Underdog Battle Royale: Week 16 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 $200,000 prize pool with $20,000 offered for first place, which is not too shabby for a $5 entry.

Here are some details on the Week 16 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 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 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 Royales 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 16 Battle Royale Strategy

Here is the current top 36 in ADP for Week 16’s Battle Royale:

Top Pairings

Justin Fields and DJ Moore, Chicago Bears, with Trey McBride, Arizona Cardinals

After a really tough matchup last week against the Browns, Justin Fields gets a much better matchup this week against the Arizona Cardinals. DJ Moore is being drafted fairly early, but if you’re in the fourth, fifth or sixth spot, you should be able to draft him along with Fields more often than not. The problem is, if you’re trying to snag Fields in the second round, you might not be able to get Trey McBride on the way back, but I think there’s plenty of upside if you are able to draft just two of Fields, Moore or McBride. 

Jahmyr Gibbs or David Montgomery, Detroit Lions, and T.J. Hockenson, Minnesota Vikings

Nick Mullens showed a great rapport with T.J. Hockenson last week against the Bengals in his first start. With the Lions secondary getting a huge boost from Khalil Dorsey and Ifeatu Melifonwu — who jumped ahead of both Jerry Jacobs and Tracy Walker on the depth chart — I see a world where Mullens will give Hockenson even more looks this Sunday against his former team. I like pairing him with either of the Lions running back duo of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, who, like Jared Goff, have performed extremely well when playing behind a healthy offensive line. 

Joe Flacco and David Njoku, Cleveland Browns

Joe Flacco has a very clear No. 1 target right now, and his name is David Njoku. Njoku’s target share each game with Flacco under center is steadily rising (14.6%, 18.6%, and 31.8%), and this week, they’ll get to face a Texans defense that has allowed the seventh-most fantasy points and third-most receptions to the TE position this season.

Top Low-Rostered Plays 

Joe Flacco, QB, Cleveland Browns

Joe Flacco is being drafted as the QB9 in the Battle Royale this week. Flacco has started the last three games for the Browns, and has somehow thrown 44, 45 and 44 passes each game. At this point, he’s basically the more reliable version of Sam Howell. 

David Montgomery, RB, Detroit Lions

David Montgomery is being drafted as the RB14 in the Battle Royale this week. With the rise of Jahmyr Gibbs, Montgomery is getting significantly overlooked even though he continues to get up to 20 touches a game, and the majority of the goal line touches. While Gibbs is the more dynamic player, Montgomery still quietly gets touchdowns. His 10 rushing touchdowns is tied for fourth among running backs, which is even more impressive when you consider he has missed three games due to injury. 

Noah Brown, WR, Houston Texans

Noah Brown is being drafted as the WR20 in the Battle Royale this week. Last week, with Nico Collins joining Tank Dell out of the lineup, and Case Keenum under center, it was Brown who was the greatest beneficiary. He caught eight balls on 11 targets for 82 yards and a touchdown. If C.J. Stroud was clearly healthy and able to play this week against the Browns, I would think that Brown’s ADP would be much higher. Keenum targeted Brown in a lot of key situations against the Titans and I wouldn’t be surprised if it remains that way, even if Collins is able to play. 

Romeo Doubs, WR, Green Bay Packers

Romeo Doubs is being drafted as the WR30 in the Battle Royale this week. Christian Watson is still nursing a bad hamstring injury that has kept him sidelined through Wednesday. Doubs has had a quiet second half of the season, but a lot of that relates to the rise of Jayden Reed. Reed has gotten the vast majority of work from the slot this season, and will get matched up against Troy Hill, who has quietly been extremely effective at defending the slot. I see this week as a week where Jordan Love will open things up a bit more, and possibly gravitate the majority of his targets to his favorite receiver earlier this season in Doubs. 

Cade Otton, TE, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Cade Otton is being drafted as the TE11 in the Battle Royale this week. In my eyes, the TE position is stacked this week with the consensus top five of Sam LaPorta, Trey McBride, David Njoku, T.J. Hockenson and Evan Engram all in good matchups and playing at a very high level. If I’m not able to get them, or Ferguson who is this week’s TE6, I might throw a dart at Otton, who faces a Jaguars defense who has allowed the fifth-most fantasy points to the TE position this season. Baker Mayfield is playing some of the best football of his career right now, and it’s imperative for this run to continue if the Bucs are going to sneak into the postseason by winning the NFC South.