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 13 paylines for some top contests.

FanDuel:

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

The winning lineup scored 177.74 points, with the pay line at 103.18

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 122.52

News and Notes:

  • The cash line this week was almost 50 points lower than last week’s score.

  • Davante Adams produced only 6.2 FD points, but led the field with 67.3% ownership.

  • While Adams led the way ownership-wise, plenty of other top-owned players decided not to show up this past Sunday.

  • Jared Cook was the second-highest overall, and the top tight end by far at 63.1% owned, He finished with just 1.4 points.

  • Mike Evans finished with 4.3 points, and was the second-most popular wide receiver at 54.8%.

  • DeAndre Hopkins was 46.7% owned, and his 12 points were actually a welcome sight compared to others.  Brandin Cooks was another wide out with a rough outing, as his 3.2 points landed on 32.5% of lineups.  Rounding out the top-owned wide receivers was Cooper Kupp at 28%.

  • Todd Gurley III dominated running back ownership at 62.4% owned.

  • The running backs weren’t immune from low scores, as Jordan Howard’s 3.8 points were on 20.8% of lineups.

  • Pairing Gurley with a cheaper running back for the second spot paid off, as Jamaal Williams (26.4%), and Kenyan Drake (15.6%) both had great games.

  • Over half of the lineups had to sweat out the Sunday Night Football game as Russell Wilson was the top quarterback at 41.1% owned.  Carson Wentz was third at 11.6%.  Between those two was Brett Hundley, who finished with only 8.96 points at 22.6% owned.

  • The Chargers special teams options were popular, as Josh Lambo was your top Kicker at 32%, and the Chargers defense was tops at 45.6%.  The Jaguars weren’t too far behind at 38%.

 

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The winning lineup scored 219.54 points, with the pay line at 121.56 points.

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 108.42

News and Notes:

No surprise, but Chiefs and Jets players were all over the top pages of the leaderboard.

The Alex Smith, Tyreek Hill, and Travis Kelce combo was on the top-eight lineups, and nine of the top-10. The lone other lineup had a Josh McCown, Robby Anderson, and Jermaine Kearse combo.  The Chiefs combo was what really stood out, as Smith was only 1.5% owned, Hill at 5.1%, and Kelce at 10%.  Although Robby Anderson was a popular play at 17.7% owned, McCown was at just 4.2%, with Kearse at 1.9% for a Jets combo..

The other big move from the top scores was the Miami Defense.  Their 28 points came through for the winner, and the other 1.2% of lineups that took that chance.

Philip Rivers was joined by plenty of other Chargers as high-owned GPP-options this week.  He was the top quarterback at 17.3% owned, while Wilson dropped to 9.1%.  Tom Brady was at 10.9% owned.

  • Todd Gurley III’s ownership was roughly a third of his cash ownership, as he was 22.2% owned.  Jordan Howard was actually slightly higher owned at 24.1%.

  • Alvin Kamara remained a fun GPP play, as he was on 16.7% of lineups.  Melvin Gordon wasn’t far behind at 15.6% owned, but the popular value running backs dropped in ownership for GPPs as Jamaal Williams and Kenyan Drake were 10.7% and 5.4% owned respectively.

  • River’s favorite target in Keenan Allen, topped the wide receiver ownership at 32.4%, while the popular cash options dropped to join the rest of the pack. Hopkins was at 19.4% owned, and Evans fell to 18.6%.

  • Those that took Cook in cash games decided to pivot off of him in GPPs.  Cook was 18.3% owned, with Rob Gronkowski right behind at 17.1%.  

  • Greg Zuerlein had 17 points, and finished at 17% owned.

  • The Jaguars (27%) finished slightly ahead of the Chargers (24.5%)  for defense as they combined to be on over half of the lineups.

 

DraftKings:

NFL Sunday Massive Double Up:  $5 entry fee. 25,287 entries, top 11,000 Win

The winning lineup scored 198.94 points, with the pay line at 129.50 points.

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 133.32 points.

