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

Lamar Jackson, QB, Baltimore Ravens
Snake Classic Rank: 3rd

It’s hard not to like this spot for Jackson, who has the luxury of facing one of the worst secondaries in the league. I would love it if the Ravens got into an early hole so that Jackson has the opportunity to carve these corners up. The Titans will offer very little resistance with one of the worst pass rushes, which gives Jackson plenty of clean pockets to work with. When these teams met previously in Week 11, Jackson was only under pressure on 10 of his 34 dropbacks. With a clean pocket, he had a 74% adjusted completion percentage, 7.4 YPA and his only touchdown thrown. With the obvious upside with his legs, Jackson is one of the safest picks you can make in the first round, although you didn’t need me to tell you that.

Nick Chubb, RB, Cleveland Browns
Snake Classic Rank: 6th

I think this is an underrated spot for Chubb. We look at the matchup and see it’s against the Steelers and instantly sour on it. Don’t get me wrong, the Steelers were great defensively. But that’s the point, “were.” Don’t forget, Chubb JUST faced this defense last week and went for an impressive 14/108/1 on the ground. For a run defense that was consistently keeping teams under 100 rushing yards, the Steelers allowed an average of 122 over the final three weeks of the season. Chubb also ended the regular season averaging just over four yards per attempt after contact, which was the highest in the league. No other player reached the four-yard threshold, as Derrick Henry was second at 3.9.

Early Round Matchup To Avoid

A.J. Brown, WR/TE, Tennessee Titans
Snake Classic Rank: 6th

I’m fairly worried about Brown this week. He didn’t practice much during the week and is dealing with both a hand and knee injury. Brown should be active against the Ravens but I don’t like his matchup in coverage to begin with against CB Jimmy Smith. The stud corner for the Ravens has missed the past few weeks but is trending in the right direction to play in this game. When he’s been on the field, he’s allowing an average of just 7.3 YPR and a 55.2% catch rate. I’m not thrilled about fading Brown at all and it’s a scary fade to make, especially when the Titans are underdogs. With that in mind, some of the players going below him like Chubb and J.K. Dobbins are players I’d feel much better taking.

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.

Corey Davis, WR/TE, Tennessee Titans
Snake Classic Rank: 24th

With my thoughts on Brown in mind, this leads me to liking Davis, A LOT. If you go back and look at that game in Week 11, it was Davis who was leading the offense, dropping a game of 5/113/0 and 19.3 DKFP. Davis draws the much better matchup in coverage against CB Marcus Peters, who is allowing a 62.8% catch rate and 13 YPR. Davis is also coming off a really poor showing against the Texans, making just five catches for 39 yards despite being targeted 11 times. I think people won’t really be thinking about Davis in this spot, so getting him in the final round could prove to be a huge difference-maker.

Jared Cook, WR/TE, New Orleans Saints
Snake Classic Rank: 26th

Cook is not someone that would likely come to mind as a last-round pick. It’s not as if he’s made a big impact this season, but Wild Card Weekend could be a sneaky game for him. Going against the Bears, Cook could thrive against a defense that has struggled to defend against the tight end position. On the season, the Bears allowed 15.8 DKFP, 58.2 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns scored, which was the third-most in the league. Cook is only averaging 4.3 targets with Drew Brees, which isn’t a ton but as a late-round pick, Cook doesn’t need to do all that much in this game.

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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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