Football is back, as are DFS contests on both FanDuel and DraftKings. Most of the world will wait for the regular season to play some DFS games, but you don’t have to. In fact, the first DFS slate of the 2017-2018 NFL season began Thursday night.
But playing preseason DFS is an entirely different beast than regular season DFS. The rules are the same, but the game is different. Here are a few tips to help get you through the four weeks of preseason before the “real deal.”
The most important rule is to chase the snaps. Truth be told, this is really all you have to do to succeed in preseason DFS, and there are a few different ways to do it. I’ll spell them out:
Pay attention to camp battles
This is usually where I like to start. If you can keep up with the news (and there is admittedly a lot to pay attention to this time of year), you’ll know where the most important camp battles are taking place.
Is a team looking for a No. 3 quarterback? There’s a good chance the two players vying for the job will play an entire half in at least one preseason game. What about a camp battle for the team’s primary third-down back? Same story. Ditto for a team’s No. 2 wideout, or their slot man.
Know the depth charts
If you know the ins and outs of a team’s depth chart during the preseason, you’ll be able to identify opportunity. Preseason is not as much of a “dart throw” as many people seem to think. It just requires a ton of research, and most people aren’t willing to put in that type of work for preseason games.
You’ll be swimming a pool of unknown names. This is unavoidable in the preseason. But if you use a depth chart, it becomes a lot simpler. Yeah — the names are unrecognizable. But there’s really no excuse to not know where they fit in the team’s puzzle.
Keep tabs on injuries
This is an extension of the “know the depth charts” tip. You have to pay attention to injuries in the regular season, but it’s just as important in the preseason. If a player is even a little bit injured, there’s a good chance he won’t play at all (even if he would play a full game if it were in the regular season). Coaches tend to be overly conservative in the preseason, given that the games don’t matter.
As training camp wears on, the injuries will (unfortunately) continue to pile up. Teams are extremely deep at certain positions right now, but injuries will open up opportunities for players.
If a team has seven running backs, for example, and two of them are injured and two of them are entrenched atop the depth chart, that leaves just three guys left for the vast majority of preseason snaps. Say one of them is primarily a third-down, pass-catching back. Now you have just two running backs to choose from for the majority of carries. Saddle up!
Use PFF’s tools
The purpose here is not to be salesy — our Fantasy Stats tab really can be the most useful tool to help you succeed in preseason DFS.
Need to know which running backs had the most carries? (Kenny Hilliard led the way with 51 attempts last preseason.) How about target distribution among a team’s group of wideouts? (Arizona’s Jaxon Shipley saw an impressive 29.6 percent of Arizona’s wideout targets last year.)
PFF’s tools can help you identify these trends. Use this to your advantage and you’ll be way ahead of the curve.
Do not load up on big names
You can typically roster a handful of big names in preseason Week 3, but it’s usually a complete waste of money.
But guess what? Plenty of people take the big names — for whatever reason.
Some ownerships for the Dk 4 dollar HoF slate
David Johnson 4.9%
Beasley 9.5%
Moore 8.9%
Mcfadden 6.9%
Cj2k 3.9%
Dak 4.5%
Zeke 8.9%#why— Eliot Crist (@EliotCrist) August 4, 2017
People do stuff like his every week in preseason DFS. Don’t be one of these people.
Follow beat reporters on Twitter
Follow each team’s local beat reporters on Twitter. You’ll get training camp updates on the unknown names far down the depth chart. “Player X is impressing at camp this week,” or “Player Y just made three nice catches in a row and drew praise from the coaching staff.” You won’t get these updates in the mainstream media; you’ll only hear about the big names there, which, as noted above, isn’t all that helpful for preseason DFS.
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