When looking to improve your daily fantasy sports game, solid assessment is just as important as the lineup building process and research.  It is easy to use the terms blasted off, or stinks, to describe how a lineup performed,  but the key is understanding why.  My goal when building a lineup is to have a valid explanation on how it was constructed, and how it will win.  I continue to urge everyone that if unsure about why you see, or not see a player recommended, that you ask why.  After the slate is completed, it is always best to go back and re-assess how it performed. This strategy works for not just your lineups, but others as well.  Below is a look at the NFL Week 12 paylines for some top contests.

FanDuel:

NFL Sunday Double Big Up: $5 entry fee, top 6,500 win

https://www.fanduel.com/games/22066/contests/22066-213530880/entries/1338354707/scoring?entry=1337982866

The winning lineup scored 199.24 points, with the pay line at 151.52

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 107.78

News and Notes:

  • Even though the top 6,500 win double their money, 739 people tied for the last cashing spot in 5,761st place..

  • Tevin Coleman led the field in ownership at 75%, but four other spots hit for over 50% owned.

  • Russell Wilson led the QB ownership by a wide margin at 62.6%.

  • The most popular RBs that users paired with Coleman were Todd Gurley at 53.6%, Kareem Hunt at 28.9%, and Le’Veon Bell at 23.8%.

  • Cooper Kupp led the WR options at 67.7% owned.  Not far behind him was Julio Jones at 59%.  There’s a large drop-off after them, with Corey Davis  at 29.5%, followed by Brandin Cooks at 27.2%, and Antonio Brown at 24.4%.

  • More than six of every 10 lineups had either Delanie Walker (42.4%), or Jack Doyle (18.2%), in their tight end spot.

  • Stephen Gostkowski led the kicker options at 29.7%.

  • 56.2% of lineups used Pittsburgh as their late night hammer defense.

$1.3M NFL Sunday Million:  Top 45,825 win, $250,000 to first.

https://www.fanduel.com/games/22066/contests/22066-213530807/entries/1338843237/scoring?entry=1338683773

The winning lineup scored 221.74 points, with the pay line at 140.88 points.

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 129.34

News and Notes:

  • The winning lineup came from behind with a three-player Pittsburgh stack, while also hitting with two Atlanta and two New England options.  Their lowest-owned player was Joe Mixon at 2.6%.

  • Although the percentage dropped from cash games, Russell Wilson led the QBs at 18% owned.  Tom Brady was at 11.4%, and Ben Roethlisberger was at 9.1%.

  • Tevin Coleman once again led the field at 29.6% owned, as I couldn’t find any player at 30-plus percent owned.

  • Kareem Hunt followed Coleman for RB ownership at 26%, with Todd Gurley also up there at 35%. Le'Veon Bell was at 18.2%, and Alvin Kamara’s big game hit on 12.8% of lineups.

  • Antonio Brown remained roughly the same amount owned that he was in cash games, finishing at 23.6% in this GPP, but Julio Jones led the WRs at 24.1%.  Cooper Kupp’s large cash ownership dropped to 18.3% in this large GPP.  Brandin Cooks (19.9%), Alshon Jeffery (16.1%), and A.J. Green (14.2%) followed behind the lead pack.

  • Delanie Walker led the tight ends again, but at only 20.1% owned.  Both Travis Kelce at 14.8%, and Rob Gronkowski at 14.9% were the only two with Walker above 10%.  Jack Doyle finished at 9.8%.

  • Once again, a player’s cash ownership was roughly cut in half for this GPP, as the Pittsburgh defense still led the Def ownership, but at 24.4%.  Philadelphia at 19.2%, and Jacksonville at 16.9% accounted for the drop in Pitt’s ownership.

DraftKings:

NFL Sunday Massive Double Up:  $5 entry fee. 28,735 entries, top 12,500 win.

https://www.draftkings.com/contest/gamecenter/49529535?uc=932486753

The winning lineup scored 219.38 points, with the pay line at 146.26 points.

