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 fifteen paylines for some top contests.
FanDuel:
NFL Sunday Double Big Up: $5 entry fee, single entry: 13,793 entries, top 6,000 win
The winning lineup scored 194.38 points, with the pay line at 116.88
The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 176.24 points.
News and Notes:
- Great score for the Optimal Lineup, as it finished 24th in this double up.
- The Saints Defense took down the top spot in this contest, finishing on 75% of all lineups.
Two RB’s and two WR’s rounded out the top five, and also the only players above 50% owned. Antonio Brown finished as the second highest overall, and highest WR owned at 67.7%, with Dede Westbrook right behind him at 60.6%. They combined for 6.5 points, just .5 more than the highest owned option with the Saints defense.- The two top running backs fared much better though, as Le’Veon Bell’s 25 points, and Kenyon Drake’s 20.3 points were on a large majority of lineups. Bell was 61.9% owned, with Drake at 59.3%.
- Looking at the QB spot, Nick Foles and Cam Newton combined to be in the QB spot on over half of lineups, as Foles was 34.8% owned, and Cam at 20.1%.
- Even though both Bell and Drake performed well at a high ownership, Chris Ivory was the popular pivot option at 42.9% owned, but finished with just 4.2 points. Todd Gurley III was 5.5% owned.
- The popular WR options this week just did not come through for users in week 15. After Brown and Westbrook, Adam Thielen was 41% owned, with Devin Funchess next at 26.6%. Thielen went for 4.5 points, with Funchess at only 2.4 points. The pivot option came through though, as the 22.2% of users who went with Marquise Goodwin were rewarded with his 17.4 points.
- Similar to the QB spot, Gronk and Walker combined to fill up over half of the tight ends spots in this contest. Rob Gronkowski was the highest owned tight end at 32.1%, followed by Delanie Walker at 20.3%.
- Robbie Gould was key for many users, as he scored 24 points for the 48.2% of users that went the cheap route with him.
$1.2M NFL Sunday Million: $250,000 to first.
The winning lineup scored 228.74 points, with the pay line at 132.78 points.
The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 135.18
News and Notes:
- The winning lineup had a big win from paying up at running back, and hitting their low owned spots. They had three spots at under 3% owned. Keelan Cole blasted off for 28.1 points at only 1.2% owned, while Sterling Shepard had 25.4 points at 2.1% owned.
- Four of the top five finishers went with the Bell and Gurley combo. Le’Veon Bell at 31.3%, while Todd Gurley III was higher than his cash ownership, but still only 12.7% owned.
- Kenyon Drake was higher owned than Bell for the large gpp, checking in at 31.5% owned. The cash game popular choice in Chris Ivory fell to 8.8% owned, while Alvin Kamara jumped to 16.3%, as the pivot play off of Bell.
- Both Cam Newton and Nick Foles had the same 11.8% ownership, while Blake Bortles, who was on the first place lineup, was at 5.7% owned.
- The WR ownership was more spread out in gpp’s than cash games, with Antonio Brown’s 35.5% ownership leading the wide receiver options. Adam Thielen (25.9%), and Dede Westbrook (23.1%) followed Brown, with Michael Thomas at 19.3%, and Marquise Goodwin at 18.1% rounding out the top five.
- Rob Gronkowski remained the top FD tight end at 23.3%, and Delanie Walker remained behind him at 13.5% owned. Greg Olsen was at 8.1%.
- Special teams remained the same as well, with Robbie Gould as the top kicker at 25.1%, and the Saints defense tops at 33.9% owned.
DraftKings:
$5 Single Entry Double Up: 9,195 entries, top 4,000 win.
https://www.draftkings.com/contest/gamecenter/50962105?uc=960993882
The winning lineup scored 221.38 points, with the pay line at 131.84 points.
The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 176.94 points.
News and Notes:
- With this being a single entry double up, there was only one player that was over 50% owned.
- Kenyon Drake was the top overall option, finishing on 66.58% of lineups.
