This article is part of our DFS Football 101 series.
If your season-long team isn't looking so hot at the quarter-mark of the campaign, it may be time to seek other alternatives for staying in the fantasy game this year. Heck, even if you're 4-0, adding a little more fantasy football never killed anyone. And, thanks to DailyMVP, expanding your fantasy football horizons need not be a time-consuming venture.
Much like the FASTBREAK and TriplePlay contests that we took a look at during the NBA and MLB seasons, DailyMVP's trio of football offerings use the concept of the Fantasy Equalizer to streamline the process of picking a team.
Rather than having a set salary cap or snake draft to work with, gamers on DailyMVP have their choice of players, but with one major caveat. Each player has a projected point total, and instead of merely trying to compile the most points, the goal is to beat your players' combined projections by as much as possible. Thus, if my team is projected for 50 points, and my opponent's team is projected for 45, my players need to outscore his by at least five points in order for me to win. Those five points, which are added to the opponent's total, are what's known as the Fantasy Equalizer.
All three NFL contest types use the equalizer, and all three have the same scoring system, which is standard, half-PPR. Also, each format is available for contests with two, five or 10 players, with entry fees of $0, $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100. You can challenge friends, or just match with random opponents.
Where the contests differ is roster composition, which puts a unique twist on each game. The Blitz contests require a quarterback, a running back and a wide receiver/tight end. QBSnap merely uses three quarterbacks, a format that I find quite appealing. Last but certainly not least, FullHuddle is similar to the fantasy contests most of us are used to, requiring rosters with a quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, a tight end, a FLEX, a kicker and a team D/ST.
If you're pressed for time or just looking to get a first taste, Blitz and QBSnap are especially easy to set up, yet still offer a nice strategic component. The point projections are solid, making nearly every key player a viable option, which is more than can be said for most daily games. Making things even easier, DailyMVP doesn't include the true scrubs, so you won't have to scroll through 80 names to make sure you didn't miss any of the week's starting quarterbacks. Joe Flacco is listed. His backup, Tyrod Taylor, is not.
Also contributing to the ease of use is the DailyMVP app (available for download from the App StoreSM), which allows you to do everything that's available on the website. If you want to make a QBSnap lineup during your 90-second wait in the coffee line, there's nothing stopping you. But, if you'd rather spend an hour deliberating over the perfect FullHuddle lineup, well that's also an option. The experience can essentially be as complicated or easy as each user would like.
As for strategy in terms of picking players, there are many ways to achieve the simple goal of having your team outperform its projection by as much as possible. You can go with all superstars and hope they have even bigger games than expected, or rely on lesser players to merely have decent outings. More likely, you'll want some combination of both, as there are typically solid options available at all projections levels.
For my Week 4 QBSnap lineup, I went with the star-heavy approach, choosing Cam Newton (projected for 18 points), Colin Kaepernick (19) and Aaron Rodgers (22). It worked out okay, as Rodgers carried my squad with a 31.88-point performance, beating his projection by 9.88. Of course, despite throwing four touchdowns, Rodgers wasn't one of the week's elite performers on DailyMVP, as the likes of Eli Manning, Joe Flacco and Andrew Luck all overcame lower projections to have huge games.
My Rodgers and Kaepernick picks were based on what appeared to be highly favorable matchups, while Newton's projection merely seemed a bit low, likely because of his modest start to the season. Though I did beat my projection by a bit, I was squashed by a lineup starring Luck and Philip Rivers, and my opponent had four Fantasy Equalizer points due to his budget selection of Alex Smith.
For Blitz, I used Rodgers (22), Donald Brown (11) and DeAndre Hopkins (seven), with different reasoning behind each selection. Rodgers merely had an excellent matchup, facing the porous Chicago defense. Brown not only had a favorable matchup, but also had a projection of just 11 points, after injuries shot him up the depth chart to become the regular three-down back. Hopkins had one of the lowest projections of any available player, as he turned in a modest 52-802-2 receiving line as a rookie last season. While still not drawing a ton of targets, he's done excellent with what he has seen, and seems to be headed for a rather unsurprising year-two breakout.
I got 21 Fantasy Equalizer points against a lineup of Matt Ryan-Matt Forte-Jordy Nelson, but Nelson's huge day helped my opponent eke out a narrow win. If you're wondering why I didn't use Nelson and Rodgers together, it's because each player must come from a different real-life team in both QBSnap and Blitz . In the FullHuddle contests, you have the option of using two players from each team.
Naturally, I went with Rodgers and Nelson for my FullHuddle lineup, which also included Brown, Hopkins, Matt Asiata, Julio Jones, Niles Paul, Justin Tucker and the San Diego D/ST. As a Ravens fan, I'm a bit ashamed that I lost by 4.7 points to a lineup starring Steve Smith, who was a fantastic value at his projection of just 10 points. Nelson and Hopkins would have been tough to pass up, but Jones' projection of 17 points – with the benefit of retrospect – made him only a decent value against the underrated Minnesota defense.
My plan for Week 5 is to keep riding the unproven running backs while relying on the superstar receivers with top-five matchups. Early on, I've got my eyes on the Baltimore-Indianapolis and Atlanta-New York Giants games as potential shootouts.
DailyMVP is a great way to introduce your uninitiated friends to the world of fantasy football. It's easy to pick up and quick to play, which makes it a fine option for the more casual fantasy fans in your peer group. Right now, with the Refer a Fan Sweepstakes, there is even more incentive to get your friends playing at DailyMVP. Refer them to the site and you'll earn two sweepstakes entries for each person that signs up and two more entries when they play their first contest (probably against you!). The prize: a trip for two to the 2015 College Basketball Championship title game in Indianapolis. You'll have more opponents to play against and you'll increase your chances of winning that Indy trip, so it's a can't-lose proposition. Give it a go.
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