Fantasy Alarm is your one-stop shopping source for everything needed to research, assemble and follow your DFS football lineups. Regardless of the site of format, we have everything necessary to succeed. It doesn’t matter if you’re a casual player looking to embellish your Sundays or a hardcore grinder, the Fantasy Alarm Playbook Pro has what it takes to accomplish your DFS goals.

The main objective of DFS Playbook Pro is to help YOU build YOUR winning lineup. Think of DFS Playbook Pro as the toolbox with everything discussed below as your tools. Sure, there will be specific player recommendations offered by the Fantasy Alarm staff and even our optimal lineup. Our intent and desire is for you to focus more on the reasons for our choices than the actual players. If you agree with our thought process, then you’ll agree with the player selection. It’s your team, it’s your money. It’s your call.

What ensues is a step-by-step outline, taking you through all the different facets of Fantasy Alarm Playbook Pro. What’s described is the same methods used by the Fantasy Alarm staff as we set our DFS lineups. While nothing is guaranteed, following these tried and true procedures will put you in as good a position for success than anything like it in the industry.

The process is two-fold. First you narrow down the player inventory to a workable number of options at each position then you really hone in on the match-ups to find the players in the most favorable spots.

 

How to Use The 2022 NFL DFS Playbook Pro

Step 1: Choosing the Right Formats

DFS Playbook Pro supports all the formats on all of the major DFS sites. To enjoy the best experience and achieve the most success, decide on your objective and find the format that best suits your goals. The most important consideration is if your focus will be on cash games, GPP tournaments or, more likely, a combination of both. As you’ll see, a great deal of your research encompasses both styles of play. The difference will come when you set your lineups. We have a treasure trove of evergreen strategy articles to assist you in making this decision. Plus, we’ll be posting multiple strategy pieces during the season.

Step 2: Keep up with the News

Each week you’ll have between 13 and 16 games to analyze – that’s a lot of players. Staying ahead of the curve in terms on injury news helps keep your research efficient. This entails more than just perusing the injury report and avoiding players who aren’t likely to suit up. For every injured player, there’s at least one player who will be called upon to fill in. An injury to one player may influence the workload or effectiveness of another. Not only are there direct implications but there are indirect impacts as well. An injury to an offensive lineman could affect the running or passing game. An injury to a defensive player may help the opposing offense. The more familiar you are with the news in general, the better equipped you’ll be to handle the inevitable last-minute news announced right before kick-off Sunday. While others are scrambling to see who’s next in line, you’ve already thought about Plan B and just have to make the changes.

While the DFS Playbook Pro has all the up-to-date news available in one place, following @FantasyAlarm on Twitter gets you all the breaking news as if you were on the sideline.

Step 3: Review the Schedule

Our 2022 NFL Schedule Grid has everything you need on one page. Make a note of which teams are on bye, if applicable. Get a feel for which games will be a shoot-out, which will be a defensive battle and which ones will be blow-outs. Note the primetime games since they’re not always available in every contest or perhaps you decide you like them so much you want to play one of the prime-time only contests.

You’re not ready to make any specific player decisions yet, but having a general idea of the landscape helps filter out games or players that are of no interest. The less time spent on players of this ilk, the more time you can devote to finding the best players to use each week.

 

Step 4: Review the Weather

Keeping in mind high winds are much more detrimental to scoring than cold temperatures or precipitation, it helps to be aware of the expected conditions as you begin your research as well as circling back and checking the weather the day of the game right here at the Fantasy Alarm Weather Center.

Step 5: Review the Year-to-Date Statistics

A lot of times we have a perception for a player that isn’t accurate – both good and bad. Not to mention, a solid fantasy player and a solid NFL player aren’t always the same. Perusing the stats provides an objective means to put players on your radar or even help convince you they’re not as productive as you think they are. Ultimately your lineup decisions will be based on match-ups, but it doesn’t hurt to have a feel for a player’s overall usage and productivity. Our NFL Stats page has everything you could possibly want and if you don’t see something, just ask me for it (howard@fantasyalarm.com).

Step 6: Review the Weekly Projections

Under NFL Tools, choose Weekly Projections. What you’ll see is our rest-of-season projections for seasonal leagues. Just under the main menu you’ll see all the options to choose for specific DFS sites and weeks. These projections will be converted to expected points customized to that DFS site. Also included is a Points per Dollar calculation – the higher the number the better the value. Study both the players expected to score the most point as well as the players that are the best value. Do this for all the sites you expect to play on for all the positions – keeping in mind the information you learned from the above steps.

This is your preliminary list of solid options to research further.

Step 7: Read through the DFS Watch List & the Position Coaches columns

Every week we release a DFS Watch List on Tuesday nights to get you started with your research. The Watch List is created using what we know about the preliminary match-ups for the NFL week from WR/CB match-ups to offensive vs defensive rankings. The Watch List is updated throughout the week with the finalized list yielding the DFS Playbook.

We’ve also assembled the best coaching staff in the business to help guide you through each position every week. Each of our position coaches provides all the necessary data to make wise decisions including target and red zone numbers. They then offer their elite plays, safe plays, risky plays, value plays and players to avoid – with detailed explanations. The reasons offered for each choice are as important, if not more so than the specific players.

