First place in my big FanDuel tournament over the weekend used DeMarco Murray, Brandon LaFell and Jermaine Kearse (sure, among others).
Fantasy football advice, NFL playoffs 2015: FanDuel and a lack of options
As the playoffs are winding down, there is less and less variance, and fewer and fewer ways to succeed in FanDuel.Click here to get a 100% deposit bonus on FanDuel
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Second place in my big FanDuel tournament used C.J. Anderson and Davante Adams.
Third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth place in my big FanDuel tournament used all the same players.
Seriously, the next six players -- all different users, or at least different usernames -- fell into the same roster, with Tom Brady, Justin Forsett, Dan Herron, Julian Edelman, Steve Smith Sr., Kelvin Benjamin, Rob Gronkowski, Mason Crosby and the Seattle defense. They split third-through-eighth payouts, meaning each person pulled out $7,166.67 on a $5 investment, and that’s great, but it’s not like I can kick back and offer meaningful analysis on how often any single player was used.
Except this: When it's a full week of NFL games -- or even a lot-of-byes week of NFL games -- there are often several ways to make your fortune. If a $5,200 quarterback and a $8,900 wide receiver both go off, that's basically the same as if a $9,600 quarterback and a $4,500 receiver do. And with so many games, various combinations of the sort happen all the time. There will very occasionally be a single guy who is on all the great rosters, but those are extraordinary, not the norm.
In the playoffs, though, with only four games in a week, and only eight teams, you know there will be some clunkers (like basically all the Broncos this past week), meaning they won’t pop up much in the best rosters. And some guys (*cough* Rob Gronkowski *cough*) will so dominate their position that they have to show up on rosters.
What I’m saying is, while multiple players finding the same super-duper roster in, say, Week 11 would have had me in a tizzy, the fact that that happened this past weekend doesn’t really move the needle much. In small-field games, you’re either right or you’re wrong. To wit, Gronkowski wasn’t only on the week’s top-10 rosters; he was on the top 36. Sure, the guy in 37th place got 10.1 points out of Jason Witten, and made up some of the difference with Brady, Benjamin, Forsett, but when one guy dominates, and you don’t have him ... well, sorry friend.
This week, we’re doubling down on that. There are (you might have heard) only four teams left. The best you can reasonable hope for is, what, two quarterbacks have FanDuel-helpful games. Maybe three running backs, three or four receivers, a tight end or two. The tournaments this week are just as large as the tournaments every week, but with only four legitimate choices at quarterback, kicker and defense, a couple more at tight end and a handful at running back and wide receiver, I’ll just say now that the top 10 for the week to come will have, just at a guess, no more than three or four wholly different rosters.
You’re right, or you’re wrong.
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