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 8 paylines for some top contests.

FanDuel:

NFL Sunday Double Big Up: $5 entry fee, top 9,000 win

https://www.fanduel.com/games/21636/contests/21636-212412785/entries/1306058416/scoring

The winning lineup scored 192.78 points, with the pay line at 117.94  

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 118.38

News and Notes:  

This large double up ended up with some highly-owned players.

The masses were thinking roughly the same this week for cash games on FD. A.J. Green checked in as the highest owned player at 79.9% of lineups. With Green being up there in price, 34.8% of users took Kelvin Benjamin at roughly $2K less than Green, and 28.6% went another $1K cheaper with JuJu Smith-Schuster.

With only two RB slots on FD, three running backs took up the majority of those two spots.  Mark Ingram was on 57.6% of lineups, with Le'Veon Bell also above the half mark at 50.8% owned. LeSean McCoy was not too far behind at 40%.

While only 0.3%, including the winner, took Deshaun Watson, 26.9% went against the Houston D with Russell Wilson.  He wasn’t the highest-owned though, as Carson Wentz ended up on 34.2% of lineups.

At 63.2% ownership this week, Hunter Henry led the tight ends by a large margin.  He could be considered a bigger bust than Green this past weekend.

You usually don’t see a kicker with high ownership, but Randy Bullock was on 34.79% of lineups.  Picking on the Colts was a popular move, as the Cincy D led the special teams ownership levels at 51.2%.

$1.5M NFL Sunday Million:  Top 51,075 win, $400,000 to first.

https://www.fanduel.com/games/21636/contests/21636-212412681/scoring

The winning lineup scored 224.58 points, with the pay line at 121.88

News and Notes:  

While the cash line didn’t jump too much, the top score was one of the highest we’ve seen this year.  In just about every GPP across the board this past Sunday, the top lineups had some type of combination from the Houston/Seattle game. This large GPP was no different.

The winning lineup almost hit the cash line by scoring roughly half their points from their four stack in the Hou/Sea game.  Their combo of DeShaun Watson, DeAndre Hopkins, Paul Richardson, and Jimmy Graham was huge, and all checked in at under 4% ownership.  The other three main players from this game were scattered throughout the top-10 lineups, with Russell Wilson at 8.2%, Will Fuller at 8.3%, and Lamar Miller the lowest of the group at 1.4%. Those that targeted this game, and made the bold move of fading Baldwin were highly-rewarded.  Baldwin was the lowest scorer of this group, but highest owned at 13.2%.

Overall at least the top-10 finishers had at least three players from this game, with nine of the 10 having at least four-pack stacks.

The $500,000 NFL Bomb was a larger $166 entry fee GPP, with $100,000 to the winner. A familiar name in ChipolteAddict dominated this contest. Chipolte took down the top-two spots, and had five in the top-10, and eight in the top-18. They did this with five different players in their first- and second-place lineups.  

DraftKings:  

NFL Sunday Massive Double Up:  $5 entry fee.  34,482 entries, top 15,000 win.

https://www.draftkings.com/contest/gamecenter/47351089?uc=889202758

The winning lineup scored 207.18 points, with the pay line at 128.76.

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 133.48 points.

News and Notes:  

You’re welcome to play these large double up contests, but it’s good to know that 79 users entered the max 100 lineups for this contest, taking up 22.9% of all lineups entered for this contest out of the 34,000 plus entries.

While A.J. Green was still the highest-owned cash game player, his ownership was less on DK, checking in at 54.89% owned.  Cincy had plenty of love in DK cash games on Sunday, as they had three players in top four, and four in the top six of the highest owned players in this large double up.  After Green, down at the three, but can’t score from there Joe Mixon was on 52.63% of lineups, with Andy Dalton right behind him on 50.08% of lineups.  Tyler Kroft was your highest owned tight end, and sixth highest overall at 41.07%.  

Two RBs rounded out the top-five, as LeSean McCoy hit on 52.95% of lineups, with Mark Ingram at 42.24% owned.  It’s worth mentioning that Bell was not available on the DK main slate.

Doug Baldwin (31.83%), Josh Doctson (23.95%), and DeSean Jackson (22.17%) were your next highest owned WR’s after Green.  While Hunter Henry was all over FD lineups, he finished well behind Kroft, and Jordan Reed (23.55%) at only 12.70% owned.

QB-wise, Dalton obviously skewed the ownership at over 50% of the lineups.  Russell Wilson finished second at 14.38% owned, with Cam Newton as the only other QB with double digit ownership at 10.57%.

NFL $3.6MM Fantasy Football Millionaire Maker:  200,241 entries.

https://www.draftkings.com/contest/gamecenter/47319651

The winning lineup scored 247.88 points with the pay line at 131.02

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 135.48.

News and Notes:

130 users max entered this contest, spending $3,000 on their 150 lineups.  Even with over 200,000 entries, those 130 users made up 9.7% of the lineups.  Note that plenty more entered 50 or 100 plus lineups. Eleventh out of 200,241 won $3,500.

While this user didn’t max enter, the winner had 67 entries, with two of them finishing 1st and 2nd. The only difference between the two lineups was a Deshaun Watson to Russell Wilson pivot.  Both lineups had Six players from the Hou/Sea game, with at least the next top-10 finishers having at least three players from this game.  

Similar to the large FD GPP, Doug Baldwin was the fade play of the top lineups, but the highest owned from this game at 21.8%. Wilson was far behind at 11.1%, with all the other name players from this game at 8.5% or less. Rounding out the Seattle side was Graham (8.4%), Lockett (4.7%), and Richardson (3.6%). On the Houston side, Fuller remained the top play there at 7.4%, with Miller (3.8%), Hopkins (2.8%), and Watson (2.3%) all providing key points for the winning lineups. Once again, with no Sunday night Schuster game, those that targeted this game were highly rewarded, and dominated the GPPs this weekend.  

Overall, Green and Mixon were your highest owned in the field at 32.99% and 32.40%, with Kroft and Dalton as your highest-owned TE and QBs.  

Interesting fact: A multi-time millionaire maker winner, RayofHope, had a 22nd-place finish with a lineup that left $2,800 in salary on the table.   

Single vs. Multi Entry: That doesn’t matter for ChipolteAddict, who took down the single entry thunderdome for $75,000, a few $1 single entry satellites, a few more live qualifier seats, and a few three entry max GPPs.