Week 7 Underdog Battle Royale DFS Picks: Welcome To Chiefs Week
DFS

Week 7 Underdog Battle Royale DFS Picks: Welcome To Chiefs Week

Pete Overzet peruses the Underdog Battle Royale slate for Week 7.

We're back to break down the Week 7 slate on Underdog Fantasy. These strategic nuggets focus on the six-person contests and, more specifically, the Week 7 Battle Royale tournament, where the top prize is $50,000.

Here's the agenda for the Week 7 edition:

  • What the 50k winner did in Week 6
  • How to attack the game of the week
  • My favorite options in a deep QB pool
  • Chiefs leverage plays

If you want to watch me draft some Battle Royale teams on Underdog and talk through more strategy, be sure to check out the Week 7 DFS jam on the Fantasy Life YouTube channel.

Macro: What the 50k winner did in Week 6

For the first time all year, the winning team didn't have a single player who was not drafted in nearly 100% of drafts (you can see the ownership percentages right next to the points):

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This is what we'd classify as a "superteam" with extreme ADP values allowing JSAM9995 to pair together a three-player combo (Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Josh Jacobs and George Pickens) that was found on only 8 other teams in the entire contest:

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By the way, be sure to check out bbmdb.app if you want to review your Battle Royale portfolio or peruse combos like the one above.

Takeaways:

  • There are multiple uniqueness levers we can pull in BR drafts. Scrolling down for unique players is one, but so is scooping up ADP value. This allows us to have our cake (get really good players) and eat it too (get unique). We should always scoop up big ADP fallers in the first two rounds of BR drafts because it provides a chance at building a superteam.
  • Weeks like this can be frustrating because the majority of drafters didn't have access to this combo of players, but that is ultimately the game we sign up for (drafting against peers and room-to-room variance). As long as there isn't collusion (which Underdog checks for), we should be prepared for a few slates like this per year. The reality is that most of the time these uber ADP value teams won't win, but that doesn't mean it isn't tilting when they do.

How to attack the game of the week: Cowboys vs. Commanders

The premiere game in Week 7 is Washington at Dallas with a juicy 55-point total:

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Whenever a clear game of the week emerges, it can be tricky to know exactly how to attack it.

Right now, there is not a single sneaky angle to play on the Cowboys with their entire offense getting drafted in every contest:

I'm not advocating for a full fade of Dallas—I'll have plenty—but I do prefer to find unique angles on games I'm loading up on. Fortunately, there are a couple of unique pieces we can attack on the Commanders side of the ball:

  • Terry McLaurin (ADP: 34.1) - WR15, could be back this week after returning to a limited practice on Wednesday, is going mostly undrafted
  • Zach Ertz (ADP: 35.1) - TE8 currently, which means he'll be drafted less than 30% of the time.

Stacking Jayden Daniels with either of these two options will be very unique compared to Dak stacks, and it allows you to lean into the incredible matchup. The Cowboys give up the biggest fantasy boosts to both opposing QBs and opposing WRs:

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If, for some reason, McLaurin doesn't return, "naked" Daniels is not bad at all, and you'll be able to swap to another solid WR (last week I was able to swap to Ladd McConkey on some teams where I had selected Lamb).

QB is deeeeep this week: my favorites

Even without Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, we have a very deep pool of QB options this week.

The first five are solidified and will all be selected in most drafts—Daniels, Patrick Mahomes, Prescott, Jalen Hurts and Drake Maye–which means we can scroll down for some unique options.

Here are a few I like who will be drafted less than 50% of the time:

  • Caleb Williams (QB6) - 25.5-point team total and QB3 in our projections. Caleb is an extreme value this week. When selected, he'll often be paired with Rome Odunze, so don't be afraid to play him solo (because there really aren't any other viable Bears to click).
  • Justin Herbert (QB7) - 25-point team total AND QB6 in our projections. Should be getting Quentin Johnston back and the entire identity of this team right now is chucking the ball. Ladd McConkey will be a popular stacking option, but you can stack him uniquely with either QJ or Keenan Allen.
  • Jordan Love (QB10) - 25.5-point team total and QB8 in our projections. No one wants to play Love because they are worried about Josh Jacobs hogging all the work, but if the Cardinals keep it close Love can cook. Tucker Kraft is the chalk pairing, so I plan to roll him mostly solo.
  • Daniel Jones (QB8) - 23.5-point team total and QB9 in our projections. Indiana Jones finally got back in the rushing TD column last week and still has a high ceiling. Tyler Warren will be popular, but you can roll solo or sprinkle one of the WRs (Josh Downs is in concussion protocol, fwiw).

Chiefs leverage: Worthy & Pacheco

Everyone is very excited about Rashee Rice's return to the Kansas City offense, with Rice currently clocking in as the WR2 on the slate with a frothy ADP of 8.2.

Some of this enthusiasm makes sense (the Raiders are bad and the Chiefs have a 28.5 point team total), but there are plenty of scenarios where Rice is not putting up a tournament-winning score in his first game back.

In these scenarios, I think it's worth looking past the extremely pricey (and popular) Rice/Mahomes stacks (their ADPs are perfectly correlated as early Round 2 and early Round 3 picks) and looking for leverage with the other cheaper KC pieces.

My two favorite candidates:

  • Xavier Worthy (ADP 32.2; WR13) - If this ADP holds, Worthy will be drafted less than 50% of the time. Since returning from injury in Week 4, Worthy has a healthy UR score of 65 and has averaged 12.9 points per game with a decent 76% route participation rate. This isn't an elite role, but it's enough to do fantasy damage in a high-powered offense. If the field is willing to push him to the side this quickly, I want to be buying.
  • Isiah Pacheco (ADP 35.9; RB16) - The best way to place KC this week, however, might be through Pacheco, who will be less than 10% drafted if this ADP holds. It seems crazy to say, but he handled his biggest workload of the season in Week 6 and has seen his UR score increase every week since Week 3 (51 > 52 > 58 > 67). He really pulled away from Kareem Hunt in that game against the Lions with a 79% snap share and double the rushing attempts (60% vs. 30%). Pacheco is the ultimate leverage piece when you factor in his low ownership and ability to steal TDs from the more popular passing game options.

For more Battle Royale strategy, check out the full slate breakdown I do with the Badge Bros on Fridays at 3 PM ET.

Players Mentioned in this Article

  1. Josh Jacobs
    JoshJacobs
    RBGBGB
    PPG
    18.16
    Proj
    15.71