Using Teammates

Weekly Fantasy Football Strategy: Using Teammates
By Adam of Rotopicks.com

GPP Salary Cap Games

GPP salary cap games are characterized by a large amount of entrants and a guaranteed prize pool. As such, in order to place in the money, you need to shoot for a homerun. This is why it is often advantageous to double up on teammates, most often a Quarterback and his Receiver. Every time they connect for a touchdown, you double dip. More often than not the winner (sometimes taking home a prize in the thousands of dollars) showcases a Quarterback who threw for 3+ TD's and that same team also owned the WRs who caught those touchdowns.

Salary Cap Games (2-20 teams)

For the most part, I avoid teammates in smaller salary cap games since many times a monster score is not needed.

Double-Up Salary Cap Games

In order to win double ups, you need a well balanced team that gets points from all positions so you can finish in the top half of the league and place in the money. It is a more conservative game that yields a 50% chance of winning. For these games, I avoid teammates. Teammates are good riskier method for yielding monster point totals when they connect, but if your Quarterback and his teammate get shut down, you have little chance of placing in the top half of your league.

However, I have at times used two Wide Receivers from the same team when their track record consistently shows at least one goes off in any given week. A good example is during Aaron Rodgers' breakout campaign of 2011 and its effects on Greg Jennings and Jordy Nelson. Almost unbelievably, every week one of those Wide Receivers scored enough points to be good enough for two Wide Receivers. The problem was it was impossible to know which WR was going to have a big game. The same can be said during the 2012 Matt Ryan breakout season and his two stud WRs Julio Jones and Roddy White. So, to take the guesswork out and guarantee yourself some nice production, sometimes taking two stud WR teammates is actually a conservative way to get your points... and that is the key to finishing in the top half of a double up league.

Snake Drafts (Head to Head)

You want to pay attention to teammates in head to head drafts, but for a different reason. My strategy is to load up on RBs and gain a clear advantage in the RB and flex spots. After that, you just need your other positions to be equal to your opponents'. The best way to do this is to cancel out his touchdowns. Try to draft the stud WRs that your opponents' QBs are throwing to. Similarly, try to see if it's possible to draft the QB who is throwing to your opponents' receivers.

Once again, the logic here is important to understand. When you shoot for RB's first, you will have an edge at that position. Also, your opponent may be drafting QBs and WRs while you are stocking up on only RBs. Since you have an edge already at one position, you just need to break even at the other positions. Luckily, when you focus on RB's and your opponent takes the QBs and WRs instead, you know how to counter, as previously explained. If his QB (who was most likely picked before yours) has a huge game, more often than not, his WR will have big numbers as well... and vice versa. Thus, if you chose your RB's wisely, and then cancelled out your opponents' QBs and WRs, you have a distinct advantage.

Snake Drafts (3+ Teams)

Snake Drafts with more than 2 teams are a little trickier. For the most part, I avoid teammates. The only exception is when I draft a WR or TE that is a teammate of my QB, for a bench spot. If that QB has a great game, chances are his receivers did as well. So, drafting one of those receivers onto your bench is more of a defensive maneuver to prevent anyone else from profiting from your QB's good play.

Running Backs

Running Backs are a different animal altogether. What I sometimes do (applicable to any league) is draft a teammate RB of a stud, "can't-miss" QB or if I have a pair of teammate WR's. This strategy is what I like to call a "just in case" insurance strategy. If you have a stud QB or two stud WR's on the same team, sometimes you might want to consider the possibility that the points from the team could come from the RB. If your WR's go for 200 yards and ironically get tackled at the 1-yard line three different times, having that insurance RB will pay massive dividends... as well as give you some piece of mind.

Good luck and as always, thanks for reading!

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