Daily Fantasy Tips For 2026
Week one DFS lineups always come with more guesswork than any other week of the season. There is no in-season data to lean on, no snap count trends, no target share numbers from the current roster. Some see this as an advantage; some see this as a disadvantage.
Nevertheless, as we await week one NFL Salaries to drop, I wanted to share some DFS tips for the upcoming season. The strategic approach for building a winning lineup does not depend on the numbers. It depends on the framework. Having a good NFL DFS optimizer is a great start, but for strategy, here are three tips that I would recommend.
Build Around Salary Relief, Not Just Ceiling
The instinct in Week 1 is to chase the highest ceiling players at every position. That approach works less often than it seems like it should, because it usually means paying full price at multiple spots and getting stuck with weak value at the rest of the roster. A stronger approach starts by identifying two or three positions where salary relief is available, then spending the savings on one or two premium plays elsewhere. Salary relief in Week 1 often shows up at running back and wide receiver, where new backfield committees, unproven pass catchers, or unclear target hierarchies push prices down before the market has real data to work with. Finding value early at those spots frees up cap room for the plays with the highest confidence.
The Two Cheap TE Flex Strategy
This is my personal strategy, and has won me a few contests. Most DFS strategy content will not recommend this build. Tight end is typically viewed as the weakest position for salary efficiency, and doubling up on cheap options at the position is generally treated as a way to cap your ceiling rather than raise it.
The case for it comes down to salary math. Two low-cost tight ends can free up significantly more cap space than saving at running back or receiver alone, since those positions carry a much wider range of pricing at the low end. That extra room gets redirected into premium plays at running back and receiver, where the scoring ceiling is higher, and the ownership at the top of the price range tends to be lower than expected in Week 1, since public money often spreads out across unproven skill players instead of paying up. The tradeoff is real. Tight end scoring is volatile, and rostering two cheap options at the position means accepting a lower floor there in exchange for a higher ceiling everywhere else. It will not work every week, but it is worth having in the toolbox, particularly on slates where the top of the running back and receiver pricing is loaded with plays worth paying for.
Fade the Obvious Chalk on Short Slates
Week 1 slates tend to produce heavy ownership on a small number of plays that get talked about the most in the lead-up to kickoff. Those plays are often correct, but the payout structure in DFS rewards differentiation, not just accuracy. On short slates in particular, where the player pool is smaller and ownership concentrates fast, finding one or two plays with real upside that are being overlooked matters more than nailing every obvious chalk play. This does not mean fading a strong play just to be different. It means using the extra research time before Week 1 salaries release to identify which highly owned plays are correct and which ones are popular mainly because they were talked about the most, then building lineups that separate from the field where it counts.
