Fantasy Football Draft Strategy: NFFC RotoWire Online Championship Review

For the first time ever, I drafted a non-best-ball fantasy team the same day as the start of the NFL season. A scheduling mix-up last week forced me to push my draft time back to 1 p.m ET on Thursday in NFFC's RotoWire Online Championship, a large-field contest with a $350 entry fee and $250,000 prize for the overall champion from hundreds of leagues.

Each league plays out as a normal 12-teamer for the first 14 weeks, with the top two teams from every league (one based on H2H record, one based on total points) then advancing to the playoff round in Weeks 15-17. Teams that don't finish Top 2 can also qualify for the playoffs — by finishing within the Top 15 percent for total points in Weeks 1-14 — but they aren't eligible for the league prizes.

Last year, I won my 12-team league, which returned $1,500 (second place gets $700), but I didn't make any real noise in the playoffs, finishing 266th out of 844 qualifiers. Keep in mind that the payouts are top-heavy, rapidly declining from 250k for first place down to $50k for third place and $5k for 10th place.

For this year, I resolved to treat the contest more like a best-ball tournament on DraftKings or Underdog, trying to build a team that can peak later in the season and make a run at the grand prize. If you're interested in joining me, NFFC still has drafts for 2025 up and running through Sunday morning. I'll discuss my own draft below, but first we'll look at some of the characteristics that make the RotoWire Online Championship a bit different from the fantasy leagues on Yahoo, Sleeper, etc.

Key NFFC Settings to Know

Note: Please read all the rules and settings on the NFFC website before actually entering! I can't discuss every quirk at full length here, but these are the main things to know:    

QUICK LINKS

Sync a League

Your path to victory starts here

Rankings

See the top players in your league

NFL Lineups

See the weekly starting lineups

Rosters/Draft

• 1 QB / 2 RB / 3 WR / 1 TE / 1 FLEX / 1 K / 1 D/ST / 10 Bench  =  20 spots = 20-round draft
• KDS for draft-pick selection: managers list preferences, with ties randomized.
• Third-Round Reversal: Round 3 starts with the team that picked 12th, not 1st.
• No trades. No free agents.
• Waivers run Wednesday and Saturday night. $1000 FAAB budget. $1 minimum bid.

Scoring

• Passing: 20 yards per point + six points per TD (vs. industry "standard" of 25 and 4)
• Rushing/Receiving: normal PPR
• Kicking: 0.1 points for every yard beyond 30 on a FG 

Playoffs

To determine a champion, NFFC takes the average of four scores, weighted equally. The first number is our scoring average from Weeks 1-14. The second number is our score from Week 15, the third from Week 16, and the fourth from Week 17. 

This is another big difference from best-ball tournaments, in addition to the more obvious difference of setting lineups and waivers. On Underdog and DraftKings, there's an outsized importance on Week 17 above even Weeks 15-16. On NFFC, each playoff week carries equal weight, using a cumulative structure rather than elimination pods.

My Draft

Truthfully, I didn't spend much time thinking about my KDS (Kentucky Derby Style) preference after I moved my draft time.  Had I thought about it more, I would've ranked No. 7 higher, locking in whichever of Chase/Barkley/Robinson/Gibbs/Lamb/Jefferson/McCaffrey was still available and then getting a shot at someone like A.J. Brown or Brock Bowers on the way back.

As is, I put Nos. 1 and 12 as my top two choices, having always felt there's a strategic advantage to picking twice in a row throughout the draft. I put No. 1 first, wanting Ja'Marr Chase, but figured this was a better-than-usual year to be at the back of a draft, especially under a third-round-reversal structure where my picks in Rounds 3-5 now come at Nos. 25, 48 and 49 overall (rather than 36, 37 and 60).

After being assigned the 12th pick, my hope was to start with two of Nico Collins, Ashton Jeanty and Brian Thomas. I tend to favor quality at WR and quantity at RB in this kind of format — full PPR, with not a ton available on waivers — but it's not something I want to commit to ahead of time. I did know I'd be waiting until the final few rounds to take a defense and kicker, which isn't automatically the best strategy the way it is in shallower leagues. I trust my ability to stream those positions effectively, even in a deep league where 20 defenses and 15 kickers might be rostered at any given time.

Anyway, here's how it went:

Rounds 1-2 (12-13th overall)

I have Collins, Jeanty and Thomas at 8-9-10 in the final RotoWire Roundtable Rankings, making this a best-case scenario but also an impossible decision between Thomas and Jeanty. I went with Thomas, in part because I think he's got better odds than Jeanty to be available come December. That's not a knock on Jeanty, just the reality of added injury risk when you're the guy who gets tackled 20-plus times per game.

Round 3 (No. 25)

This was almost a best-case scenario, but it instead became the opposite when De'Von Achane went one pick before me. I'd been hoping for Josh Jacobs, Jonathan Taylor or Bucky Irving to fall, which didn't happen, leaving Achane as the last man standing before what I perceive as a big value drop-off. I considered WR Ladd McConkey, TE Trey McBride and even RB Omarion Hampton, before ultimately deciding on Lamar Jackson due to the QB-prominent format (20 points per pass yard, six points per pass TD). 