News and Notes:

  • Although there were 25,287 lineup spots, there were only 2,544 unique users that entered this contest.

  • DeAndre Hopkins was the top-owned play, and only one that had over 50% ownership, as he was on 66.43% of lineups.

  • Running Backs took over the top-10 ownership rankings for this contest as they took spots three through six. Todd Gurley III led the pack at 44.64%, followed by Carlos Hyde (39.52%), Kenyan Drake (37.98%), and Theo Riddick (36.51%). Jamaal Williams finished 10th overall at 25.99%.

  • With all these running backs having high ownership, a majority of lineups used their flex spot on an additional running back.

  • Including Williams, the Packers had the ninth through the 11th highest-owned players in the contest.  With no Wilson to roster, Brett Hundley led the quarterbacks at 25.13%.  Right behind him was Jameis Winston at 21.95%.  No other quarterback was over 10% owned.

  • There was a large ownership gap from Hopkins to the next highest-owned wide receiver, Mike Evans, who was 36% owned.  Punt calls were on 28.72% of lineups in the form of  Seth Roberts, while 28.15% used a Packer with Davante Adams.  Demaryius Thomas rounded out the top wide receivers at 24.36%.  

  • Tight End was spread out as Rob Gronkowski led the field at 19.15%, but Jared Cook (16.31%), and Delanie Walker (12.85%) weren’t too far behind.

  • The Chargers dominated the defense ownership at 45.32%.  The Jaguars at 16.77% and Ravens at 14.51% were the only other ones above 6%.

Additional thoughts:  Even though the above is just one example, it is good to see what the entry limit is for a contest.  A quick glance at the large $5 single-entry double-up showed some different ownership levels.  This is due to 11,494 users all able to submit just one single lineup. That produced a three point lower cash line, and no player higher than 46% owned.  Hopkins still led the field and wide receivers, but Jordan Howard led the running back ownership at 29.22% , and Josh McCown led the QB ownership at 14.59%.

 

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The winning lineup scored 241.14 points with the pay line at 139.70 points.

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 148.04  points

News and Notes:

  • DK GPPs were not any different from FD, as we saw the Chiefs and Jets dominate the top lineups this weekend.  This was a week where max entry users took down first place, as well as seven of the top-10 spots.

  • The winning lineup had the same KC and Def combo as pretty much every winning GPP lineup this weekend.

  • For this contest, Alex Smith was 1.7% owned, Tyreek Hill at 4.6%, and Travis Kelce at 7.7% owned.  Miami Defense finished at 2.3% owned.  Both Blaine Gabbert and Jimmy Garoppolo were higher owned than Smith.

  • This was a nice slate to try to stand out in a large field, as no player was over 28% owned.

  • Jordan Howard led the field at 27.02%, with DeAndre Hopkins right behind him at 26.78%.

Once again, similar to FD, Philip Rivers led the quarterback in ownership at 11.67%.  Case Keenum was second at 10.92, with Josh McCown third at 10.1%.  The popular Hundley and Winston were 9.07% and 6.83% owned respectively.

Todd Gurley III remained the top-priced running back users paid up for, as he joined Howard as the only two running backs over 20% owned, checking in on 20.74% of lineups.  

Leonard Fournette (16.71%), and Marshawn Lynch (16.68%) were the two other popular running backs, while Drake fell to 11.6% owned.

Three other wide receivers joined Hopkins at over 20 %.  They were Davante Adams (22.23%). Mike Evans (20.83%), and Robby Anderson (20.38%).  All other wide receivers finished below 15.5% owned, including Seth Roberts at 11.59%, and Josh Gordon at 11.4%.

  • Hunter Henry finished as the top-owned tight end at 16.28%.  Jared Cook (15.6%), and Rob Gronkowski (14.79%) were the only other tight ends above 9% owned.

  • The Chargers stayed as the top defense option at 21.09% owned, with the Jaguars (15.67%), and Ravens (11.26%) checking in as the only ones above 9% owned.