UFL DFS Value Plays: Championship Game Bargain Bin for DraftKings Including Anthony McFarland, C.J. Marable, More

Welcome to the Championship Game edition of RotoBaller's UFL DFS Bargain Bin, where the goal is to touch on some potentially mispriced players in DraftKings' Conference Championships UFL contests. Each week during the UFL 2024 season and postseason, I’ll give you my thoughts on where there may be some value spots to exploit for DraftKings' wide array of tournaments and cash games. After you're done here, be sure also to read all our other weekly UFL fantasy football articles.

The XFL and USFL had both defied the odds over the last pair of springs to complete full seasons -- one in the case of the former and two in the case of the latter. They've now joined forces in the hopes of forming a stable and long-lasting pro football alternative for fans that also serves as a launchpad to the NFL for as many players as possible. There's a solid degree of carryover in terms of personnel from both leagues for the 2024 season, even though several teams from each league didn't make the cut for the UFL.

With this being the only one-game main slate of the UFL season and postseason, we're working with DraftKings' Showdown format. That entails a Captain's Spot that accrues fantasy points at a 1.5x multiplier rate, as well as five Flex spots that allow for the rostering of players at any position.

With there being such a narrow player pool and the fact we're following a true value criteria, we'll naturally focus on less bargain options than we would on a regular multi-game slate.

UFL DFS Bargain Bin Intro

Before we go UFL DFS Bargain Bin hunting, a few particulars about format and content.

The nature of the beast with value plays is at least a modest amount (and sometimes substantially more) of risk. Therefore, the Bargain Bin may prove to be a bit more of a roller coaster ride on some slates than your typical “tout” article! Naturally, that doesn’t mean there is no upside to be had. All of these selections are, therefore, suitable for GPPs and can also often serve as solid cash game plays while often helping you accommodate multiple higher-priced studs into your lineup.

This article is by no means intended to serve as an exhaustive list of all value options for the week. Rather, it is meant to take a deeper dive into those I feel offer some of the best combinations of savings and upside.

The goal is to recommend truly affordable players, as opposed to, say, a player priced just $300-$400 away from the highest-priced option at his position. I don’t have set-in-stone price limits in mind for each site, but I do consider legitimate affordability a very important criterion.

UFL Championship Game DFS Value Plays              

Anthony McFarland (RB), SAN | $13.5K (Captain) // $9K (Flex)

McFarland is the clear-cut top value play on either side of the championship clash, given his home-run speed and expected workload. The NFL veteran showed off that upside yet again in the XFL Conference Championship upset of the Battlehawks breaking off a 69-yard touchdown run on which he left several defenders in the dust as part of a 115-yard, one-touchdown effort on the ground.

McFarland netted 21.9 non-multiplier DK points, a performance that was his fourth straight of the double-digit variety. One of those games came against these same Stallions, who McFarland touched up for 17.6 DK points in Week 9. Birmingham's numbers against the run over the course of the season were superior, but as already alluded to, McFarland may not need many carries to justify his salaries.

69-YARD TOUCHDOWN 😤

Anthony McFarland with the longest touchdown run of the season 👏 @XFLBrahmas pic.twitter.com/45Vg4BlwF7

— United Football League (@TheUFL) June 10, 2024

C.J. Marable (RB) BHAM | $11.7K  (Captain) // $7.8K (Flex)

Marable's efficiency has been through the roof in recent games, with the versatile back averaging 7.5 yards per carry over the 20 totes he's logged in the last three contests while also drawing eight targets over that span. Marable got his postseason off to an excellent start last week, gaining an outstanding 9.6 yards per carry on his way to 77 rushing yards versus the tough Panthers defense in the USFL Conference Championship.

Marable logged only two carries against the Brahmas in the Week 9 clash with San Antonio, but he gained 17 yards with them. San Antonio gave up just three rushing touchdowns during the regular season, but the Brahmas also surrendered 4.2 yards per carry and Marable certainly has the body of work to prove he can exploit any efficiency-related weakness on the part of opposing defenses.

Jace Sternberger (TE), BHAM | $10.2K (Captain) // $6.8K (Flex)

Sternberger has been displaying a knack for maximizing his relatively sparse catch opportunities since the start of the season, averaging an elite-speed-receiver-like 18.2 yards per grab and then clocking 24 yards per reception on his two grabs in the win over the Panthers in last Saturday's USFL Conference Championship win.

Sternberger also happened to have his best game of the season against these same Brahmas, posting a 7-110-1 line on nine targets in Week 9 in a stellar performance that netted 27 DK points. The field-stretching tight end produced four double-digit DK-point tallies overall during the regular campaign, and while he might best suited for tournaments due to relatively low target volume, there's no questioning his upside at his current salaries.

Justin Smith (WR), SAN | $7.8K (Captain) // $5.2K (Flex) 

Smith took advantage of his third straight game with at least six targets in Sunday's XFL Conference Championship win over the Battlehawks to post 17.6 DK points via a 4-76-1 line. The speedster had also posted 15.6 DK points two games prior against the Stallions, a game in which he recorded four receptions for 56 yards and a score.

Smith clearly has the trust of quarterback Chase Garbers, and the Norfolk State product had never averaged less than 14.9 yards per reception in any season since the start of his college career until this just-completed 2024 campaign. Nevertheless, Smith has produced double-digit YPC figures on five occasions since the start of the regular season, making him a high-upside tournament bargain at his salaries.

UFL Conference Championship San Antonio Brahmas WR Justin Smith (Norfolk State) 63 yard TD
🎥UFL pic.twitter.com/vAtssdmBIV

— HBCU Premier Sports & More (@HBCUSports1) June 10, 2024

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