Daily Fantasy Sports NFL Strategy

With thoughts slowly but surely turning to the NFL with the preseason just a month away, it’s a good time to look at some strategy for your daily fantasy picks. Here you’ll find a list of ten strategies that might enhance your roster, and make you into a solid winning player for the 2014 season.

Check Your Line-Up – There is no excuse not to get this right, but you can be sure that there will be a large number of players on a weekly basis who don’t do this. If a player is injured, and he is in your line-up, you can’t complain when you don’t win. Use the NFL injury report to not only know who is injured, but work out who the replacements will be and see if they can gain you valuable points. If you’re not doing this you are burning money.

Check the Weather – Are they playing in wet or windy conditions? If so, do you really want to be paying top dollar for that receiver/quarterback pairing you like the look of? In bad conditions, running backs will be seeing a lot more of the ball than usual. Conversely a sunny, still day might be the perfect day for that quarterback to throw those bombs. Of course, the conditions in a dome will also be great for the quarterback/wide receiver. Keeping an eye on the weather will give you an edge over many.

Use Sportsbooks – Odds makers are some of the most clued up brains in sport – if they weren’t they would all go broke. Knowing this, when they set a betting line, you can normally assume it to be accurate. Therefore, if a team is well ahead on the spread, you won’t go too far wrong in picking some of the players for your roster. The totals line also tells a story – you’ll immediately know which games expect the most points.

The Quarterback – Like the game itself, your quarterback is the most important pick you’ll make. If you get the quarterback wrong, you can probably say goodbye to your money. Spend the most time researching this player – maybe list all of the starting quarterbacks, and cross them off one by one. This way you won’t be guilty of the “I didn’t even consider him this week” moment, having only looked at five or six passers.

Player Mentality – Players react differently to situations. Consider a player who has just had a terrible outing – is he the type of player whose head will go down and his performance will be affected again? Or is he the type of player who will train extra hard and will come out the following week determined not to let it happen again? The determined player is a player you really want to consider, as you’ll both gain a few points, and it’s likely he won’t be on
many rosters as a result of last week.

What about the player who has just had an MVP performance? Will he back this up next week, and go on a streak of good form, or are these performances just a rarity? Knowing which type of player is which will go a long way to giving you those vital extra few points.

Doubling Up – It can be a good move to put all your eggs in one basket by picking a combination of quarterback and wide receiver. If one has a good game, it’s very likely that the other will as well. This works best in leagues with lots of players, as it can go very well or very badly – when it does go well you could be aiming for that very big prize.

Rest – How long was it since the team last played? Did they play Monday night, and are now playing Sunday and have had a lot of travel in between? Have they not played for two weeks? Are they playing the second of back to back home games – and are therefore completely settled and had a full week of training? When deciding between two or more players, looking at this factor can make the decision somewhat easier.

Match-Ups – Check out when a poor defense is playing a good offense, or vice versa. Check out when a running back is up against a poor run defense. Maybe you expect a quarterback to have a good game, but his pass protection isn’t great, and the defense he is facing is leading the league in sacks? Do you really want to pick him? Consider as many factors as you can – the more work you put in, the more successful you’ll become.

Bargains – You want to find value for money in daily fantasy sports, and you’ll get no better value than a low salary player picking up a good load of points. Obviously this is easier said than done, as players have a low salary for a reason – but look at the winners of any big fantasy contest, and they’ll have a couple of players who were great value. Some fantasy players actually see a really cheap player, and are put off because of this – do the
opposite!

Use the Media Wisely – A player tweets that he is up for a big game, or a coach comes out in a press conference and says that his team is pumped for the weekend or that a player will have an impact at the weekend. Many fantasy players will see comments like this, and use them in picking their roster. Generally, not much notice should be taken here – for two reasons. Firstly, players and coaches don’t like to give information away – so any comments
should be taken with a pinch of salt. Does a coach really want to give his strategy away? Secondly, many fantasy players will indeed react to these comments, so by not picking the named players, you won’t be one of the sheep – always a good thing in fantasy sports.

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