The Daily Spin – NFL Cash Game Edition – Week 1

Welcome back, NFL! The NFL is the one professional sport that has a long enough offseason so that I actually miss it while it is gone. You blink and the NBA and NHL are back and I am so fixated on the NFL that I could not possibly miss the MLB. The PGA Tour has all of two off weeks between seasons (dumb) so it is more annoying than anything else that they do not take a true offseason. However, with the NFL, there are seven months between the Super Bowl and Opening Night of the next season so by May, I find myself starting to count the weeks until training camp as soon as the draft is finished.

With Opening Sunday just a day away, I know that all of your are like a little kid on Christmas waiting for Andrew Siciliano to kick off Red Zone coverage, but before we get to that first group of games, we have a little bit of work to do in order to make sure that we are prepared for battle. Some of you are more than ready. If you have been a part of our Slack Chat #nfl channel, you have had the chance to talk to some of the brightest minds in DFS over the last couple of months as they discussed which players they loved and hated, which players were moving up or down in their best ball drafts and any sort of trends that were observed along the way. If you have not joined our Slack chat yet, be sure to do so. It provides one more great resource that is free when you join the site.

I also want to give a shoutout to our amazing developer, Aaron. He finished up the Showdown lineup generator this summer and it is now live and ready to go. Folks enjoyed using it prior to the game on Thursday night between the Bills and Rams so go check it out when you get a chance and let us know what you think. It takes a little practice to get used to it, but the instructions are pretty straightforward so I know you will catch on quickly. Nick is with us providing content for all of the Showdown slates this season. Look for those the night prior to the game and definitely drop into the slack chat for injury updates and strategy discussions. We’ve had some really nice wins in the SD format over the years and it is one of the most fun contests on DK with so many wild swings so if you have not tried it yet, give it a shot some random night this season, particularly if the two teams in primetime would not normally catch your attention.

With the new season, everyone is ready for action, but there are a couple of things to talk about that I have learned from previous seasons that apply to Week 1. One thing that has hurt me a couple of times over the years is when I get too excited over a rookie at a skill position. It is really rare for a player to step in on Day 1 and to become an immediate star. In Minnesota, we have seen it a few times with Randy Moss, Adrian Peterson and Dalvin Cook, but there have been a lot of flops in debuts as well. Last season alone, three players come to mind: Najee Harris, Kyle Pitts and Elijah Moore. I am sure that there are a ton of others, but I actually used Pitts and Moore last year so the memory is still somewhat fresh. Even when we know that a player is going to be an immediate starter, it is still usually going to take some time to get use to the speed of the NFL. Some acclimate quickly while others languish. We learn a lot in Week 1 so you do not have to rush with rookies. The pricing is so soft in this first week that you are not forced into taking big chances yet. Stick mostly to veteran players and try to only use the rookies when necessary or in total punt situations in cash games where they might be a little chalky.

The other big lesson to think about this week is in managing your bankroll. There is still a lot of mystery around the league as far as how teams will play this season. There will be plenty of good teams that play just as we anticipated, but there are also going to be surprises, injuries and upheaval. Take your time getting into the new season with your bankroll. There are 18 weeks of regular season NFL games in front of us. You do not need to try to win all of the money in Week 1. Week 1 pricing is also really soft compared to the rest of the season. Given that these salaries have been out for over a month, they are going to be a little more off than the rest of the season. They put them out early to build anticipation and also to fill the huge contests that they put on to start the new season. With the softer pricing, you will see much more overlap in cash game lineups which milks our edge ever so slightly. Starting off by playing a smaller percentage of your bankroll than normal will allow you to take a deeper look at everything that is going on and to make small adjustments so that by the time you get comfortable with the trends around the league, you will also be ready to put a few extra dollars in play.

 

To read the entire article, become a premium member of Football Insider Edge by clicking here, or on the JOIN NOW button on the homepage