Underdog Battle Royale: Week 8 Plays

The fantasy football world has already gotten a taste of Underdog Fantasy’s amazing interface in best ball drafts, with this year’s Best Ball Mania awarding $15,000,000 in prizes, but believe it or not, for a few years now, they’ve also offered a “Battle Royale” mode, which is a draft format, solely based on the Sunday afternoon games. In the Daily Battle Royale mode, you’re entered in a draft with five other players, drafting a lineup that will compete against every other lineup signed up in the Battle Royale. This week’s main Battle Royale contests are going to have a $300,000 prize pool with $30,000 offered for first place, which is not too shabby for a $5 entry.

Here are some details on the Week 8 contest:

Now that we’re ready to build some lineups, there are three important rules to apply in every single lineup that you’re drafting. 

1. Make sure to have some sort of stack in your lineup – It doesn’t necessarily need to be a full game stack, but with only six QB’s selected in each draft, there should be a way for you to get the QB you need in your stack. If you start your draft with WR, WR through the first two rounds, 99% of the time, you’ll have the ability to pair one of them up with a QB in the third round. More often than not though, you’ll even be able to wait until later in the draft to put together a QB/WR combo. While you might not put together a QB/WR combo, you might be able to pair your QB with an opposing RB or WR, or maybe a WR with an opposing WR. There’s a lot of different ways to get some correlation, so keep it in the back of your mind when you’re making selections. 
2. Pay attention to your competition – If you don’t have the ability to give 100% attention to your draft, including the five other teams drafting in your lobby, don’t enter the contest. You can make or break your drafts just by keeping an eye on the positions the others are drafting. Every single draft will have a scenario that requires you to put the pieces of the puzzle together. For example: if you’re in the fifth round, drafting in fifth position, and still need to draft a QB, but see that the person drafting sixth has already drafted a QB, you definitely want to avoid picking your QB until the sixth round because there’s no way the person drafting sixth can pick a QB.
3. Be creative with at least one of your picks – When it’s all said and done, there’s only going to be 36 players (6 QBs and 30 RB/WR/TEs) drafted in any given slate. Rostership is integral in every single GPP contest in DFS, and that includes these Battle Royales. It probably comes as no surprise that the top 36 players in ADP dominate the ownership. It doesn’t take much to differentiate your lineup, and you’re still going to be able to draft some pretty good players who have an ADP outside the top 36. With that said, I’ve looked over the results of the last three Battle Royale’s and there have been some winning lineups that haven’t been too unique, but more often than not, the way to go is to be a little different from the field. 

Week 8 Battle Royale Strategy

Here is the current top 36 in ADP for Week 8’s Battle Royale:

Top Pairings

Lamar Jackson and Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens

Unless you’re drafting from the No. 1 or 2 spot, you’re probably not going to get a chance to potentially pair Patrick Mahomes with Travis Kelce. On the other hand, if you’re drafting late in the first round, you can easily pair up Lamar Jackson with Mark Andrews. They’ve been very cohesive over the last four weeks, where Andrews has combined for 19 catches and four touchdowns. The matchup against the Cardinals isn’t exactly a great one considering the Cardinals have given up the fourth-fewest fantasy points to the TE position this season, but it’s important to note that they haven’t faced any of the league’s top TE’s this season. The only “top” TE they’ve faced is Darren Waller, but that was Week 2 when Daniel Jones still didn’t know he existed. 

Breece Hall, New York Jets, and Darren Waller, New York Giants

It’s almost shocking to be able to say this, but both the Jets and Giants are coming off of big wins where they clearly found something that works. For the Jets, it’s finally taking the training wheels off Breece Hall. For the Giants, it’s coming to the realization that Darren Waller is on the roster. The Giants have struggled against the run all season long, and they’ve given up the second-most fantasy points to the RB position. 

Sam Darnold and Brandon Aiyuk, San Francisco 49ers

We are going to see plenty of Sam Darnold in DFS this week thanks to the soft pricing. Why not root for him on Underdog as well? I definitely see a world where Darnold is forced to throw the ball more than Kyle Shanahan probably would want to thanks to the talented Bengals offense. If that’s the case, we’ll be able to roster Darnold for free and his top WR, Brandon Aiyuk quite comfortably. Aiyuk has not reached the end zone since his blistering Week 1 performance when he scored twice against the Steelers in a blowout.

Top Low-Rostered Plays 

Dak Prescott, QB, Dallas Cowboys

Dak Prescott is being drafted as the QB8 in the Battle Royale this week. The Cowboys are coming off their bye week after a big Monday win against the Chargers. In that game, we saw a side of Dak that we hadn’t seen much of prior, where he was very willing to scramble if necessary, and where he was able to push the ball to his playmakers in CeeDee Lamb and Brandin Cooks. I just don’t see myself drafting Lamb and not giving Dak some consideration. 

Alexander Mattison, RB, Minnesota Vikings

Alexander Mattison is being drafted as the RB26 in the Battle Royale this week. Even though Cam Akers inexplicably got more touches than Mattison in the second half, I think what we saw Monday against the 49ers was that Mattison is clearly the better back. I absolutely see the Vikings leaning on him more than Akers who continues to put up very little after initial contact. The Vikings are likely going to lean on the ground game a little bit more than they did against the 49ers given how weak the Packers are against the run (No. 26 DVOA). 

Josh Downs, WR, Indianapolis Colts

Josh Downs is being drafted as the WR23 in the Battle Royale this week. Downs has emerged as one of the best young slot receivers in the league and clearly has earned Gardner Minshew’s trust. He has the best matchup for the Colts this week, going up against Alontae Taylor, who has allowed the third-most fantasy points per pass route among slot corners as well as the most touchdowns among slot corners. 

Amari Cooper, WR, Cleveland Browns

Amari Cooper is being drafted as the WR36 in the Battle Royale this week. With Cooper coming off a terrible Week 7 where he only caught two balls on eight targets, it’s somewhat understandable that he’s not getting much love in the Battle Royale. Still, the matchup against the Seahawks is a great one considering the Seahawks have been subpar at defending WR’s this season, which might be hard to believe considering the love guys like TaRiq Woolen and Devon Witherspoon are getting on the regular. Plus, with Jerome Ford out of the lineup and Kareem Hunt banged up, I definitely see a world where the Browns are going to be forced to air it out more than usually would.

Mike Gesicki, TE, New England Patriots

Mike Gesicki is being drafted as the TE25 in the Battle Royale this week. Going with someone like Gesicki is far from ideal. The TE position, for once, is super deep this week and you probably shouldn’t have to go too crazy more often than not, but if you’re the last person to pick a TE and you’ve seen someone in your draft pick two TE’s, it’s not out of the realm of possibility for you to be stuck drafting a TE8 or worse. I think Gesicki actually has some upside. He’s making his return to Miami, where he played the first five years of his career. On top of that, we have another situation where Hunter Henry is banged up and Gesicki’s going to need to see more time on the field than he usually does. In fact, last week featured a 50/50 split between the two Patriots TEs and it also featured Gesicki running more routes, ultimately catching the game-winning touchdown.