Underdog Battle Royale: NFL Wild Card 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 Wild Card weekend games. 

In the Daily Battle Royale mode, you’re in a draft with five other players and craft a lineup that will compete against every other lineup signed up in the Battle Royale contest. This week’s main Battle Royale contests are going to have a $200,000 prize pool with $20,000 offered for first^t place with just a $5 entry fee. Here are some details on the playoff 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. 

Make sure to stack

It doesn’t necessarily need to be a full game stack, but with only six QBs 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 two straight WRs, 99% of the time you’ll be able to pair one of them up with a QB in the third round. More often than not, you’ll 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 other skill position players. 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. 

Pay attention to your competition

If you can’t pay 100% attention to your draft, including the five other teams in your lobby, don’t enter the contest. You can make or break your drafts by paying attention to your opponents’ draft strategies. For example, if you’re in the fifth round drafting in the fifth position and still need to draft a QB, but you see 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 ahead of you.

Be creative with at least one of your picks

When it’s all said and done, there are only 36 players (6 QBs and 30 RB/WR/TEs) drafted in any given slate. Ownership is integral in every single GPP contest, and that includes these Battle Royale contests. It probably comes as no surprise that the top 36 ADP players dominate the ownership. It doesn’t take much to differentiate your lineup, and you’re still going to be able to draft some pretty damn 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 contests, and there have been some winning lineups that aren’t too unique. But more often than not, you want to be a little different from the field.  

Wild Card Round Battle Royale Strategy

Here is the current top 36 in ADP for this week’s Battle Royale:

The Player Pool is extremely narrow in the Wild Card version of the Battle Royale. Usually we’re picking players from a pool anywhere between 20 to 28 teams. But this week, you’ll only have players from 12 teams available. I don’t think it’s wise to stray too far outside the top 36. Teams are going to do what they can to get their best players the ball, and there’s only a few options outside of the obvious ones that have the ability to help you construct a Battle Royale winning lineup. 

Among the top 36, I’m interested in the CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott stack (you won’t be able to get this unless you’re drafting from the 1 or 2 spot) and Joe Flacco with either Amari Cooper or David Njoku. As far as standalone options, I like drafting Josh Allen by himself thanks to his increased aggression taking it into the end zone himself. I’m also eyeing Isiah Pacheco without any other Chiefs, and George Pickens without Mason Rudolph. Fades for me include Travis Kelce (he’s being drafted too early for what he’s doing on the field) and Patrick Mahomes.

Top Low-Owned Plays 

Jared Goff, QB, Detroit Lions

Jared Goff is being drafted as the QB8 in the Battle Royale this week. There’s lots of storylines related to this Rams/Lions matchup, but nothing is more powerful than Goff potentially getting revenge against his former coach/team. That’s not really a great reason to draft someone, but the 51.5 game total definitely is. This game is the most likely to be a high-scoring shootout, and if that’s the case, you’re not going to see the Lions take it in for three or four rushing touchdowns. 

Devin Singletary, RB, Houston Texans

Devin Singletary is being drafted as the RB13 in the Battle Royale this week. Singletary has emerged as the clear-cut No. 1 running back for the Texans. After disappointing many fantasy owners with just 21% of the snap share in Week 1, Singletary’s consistent reliability and production catapulted him to a season-high 88% snap share last week in a must-win outing against the Colts. With C.J. Stroud playing in his first career playoff game, I see the Texans fully utilizing Singletary to give Stroud someone he can count on throughout the game. 

George Pickens, WR, Pittsburgh Steelers

George Pickens is being drafted as the WR15 in the Battle Royale this week. There’s not exactly a ton of upside when you stray outside the top 36 for a WR this week, but even with Mason Rudolph at QB, you can make an argument that Pickens gives you the most upside. Last week was an absolute stinker against the Ravens where he failed to catch a pass, but we can’t overlook the fact that Pickens did have 11 catches on 15 targets for 326 yards and two touchdowns in his first two games with Rudolph at the helm. I get the sense that the Bills are going to make Rudolph beat them on Saturday, and if that’s the case, he might just have to sling it to Pickens.  

Sam LaPorta, TE, Detroit Lions

Sam LaPorta is being drafted as the TE7 in the Battle Royale this week. If LaPorta didn’t get hurt last week and was 100%, I think he probably had a shot at being the TE1, and at worst, TE2 this week. Remember on Underdog, if your player doesn’t play, you’ll get to automatically substitute them for another player. Once you finish your draft, go to swap rankings and rank your TEs. LaPorta has a real shot at playing Sunday night, and if he does, he won’t be out there just to be a decoy.