The Playbook
Fantasy football rankings, waiver-wire targets, start/sit calls, and pick’em strategy — fresh analysis every week from the DaqsPickEm crew.
Week 14 Pick'em
Week 14 Survivor: Just 10 Entries Left After Saints Beat Bucs
The Saints beat the Buccaneers 24-20 and took out 62% of the remaining survivor field. Ten entries are left in an $18.7M contest, and survivor strategy works completely differently when almost nobody is alive.
Week 13 Pick'em
Thanksgiving 2025 Wiped Out 94.5% of the Survivor Pool Field
The Lions, Chiefs and Ravens all lost on Thanksgiving, the Bears upset the Eagles, and 849 entries died in a single week. The most destructive survivor slate of the year, and what it proves about picking favorites.
Team Recaps
UTSA 24, Army 27: The Home Finale That Slipped Away
Owen McCown threw for 266 and rallied the Roadrunners to a fourth-quarter lead. Then Cale Hellums and Army answered with a 13-play march that broke Alamodome hearts.
Team Recaps
Oklahoma Grinds Out LSU 17-13: Ugly Win, Real Defense
Three Mateer picks, a Sategna dagger, and a defense that held LSU to 198 yards. The Sooners close the regular season 10-2.
Week 12 Waiver Wire
Michael Wilson: The Waiver Wire Story of the 2025 Season
Michael Wilson had an ADP around 237 and went undrafted almost everywhere. Since Marvin Harrison Jr. went down he has been seeing roughly 11 targets a game. Here is how to value a target vacuum before it closes.
Team Recaps
Hornets Muffled at Home: Emporia State Drops the Finale 13-7 to Fort Hays
Emporia State’s 2025 ends at Welch Stadium with a 13-7 loss to Fort Hays State, closing the year at 5-6 and one game short of a winning record.
Week 10 Pick'em
Panthers-Packers: The Biggest Upset of 2025 Guts Survivor
Carolina won 16-13 at Green Bay as a 13-point underdog, the biggest upset of the season. Then Week 10 turned the same Panthers into the pick that ended thousands of survivor entries.
Week 9 Trades
NFL Trade Deadline 2025: Inside the Jets Fire Sale
The Jets sold Sauce Gardner to the Colts and Quinnen Williams to the Cowboys within hours of each other on November 4. Here is the fantasy, spread and survivor fallout of teams openly punting the season.
Week 7 Waiver Wire
Rico Dowdle Waiver Wire: Trusting Carolina's Hot Backfield
Back-to-back 30-point weeks made Rico Dowdle the best free pickup of the fall. Here is how to value a hot backfield in October, when a two-week spike is real, and why Carolina being the surprise of the NFC South matters for your pick'em card.
Week 5 Pick'em
Week 5 Survivor Massacre: 49ers 26, Rams 23 in Overtime
The Rams were 8.5-point favorites and the single most-picked team in Circa Survivor. They lost in overtime, and 54% of the remaining field went with them. Here's the lesson about following the crowd.
Week 2 Hot Takes
Week 2 Overreactions: 2025's Big Favorites Are Falling
The Rams, Cardinals and Bills all lost as big favorites in Week 2. Here's which of those results is real signal, which is noise, and why survivor players should be nervous already.
Draft Prep
Late-Round QB Strategy: Why 2025 Drafts Reward Waiting
Paying up at quarterback feels safe and drafts badly. Here's the case for late-round QB strategy in 2025, what the offseason actually changed, and why pick'em and survivor pools flip the logic entirely.
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