For those seeking last-minute fantasy football opportunities, the Annual Footballguys Subscriber Contest is now officially open and complimentary for all premium website subscribers. This competition blends best ball and salary cap strategies, requiring you to construct a best ball lineup within a $250 budget. It is a major contest featuring substantial prizes, including a $35,000 prize pool and an additional $5,000 donation to a food bank of the winner's choice, made in the first-place winner's name.
Participation is essential for a chance to win, so take the time to assemble your team and submit your entry before the season commences. The deadline for final submissions is 11:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday, September 3, 2025, which is quickly approaching. This article outlines how to approach the contest and provides strategies and suggestions to help you build a winning team.
If you're not already a subscriber, fix that here! Then, to submit an entry for the contest, click here.
Our $35k Subscribers Contest is free for premium subscribers to enter. It closes Wednesday night!
Click here to play.
Things to Remember
The last time you hit submit is your final entry into the contest. Some of our Footballguys staffers have submitted their lineup a hundred times already, so don't feel bad if you are making many changes. It is recommended to get your final entry a day or two before the deadline so you can be on top of injuries, camp news, team decisions, and more.
This is a contest based purely on points scored, and each week, a certain number of participants will be eliminated like so:
- Week 1-3: The lowest-scoring 10% of the field will be cut each week.
- Week 4-7: The lowest-scoring 20% of the field will be cut each week.
- Week 8-12: The lowest-scoring 30% of the field will be cut each week.
- Week 13-14: The lowest-scoring 40% of the field will be cut each week.
- Weeks 15-17: The Remaining participants qualify for prizes based on the sum of their scores in these three weeks.
You must select at least 18 players, but you could select more than that if you want more depth. You will start 1 quarterback, 2 running backs, 2 wide receivers, 1 tight end, 1 kicker, and 1 defense each week, so within your 18 players, you must meet those starting lineup requirements as well.
For more contest rules, click here.
Who won Last Year? What did they do?
Looking at last year's winner, they only submitted 18 players into their lineup. They selected two players for each position, except for running back and wide receiver, where they chose five for each. That is not a lot of depth, but since their players were sensational hits, the lack of depth did not matter. The starting lineup was just so loaded. This team went with two higher-cost players in Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jonathan Taylor. Then, they went for upcoming talent, namely Jayden Daniels, Chase Brown, Malik Nabers, Khalil Shakir, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Brian Thomas Jr.. Hitting on a middle-cost player is obviously a good thing. Hitting on the six that this entry did is sensational, and that is what sent this team to victory. Their top-tier assets delivered, and they made some phenomenal middle-round selections to fill out their roster.
What is the Best Strategy?
As much as I want to give you a more definitive answer, you can win with any strategy. There is no "perfect strategy". At the end of the day, it is about picking productive players that score a lot of fantasy points. However, here are tips I would recommend using, as I used them with my team.