FanDuel: Sometimes ‘trial and error’ is just ‘trial’
Be willing to change your first run-through on your weekly league roster. But don’t feel like you have to.
Grant Halverson
Occasionally, you stumble into your FanDuel roster just by fooling around. I brought up the choose-your-roster page for the weekend’s $5K Mini Rush, a five-dollar entry, just to mess around and see what’s what.
I started by going through my personal rankings and seeing what kind of salary my favorite fantasy options this week would go for. With no intention of logging the roster in, I just clicked about. The Lions' defense is one of my top lower-owned plays this week, so I grabbed them. I think Bears-Packers will be a high-scoring game, so let's go the Chicago kicker. I'm the highest of our rankers on Kelvin Benjamin and DeAndre Hopkins, so they joined the party.
Four players in, I looked at my salary pace. Of my $60,000 budget, those four players made up only $22,400, meaning I had more than $7,500 per player over my last five roster spots.
And that was when I realized I was using this roster.
I have been high on Hopkins and Benjamin all season, but cautiously so - Benjamin had a stone-handed reputation entering his rookie year, and Hopkins didn't really break out last year. After three weeks of Benjamin, though, I'm a believer, even if his FanDuel salary wasn't all the way up there. And Hopkins now must be seen as virtually equal with Andre Johnson, and his salary is even lower.
It was completely by accident; just a trial run to see what the salaries would be like. I usually do this three or four times before I settle on a roster, decide on something that makes sense, but when I started with those guys and realized it was coming together, I stopped on Try #1.
Here’s where I ended up:
| Position | Player | Opponent | Salary |
| QB | Philip Rivers | Jacksonville | 8,400 |
| RB | DeMarco Murray | New Orleans | 9,000 |
| RB | Donald Brown | Jacksonville | 6,300 |
| WR | Antonio Brown | Tampa Bay | 8,400 |
| WR | Kelvin Benjamin | @Baltimore | 6,700 |
| WR | DeAndre Hopkins | Buffalo | 6,400 |
| TE | Travis Kelce | New England | 5,200 |
| K | Robbie Gould | Green Bay | 4,600 |
| DEF | Detroit Lions | @NY Jets | 4,700 |
I followed the path from my looks into successful rosters, and started with bargains, like I do. So in order of ascending price, I went to my tight end and second running back next, and scored further discounts on Kelce, who keeps getting more and more looks in Kansas City, and Brown, who has the job basically to himself in San Diego and gets to face Jacksonville this week.
With all those savings, I could go pricier, snagging Murray, Brown and (particularly) Rivers, who also gets Jacksonville. I didn’t even spend a full $60,000 on this roster, and I think it’s great.
Which is exactly the problem I ran into a week ago. I fell in love with my roster, and used it in two different games, and when it failed, I lost twice. I’m not doing it this time. Here’s where I landed for my 50/50:
| Position | Player | Opponent | Salary |
| QB | Jay Cutler | Green Bay | 8,100 |
| RB | Eddie Lacy | @Chicago | 8,000 |
| RB | Lamar Miller | Oakland (England) | 6,900 |
| WR | Alshon Jeffery | Green Bay | 7,600 |
| WR | Michael Crabtree | Philadelphia | 7,000 |
| WR | Brandin Cooks | @Dallas | 6,200 |
| TE | Martellus Bennett | Green Bay | 6,000 |
| K | Shaun Suisham | Tampa Bay | 4,900 |
| DEF | San Diego Chargers | Jackonsville | 5,300 |
No grand takeaway here. I’m still high on Lacy; I like pairing Cutler and a couple receivers; I like San Diego’s defense. I like this roster. It should be fine.
The lesson of this week is to look around. Trial and error. Sometimes things don’t come together on the first run-through.
But sometimes they do.
See More:
