Underdog Battle Royale: Week 6 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 6 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 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. 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 last week’s second place finisher had a lineup with Jared Goff (the QB10) and George Pickens (the WR21). 

Week 6 Battle Royale Strategy

Here is the current top 36 in ADP for Week 6’s Battle Royale:

Top Pairings

Justin Fields and DJ Moore, Chicago Bears

What a difference a couple good weeks can make. Justin Fields is somehow being drafted as this week’s QB2, DJ Moore the WR4. They get yet another good matchup against the Minnesota Vikings. Moore is usually being drafted fifth or sixth, so if you are drafting in those spots, you can absolutely draft Fields in the second round, or take a chance and hope that he makes it back to you for your third or fourth pick. If you go that route, you can consider pairing your QB with your second receiver or TE instead. 

Kirk Cousins and Jordan Addison or T.J. Hockenson, Minnesota Vikings

Justin Jefferson’s unfortunate injury that sent him to the short-term IR can potentially open up a huge opportunity for the rest of Minnesota’s receivers. Even though T.J. Hockenson is currently being drafted as the TE1, he’s still being drafted late enough where he should be available to all positions in the second round. Jordan Addison is probably an overpay right now as the WR10, but based on what we’ve seen from him through these first five weeks, he certainly has the ability to take over Jefferson’s gigantic 30.7% target share and be a slate breaker against a Bears defense that is currently the league’s worst defense against the QB position and second-worst defense DVOA. 

Adam Thielen, Carolina Panthers, and Raheem Mostert, Miami Dolphins

Adam Thielen continues to get the job done regardless of who’s under center for the Panthers, and he’ll get another great matchup against a Dolphins team that has been using Kader Kohou against the slot receivers more often than not. His poor performance against Stefon Diggs a few weeks ago opened up a big can of worms that I think Thielen can exploit. As for Raheem Mostert, he’ll get a matchup against a Panthers team that has allowed the second-most fantasy points to the RB position and won’t have to worry about De’Von Achane taking his touches.

Top Low-Rostered Plays 

Kirk Cousins, QB, Minnesota Vikings

Kirk Cousins is being drafted as the QB7 in the Battle Royale this week. While Jared Goff is still on my radar as the QB9, Cousins has my attention with a matchup against a Bears defense that has been very generous to opposing quarterbacks this season. While the loss of Justin Jefferson is undoubtedly going to hurt, the Vikings have more than enough weapons for Cousins to do damage with. 

D’Andre Swift, RB, Philadelphia Eagles

D’Andre Swift is being drafted as the RB11 in the Battle Royale this week. He’s truly been a model of consistency this season and — even with a healthy Kenneth Gainwell available — is still the clear-cut No. 1 option in the backfield after getting 23 touches against the Rams last week. The Jets can be quite tough on receivers thanks to their outstanding secondary, but they’ve certainly struggled defending running backs, having allowed a combined 794 yards to opposing RBs this season, which is the second most in the NFL. 

Jakobi Meyers, WR, Las Vegas Raiders

Jakobi Meyers is being drafted as the WR27 in the Battle Royale this week. Meyers is the one low-rostered play that really surprised me. He gets the revenge narrative against his former team, the Patriots, who reportedly gave him a low-ball offer to kick off free agency, which led to his departure and eventual signing with the Raiders. If you watched Monday’s game, you were able to see Meyers as Jimmy Garoppolo’s No. 1 target throughout the game, which led to Meyers snagging seven catches on 10 targets with a touchdown. His lack of rostership is mind-boggling considering Davonte Adams is being drafted as the WR6 and will likely have similar one-on-one matchups throughout the game.   

Trey Palmer, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Trey Palmer is being drafted as the WR38 in the Battle Royale this week. This one is definitely a high-risk option, but I think there’s a potential high reward as well. As we saw last week, Detroit was without Brian Branch and struggled mightily trying to stop Adam Thielen throughout the game. Will Harris is just a significant dropoff compared to the many other options on the injury-riddled Lions secondary.  We also know Mike Evans is dealing with a hamstring injury that has been bothering him enough to the point where he hasn’t been able to practice so far this week. If Evans doesn’t play, you better believe a huge chunk of the available targets are going to Palmer, who will primarily be running routes from the slot. 

Logan Thomas, TE, Washington Commanders

Logan Thomas is being drafted as the TE7 in the Battle Royale this week. Thomas gets a great matchup against a Falcons team that has allowed the second-most fantasy points to the TE position this season. Per the FTN Red Zone Report, Thomas is actually the only Washington receiver that has seen more than one target within the 5-yard line, which is even more impressive considering he has missed six full quarters of football due to a concussion sustained against the Broncos.