Underdog Fantasy Super Bowl Battle Royale Strategy
There’s only one game left in the season, but drafting never stops on Underdog Fantasy where they are offering multiple Super Bowl contests at three different price points ($5, $25, and $100).
The $5 contest, efficiently titled The Big Game, has a $500,000 total prize pool with $50,000 up top and therefore deserves our attention.
If you need a refresher on all things Underdog Fantasy, check out our guide!
Here is everything you need to know about drafting a winning team…
Underdog Super Bowl Contests 101: The Basics
These four-person, four-round drafts are incredibly simple (and addictively fun). The player pool features every QB, RB, WR, TE, and Kicker on both the Eagles and Chiefs (no defenses, though).
The catch, however, is understanding that 113,304 total teams will be drafted in this specific contest, and that means many drafters will share similar, if not fully duplicated, lineups with each other.
When you look at the current ADP (average draft position), you can quickly see how drafters will get funneled toward the same start:
- The Jalen Hurts drafter usually takes either Miles Sanders or Dallas Goedert with their second pick
- The Patrick Mahomes drafter takes either Isiah Pacheco or Marquez Valdes-Scantling with their second pick
- The Travis Kelce drafter takes whichever top Eagles player falls (generally Sanders or Goedert)
- And the 1.04 drafter on the turn normally double taps A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith
These aren’t bad starts, per se.
They make logical sense from a projected point standpoint, but they will not be unique.
Winning $50,000 is great, but it’s not as enjoyable when you have to split that top prize with hundreds of other drafters. Thus, similar to Showdown DFS, we need to think thoughtfully about drafting teams that will be unique.
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How To Get Unique: 5 Tips and Tricks
1. Throw ADP out the window: We have a natural anchoring bias to drafting directly off ADP. We feel “dumb” if we deviate from the consensus. Fight that instinct and get weird. Take Kelce 1.01 instead of the QBs. Draft Justin Watson instead of MVS. Sure, you are sacrificing some median projection, but these ADP detours will naturally differentiate your roster from the majority of the field.
2. Seek out unique combos. Speaking of which, don’t hesitate to get weird with your combos. Most people like to stack a QB with a couple of pass catchers. That’s perfectly logical, but it won’t get you on unique pairings. Instead, try for some unconventional pairing. Take multiple RBs from the same team. Pair Hurts or Mahomes with multiple pass catchers on the opposing team.
Anything to make your lineup unique.
3. Mostly fade the kickers. If you don’t read the fine print, you might not notice that kickers lose two points for every missed extra point and one point for every missed field goal (thank God the Cowboys and Brett Maher didn’t make the Super Bowl):
Both Harrison Butker and Jake Elliott are drafted in the fourth round of most drafts, but I’d much prefer to take a skill position player going after them with a chance at a TD:
4. Keep scrolling. This dovetails with throwing ADP out the window, but don’t be afraid to scroll way down to find some potential diamonds in the rough. With only 16 players drafted in each contest, it means a handful of guys with a path to scoring a TD will go undrafted in most contests.
Here’s a simple example to illustrate why this is a powerful strategy:
- MVS will be drafted in 100% of drafts. He projects for 5.8 points.
- Quez Watkins will be drafted in roughly 25% of drafts based on his current ADP. He projects for 3.4 points.
The projection gap is not big enough to justify a nearly 75% spread in how often they are drafted, so you’d much prefer to have the player on fewer teams (especially when it involves two players who are reliant on a single big play for their fantasy production)..
My favorite sleepers to scroll down for: Justin Watson, Quez Watkins, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, and Zach Pascal.
5. Go in with a plan. If you are doing more than a couple of drafts, it’s smart to plan out some of the combos you want ahead of time.
Review your current portfolio and find various gaps in your exposures. You might notice accidental trends, like having Kadarius Toney always paired with Goedert.
By reviewing your squads, you’ll push yourself to pair Goedert with different last round fliers and give yourself more avenues to first place.
Putting It All Together
Here’s a team I recently drafted that executes many of the tips discussed:
- “Reached” for Kelce at 1.01 (throw ADP out the window)
- Paired him both Chiefs RBs at the (seek our weird combos)
- Scrolled down past the kickers for a sleeper who could have a spiked play (Watkins)
See you in the draft rooms.
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