OThe NFFC Footballguys Online Championship. Three hundred thousand dollars. Say it. Savor it! That’s a big pile of cash, and at the end of the season, someone will see it deposited into their account. There’s no reason why that can’t be you.
Of course, to win it, you must first enter the contest. Just click RIGHT HERE to register for this $350 contest.
If you are registering for the first time, the NFFC will give PlayerProfiler readers an amazing discount. Use the promo code FIRSTTIME100, and you’ll get $100 off your entry fee, which is nearly 30% off the sticker price. You can’t beat that!
Already have an NFFC account? Not to worry, we have our own code for you to use. When you register to join a Footballguys Draft, enter the promo code PROFILER25 and you’ll get $25 off the purchase price.
PlayerProfiler is proud to announce a best ball partnership with the home of high-stakes, NFFC. Along with that, PlayerProfiler readers get a ton of promo codes to enter contests at a discount! Check out all the details RIGHT HERE.
The Footballguys Championship on NFFC
How the Contest Works
If you aren’t familiar with this contest, participants enter into a 12-team league, with a total of 20 roster spots. The top two teams from each league will advance to the Championship Round and have the opportunity to play for the $300,000 Grand Prize. Additionally, the individual advancing league winner gets $1500 while the runner-up gets $700. The regular season will run Weeks 1-14, and the championship round will consist of each team’s average score from Weeks 1-14 added together with their scores from Weeks 15-17. The penultimate round pays cash prizes to the top 50 teams.
Each team sets a lineup every week, and may bid for free agents throughout the regular season. You will have a $1,000 (fake money) budget for free-agent bidding. Starting lineups will consist of QB, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, TE, FLEX (RB/WR/TE), and a kicker and team defense. The contest uses PPR-based scoring with TD throws counting as six points.
If you are entering the contest for the first time, read the full rules and scoring summary thoroughly before you draft.
Two Wrinkles
There are a pair of curveballs that could throw first-time entrants for a loop. The first is that the drafts use 3rd-Round-reversal. What that means is that after the draft snakes through the 1st and 2nd Rounds, the 3rd Round begins with the team that also made the first pick in the second. It follows exactly the same order, so Team 12 will get picks 12, 13, and 25. Team 1 will get picks 1, 24, and 36.
All rounds thereafter continue the snake from there (so Team 1 also gets pick 37 and Team 12 doesn’t pick again until pick 48). The end result is that every round after the 2nd round looks “backward” from normal when we look at the draft board.
The second wrinkle is that the NFFC uses the Kentucky Derby System (KDS) to assign draft positions. This allows you to have some level of control over what draft spot you are assigned. You can rank the draft slots in the order you’d prefer, from most favorable to least favorable. So if you like drafting at the front of the draft, prioritize the early picks. If you like drafting at the end, prioritize the later picks.
How To Use KDS
To lock in your preferences, head to your draft’s home page, and you’ll see a section that looks like this:
Simply move the shields around on the screen until you have them in the order you prefer. Then just lock it in. In this instance, I wanted to be at either end of the draft rather than the middle. The KDS will lock about 15 minutes after the draft fills, so get in the habit of setting your preferences immediately after registering. Change them up as often as you like until the draft slots lock. You will get an email reminder 15 minutes before lock; it’s easy to miss.
Once the draft is full, the software will assign a number from 1 to 12 for each drafter. If you get number 1, you will get whatever draft slot was your first choice when you set your KDS. Then, whoever gets number 2 will get their first available draft slot choice, and so on down the line, until all draft slots have been assigned.
Just be careful to choose your preferred draft slot order wisely because you also must take into account the 3rd-Round reversal when deciding what slot you want. In most years, the “3RR” makes the back end of the draft much more attractive than usual because of the advantage of getting that early 3rd-round pick. But only you can decide how heavily to weight that advantage.
One final KDS tip: Many drafters will not set their KDS preferences at all, so the default order for those teams is the first available pick in the standard 1-12 draft order. That means if you want a slot at the beginning of the snake, you must prioritize that way. Conversely, if your priority is a later slot, there’s an excellent chance you’ll get one. Usually only a couple of drafters will prioritize the final few draft slots.
The NFFC Offers Free ADP
If you’re not sure about how to set your KDS, you can look at the ADP for the Footballguys contest right on the main site. At this time of year, they are filling multiple drafts per day, so the ADP can be as fresh as you like. Just click on “ADP” on the main NFFC page. This brings you to a page where you can dial in on just the last several days of draft results for this particular contest.
At this time of year, just use the past 3-5 days, and you should have enough data to work with. Make sure you select Footballguys Online Challenge from the second dropdown list so you filter only for this specific contest. If you’d rather see a draft board, click on the ADP Board button (but you’ll need to set your parameters again, as above).
I prefer to use the draft board when setting my KDS, as it’s visually easier to see how the board might look from each draft slot. This board is also handy as you are drafting, allowing you to see what players are likely to be selected soon. Unlike Underdog and some other sites that host about a zillion drafts per day, the player queue in the draft room will not perfectly reflect current ADP. Thus, you might have to scroll down the list to find some of the players that will likely be drafted soon.
