The Re-Draft Roundtables Series
The Footballguys staff looks at various strategies to help you in redraft leagues.
Participating in a redraft league is a process that starts with the draft and hopefully ends with a championship. The Footballguys staff has answered several questions about various strategies to help you achieve your championship dreams. From the beginning to the end and everything in between, we've got you covered to give you the tools and knowledge needed to dominate your redraft league.
What tool or resource do you use to help you with lineup decisions? Do you ever look at an opponent's lineup before setting yours? What is the benefit of doing so? Do you feel any benefit to starting (or benching) a player in a primetime game?
CRAIG LAKINS
When setting my starting lineups, I'm focusing only on what gives my team the best chance to score as many points as possible. The only reason I might care about who my opponent is starting is if he has the WR1 or WR2 of my starting quarterback. If my quarterback is going to go off, he's likely doing so through his top targets, and the points he scores for my fantasy team will be mitigated by the points his wide receiver scores for my opponent.
CHAD PARSONS
Start rate is an underutilized tool on your preferred hosting platform. My research has shown it is tough to beat the global start rate, which incorporates the decisions of hundreds, if not thousands, of fantasy leagues and decisions into a singular number. This includes player production, matchups, other options, etc. As for an opponent's lineup, I rarely look before setting mine. One reason is the sheer volume of lineups I am setting on a given Thursday or Sunday before kickoff. Another is with rare exceptions, the matchups are projected close enough where the focus should be to score the most points possible and safe plays can be an illusion. Whether impactful or not, I prefer to have a player or two left entering Sunday or Monday Night Football instead of sweating out my opponent having remaining players in a matchup.
BEN CUMMINS
I rarely look at my opponent’s lineup as I focus on starting my most optimal lineup no matter what. The benefit of starting a player in a primetime game is how much fun I have watching the game and rooting for that player to produce. On the strategy side, benching a player you’re not 100% bullish on starting on Thursday Night makes sense if you’re still waiting on injury news for other players on your roster. If your better player ends up playing on the weekend, it’s nice to have that flexibility of stating them rather than having boxed yourself out of one of your starting lineup spots.
JASON WOOD
I provide weekly in-season projections for the site, so as you can imagine, I let those be my main guide on whom I start each week. The strength of schedule becomes a factor after the first few weeks of the season (it's not at all predictive in the early weeks), and I generally double-check my start/sit decisions by looking at the global starting percentage estimates for a given site.
CLAYTON GRAY
If at all possible, avoid having a Thursday night player in your flex position. You want to leave as much flexibility as possible each week in case one of your Sunday starters is hurt, benched, or whatever.