The NFL may only have a few weeks remaining in the regular season, but that hasn’t stopped DraftKings from introducing a new format! Snake Draft Showdown is now open and ready for you to dive into, with the first classic slate set for Week 14’s games on Sunday.
If you’ve ever played season-long fantasy before, you’re likely familiar with how a Snake Draft works. In short, for these Classic contests, once the allotted number of entries are filled in a contest, the draft will begin one minute later. The entrants are assigned a random draft order and will commence in that order. The player with the first pick gets dibs on everyone while the player with the last pick will get a double pick, as it’ll end the first round and thus begin the second.
Roster requirements for lineups: QB - 1 RB - 1 WR/TE - 2 FLEX - 2
For a full breakdown of rules, please visit our How to Play Classic and Showdown NFL Snake Draft page.
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Favorable Early Round Matchup
Davante Adams, WR/TE, Green Bay Packers
Snake Classic Rank: 2nd
Adams is going to be an early, early pick this week, as the Packers have a very favorable matchup against the Lions. I don’t need to tell you how much Aaron Rodgers (Rank: 13) loves going to his WR1, but I will anyway. Adams has a 28% overall target share in this offense and a ridiculous 37.7% red zone target share. Adams also has scored at least a touchdown in all but two games this season and in four of those, has at least two. Against a poor Lions secondary, which should see Adams in coverage against CB Amani Oruwariye, this is a huge spot for Adams. In coverage, Oruwariye has been targeted against 59 times, allowing 31 receptions (52.5% catch rate) for an average of 16.5 YPR.
Derrick Henry, RB, Tennessee Titans
Snake Classic Rank: 4th
It’ll be interesting to see where Henry lands in drafts, especially after his dud last week against the Browns. It really wasn’t his fault, as the Browns pouring on the offense against this defense forced the Titans into a pass-heavy game-script, leaving the run on the sideline. Thus, Henry, who was $9,200 in Classic, scored just 6.9 DKFP. However, a potential bounce-back spot is in line for Week 14.
The Jaguars are not a good run defense by any means. I mean, this is a team allowing an average of 109 rushing yards per game, with opposing backs averaging 4.3 YPC. Bringing Henry down has also been a major issue for opposing teams, as he’s averaging a massive 3.66 yards after contact per carry, which is the second-best mark in the league. Draft him with confidence.
Early Round Matchup To Avoid
Kyler Murray, QB, Arizona Cardinals
Snake Classic Rank: 19th
Look, I get it. Murray has some of the best upside in the league and “fading” him is usually not a word you toss around when referring to the former No. 1 overall pick. With that in mind, if you miss out on some of the top quarterbacks on this slate, such as Patrick Mahomes (Rank: 7) or Russell Wilson (Rank: 8), I think it’s worth waiting a bit to take some of the value options.
Murray has been lackluster over the past couple of weeks, averaging just 171.5 passing yards and 23 rushing yards per game. It’s quite amazing that Murray only scored 18.42 DKFP in the Classic format last week while throwing for three touchdowns. That just shows how little he did on the ground and through the air otherwise. Now, he faces a Giants team that is underrated defensively and will force Murray to scramble.
When he’s been under pressure, Murray has only a 67.3% adjusted completion percentage and 6.2 yards per pass attempt. While this doesn’t sound like a bad spot overall for the Cardinals, I’m more than OK leaving Murray on the board, especially when players like A.J. Brown (Rank: 18), Travis Kelce (Rank: 17) and Justin Jefferson (Rank: 16) are all being drafted around him.
Late Round Fliers
It should be noted that these players are ranked way below the threshold of players that would be drafted. This section simply tries to exploit players who are in favorable matchups and are way down that rank list.
J.D. McKissic, Washington Football Team
Snake Classic Rank: 112th
McKissic is one of my favorite late-round picks to target. Antonio Gibson has been ruled out of Week 14 due to a bout of turf toe. According to multiple reports, McKissic is going to handle the bulk of the work out of the backfield against the 49ers. Over on the DraftKings Sportsbook, the 49ers are current underdogs (sad!), which could mean plenty of targets for McKissic. He’s seeing Alvin Kamara-type volume (well, when Drew Brees was quarterback), drawing double-digit targets three (!) times this season and averaging 6.5 per game. He should be in for some heavy volume regardless of the game script and for someone you should get late, could be a very valuable FLEX play.
Mike Glennon, Jacksonville Jaguars
Snake Classic Rank: 97th
So let’s say you draw one of the later picks in your contest and people are scooping up quarterbacks early. One strategy you could implement is taking a QB last and thus giving yourself some really strong positional players in the meantime. If you were to do that, I think we still have some really valuable quarterbacks that can be had late, with Glennon being one of them.
He hasn’t been afraid to throw the ball and he’ll likely have to do it plenty against the Titans. Tennessee has a VERY beatable secondary and Glennon, to his credit, has been quite good in his two starts. He’s averaging 257 passing yards, three touchdowns thrown and two interceptions. Playing from behind, which is the thought process with them as +7.5 dogs on the DK Sportsbook, would play into this spot perfectly. Glennon has already thrown the ball at least 35 times in his two starts and with the Jaguars looking to send out their entire group of receivers without injury on the field, could be a sneaky late-round pick.
Russell Gage, Atlanta Falcons
Snake Classic Rank: 142th
With the news that Julio Jones has been ruled out of this game, it’ll bump up Gage immensely in this offense. When Jones was out in Week 12, Gage played on 88.5% of the snaps, which was the highest of the season. Gage has another opportunity to take advantage of that against the Chargers. Gage has actually been a favorite target of Matt Ryan (Rank: 63) in the red zone, owning a 21.2% target share. That number only trails Calvin Ridley (Rank: 15), who is at 25.8%. With Jones out of the mix, Gage could be a good FLEX or WR/TE to target in the hopes he can make it into the end zone.
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