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 130.82 points.

News and Notes:

  • Although there were 28,735 lineup spots, there were only 5,224 unique users that entered this contest.

  • The ownership levels were not as high as in past weeks for for this double up, but I found ownership levels to be slightly higher in some smaller double-up and 50/50 cash games.

  • With no Sunday Night Football for the main DK slate, some of the top FD options were not available to use.  Only three players finished with ownership above 50% for this large double-up.

  • Tevin Coleman led the field at 55.34% owned, with Cooper Kupp (55.09%), and Russell Wilson (52.65%) as the only three above 50% owned.

  • After Wilson’s 52.65% ownership, the QB ownership drops to Jacoby Brissett’s 13.59%.  No other QB is over 7.5% owned, with Tom Brady next at 7.18%.

  • Similar to FD cash, Todd Gurley (39.56%), and Kareem Hunt (24.58%) were popular options to pair up with Coleman.  With no Bell, and the DK flex spot, Carlos Hyde was a popular DK running back at 34.64%, and the same with Devontae Booker at 27.32%.  Joe Mixon and J.D. McKissic also had over 10% ownership, finishing at 15.32 and 12.75% owned.

  • After Kupp, Corey Davis was a top value option at 41.63%, followed by the higher-priced Julio Jones at 37.18%.  After those three, there’s roughly a 20% ownership drop with Brandin Cooks (19.05%), Sammy Watkins (17.66%), and Doug Baldwin (17.05%) leading the second tier group.

  • The tight ends were flipped compared to FD, with Jack Doyle on 41.63% of lineup, and Delanie Walker on 22.55% of lineups.  Tyler Kroft was at 14.51%.

  • With no Pitt defense, Philadelphia led the way at 26.32%, followed by Jacksonville at 20.19%, and Atlanta at 19.71%.  No other defense finished above 8% owned.

NFL $4M 75th Fantasy Football Millionaire:  $75 entry fee. 60,606 entries, top 13,240 win.

https://www.draftkings.com/contest/gamecenter/48781348

The winning lineup scored 233.68 points with the pay line at 150.52 points.

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 158.76 points.

News and Notes:

  • This was a much larger entry fee than their previous MM GPPs, as we saw only 60 users max enter this contest.

  • A max entry user did win this time, and an end of game lateral fumble recovery from Arizona pushed him from third to first as time expired.  That’s right up there with a kneel down loss.  After the max entry user, we did have single-bullet users finishing in 3rd and 5th

  • Ownership was spread out in this large GPP, as we had 33 players at over 10% owned, 21 over 15%, seven over 20%, and zero players over 30% owned.

  • Besides the Arizona fumble recovery play, the top lineups had some low ownership levels.  The winner had Carson Wentz at 3.5%, and Zach Ertz at 3% owned, while third place had Amari Cooper at 2.5%, and Marshawn Lynch at just 1.1% owned.

  • Russell Wilson at 20.42%, and Tom Brady at 12.29% were the only two QBs above 10% owned.  Brissett finished fifth at 7.89%.

  • Tevin Coleman led the field for the grand slam ownership crown, finishing this GPP at 28.96% owned.  Kareem Hunt (25.43%), Todd Gurley (22.05%), and Carlos Hyde (17.19%) remained the next most popular RBs.  Alvin Kamara finished at 16.93%, much more popular than Mark Ingram at 11.17%.

  • Users stayed with Julio Jones, who was 24.73% owned, as well as Cooper Kupp at 23.79%. The third- and fourth-highest owned receivers could be a surprise with T.Y. Hilton at 19.99%, and Kenny Stills at 18.82%.  

  • Tight End saw four players at over 13%, while the rest of the field was under 9% owned.  It was extremely close with Delanie Walker leading the way at 17.99%, followed by Jack Doyle at 17.92%, and Rob Gronkowski at 17.13%.