As you are well aware, there are plenty of options for you to get your fantasy football fix on Sundays throughout the Fall and Winter months. You may be in multiple season-long leagues and playing DFS each week. However, if you are looking for a hybrid version of these great games, look no further than Head2Head’s version of NFL Salary Cap football. It’s literally a full season of fun (regular season and playoffs) wrapped up into one strategic contest with a nice $25,000 grand prize when it’s all said and done.  Sure, there are other payouts along the way, including weekly and regular season league winners, so if you missed the Introduction article posted last week, be sure to check that out. It will make this strategy session resonate a bit more than it otherwise would.

Basically, you are tasked to build a 10-player roster each week under a $100 Million salary cap. You compete in an 8-team division within a 32-team league, playing head-to-head matchups for the entire 17-week NFL regular season. To make the playoffs, you’ll need to finish in the top two within your division - or - earn one of three wild-card spots within the entire league. If - ahem - WHEN you you make the playoffs, you’ll play in a competition amongst the entire universe of leagues during the actual NFL Playoffs for a shot to win that spicy $25,000 grand prize.

So, now that you know how this game works, let’s talk about some sound overall strategies to use when playing this game.

 

RECEIVERS AND PASS-CATCHING BACKS

Note that this is a PPR scoring format and that is very important when building your lineups each week. You’ll be filling out a lineup that consists of three (3) running backs, three (3) wide receivers or tight ends and one flex (WR, RB or TE). So, that’s a total of seven at these three positions.

Running Backs -- you should target running backs that meet one of two criteria (and ideally, both).

Featured back status.  Anybody who doesn’t split or carries.  There are fewer and fewer of these situations out there these days and since you have total control over your roster, you shouldn’t take too many chances if you want to give yourself a chance to win each week. Remember, these are head-to-head matchups. You only need to beat one opponent. Targets: Le’Veon Bell; David Johnson; Melvin Gordon; Lamar Miller; Jordan Howard; Todd Gurley; LeSean McCoy; Carlos Hyde and Jay Ajayi.

Pass-catchers.  If you must go in another direction, just make sure that whoever you choose is targeted in the passing game. Those 3-5 catches (read: points) can really help in the long run. Targets: Bell; Johnson; Danny Woodhead; Christian McCaffrey; Devonta Freeman; Theo Riddick; Gordon; Darren Sproles and James White.

As you can see, it would be wise to build around Bell, Johnson and/or Gordon to start the season as they meet both criteria. Since those guys will be expensive, you can pair them up with somebody from the second category and be in good shape from the start.

Wide Receivers -- again, this being a weekly head-to-head game, you’ll want to treat it as a cash game in DFS. That means, remover the risk and take the steady contributors who get plenty of targets. Targets: Antonio Brown; Odell Beckham Jr.; Larry Fitzgerald; Julian Edelman; Jarvis Landry; Jordy Nelson; Golden Tate; Michael Thomas; Mike Evans; T.Y. Hilton; A.J. Green and, of course, Julio Jones.

 

TARGET SHOOTOUTS

Don’t just target players from teams that are expected to put up big points. That can back-fire. If a team blows another one out, you’ll see backups getting snaps and passing games being abandoned early. You’ll want to target the back-and-forth shootout affairs with poor defenses and preferably played in a dome with conditions prime for these types of games. So, simply look at the Vegas Odds for the games and sort them by the highest totals (over/under) and then find the ones that have the smallest lines.  Week one examples include:

Oakland at Tennessee (-1) - Total: 53.0

Atlanta (-6) at Chicago - Total: 51

Seattle at Green Bay (-3) - Total: 50.5

New York Giants at Dallas (-3.5) - Total: 50.5

Arizona at Detroit (-1) - Total: 49.5

So, the best options here would be to go for Raiders, Titans, Giants, Cowboys, Cardinals and Lions.  We’ll shy away a bit from the Atlanta Chicago game a bit, due to a potential early beat down and weather potentially playing a factor. All of this can and should be scrutinized down to the very last minute before kickoff and this is just one way to help identify players who could “go off”.

 

PLAN AHEAD

The backbone of this game is creating an initial roster and then making roster moves (transactions) throughout the season based on different factors, including injuries, bye weeks, job movement, etc. Also, transactions cost you money. Each one is $4.00 and this is how the prize pool is generated. You see, you can sign-up and play for free, but we’d suggest investing in the “starter package” which gives you access to certain features (including live scoring) and a full-team trade certificate (10 trades) for the season.  In order to best utilize your trades, without investing too much into this thing, you’ll need to plan ahead. Luckily for you, we have a great Strength of Schedule tool for you to do just that.  Take a look and plan out for the next few weeks who has the best matchups (green highlight) and grab them.

 

RIDE THE VALUES

Another fun aspect of this type of game is it’s stock market similarities.  You see, if you take a chance on a rookie, say, Kareem Hunt in Kansas City before he officially wins the job and earns the carries, you’ll be rewarded by having him locked in at the price you originally paid for him. You may be faced with tough decisions down the road, but we’d suggest holding on to him through tough matchups since it will afford you more space under that $100 Million cap to build the rest of your team. I’ll say it again, you just have to win that one matchup each week - until the playoffs that is.

 

AVOID THE ZEROES

In general, this is a good strategy, huh?  However, I can’t stress it enough. If a player is questionable and a game-time decision, as a general rule, it’s probably best to avoid this player. Even if you’re hearing reports that he is closer to playing in the game than sitting it out. Since you have your pick of the litter, you should really take a look around and find less questionable options.

Those are five strategies to employ in general in the great H2H product game. I’ll be back next week with more strategies, specifically focused on building your initial roster. In the mean time, click this link to join the game and play against me and us at Fantasy Alarm. Everybody’s doing it. It’s all the rage. See you over at Head2Head.