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
Patrick Mahomes, QB, Kansas City Chiefs
Snake Classic Rank: 2nd
Mahomes will likely be going first in your drafts so if you’re lucky enough to draw the top spot, he’ll be yours for the taking. With the Chiefs getting minimal production out of the backfield, this matchup is a stellar one for Mahomes. This Browns’ secondary is going to offer very little resistance and is going to have an extremely hard time trying to contain his receivers. This is a team that just allowed Ben Roethlisberger to throw for 501 yards and four touchdowns last week as they attempted to cut the massive deficit they were in. While they will get pressure on Mahomes, he has a 65% adjusted completion percentage and 7.0 YPA with eight of his 38 touchdowns.
Travis Kelce, WR/TE, Kansas City Chiefs
Snake Classic Rank: 3rd
Kelce is one of my favorite plays on this slate overall. The Browns really struggled against the tight end position and this is an opportunity for Kelce to absolutely feast. He’s seen double-digit targets in seven of his past eight games, a span in which he’s averaging 26.2 DKFP. As if that wasn’t enough, he also topped the team in red-zone targets with a 26% share, which bested the WR1 in Tyreek Hill (Rank: 2). The cherry on top is how bad this Browns team has been against this position. Cleveland has allowed tight ends to average 15.3 DKFP, 57 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns scored.
Early Round Matchup To Avoid
Tom Brady, QB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Snake Classic Rank: 8th
If you end up missing out on Mahomes, my backup plan does not include Brady. The biggest downfall for me is how much pressure this Saints defense was able to generate against him in two prior games. While he was only under pressure on 24% of his dropbacks overall, the Saints got him at 42% of his dropbacks, sacking him six times. When Brady has been under pressure, he has just a 59% adjusted completion percentage, 5.6 YPA and five of his 12 interceptions. To put into perspective how bad that adjusted completion percentage is, that sandwiched him between Drew Lock and Carson Wentz, who were amongst the worst in the league.
Late Round Fliers
It should be noted that these players are ranked below the threshold of players that would be drafted. This section simply tries to exploit players who are in favorable matchups and are down the rank list.
Kareem Hunt, RB, Cleveland Browns
Snake Classic Rank: 19th
When you look at the odds on DraftKings Sportsbook for this game, the Browns are massive underdogs to the Chiefs at +10. In terms of a game-script, this is the perfect spot for Hunt to generate PPR points out of the backfield. Hunt has seen his pass-catching role diminish over the past two weeks against the Steelers, seeing a total of two targets but the Browns had such a massive lead last week it wasn’t needed. In all, the Kansas City run defense has been beatable and allowed an average of 47.7 receiving yards per game to opposing backs.
Emmanuel Sanders, WR/TE, New Orleans Saints
Snake Classic Rank: 26th
Sanders is way down the list and his time as the WR1 has come to a close with Michael Thomas (Rank: 5) back in the mix. With that said, Sanders plays nearly half of his snaps in the slot and against the Buccaneers, that’s a matchup you want. CB Sean Murphy-Bunting has been one of the worst slot corners in the league, allowing a 77.3% catch rate on 88 targets for an average of 12.5 YPR and seven touchdowns scored against. As a late-round flier, Sanders could be a very productive play if the Saints are playing from behind in this game despite being -3 favorites.
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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is steveazors) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.
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