Differentiation is a key fantasy football draft strategy in the world of DFS fantasy football. You want to have as many high-scoring players as possible in your lineup, but in order to get ahead of your competition, your team must have roster differentiation. If you don't achieve this goal, all you will do is have the same lineup as everyone else, and thus won't be victorious.
To get this differentiation, you can either choose to use an NFL DFS optimizer like the one you will find in the RotoWire fantasy football draft kit, or you can go about trying to build your roster manually. There are plusses and minuses to each of these approaches.
This review will help you figure out which approach you should use. It will discuss methods to be used in playing large-field GPP (Guaranteed Prize Pool) tournaments, illustrate the best way to manage multiple lineups or entries, provide details about when ownership and leverage matter most, give you some specific instances when manual team building may be more effective and close with an overview of combining optimizer tools with personal insight.
Playing Large-Field GPP Tournaments
NFL optimizers are especially valuable in large-field tournaments where multi-lineup entries, stacking rules and exposure control are critical. These optimizers, which are part of your subscription to RotoWire, help generate high-upside builds.
"When using our optimizer for large GPP tournaments, it's key to note that the goal is to build lineups from NFL depth charts that are capable of winning and not simply min cashing (or hitting the lowest tier)," RotoWire DFS expert Ryan Pohle said. "Using our stacks tool to pair a QB with multiple players from the same team and a player from the same game is one way to help achieve that. From there, you can create diversity by identifying a game with a low implied point total that you think has a chance to be a shootout and will be overlooked."
Managing Multiple Lineups or Entries
One of the best parts of using an NFL optimizer is that it helps you save time. Many DFS fantasy football managers know that playing bulk lineups greatly increases your chances of winning. You need to be able to quickly find every fantasy football rankings edge, so every moment counts when you are playing at this scale. An NFL optimizer also reduces input errors, which is absolutely critical if you are entering 10, 50 or 150 lineups.
Another major plus of an NFL optimizer is that it helps you more effectively manage exposure limits and ownership caps. This is a huge benefit in every roster, but is even more important when you are dealing with players on the NFL injury report. An NFL optimizer also allows you to automate rule sets that are difficult to manage manually.
Ownership and Leverage Matter Most
NFL optimizers help DFS managers find the right balance between projected ownership and leverage. This is something that is quite difficult to do directly from a fantasy football cheat sheet, which is why you want and need an integrated solution like an NFL optimizer. The automation feature will also help you to avoid overly duplicated or highly risky team builds.
"When it comes to ownership, DFS players often think about having a lineup that doesn't exceed a total ownership amount instead of having more lesser-owned players," Pohle said. "Having eight players that are 15% rostered is worse than having four players that are 20% rostered and four players that are 10% rostered even though the total is the same, because you have more unique players on the latter."
When Manual Building May Be More Effective
There are times when you will want to use manual team building. For example, single-entry contests, small-field tournaments or cash games may benefit from more hands-on lineup construction. Manual builds also allow you to have a sharper focus on specific game scripts. When you go this route, you will still want to fully utilize the RotoWire fantasy football projections to make sure you are taking the highest percentage routes.
"There's no one size fits all to building DFS lineups, and if everyone is using an optimizer with similar projections, zagging to build your own manually can help you get creative," Pohle said. "An optimizer will often center in on a handful of the optimal players at each position, and manually going one-by-one to fill out your lineup can help you come up with something your most confident in."
Combining Optimizer Tools with Personal DFS Insight
The best DFS approach often blends fantasy football ADP projections and optimizer settings with personal research. This is especially true if you are quite familiar with an individual team or player and have therefore developed a sixth sense of how that team or player will perform this week.
It's also a good idea to adjust stacking rules, player pools and risk preferences so the optimizer reflects your unique DFS strategy rather than replacing it entirely. Going through one or more mocks with the RotoWire fantasy football mock draft is also highly recommended so that you can get a sense of how individual players are being valued in other fantasy football environments.
