It’s been no secret that I am more known for my season-long play than I am for my work in daily games. I spent this past MLB season doing the Pitching Coach article for the Fantasy Alarm DFS Playbook Pro and while I found myself being more right than wrong on most days, it wasn’t about my DFS prowess as much as it was simply my ability to crunch numbers and study the match-ups. Sure, I know which guys to use in cash games and which to use in GPP play, but I barely dipped my toe into the daily game pool and stayed focused on my season-long leagues.

But it all stops now!

You can blame both the folks at FanDuel and the encouraging words of friend and colleague Jeff Mans for all the money you’re about to lose to me this coming NFL season. I am dropping my old-school mentality and I am diving head-first into the NFL DFS pool. Of course, I will still hold onto my season-long leagues, but this is the year the RotobuzzGuy crashes the DFS party.

As a way to encourage some of you to join me in the transition the fantasy sports world has been undergoing over the last few years, I have decided to chronicle my DFS education and experience here in a weekly column on Fantasy Alarm. I have loaded my own money into my very first FanDuel account – you can find me as JuicyMangos – and each week I will discuss picks that went right, picks that went wrong, reasons behind my success (and expected failures) and how I am approaching each week from a DFS standpoint. Not only do I expect this piece to be highly entertaining, but it should prove to be educational as well.

That being said, here’s how I plan to attack Week 1:

First off, I will tell you that I will be playing for peanuts. At least to start. This is a learning process, so making it rain at Club FanDuel is not what I am about…yet. Cash games such as double-ups and head-to-head match-ups are where I’m going to live most of the time. Of course I will throw a dart every now and then at the Million Dollar Tournaments – or the $5 million one this week for that matter – but while I’m learning which stats to research most, I will hone my skills at the $1 tables.

Second, I will have to shed my skin as a season-long player when putting together my weekly lineups. As a season-long player, Week 1 is just like any other week. With so many mock drafts under my belt, rarely do I come away from a draft thinking that my team lacks the necessary foundation to win the league. I have studied everything from last season’s totals to strength of schedule to offensive schemes to offseason personnel changes. I leave no stone unturned and set up some, if I can be a little bragadocious here, killer rankings and cheat sheets.

But with the daily game, the actual match-up seems to have as much, if not more, of a priority than season-long expectations. I may think Nick Foles is a sleeper in season-long leagues, but with a match-up against the Seahawks in Week 1, Kam Chancellor or no Kam Chancellor, I’m not going to touch him. I have to look for quarterbacks facing sketchy pass defenses, running backs facing soft defensive lines and receivers going up against a weak secondary. Yes, I can get sneaky and go with a cheap quarterback play and use a guy who I think will play the entire second half from behind and be forced to air it out, but I think for these first few weeks, I need to play it safe and build my bankroll.

Figuring out the match-ups with Week 1 is tricky though. I can look at last year’s defensive rankings, but then I have to look at offseason roster moves and see who improved and who didn’t. The Ravens pass defense ranked 23rd in passing yards allowed and gave up an average of 7.3 yards per pass last season but now with a healthy Jimmy Smith and the arrival of free safety Kendrick Lewis, can I really look at Peyton Manning and say that he's a no-brainer lock, can I? I know he's Peyton freakin' Manning, but, probably not. Without actual numbers to study or games to watch, there is going to be a lot of investigation and speculation happening this first week.

It all sounds a little intimidating, doesn’t it? So much research, so many variables and of course, the risk that comes along with using your own money. I do like the fact that FanDuel allows you to play for free, but if I can quote the great Fast Eddie Felson, “Money won is twice as sweet as money earned.” I will certainly use the free games to test out some potentially odd-ball theories and strategies throughout the season, but I know me and me will lose interest if the only incentive is the knowledge that I was right.

As I stated earlier, I will use this space to discuss potential plays for the upcoming week as well as share some insights into the games. Today was just my way of introducing this piece. I will add a follow-up with actual Week 1 game thoughts no later than early Thursday morning and if you tune into the Fantasy Alarm Podcast on Wednesday at 9:30pm ET, I will have some NFL DFS picks to share as well. For now, though, I am grabbing my copy of the 2015 Fantasy Alarm Draft Guide and reading Jeff Mans’ “Intro to Daily Fantasy Football,” and I recommend you do the same. It’s time to initiate the learning process and I cannot think of a better resource to get me started.

I am very much looking forward to not only having this experience, but to share it with all of you as well. I welcome experienced DFS players to come share their insights and if you’re a newbie like me, hit me up in the comments with your questions and we’ll learn the answers together.

Good luck this week and I’ll see you all in the money this year!

UPDATE:  OK, so my home auction league draft ran a little hectic so I was unable to jump onto the podcast and make picks. Not that I was going to give away my lineup, but I wanted to share a few thoughts I had regarding how I went about setting my lineup. 

After reading through Jeff Mans' DFS Guide, I decided I was going to follow his blueprint and build my bankroll through cash games. I entered a $1 50/50 which allowed for 100 entries but only nine people were entered. Jeff explains the overlay and the increased odds of winning in games that may not fill up. I went with, based on price and expectations, a high-end QB, one high-end RB and one high-end WR. My second running back should be reasonably solid and I went with a complementary pair of mid-to-lower priced receivers. A decent defense and average kicker rounded things out.This was all pretty much done by the book, so we'll see what happens.

UPDATE UPDATED:  I couldn't help myself. I know I shouldn't have done it, but the lure was just too much for me to handle. I entered a GPP with the pipe dream of hitting that big money prize. The lineup is different from the one I used in the cash game as there are a couple of fliers in there, but I do think that this lineup could be good in cash games as well. I don;t know if that's necessarily a good thing, but hey....it's Week 1 and I'm treating myself!