: I’ve looked a little more towards running backs as I think there have been enough value plays at wide receiver to where I have considered pouring more money into running back. The middle and lower tier running backs seem more inconsistent to me, so I think putting more money there makes more sense than pouring money into the high end receivers when the middle tier is so productive.
MT: Antonio Brown has cooled off, but DeAndre Hopkins has heated up. I do expect to have Hopkins in plenty of my lineups, but aside from him (and Steve Smith who is in the mid price range), I think this is a good week to take WRs from the bargain bin and pay up for running backs and tight end. I expect to have Devonta Freeman, Arian Foster, and Antonio Gates in a lot of my lineups, all of whom are in the top handful of guys at their positions in terms of salary.
CP: DeAndre Hopkins and Julio Jones are still in play weekly on my board. The running backs that were high-level values a few weeks ago are moving up in salary, so my budget has shifted towards running back and dialed back some on WR2/3. Stefon Diggs this week, for example, makes it easy to save a few bucks for an upgrade at running back.
JB: When I am looking to spend money at the WR position I use the amount of "targets" that player has been getting on a consistent basis to tell me who I will be playing. I like trying to grab two of the top WRs on the week who I think will see 10+ targets and then digging deeper on a third WR for the flex spot for a guy under priced who could see 7-10 targets. I like spending my money at the RB and WR positions so I usually divide out my shares and money equally between the two positions.
At $7000, Gary Barnidge is the second highest priced tight end next to Rob Gronkowski ($8100). Does that negate the value he’s had? Does the risk outweigh the reward now?
AG: My knee-jerk reaction is, yes it does, and then you look at the last four games and see five touchdowns, 23 catches and 358 yards with a consistent volume of targets and think, no he’s legit. We saw Jordan Cameron excel in this offense—why not Barnidge?
I think you always want to look for high value-low cost guys but if you don’t want to pop for Gronkowski and yet still want to spend the money on a tight end, Barnidge has been a good option and I think will continue to be so.
MT: Barnidge has become such an important part of the Browns' passing offense, especially in the red zone, that I don't think he's a terrible value even at $7,000. But I do have Antonio Gates and Greg Olsen projected to score more points than Barnidge, and they are both cheaper than him. I also think Julius Thomas and Delanie Walker are better values than Barnidge since they're in the same general ballpark in expected points, and they're both $1,300 cheaper.
CP: I think so. Other sites have priced Rob Gronkowski further ahead of the field in pricing. Here at $1,100 more than Barnidge, I side with Gronkowski easily. This is not because I see Barnidge as a fluke (he has little competition outside of Travis Benjamin in the Cleveland passing game), but rather Gronkowski has a floor and ceiling combination truly rare at the tight end position.
JB: I love the Gary Barnidge story this season and it is one of the feel good fantasy relevant ones but I want to approach Barnidge as a sit back and enjoy rather than a spend $7,000 on him.