There's no one way to win anything. This isn't new information. Theoretically, your fantasy team could have Calvin Johnson, Demaryius Thomas and A.J. Green at receiver and flex and a bunch of undrafted free agents and Ryan Fitzpatrick filling out the rest, and there's no reason you can't win. You probably won't, but that's not the point.
FanDuel: What does a winning roster look like?
The best of the best rosters in FanDuel for Week 1 swung for the fences and hit. What lessons can we take from that?
Gregory Shamus
That all said, there are ways that tend to work. It’s why we say not to burn an early-round pick on a kicker, or to take a running back early, or, I don’t know, not play Barry Sanders in Week 4 of 2013. Strategy matters in fantasy.
It’s the same way in weekly fantasy. You can go for a balanced lineup, or some slightly stronger and slightly weaker players, or go whole-hog on a few guys and fill out the roster with scrubs. Anything can work, but there are some things that do.
To test this, I went to one of the contests I played this weekend on FanDuel. I chose the weekly open freeroll -- a free-to-play weekly tournament that pays cash to anyone in the top 1 percent of the 45,000 entries. Basically, to win in the freeroll, you have to dominate, not just do well enough to place in a 50/50. The top 10 rosters in the weekend freeroll were some of the best possible amalgamations of $60,000 worth of players possible in Week 1, so it makes sense to look at roster construction.
Most-used players and price points
In Week 1, this will be pretty obvious -- the guys who did the best will have buoyed rosters. For the season -- and I intend to keep tracking this -- it’ll show more about a player’s value. Still, let’s look. (As a reminder, FanDuel rosters are one QB, two RB, three WR, one TE, one K, one D/ST.)
- Of the top 10 rosters, only Matthew Stafford, represented six times, made it onto multiple rosters, with Jake Locker, Peyton Manning, Matt Ryan and Nick Foles each appearing once.
- No running back really carried the FanDuel load. Chris Johnson was the only guy on more than two rosters, showing up three times. Matt Forte, Ryan Mathews, Rashad Jennings and Shane Vereen were on two rosters apiece, and the rest were all one-timers.
- Calvin Johnson. Of course. Dude was on eight of the 10 winning rosters. Jeremy Maclin was on five, and Cordarrelle Patterson and Steve Smith were on three apiece.
- Just two guys across the 10 rosters. Julius Thomas showed up seven times, and Zach Ertz three.
- Kicker is a crapshoot. Eight different kickers were owned at least once, with Greg Zuerlein and Cody Parkey on there twice.
- No surprises here. Houston and Minnesota, two of the week's top defensive units, were on three rosters apiece.
Again, that might not be a huge shock after one week. But it makes sense -- Maclin was available at a cheap price. Ertz too. Houston’s defense was also a bargain. Finding bargains is the way to go.
More helpful, though, is checking out price points. Figuring out what the best teams spent on specific positions can help show what strategies are most effective. You still have to find the right players at a price point, of course, but general prices at each position can give some strategy tips.
So, price averages at each position. They’re listed twice -- once in order of position, and once in descending order of salary:
| Position | Average Salary | Percent of cap | Position | Average Salary | Percent | |
| QB | 8920 | 14.9% | QB | 8920 | 14.9% | |
| RB1 | 7900 | 13.2% | WR1 | 8890 | 14.8% | |
| RB2 | 6400 | 10.7% | RB1 | 7900 | 13.2% | |
| WR1 | 8890 | 14.8% | TE | 6530 | 10.9% | |
| WR2 | 6290 | 10.5% | RB2 | 6400 | 10.7% | |
| WR3 | 5200 | 8.7% | WR2 | 6290 | 10.5% | |
| TE | 6530 | 10.9% | WR3 | 5200 | 8.7% | |
| K | 4890 | 8.2% | DEF | 4910 | 8.2% | |
| DEF | 4910 | 8.2% | K | 4890 | 8.2% |
Somewhat unsurprisingly, quarterbacks were the most expensive choice for the winning rosters, with the top wide receiver second. Also unsurprisingly, kickers, defenses and third receivers were the spots where these guys saved the most.
So what kind of roster can you get at those price points this week? Well, a lot of them, sure, but here’s an example:
| Position | Player | Opponent | Salary |
| QB | Matt Ryan | @Cincinnati | 8900 |
| RB | Giovani Bernard | Atlanta | 7800 |
| RB | Trent Richardson | Philadelphia | 6400 |
| WR | Demaryius Thomas | Kansas City | 8700 |
| WR | Eric Decker | @Green Bay | 6300 |
| WR | Andrew Hawkins | New Orleans | 5200 |
| TE | Greg Olsen | Detroit | 6400 |
| K | Caleb Sturgis | @Buffalo | 4900 |
| DEF | Buffalo | Miami | 4900 |
That’s not the roster you need to have, of course. It’s just a look at a roster that evidence, so far, says could be strong.
Anyway, it’s gotta be better than my rosters last weekend. I got shut out in my FanDuel games. Sad face.
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