Many people new to daily fantasy football have the same question: which position is more important, the wide receiver or the running back? There’s not really an easy answer to this question, unfortunately, and the most accurate one that can be given is, “it depends.”
But, what does it depend upon? First, the structure of your league. Some leagues place an emphasis more on one than the other. However, in the average league at DraftKings there is potential for each position to be weighed equally as you can use your flex player to give you an extra RB and create balance. This site also scores equivalent plays the same, so one passing TD is worth the same as a rushing TD. At FanDuel, you will have one more WR than you will RB, and that seems to shift the focus to drafting better quality at the RB position in order to provide more balance.
Are these the correct plays, though? At both sites, yards gained by both positions are the same: +1 point for every 10 yards. That puts an immediate emphasis on the players with the most yards. Over time, more yards will equal more touchdowns, so this is the most statistically accurate place to start in order to improve your fantasy score. Furthermore, DraftKings rewards you when you hit certain numbers. DraftKings gives a +3 point bonus if there is a player on your team that has 100 or more yards rushing or receiving. At FanDuel, there are no bonuses like this, which doesn’t take away any value, but it also doesn’t add any, either. It ends up being a neutral event.
The correct strategy to take at DraftKings when trying to prioritize these positions, then, is to focus on yards per game and not pay attention to position. If you have six slots to fill, then you should go with the six players that will give you the highest number of yards, with a particular focus on the players that will have the most potential to go over 100 yards. You can draft three WRs and three RBs, or four WRs and two RBs. As long as this above strategy is used, it shouldn’t affect you negatively by focusing on one more than the other. Historically speaking though, WRs tend to have more yards per game than RBs, which will naturally shift your focus there, but this is something you should still be evaluating on a case by case basis in order to get the best results.
It’s a little bit different at FanDuel, though. Touchdowns are scored the same here, but there is an extra premium placed upon receptions. Each WR that has a catch earns an extra +0.5, and that immediately shifts the focus back to WR. For this reason, you need to put an extra bit of salary into your receivers, which inevitably means that money needs to be taken away from running backs. You have five slots you need to fill here: two RBs and three WRs. Your average salary per player is $6,667, but once you factor out the cheaper positions of defense, kicker, and tight end, you are left with an average of up over $7,100. Slightly more than this should be dedicated per player to WRs, and slightly less to RBs. Because a top receiver can have an average of 4 to 6 receptions per game, you need to take into account an extra +3 points per WR. This means that you should be spending no less than $7,600 on your average WR. It also means you should spend no more than $7,200 on your average RB.
You will find yourself going up above and down below these numbers often. Just ensure that you are using this as a guideline to revolve your decisions on so that you are giving yourself enough potential to be a contender. Also, you can tweak these numbers a lot by going with subpar defense and kicking. It isn’t recommended that you go with a subpar tight end, though, as a talented player in this position has a lot of scoring potential. Oftentimes, you can treat them as a weak WR if you’d like.
