We are more than halfway through the fantasy football season as we enter Week 9, and I’m back once more to walk you through one of the biggest games you can play on Underdog Fantasy, the Battle Royale. The Battle Royale is a 6-person, 6-round fantasy draft. There are no bench spots, and you must start 1 QB, 1 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, and 1 Flex spot.
Your goal is to pick the best combination of six high-scoring players, with the weekly grand prize available of $50,000 to the ultimate drafter. If you’ve never played on Underdog before, try it out! Click this link and sign up for Underdog Fantasy. Play $5, get $100 in bonus funds to use on other games and drafts. If you want to join in the fun, read on to see my favorite plays to target in Week 9.
Discounted Bijan?
I get it folks, Bijan flat out busted last week against Miami. But for him to be a borderline 2nd round pick in the Battle Royale this week on Underdog? I will take him every single time he’s there from pick 3 and on, period. Well, that’s not entirely true, Puka Nacua is back and seemingly healthy as well. But I would much rather draft Bijan and Puka over Gibbs and Chase, especially if Joe Flacco misses the game like it’s trending.
In Round 2, if Bijan falls you take him, but Rashee Rice and Amon-Ra St. Brown are also fantastic selections. They both have so much projected volume and talent, and both game environments could be great for fantasy. Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen are… interesting, but a little hard to stomach with how big of a gap there is between them and the QB3 Drake Maye at ADP 23. If that game somehow doesn’t become an explosion of points, the odds of either QB paying off their ADP is quite low.
The Middle Rounds Kind of Suck
As the section title suggests, I’m not a huge fan of the players available in Rounds 3-4 this week on Underdog. James Cook has been on fire, but his workload is still not good enough to be a fun player to take a lot of. It’s efficiency or bust for him, as it always has been. Kyren isn’t scoring TDs so far this year, and Blake Corum is legitimately starting to eat into his workload a bit. Ladd is never a fun click with the volatility of target distribution, and Davante Adams is still pretty touchdown dependent.
On the fun side of things, Kimani Vidal looks to be in an excellent spot against the Titans, as does Rome against the Bengals. The Tight Ends are definitely starting to become some of the more fun clicks on the board, as there are arguably 5-7 guys that can win you the week on any given Sunday. Warren is in a great spot against the Steelers, Tucker Kraft has been Him this year, and George Kittle is probably the primary target in San Fran moving forward with all the receiver injuries.
The Deepest Late Round Pool Since Week 1
Week 9 honestly feels like the largest pool of players I’d feel comfortable drafting since the opening week of the season when everyone was healthy and you were optimistic about literally everyone. There are no positions that feel weak or thin, which really opens up the possibilities of how you want to play these Battle Royales and how far you want to scroll for names.
Brock Bowers is the 5th TE off the board, seemingly fully healthy. Michael Pittman is WR10 despite being in a premium matchup and being the WR7 in fantasy points so far this season. The Chiefs RBs are in a lovely matchup against a bad Bills’ run defense, and there’s a chance that either Kareem Hunt or Brashard Smith get the majority of the touches at the position. So many awesome clicks, not nearly enough roster spots this week.
Who to Target
So who should you take? I’ll tell you who my targets are at each position, keeping in mind the idea of balancing good projectable volume with understanding how the field may build their lineups.
Quarterbacks – Expensive | Mid-Range | Free
Patrick Mahomes | Justin Herbert | Brock Purdy (if he plays)
Running Backs – Expensive | Mid-Range | Free
Jonathan Taylor | Kimani Vidal | Travis Etienne
Wide Receivers – Expensive | Mid-Range | Free
Puka Nacua | Rome Odunze | Chris Olave
Tight Ends – Expensive | Mid-Range | Free
Tyler Warren | Brock Bowers | Juwan Johnson
Flex – Expensive | Mid-Range | Free
D’Andre Swift | Drake London | Tetairoa McMillan