- Dede Westbrook was second at 44.01%. He was followed by the Steelers duo of Le’Veon Bell at 38.53%, and Antonio Brown at 32.34%.
- The overall top five was rounded out with Alex Collins (30.58%), and Mike Davis (27.97%). Davis had only 5.9 points, with Collins at 10.2. They fared better than the the other two running backs that ended up with over 10% ownership, Samaje Perine (12.15%), and Chris Ivory (11.69%).
- After Brown and Westbrook, three other wide receivers checked in with over 20% ownership. They were Devin Funchess at 26.64%, Marquise Goodwin at 24.31%, and Michael Thomas 20.36%. The FD populer pick in Adam Thielen was the 8th highest WR at 12.17%.
- The DraftKings tight end ownership was much different than FanDuel’s due to some very cheap options. Charles Clay took the top spot at 20.2%, with the cheap Ricky Seals-Jones next at 14.05%. Rob Gronkowski was third at 12.82%, but then users went back to cheap with Jesse James at 11.44%. Delanie Walker was the 7th highest owned tight end at 5.94%.
- Another major difference between the sites was the defense. The Redskins led the way in this cash contest at 18.99% owned, with the Saints going from 75% on FD, to 17.16% owned on DK. The Jags, Vikings, and Ravens were the rest of the defense options that hit for over 10% owned.
NFL $3M Millionaire Maker Finale: 176,470 entries, 67,988 unique users: $20 entry fee.
https://www.draftkings.com/contest/gamecenter/50933974
The winning lineup scored 243.98 points with the pay line at 145.44 points.
The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 127.98 points
News and Notes:
- The winning user had six total entries, while both a max entry, and single entry user claiming a spot in the top ten as well.
The top eight lineups all had Greg Olsen’s 29.6 points in their lineups, with four of the top five pairing him with Cam Newton.- The winning lineup had seven of their nine spots at under 10% owned. Olsen was used in the flex spot to make room for Benjamin Watson, who cost slightly above the full punt tight ends, and killed it with 17.4 points at only 4.1% owned. Keelna Cole was the sneaky bright spot this week at 4.3% owned. He was in the Playbook bonus gpp’s spot this week, and wished I would have taken him over Lee or Westbrook. LeSean McCoy and Todd Gurley III was the winner’s RB combo, and both checked in at under 9% owned.
- Overall, in this large gpp, no player checked in at over 50% owned, and only five players hit for over 25%. Kenyon Drake took the top spot 44.12% owned due to his value price tag. Antonio Brown’s injury was tough for many users this week, and he once again topped the receivers at 30.28%. Le’Veon Bell (27.90%), Dede Westbrook (27.53%), and Alex Collins (27.31%) rounded out the top five owned players.
- Cam Newton topped the QB’s in this gpp at 15.65%, barely beating out Ben Roethlisberger, who finished at 15.08% owned. Blake Bortles was third at 11.83%, with no other QB above 8% owned.
- After the top three running backs in Drake, Bell, and Collins, Mike Davis checked in at 18.33%, followed by Alvin Kamara at 11.25%. Ajayi, Ivory, and McCaffrey were the only other running backs above 10%.
- The wide receiver spot also became spread out after Brown and Westbrook, with Michael Thomas (19.08%), Jordy Nelson (17.53%), and Devin Funchess (17.18%) rounding out the top five highest owned receivers.
- Users went both high and low with their tight ends for this gpp. Rob Gronkowski took back his top spot, finishing on 18.16% of lineups, with Charles Clay behind him at 14.09%. Jimmy Graham, Zach Ertz, and Jesse James all finished over 10% owned as well. Greg Olson was just 6.55% owned.
- The Saints defense took back their top spot as well, finishing at 16.78% owned. The Jags, Redskins, and Ravens all finished above 10% as well. As for the “game of the year,” the Steelers defense was on 4,043 lineups, while the Patriots were the lowest defense taken, as they were on just 982 lineups.