The last couple weeks, I've been battling with the issue of getting cocky in my FanDuel picks. Each week, I enter two FanDuel tournaments: a standard tournament in which payouts escalate the better you do, and a standard 50/50 in which all of the finishers in the top half get the same amount.
FanDuel: Failing to plan is planning to fail
Yeah, it’s an easy saying. But come on, don’t enter your weekly league without having at least some idea where you’re going with it.
Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
Two weeks ago, I really liked my roster, so I tossed it into both tournaments, and it failed. Last week, I really liked my roster, but having “learned” my “lesson,” I said no, that’s silly, I’ll diversify. My tournament roster won, but my 50/50 lost.
I'm splitting the difference this week. Well, barely. But I entered this week supremely confident on one player: Rashad Jennings.
Jennings and the Giants get to host a porous Falcons run defense Sunday, coming off a long break because they just played a Thursday game, with Jennings himself having gotten an even longer break because of his heavy workload in Week 3. That Atlanta D just made Matt Asiata --who, I don't care, is not good -- look like a real NFL running back. Bobby Rainey, Giovani Bernard, Jeremy Hill and Mark Ingram have all looked varying degrees of good against this defense, and as a whole the Falcons are allowing five yards a carry.
In short ... yeah, I am definitely using Rashad Jennings this week. In our running back rankings, I had Jennings sixth this week, and I feel like even that is too low.
That’s a nice building block for my rosters this weekend. And it got me thinking about roster construction. You don’t want to come into FanDuel just clicking around blindly and hoping to stumble into a roster. It might work out. I had a friend who wanted to play poker with us, but she didn’t know how to play poker, so she would always just ask “How much to see more cards?” and pay it. Occasionally she won hands, but in the long run, it was a losing strategy.
No, you want to have something in mind going in. This week, I had a few cornerstones I wanted to hit with my primary roster. In order of importance to me they were:
- Jennings (obviously)
- Peyton-Manning-plus-a-target (he hasn't had one of his huge games yet, and it's coming)
- Super savings on a defense (there are some unsung units that profile well this week)
- Preferably, Keenan Allen (Jets' secondary stinks, and I believe in him).
Most of this worked pretty well. I got Jennings, Peyton+Demaryius Thomas, Allen, and a defense I liked. I even had Montee Ball, for more fun-with-Peyton-ness.
Only problem: I was over $61,000. In case you're new, FanDuel comes with a $60,000 salary cap. No problem, really -- I swapped out Ball for Andre Ellington, moved my third receiver down to Brian Quick, and downgraded my tight end to Travis Kelce, who helped me to victory a week ago.
In the end, this was my tournament roster:
| Position | Player | Opponent | Salary |
| QB | Peyton Manning | Arizona | 9,800 |
| RB | Rashad Jennings | Atlanta | 7,200 |
| RB | Andre Ellington | @Denver | 6,800 |
| WR | Demaryius Thomas | Arizona | 8,600 |
| WR | Keenan Allen | NY Jets | 7,000 |
| WR | Brian Quick | @Philadelphia | 6,000 |
| TE | Travis Kelce | @San Francisco | 5,300 |
| K | Shayne Graham | Tampa Bay | 4,500 |
| DEF | Detroit Lions | Buffalo | 4,800 |
I have the Saints kicker at home (cha-ching), a Lions defense against new starter Kyle Orton (Kyle, buddy, I love ya forever, but ... cha-ching), and all the other perks I mentioned already. Once again -- heckuva roster.
Then, to my 50/50 roster. Like I said, I am using Jennings this week. And even though he’ll never know of my picking-him-and-then-not, I felt bad and added Montee Ball. From there ... well, here:
| Position | Player | Opponent | Salary |
| QB | Russell Wilson | @Washington | 8,300 |
| RB | Montee Ball | Arizona | 7,500 |
| RB | Rashad Jennings | Atlanta | 7,200 |
| WR | A.J. Green | @New England | 8,500 |
| WR | Percy Harvin | @Washington | 7,600 |
| WR | Sammy Watkins | @Detroit | 6,600 |
| TE | Owen Daniels | @Indianapolis | 5,100 |
| K | Robbie Gould | @Carolina | 4,600 |
| DEF | St. Louis Rams | @Philadelphia | 4,600 |
I did think about it, briefly:
Yes, I did just look to see how much Kyle Orton would cost in FanDuel this weekend, why do you ask?
— Daniel Kelley (@danieltkelley) October 3, 2014 But couldn't justify it, so I grabbed Sammy Watkins as a ceremonial Orton-surrogate. Wilson and Harvin should have good times against Washington, and A.J. Green is a megastud.
You don’t necessarily care about my specific rosters, though. You’re here for weekly roster guidance. And that comes back to my first point:
A plan. You don’t need to come in with your roster decided, because salaries come into play, and you might have to adjust on the fly. But have an idea. Have a player you want to get. Have a Rashad Jennings in the hole.
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