There are many ways you can go about compiling a DFS roster, but the most successful fantasy football managers use NFL starting lineups and a combination of NFL depth charts and the RotoWire NFL optimizer when putting their roster together. The benefit of this roster recipe is that it combines RotoWire fantasy football projections with updated depth charts and real-time data to build an optimal daily fantasy football lineup.
We'll walk you through how to get the most from this fantasy football draft strategy. The first step is showing why NFL starting lineups matter for DFS leagues. Next up is detailing how an NFL optimizer builds DFS lineups. We will then review how to use lineup news to adjust NFL optimizer settings, then provide some insight into identifying value plays and late swaps. To close things out, we'll show why you should create a weekly DFS process that uses both tools.
Why NFL Starting Lineups Matter for DFS
NFL starting lineups and depth charts matter for DFS players because they provide critical context. These are the vehicles that provide you with information on snap counts, a player's usage level in the game plan, plus late-breaking role changes amid NFL injury report updates.
DFS managers rely heavily on this information to identify value opportunities. These value opportunities can make the difference between successful differentiation in weekly fantasy football rankings and teams that feature the same players as many other DFS rosters.
How an NFL Optimizer Builds Lineups
An NFL optimizer uses projections, salary data and constraints to generate optimal DFS lineups. It operates much like a customized fantasy football cheat sheet in that it provides you with detailed roster guidelines that are designed for the various DFS scoring environments. This includes optimization for DraftKings, Fanball, FanDuel, OwnersBox and Yahoo league types.
The reason you want this assistance is that a fantasy football draft assistant such as a DFS optimizer helps you balance ceiling, value and roster construction in a simple to manage manner. This is important in any arena, but is even more so in DFS league since many managers will often have large player pools. This vastly escalates the number of teams you can efficiently input, thus increasing your chances of success.
"RotoWire's NFL DFS optimizer lets you customize how many lineups you want to generate based on preferences such as 'locked,' 'liked' or 'excluded' players," RotoWire fantasy football expert John McKechnie said. "You can also give an exact exposure percentage you would like for any player you want to roster in your lineups."
Using Lineup News to Adjust Optimizer Settings
Savvy DFS players understand the need to update projections and exposures based on late injury news or starting lineup changes. You will want to make these last-minute adjustments through your NFL optimizer to ensure that your roster reflects the most current information before rosters lock into place.
Think of this as being akin to using the RotoWire fantasy football draft kit to make adjustments to your cheat sheet in year-long leagues as fantasy football ADP values change. The difference here is that DFS leagues have far less margin for error than year-long leagues. This makes it vital that you manage the roster composition right up until the opening kickoff of every game in which you have a player.
"Oftentimes, an injury report will come across before kickoff that changes the slate significantly," McKechnie said. "A player with a low salary will suddenly have a path to a major role in his game. This creates a key choice for managers: take the value even if it will be popular among the rest of the field, or stay away and hope that the player underperforms for a high percentage of other lineups."
Identifying Value Plays and Late Swaps
Another benefit of an NFL optimizer is that it can assist you in combining lineup news with optimizer output to uncover cheap starters or find players who are undervalued in relation to what could be an increased workload.
DFS players can also adjust late Sunday afternoon lineups using updated information. This often shows up when dealing with players who are injury question marks. Once that injury status is updated 90 minutes before kickoff, it can either confirm that a player should remain in a DFS lineup or highlight other potential high upside/low-cost candidates. When you subscribe to RotoWire, you'll have the best way to stay up to date on injury reports as RotoWire is the unquestioned leader in injury update aggregation.
"RotoWire's real-time news updates and instant projection adjustments allow you to find new value plays all the way up until kickoff," said McKechnie. "I love checking the optimizer close to kickoff to see if there are any values I've missed during my research that can help me create a unique lineup."
Creating a Weekly DFS Process That Uses Both Tools
Successful DFS managers know that integrating starting lineup tracking with optimizer builds throughout the week is a combination that results in powerful DFS lineups. It is a process that improves consistency, reduces risk and maximizes upside in tournaments and cash games.
It's also a process that, much like the RotoWire fantasy football mock draft software, is streamlined to help save you time when managing your roster. That means you can decrease potential downside while also enjoying the activity of managing your DFS teams.
