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 eleven paylines for some top contests.

FanDuel:

NFL Sunday Double Big Up: $5 entry fee, top 8,000 win

https://www.fanduel.com/games/21941/contests/21941-213257818/entries/1330326036/scoring

The winning lineup scored 179.96 points, with the pay line at 137.76

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 102.48

News and Notes:

  • Kareem Hunt was the highest-owned player at 73.2%, but finished with only 9.2 points.

  • Roughly the same amount of users who took Hunt, went with one of three RBs with their second spot.  They were:  Melvin Gordon at 25.7%, Alvin Kamara at 25.4%, and Mark Ingram at 23.4%

  • Tom Brady was the highest-owned QB at 70.3%.

  • Jamison Crowder was the top-owned WR, and the only one above 50% ownership, checking in at 56.6%.  

  • Three other WRs all checked in at over 30% owned, but Brandin Cooks and his 23.9  points was the only one who paid off.  He was on 35% of lineups.  DeVante Parker’s 4.6 points was on 38.3% of lineups, and Bruce Ellington’s 9.8 points was on 30.5%.

  • More than six out of every 10 lineups choose to either pay down for Vernon Davis (26.8%), or up for Travis Kelce (36.9%) with their tight end spot.

  • The final Patriots’ payoff play was Stephen Gostkowski. He went for 20 points, and was the highest-owned kicker at 29.5%.

  • $1.3K separated the two highest-owned defenses, but both the Chargers (47.5%), and the Jaguars (34.9%) finished with 25 points.

$1.5M NFL Sunday Million:  Top 55,100 win, $250,000 to first.

https://www.fanduel.com/games/21941/contests/21941-213257745/entries/1330089503/scoring?entry=1325252028

The winning lineup scored 194.60 points, with the pay line at 128.88

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 121.98

News and Notes:

  • The top-nine lineups all had Keenan Allen, who was 4% owned, and scored 34.2 points.

  • The winning lineup chose to use the WR position to make their move, as they paired Allen with Kenny Stills.  Stills was 1%-owned, and finished with 27.5 points.  The cash game play of Parker was the popular Miami play in GPPs as well, as he was 12.7%-owned.  Taking the cheaper Stills with lower ownership paid off though for a 22.9-point swing.  

  • Those that stayed with Stephen Gostkowski in GPPs were rewarded in a positive way.  His 20 points at 10.6% made for a 19-point swing from Jake Elliott’s 1-point game at 9.9%-owned.

  • Sticking with special teams, over half the field hit with their defense play this week.  The Ravens led the way at 26 points, and were the lowest-owned of the three at 9.4%.  Finishing one point behind at 25 points were the high-priced option of the Jaguars, who were the highest-owned defense at 28.1%, while the cheapest of the bunch in the Chargers hit on 15.7% of lineups.

  • Tom Brady remained the highest-owned QB, but was much lower owned than in cash games at 22%.  Drew Brees was on the winning lineup, and on 9.2% overall.

  • Kareem Hunt also remained at the top for his position, leading the way at 35%.  While Gordon, Ingram, and Kamara all remained towards the top-owned RB options, LeSean McCoy was a popular gpp play.  He finished with over 25.1 points, and was on 13.98% of lineups.

  • Travis Kelce stayed at the top of the tight end ownership at 26.5%, but a larger number of users went with more Patriots exposure by taking Rob Gronkowski, who was 16.5% owned.

DraftKings:  

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

https://www.draftkings.com/contest/gamecenter/48998607?uc=920678304

The winning lineup scored 203.7 points, with the pay line at 140.26.

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 134.68 points.

News and Notes:

  • First, for those thinking different buy-in levels means different skill levels, the $25 massive double-up cash line was 140.76, and the $250 massive double-up cash line was 140.46.

  • You’re welcome to play these large double-up contests, but it’s good to know that out of the 28,735 entries, there were only 3,872 unique users in this double-up.

  • Of the top-eight highest-owned players, four came from New England, and two from Washington.

  • Similar to FD, Kareem Hunt led the way at 77.46% owned.

  • Nothing changed again at QB, as Tom Brady was right behind Hunt, and the highest owned QB at 69.56%.  Different to FD though was Rex Burkhead, who was the third highest overall owned player at 64.61%.   The other Patriots in the top eight overall were Brandin Cooks at 39.93%, and Rob Gronkowski at 37.08%.

  • Jamison Crowder led the WR ownership at 62.04%, with his teammate Chris Thompson as a top-owned RB/FLEX option at 43.60%.

  • The fifth-highest owned player was a minimum price option in Bruce Ellington.  He was on 58.51% of lineups.

  • Rounding out the top-10 were the popular defense options in the Jaguars (35.43%), and the Chargers (29.45%). No other defense was above 7%.

  • Although Vernon Davis was on 10.36% of lineups, Travis Kelce (23.61%), and Evan Engram (21.89%) were the two-most popular pivot options off of Gronk.

  • Since Hunt, Burkhead, and Thompson were such highly owned, only Melvin Gordon (14.7%), and Alvin Kamara (13.52%) were above 10% owned in the RB spot.  It drops to under 4.5% owned for the field after Mark Ingram’s 9.64% ownership.

  • There was even a larger gap in the QB ownership this week.  After Brady at 69.56%, it drops to his opponent in Derek Carr at 9.42%.  No other QB was above 4.5% owned.

NFL $3.11 Fantasy Football Millionaire:  182,294 entries, top 40,700 win.

https://www.draftkings.com/contest/gamecenter/48970664

The winning lineup scored 221.18 points with the pay line at 145.36

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 129.38

News and Notes:

  • 155 users max entered 150 lineups for $3,000 into this contest. The winner entered 50 lineups, cashing with five other lineups for $190.  Nice to see that 2nd, 3rd, 7th, and 10th place all came from single entry users.

  • While there has been high ownership levels from multiple players lately for cash games, the situation is much different for large GPPs.  Kareem Hunt stayed the top-owned player to complete the grand slam, as he was tops at 35.87% owned.  He was the only player over 30% owned.

  • The winning lineup also made their move in the WR spot.  Keenan Allen at 6.15%, and Kenny Stills at 1.52% combined for over 77 DK points.  By comparison, Sterling Shepard had 1.14% ownership.

  • What didn’t change was seeing plenty of New England names at the top.  They finished with three of the top five, and four of top-eight.  Brandin Cooks led the WRs at 28.08%, with Rob Gronkowski as the top TE, and third-highest overall option at 26.17%.  Tom Brady stayed the top QB, but much less owned than in cash games at 25.36%.  

  • Chris Thompson once again was in between the New England core at 26.02%, with Rex Burkhead’s 23.41% ownership finishing as the only other RB over 20% owned.

  • Derek Carr remained second to Brady in QB ownership, but a much closer gap this time as he was 15.55% owned.  Alex Smith was third at 10.97%, with no other QB at over 10% owned.

  • The 155 lineups with Tyrod Taylor found themselves finishing with more fantasy points than the 2069 lineups with Nathan Peterman.

  • More than a few users went the route of targeting the Raiders over the chalky Patriots.  All three of Carr’s top targets were top-five owned for their position, with Michael Crabtree (24.55%), Amari Cooper (20.73%), and Jared Cook (13.96%).