Underdog Battle Royale: Week 2 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 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 year’s main Battle Royale contests are going to have a whopping $500,000 prize pool with $20,000 offered for first place, which is not too shabby for a $10 entry. Here are some details on the Week 2 contest:

I should also point out that there will also be a Mini Royale offered every week that has $100,000 prize pool with $5 entries and 25 max entries. These are mighty popular and actually filled up some time Thursday night. Moving forward, just know that you can expect my Underdog Weekly NFL article posted each week Thursday mornings through the end of the season. 

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, you’ll even be able to wait until later in the draft to put together a QB/WR combo. 
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 two of your picks – When it’s all said and done, there are 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 rostership. 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.

Week 2 Battle Royale Strategy

Here is the current top 36 in ADP for Week 2’s Battle Royale:

Top Pairings

Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs

This is a stack that would have been much easier to obtain before Travis Kelce’s status update which made it very clear that he’ll be playing this coming Sunday. Still, there are plenty of opportunities to snag this stack if you are drafting late in the first round. Patrick Mahomes usually gets drafted in the second or third round, but if you’re drafting fourth or fifth with Kelce available, go ahead and take him and hope the sixth spot doesn’t draft Mahomes. Even if you don’t get Mahomes, you should be able to draft a top receiver and be able to pair him with his QB. This includes Amon-Ra St. Brown, Calvin Ridley or Keenan Allen. 

Jared Goff and Amon-Ra St. Brown, Detroit Lions

The Lions’ primary stack should be easy to put together as long as you start your draft with Amon-Ra St. Brown. Jared Goff tends to be either the fifth or sixth QB drafted and is often left undrafted. Goff feasted on the Seahawks last season and was somehow able to do so without St. Brown in the lineup. St. Brown is a target machine every single game he plays, which makes this pair a no-brainer. You also should keep the Seahawks in your queue if you have St. Brown and Goff in your lineup. DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett and/or Kenneth Walker are all compelling options for a potential game stack. 

Christian McCaffrey, San Francisco 49ers, and Puka Nacua, Los Angeles Rams

Certain QBs are probably not going to be worthy of rostering as they’re better “in real life” QBs than they are fantasy QBs, and that certainly includes Brock Purdy. If you’re lucky enough to get one of the top picks in your draft and are able to draft Christian McCaffrey, the best way to get some correlation is to stack him with one of the Rams receivers. Puka Nacua had a coming-out party last week against the Seahawks and is currently in the Cooper Kupp role as the slot receiver. While the 49ers defense is undoubtedly one of the best in the league, they’re not going to completely stifle the Rams passing attack. Last season against the Niners, Cooper Kupp had one game with 14 catches for 122 yards and one game with eight catches for 79 yards and a TD. It’s certainly a bit of a risk going for the double down massive performance with Nacua, but it makes sense here from both a strategic standpoint and a rostership standpoint. 

Top Low-Rostered Plays 

Jared Goff, QB, Detroit Lions

Jared Goff is somehow the QB9 (meaning he’s usually undrafted) this week in the Battle Royale in a matchup where he faces a Seahawks team that he dominated last season, and a Seahawks defense that allowed 300-plus yards of passing to the likes of Puka Nacua, Tutu Atwell, Van Jefferson and Tyler Higbee. Last season, he was able to put together 378 yards and four TDs against the Seahawks without Amon-Ra St. Brown in the lineup. 

AJ Dillon, RB, Green Bay Packers

AJ Dillon is the RB22 this week in the Battle Royale but will likely climb the ladder leading up to the start of the games considering Aaron Jones is unlikely to play. Last week against the Falcons, the Panthers RB duo of Miles Sanders and Chuba Hubbard combined for 27 rushes for 132 yards. I see Dillon getting at least 75% of the RB touches if Jones remains out, and Dillon might actually get the majority of touches even if Jones does play. 

Jahan Dotson, WR, Washington Commanders

Jahan Dotson is the WR26 this week in the Battle Royale, which I can somewhat understand considering Terry McLaurin is usually the primary target among the Commanders receivers, but with his matchup against Damarri Mathis of the Broncos, there’s massive upside if he can have a Jakobi Meyers-esque performance against Mathis. 

Chris Godwin, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Chris Godwin is the WR25 this week in the Battle Royale and is going to be facing a Bears secondary that is going to be without their nickelback in Kyler Gordon and backup nickel back in Josh Blackwell. They’ll more than likely have to dig deep into their practice squad for someone who will be responsible for stopping Godwin throughout the game. 

Luke Musgrave, TE, Green Bay Packers

Luke Musgrave is the TE9 this week in the Battle Royale, coming off of his NFL debut where he led the Packers receivers in routes run and gets a matchup against a Falcons team that allowed the ninth-most fantasy points to the TE position in 2022 and the second-most fantasy points to the TE position in Week 1 (to Hayden Hurst). He’s going to be quite popular in regular DFS lineups, so there’s no reason why he should be usually undrafted in the Battle Royale.