I'd end up regretting the pick, as my competitors mostly were slow to draft quarterbacks (relative to the scoring system), which meant I could've gotten Baker Mayfield at the 8-9 turn or J.J. McCarthy at 14/15. At least it's a small mistake, with Jackson's healthy floor being among the best of any player at any position.

How do these player stack up against the rest of the NFL? Visit our fantasy football rankings for a list of the top players for the remainder of the season.

Rounds 4-5 (Nos. 48 and 49)

This is a spot I love this year, as there seems to be a bit of a value drop-off once 50 or 55 players are off the board. The list of guys I'll happily draft in this range includes the two I took (RBs James Cook and Chuba Hubbard) plus WRs DK Metcalf, Courtland Sutton, Jameson Williams and Xavier Worthy. I flirted with the idea of drafting Metcalf here but ultimately settled on the two running backs after not getting any through the first three rounds.

Rounds 6-7 (Nos. 72 and 73)

Ahead of time, I figured Jordan Addison could be an option here, fitting with my strategy of targeting back-weighted production. Instead, I lucked into Rashee Rice, who should bring a higher level of production than Addison... after missing twice as many games. Addison was also available, and I thought about it, but then wimped out and went with Jerry Jeudy instead, telling myself that I already had enough Addison shares and Jeudy was the better ADP value.

Rounds 8-9 (Nos. 96 and 97)

Feeling excellent about my WRs and QBs at this point, I was looking at T.J. Hockenson and various RBs as the likely choices here. Hockenson went one pick before me, and the RBs I was hoping for here (Jaylen Warren, Travis Etienne) were long gone. Quinshon Judkins and Cam Skattebo were the top two remaining in my rankings, but I went with Javonte Williams over Skattebo, after the Judkins, Rice and Jackson picks had left me needing a viable Week 1 FLEX starter.

Rounds 10-11 (Nos. 120-121)

I was shocked to see WR Jayden Higgins available at pick No. 120, following Wednesday's news about Christian Kirk missing practice with a calf injury. That doesn't mean Higgins will produce immediately, but it does increase his chances to build chemistry with C.J. Stroud and strut his stuff — plus there's now added risk of Kirk breaking down (for the third straight year).

RB Jaydon Blue as my second pick here felt obvious, after going with Williams at the previous turn. I still don't have a tight end, but I also don't really care, expecting strong years from some boring veterans like Dallas Goedert and Hunter Henry. There's just not a ton to like there beyond The Big 3, unless someone drops way below ADP (like Hockenson a couple rounds earlier).

Rounds 12-13 (Nos. 144-145)

Goedert was an obvious pick for me here, offering one of the better healthy floors at the position (and probably more of a ceiling than people remember). The rub is that he misses multiple games every year, including nearly half of last season.

After Goedert, I jumped at the chance to draft Brandin Aiyuk, who was at the top of my 'fade' list for best ball all offseason. That was at a top-100 price, whereas this is No. 145 in the 13th round, 27 spots ahead of where I have him ranked for PPR.  I may not have WR depth in September, but I should by November. And if Thomas, Collins and Jeudy all stay healthy early, I may not even care that I don't have Rice and Aiyuk. That's a big 'if', of course.

Rounds 14-15 (Nos. 168-69)

RB Dylan Sampson was the best value relative to my rankings, where he lands at No. 116. Pairing him with Judkins is fun, although it may also be frustrating early if the team stinks and Jerome Ford is playing a ton. I think one of the rookies eventually emerges as an RB2.

After Sampson, it was TE time, with Isaiah Likely offering later-in-the-year breakout potential if Mark Andrews misses time, plays poorly or is traded. Likely should be healthy by the time Goedert is injured — glass half full, right? 

The other idea behind the Likely pick is to potentially stack him with Jackson during the playoffs. In a top-heavy format like this, we want to unlock a bit of the DFS brain and focus on what ceiling scenarios might look like for Weeks 15-17. Stacking QBs with their pass catchers is generally a great idea, though in this case I mostly went another direction with the one-QB build and a dual-threat.

Rounds 16-20

I took a third tight end, something I rarely do, figuring I'm weak at the position and Chig Okonkwo has a half-decent breakout case. After that, it was RB Kyle Monangai, a sneaky candidate to eventually emerge as the lead runner in a weak backfield.

I rounded things out with two defenses and a kicker, focusing on September matchups and planning to stream thereafter. The Rams are Top 10 in my D/ST ranks for both Week 1 and Week 2, while the Bucs project as a top-10 play for Week 3 (home game against the Jets). 

Jaguars kicker Cam Little, meanwhile, starts his season against the Panthers and Bengals (big catfight energy) after drilling a 70-yarder during the preseason. He's my sleeper pick to rank among the top kickers this year, boasting a massive leg even by modern standards.

Final Thoughts

I like my team but do have some regrets. Stacking is ideal in this format, and I spent my third-round pick on a QB whose main stacking partners (Zay Flowers, Mark Andrews) don't really interest me at ADP. With Collins and Thomas as my first two picks, I could've waited on a QB and targeted C.J. Stroud and/or Trevor Lawrence for stacks. There was plenty of value available there in the middle and late rounds, but I missed out on all of it after taking Jackson early. The lack of a backup QB bothers me less, as I can just drop a disappointing RB or Okonkwo for backup QB help after Week 1 or 2.

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