You’ve got your coffee in hand. Your hand-crafted projections (well, your mate’s list of ten players he likes) are pinned to the corkboard to your right. These players are firmly planted in your mind so deeply that you dreamed last night about John Vandinglehorn’s imminent breakout. You’re ready to dive into the world of daily fantasy football.
So, you mosey on over to Paddy Power Fantasy ready to win yourself some sweet dough. You click on that big tournament you’ve been hearing all about to pick your team.
Oh, sh*te.
You look at the screen, and all of the names appear overwhelming. You can read all of the player recommendation pieces you can handle, but none of them tell you exactly how many players you need on your roster at each position.
This can prove to be kind of intimidating at the outset, and nobody would blame you if you got a bit panicked. So, instead of just diving in and holding your nose, let’s go through roster construction and try to make one of the more daunting tasks in daily fantasy just a bit simpler.
Quarterbacks
On Paddy Power Fantasy, you start your quest to fill out a roster with £60,000. Here, you’re only rostering one quarterback. Most quarterbacks have their salary somewhere between £7,000 and £8,000, meaning they’re going to generally take up a decent amount of your change. The elite quarterbacks, however, will run you even more with salaries generally of £8,500 and above. The minimum for a quarterback is generally £5,000, which you’ll usually only find for a backup, fill-in signal-caller.
What do the different prices mean? The higher-priced guys are studs on whom you can count to pump out a good game on most occasions. They’re obviously not a lock, but their floor of production isn’t as low as that of the other choices.
The next tier is guys whose floors may not be as high as that group, but they often will have a similar ceiling. They’re the more volatile quarterbacks who will have their huge games, but they’ll also crank out a few duds each year. You’re inheriting a bit of risk, but you can also find yourself some salary relief while also getting a big game.
Finally, the final tier is guys who really don’t have a floor. They could legitimately finish the game with zero points. They may have one or two good games a year, but the risk these guys carry is significant. It certainly doesn’t mean you can’t use them, but you’ve got to be a brave soul to do so.
FOXBOROUGH, MA – DECEMBER 23: Ufomba Kamalu #97 of the New England Patriots attempts to tackle LeSean McCoy #25 of the Buffalo Bills during the first half at Gillette Stadium on December 23, 2018 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Running Backs
Unlike quarterbacks, you get to pick at least two of these puppies – and you can add a third at the Flex spot if you’d prefer one over a wide receiver or tight end. This is a blessing for those of you who are as indecisive as I am.
As with the quarterbacks, the options with the highest floors are going to be hovering around £8,500 and higher. These are the running backs who are the unquestioned work horses of their offence and have the ability to bust out big games at any time.
The pricing generally falls off pretty quickly from there, with the next crop of backs checking in around £7,000 to £8,000. These are the guys who may either be sharing time with another back, be part of less effective offences, or may have other concerns that keep their pricing low. Again, you can find similar upside here, but the floor is usually lower.
The tier beneath that is the guys who are super scary with prices around £6,500 and lower. They could end up touching the ball fewer than 10 times in the game, which is well below what you’re seeking at the running back position. That said, you can also find backs who are thrust into larger roles with pricing that doesn’t quite reflect that yet. If that happens, don’t hesitate to take advantage and see what happens.
Wide Receivers
Finally, we get to the most voluptuous position on the board. You get to go a little crazy by selecting three wide receivers and can go for four with the Flex spot if you’re feeling confident. This gives you a lot of flexibility with what you want to do at the position.
The tiers here are the same as at the other positions. You can find guys in the middle tier who are facing bad secondaries and present great upside. However, in general, the safest options are going to cost you somewhere between £8,000 and £9,000.
These three slots can allow you to get creative. You can pair a wide receiver with your quarterback — a strategy called “stacking”. You can spend low on one receiver facing a bad defence and spend a decent amount elsewhere. Or — and this is my favourite — go crazy and cram as many £8,000-plus receivers onto your roster as possible, praying that everything else doesn’t go down in complete flames.
I get a little hot and bothered just thinking about it.
The minimum price for wide receivers and running backs (as well as tight ends and kickers) is £4,500. Having just one of these players — often called a “punt” play — can give you plenty of salary to work with elsewhere. That doesn’t necessarily make it a good strategy, but when the floor salary is that low, it does provide an incentive to look for the super low-priced assets.