Positional Valuations
There are some distinct similarities across all NFFC contest drafts for managed leagues. Wide receivers are hot commodities. You’ll need to start at least three each week, plus possibly a fourth in the flex. For this reason, you can expect them to be pushed up the draft board. There will also be at least a couple of “runs” on WRs in the first 5-6 rounds of the draft. Drafters at either end of the snake need to plan carefully to account for these runs.
Many drafters see the six-point value of touchdown passes and conclude that QBs are more valuable in this format. The better takeaway is that running quarterbacks lose some of their luster. Those mobile QBs can still pile up the yardage with their legs, but their rushing TDs are no more valuable than passing TDs.
This puts immobile pocket passers like Jared Goff and Matthew Stafford on a more even footing with Jayden Daniels and Jalen Hurts. Also, the thirst for WRs actually tends to push QBs down the draft boards farther than in other formats.
Other than a small handful of elite tight ends, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a format where TE production comes so cheaply. You can find solid starters well into the double-digit rounds. Most drafters will focus on filling their teams with the best RBs and WRs early in drafts. That said, once those positions begin to get depleted, there could be a run on TEs as those double-digit rounds approach.
The elite RBs will obviously go very early, but the pressure on WRs can sometimes send a nice value your way. Most drafters break ties between WRs and RBs in favor of the WRs. Some drafters will try to take advantage by using a “Robust RB” strategy, scooping falling values at running back before “painting it yellow” (heavy shift to WRs) for many rounds thereafter. “Zero” and “Hero” running back builds are quite popular.
Balancing Your Team
Since this is a managed league contest, you’ll have access to free agent players throughout the regular season. Nevertheless, it’s best to go into the season with a well-balanced team. Most teams select at least one backup QB, so don’t wait too long to roster your backup. You’ll also need one roster spot each for your kicker and defense. Add in a couple of TEs, and you have about 14 roster spots remaining for WR and RB.
If I go hard at one of those positions early, I will probably break ties in favor of other positions in the late rounds. That said, I recommend at least six WRs given the need to start 3 per week.
(Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
With a total of 240 players rostered, you won’t find much immediate help from the free agent pool each week, either. Bidding is fierce for any player who suddenly finds a fantasy-friendly role. Your best move is to be proactive and think a step ahead of your leaguemates.
Managers with the foresight to pick up a player a week before they become fantasy-relevant can usually do so cheaply. There are no $0 bids allowed in this contest, so every move you make costs at least $1. Spend wisely!
Free Look Players
Since this contest continues to hold drafts after the first two NFL games of the season (SEA vs NE and LAR vs SF) and right up until kickoff on Sunday of Week 1, the NFFC keeps things fair for all the leagues that drafted before those games were played. So rosters won’t lock until kickoff of the earliest game on Sunday for Week 1 ONLY.
Thus, all teams can freely move players from SEA, NE, LAR, and SF in or out of their lineups even after those games are finished. That might seem crazy, but it allows drafting to continue until the main slate of games begins. Additionally, a round of free agent bids will take place on Saturday evening AFTER these two games. It’s less an NFFC scoring quirk, and more about allowing more people in the overall game.
This can be an advantage for drafters prioritizing late-round picks from these four teams. Drafters will take players like Kayshon Boutte, Colby Parkinson, DeMarcus Robinson, or Tory Horton (Ed. note: HEY!) that might not otherwise be drafted. If they score 10+ points, consider putting them in your lineup.
You can be sure that the kickers and defenses from all four teams will be drafted, too. Sam Darnold becomes a more interesting team “backup” QB as well. If Darnold has a big game, you can insert him into the starting lineup rather than chance a bad game from your team’s primary QB. If you roster a defense or kicker from this game, you have the same advantage. Only rostered the one kicker or defense? You can still use the free agent bidding to select another from the upcoming Sunday slate. It’s a “free play.”
The bottom line is that drafting “free-look” players will never hurt you. It can only help. And if you end up not using them, you can always drop them during the Saturday evening free-agent bidding, while adding a player who has not yet played for the week.
Again, keep in mind this advantage only applies Week 1 of the season. After Week 1, standard rules apply: that player locks in your lineup. Likewise, benched players from early games must remain on your bench for the week.
Must-Clicks FTW
Keep checking our articles on PlayerProfiler for more tips and information on the NFFC family of contests. In a future article, I’ll highlight some mispriced players who can swing the odds in your favor. Also, Samwise dropped a missive about “following the money” for running backs in best ball’s crucial middle rounds.
Also check out the Fantasy Empire show. This is a weekly masterclass in high-stakes contest strategy from some of the best high-stakes players in the world. You can watch us draft in real time once a week for the remainder of the drafting season. Once the games kick off, we’ll help you stay on top of in-season team management and free-agent bidding.
And finally, find ME on The Dominator podcast, which brings in expert fantasy analysts and veterans of the high-stakes draft world each week. Every show is packed with actionable advice for the Footballguys contest, along with all your other fantasy teams:
Put a Bow on It!
If you’re looking for a new challenge in the fantasy game, the NFFC is the place to find it. This is just one of their contests; they have a wide array of great products. I encourage you to look around their draft lobby and find one that’s just right for you. A word of warning: once you stick your toe in the water, you’ll never want to go anywhere else!
For more articles from PlayerProfiler, check out the fantasy home page – NFL Fantasy | PlayerProfiler – Fantasy Football News & Media