See how your list jibes with those of our position coaches. If you list a player we don’t discuss, that’s fine. It’s your team, your call. Add and delete players as you see fit – with thoughtful consideration given to the explanation for the choice. That is, what you’re really doing is agreeing with the reasoning and not just blindly trusting the choice of the player.

 

Step 8: Fine tune your list using match-up data

Keeping in mind that the positional coaches and the player projections may have already incorporated some of this process, go to Points Allowed by Position under NFL Tools. You can view in a sortable form or by game match-up. The numbers show how many points that team’s defense has allowed to opposing players at each position. Again, the projections already incorporate this so you don’t want to boost or penalize players twice but using this data, you can further hone the players you’re considering to deploy in your lineups. Perhaps you eliminate an option or change his rank relative to the other players at his position.

Step 9: Assemble your lineup(s)

To assemble a lineup that is your own and will have the best chance of winning, you will need to look at the DFS NFL PLAYBOOK and our DFS NFL Projections which is the engine behind our lineup generator and an invaluable resource for you to create lineups.  These two tools will help you understand our thinking, teaching you how to determine a set of players that are most worth time investigating to create WINNING LINEUPS.  This filtering is critical to be able to build winners in both cash games and GPPs.

Now the real fun begins. Go to NFL TOOLS - LINEUP GENERATOR. Choose the DFS site. Our BRAND NEW lineup generator allows you to customize with our projections or by using JUST the players in the NFL DFS Playbook and NFL DFS Dart Board to build up to 150 lineups instantly. 

Speaking of consistency, as your putting together your squad, refer to the CONSISTENCY REPORT under NFL TOOLS. Regardless of price, for cash game play, you want a foundation of players whose performance doesn’t vary much from week-to-week. If you’re aiming to take down a tournament, you’ll probably want to dedicate a roster spot or two to a boom-or-bust player. Identifying both types of players is facilitated via using the CONSISTENCY REPORT.

Additionally, we track all of the INACTIVES as they’re announced. Before beginning to generate your lineup, check the INACTIVES to make sure you aren’t starting a donut.

Finally, give the weather reports one last scan.

OK, back to the Lineup Generator. Take out all the players you don’t want in your lineup and add in those you do. You can fill in in completely or leave some positions empty and click GENERATE LINEUP and the system will calculate the highest scoring lineup using our projections. Maybe you agree with the choices, maybe you don’t. Keep tweaking until you settle upon a lineup you want.

If you’re having trouble settling upon a roster you really like, go back and repeat any or all of the previous steps. A lot of times you eliminate a player based on an assumption that turns out to be false. The last thing you want to be doing right after lineup lock is saying “dang, I forgot all about him” or “how could I have missed him?” The most important step to review is the news, especially as kickoff approaches.

Step 10: Compare your lineup to the players listed in the Playbook

Truth be told, this can be done previous to Step 8, it really depends on how much influence you want from the staff beyond the position coaches. Again, focus on the reasons behind the players recommended in the Playbook as opposed to myopically accepting the selection.

In the spirit of full disclosure, you can be successful if you start with the names in the DFS Playbook NFL & DFS Rankings and proceed to the Lineup Generator. The staff uses the same tools you have at your disposal. But to be honest, you’ll find winning much more satisfying if you use our tools to conduct your own research. And quite frankly, it’s more satisfying to us if you go that route. However, if time or something else dictates starting with the Playbook, you’re choosing from names that were identified by tried-and-true methods that have won several tournaments and earned Fantasy Alarm a ticket to the finals of multiple live events.

Step 11: Compare your lineup to the EXAMPLE LINEUPS

First off, allow me to reiterate -- the example lineups are a comparison tool. Don't just take them and plug them into a DFS contest as your own. Not only do the daily sites frown upon that, but you're also not learning anything. It's lazy and you will never grow as a DFS player if that's all you do. Make all the excuses up in the world -- no time for research, was running late, whatever -- if you don't have time to properly construct a lineup of your own, you shouldn't be playing that day.

The best use of the Example Lineups is for a final check. Does your lineup have any overlap with the Example Lineups? Did you miss a player that isn’t overlapping? If you use them properly -- as a comparison to your own -- you will learn from potential mistakes or pitfalls. 

Step 12: Enter your lineup(s)

Leave yourself a little time to give the news and INACTIVES a final check. A huge advantage of doing your own research is now you’re completely prepared for any last-minute announcements. It doesn’t matter if you need to switch out an inactive or add in a player named as a late starter, you’ve perused ample names and done sufficient research to make the change seamlessly.

Step 13: Follow your progress

We’re so confident in the tools provided by DFS Playbook Pro that our guidelines have 13 steps – that’s right, 13 is not your lucky number. All you need to track the games in real-time is a click away. Scoring, stats – everything you need is right here in the Fantasy Alarm DFS Playbook Pro.

Obviously, winning money is the ultimate goal in DFS. However, for many, if not most, embellishing your Football Sunday (and Thursday and Monday) is paramount to the experience. The satisfaction of using our tools to assemble a lineup you research and construct and then seeing your bankroll grow is second to none. Regardless of your agenda, Fantasy Alarm Playbook Pro has everything you need for a satisfying and profitable experience.

 

 

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