SEATTLE, WA – DECEMBER 23: Travis Kelce #87 of the Kansas City Chiefs tries to get past Bobby Wagner #54 (L) and Delano Hill #42 (R) of the Seattle Seahawks during the second quarter of the game at CenturyLink Field on December 23, 2018 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)
Tight Ends
Hello, volatility, my old friend, we’ve come to roster you again.
Throughout the piece, we’ve been discussing the floors of production for various positions. There isn’t a skill position with lower floors than at tight end. Because they — in most instances — see fewer targets than wide receivers, the odds that they give you a goose egg are much higher. Sweet.
If there’s a top-notch tight end who sees the volume of a wide receiver, his pricing is going to rival that of a wide receiver. And why wouldn’t it, especially when you consider the alternatives?
The drop-off after that is pretty significant. There are a lot of weeks where you’ll have one tight end above £8,000 and then not have another until you get below £6,500. This means that if you want to roster that upper-echelon tight end, you’re going to be sacrificing salary elsewhere. If you drop down just to that next tier, you do give yourself extra cash with which to work. That’s not to say a high-priced tight end isn’t worth it (that’s far from the truth), but there will be a significant opportunity cost associated with doing so.
Most tight ends are going to fall within a small window between £5,000 and £6,000. If you can find a player in this range who is facing a bad defence and bound to be in the red zone with regularity, then you’re golden. Finding that tight end who picks up a pair of touchdowns can give you a big advantage over your competitors who get saddled with that dreaded zero.
SANTA CLARA, CA – DECEMBER 23: The Chicago Bears defense celebrates after an interception by Danny Trevathan #59 of Nick Mullens #4 of the San Francisco 49ers during their NFL game at Levi’s Stadium on December 23, 2018 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Defence and Special Teams
Now we get to everybody’s favourite slot: the defence and special teams. They come with their own special pricing parameters.
Let’s start things off with the defence. Instead of paying £8,000 for an elite option, you can often get them for just above £5,000. The lowest options on the board usually check in at £4,000. This is a tight gap between the high-cost options and the ones that will run you the least.
Because defences are so low priced, I like to plug them into my lineup first. If I find that I have extra salary at the end, then I’ll upgrade, but I want to start with the cheapest quality option so I know how much money I have to spend elsewhere.
So, to recap, each week on Paddy power Fantasy, you’ll be selecting one quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, one tight end, a Flex player and one defence and special team. I like to start with the last slot and go from there, but you’ll eventually formulate your own process. Once you find something that works for you, stick with it, and eventually, this whole roster construction business will be an afterthought each week.
ARLINGTON, TEXAS – DECEMBER 09: Darren Sproles #43 of the Philadelphia Eagles celebrates his touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys in the fourth quarter at AT&T Stadium on December 09, 2018 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Flex
If you’re new to fantasy, this term may be a bit unfamiliar to you. The “flex” spot is one that can be occupied by a running back, wide receiver, or tight end in addition to the players you already rostered at those positions. Although it comes with a certain freedom, this isn’t a position we should take lightly.
If you want to add stability to your lineup, you should add an extra running back in your flex spot. They touch the ball more often than wide receivers and tight ends, which makes their output more predictable on a weekly basis. We should value that safety when playing in cash games, 50/50s, and head-to-heads.
You have more flexibility if you’re searching purely for upside. Wide receivers can certainly pop off and give you a huge total, which makes them viable options if you want to shoot for the highest-end score possible. But running backs have value here, as well. With those increased touch totals also comes a lofty ceiling, meaning we should value an extra running back in tournaments (where a first-place finish pays much more than a sixth-place finish), as well. We’ve just got more freedom to go wide receiver here than we would for a contest with a different payout structure.
You can use a tight end in your flex if you want. You will likely just wind up hating yourself afterward. It’s a strategy that can pay off, but just know that you are taking on gobs of extra risk in doing so.
After you’ve filled in all of these slots, you’re free to submit your lineup, as long as you’re under the £60,000 salary cap and meet other roster requirements. There’s plenty of strategy to how you want to divvy up that salary, but it’s not as daunting as it may seem at first glance. Start with your value plays and some stacks you like, see which studs you want to prioritize, and build greatness from there.
It’s Fantasy Football but not as we know it – PAddy Power Fantasy