FanDuel: New starter means weekly league discount

The salaries can’t really keep up with usage when we get surprise starters. Use that to your advantage.

Oct 10, 2014, 3:00 PM UTC

Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

Some of the key things to watch when picking your weekly fantasy roster are radical changes in situations. A year ago, Rashad Jennings was one of the cheapest running backs in all of FanDuel, but by the time this season started, he was a known commodity as the starter for the Giants, and salaried accordingly.

On the other hand, Golden Tate has been suddenly thrust into the role of his team's top receiving option. Owen Daniels, basically the same thing at tight end. And Andre Williams now has Jennings' job in New York. The one thing all three have in common is that their current salary doesn't really line up with their current usage.

When building your own lineup, it’s a good idea to come in with your own weekly rankings, or use ours (that’s synergy!) to run comparisons. If you find a player who is ranked near the top at a position and comes at a disproportionately low price, that is what’s known in the business as a jackpot.

Using the above examples: Tate is our No. 9 consensus wide receiver this week; Williams is our No. 13 running back; Daniels is our No. 8 tight end. But all three are priced much lower at this respective positions (Tate is the 31st most-expensive receiver; Williams 29th at RB; Daniels 12th at TE). Assuming we are even close to accurate in our rankings, I’ve found great discounts. You buy low. You don’t buy high.

FanDuel can’t realistically bump up the salary of, say, Williams the minute Jennings got hurt. A small bump, maybe, but shooting him right up to what Jennings would have been salaried in the same role is unrealistic.

There is risk, of course. There's a reason Williams and Daniels were backups before Jennings' and Dennis Pitta's respective injuries. There's a reason Tate was signed as the Lions' No. 2 and not some other team's No. 1. Investing in the lot of them is no guarantee. But investing in the lot of them also allowed me, in my weekly tournament, to splurge elsewhere.

Take a look:

Position	Player	Opponent	Salary
QB	Matt Ryan	Chicago	8,700
RB	Ben Tate	Pittsburgh	6,800
RB	Andre Williams	@Philadelphia	6,300
WR	Julio Jones	Chicago	9,000
WR	Emmanuel Sanders	@NY Jets	8,000
WR	Golden Tate	@Minnesota	6,400
TE	Owen Daniels	@Tampa Bay	5,300
K	Ryan Succop	Jacksonville	4,800
DEF	St. Louis Rams	San Francisco	4,700

Williams, Tate and Daniels are all cheap players we rank highly. And by investing in them, I got to pair Matt Ryan and Julio Jones in a home game, add Emmanuel Sanders against an awful pass defense, and double up on Tates with Ben, who looked strong a week ago.

The choices, when picking out your cheap players, are to settle for whoever you can afford (my brother got Brandon LaFell a week ago, despite not thinking anything of LaFell's chances, because that was all he had money for) or to enter with an eye on undervalued commodities. I know which one I prefer.

While I’m at it, here is my roster from my weekend 50/50:

Position	Player	Opponent	Salary
QB	Aaron Rodgers	@Miami	9,600
RB	Andre Ellington	Washington	7,200
RB	Branden Oliver	@Oakland	6,200
WR	Randall Cobb	@Miami	8,200
WR	Sammy Watkins	New England	6,500
WR	Golden Tate	@Minnesota	6,400
TE	Delanie Walker	Jacksonville	6,000
K	Shaun Suisham	@Cleveland	4,800
DEF	Denver Broncos	@NY Jets	5,000

I'm running with Tate again -- if I had to lock in these rosters permanently as I select them, I might not, with rumors that Calvin Johnson could actually play Sunday. I don't expect it, but if he does, I might switch that up. On top of that, I'm using Oliver instead of Williams for that "underpaid running back" role. With the Arizona QB problems, Ellington seems profitable. And then there's the Rodgers-Cobb connection. Happy again.

Last week, it was a $200 profit. So, you know, root for me to keep that ball rolling.

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