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 9 paylines for some top-contests.

FanDuel:

NFL Sunday Double Big Up: $5 entry fee, top 7,500 win

https://www.fanduel.com/games/21736/contests/21736-212698560/entries/1313849552/scoring?entry=1313845815

The winning lineup scored 171.66 points, with the pay line at 109.52 

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 111.02

News and Notes:

This large double up once again ended up with some highly owned players.

Users wanted to roster Ezekiel Elliott at least one more time this season, as he checked in with the highest ownership at 82.8%. The other top-two Dallas players finished with solid ownership numbers, as Dak Prescott was the third-highest QB at 22.4%, and Dez Bryant was towards the top WRs at 26.8% owned. On the opposite side of this game, Travis Kelce ended up on 20.2% of lineups.

After Zeke, Mark Ingram’s 8.4 FD points were on 38.4% of lineups, while his “backup,” Alvin Kamara, finished with 28.2 FD points, but only made it onto 5.4% of lineups. Todd Gurley II was on 14.5% of lineups.

While Dez had a solid ownership level, Michael Thomas was by far the top WR played, checking in on 78.9% of lineups, making his dud game a wash for the most part.  While roughly one in five lineups had Kelce, 29.3% went with Jack Doyle.

You usually don’t see a kicker with high ownership, but we saw a highly owned kicker for the second week in a row.  Mike Nugent was on 37.30% of lineups.  The Jags def was close to being on half of all lineups at 48%.

$1.5M NFL Sunday Million:  Top 58,300 win, $300,000 to first.

https://www.fanduel.com/games/21736/contests/21736-212698459/scoring

The winning lineup scored 189.24 points, with the pay line at 120.80

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 138.04

News and Notes:

With no real game blasting off like last week, the scoring was slightly lower for week nine..

The winning lineup hit early and often with a Ram’s four pack. Jared Goff was only 4% owned, while Todd Gurley II was almost double his cash game ownership at 27.9% owned in this large GPP. Their other two Rams were from the special teams section. Greg Zuerlein’s 17 FD points were on 7.2% of lineups, while the Rams DEF hit on 14.1%.  

Overall, the top-five finishers all had Todd Gurley II, T.Y. Hilton (12.1%), and Alvin Kamara (10.3%) in their lineups. Zeke’s ownership was cut in half from the cash games, as he was on 40.4% of lineups. The other highly-owned cash play, Michael Thomas, finished on 31.8% of lineups.

While Paul Richardson was key for winning lineups this week, the 12.2% of lineups that used him were disappointed with his 5.6 FD points. The ones who were burned by Doug Baldwin last week, were rewarded this week with 20.3 FD points at 9.9% owned.

The Jags D finished on 23.4% of lineups, while Kelce checked in on 23.9% of lineups, with Doyle down at 15.5%

Props to Alarm for taking down the $100,000 top prize in the gunslinger on Sunday! https://www.fanduel.com/games/21736/contests/21736-212698531/scoring

DraftKings: 

NFL Sunday Massive Double Up:  $5 entry fee. 28.735 entries, top 12,500 win.

The winning lineup scored 206.12 points, with the pay line at 150.62.

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 122.32 points.

News and Notes:

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 3,866 unique users in this double up.

Of the top-11 highest-owned in this large double-up, three came from the Colts, three from the Saints, and two each from the Cowboys and Eagles. Two WRs and two RBs topped 50% ownership.  T.Y. Hilton checked in as the highest-owned player at 66.66% owned, with Dez Bryant second at 59.81%. Todd Gurley was the top RB at 57.74%, with Ezekiel Elliott slightly behind at 51.35%. Rounding out the top-five was Michael Thomas at 46.10%. 

Tight End looked to be the spot where many went the salary relief play.  Jack Doyle was the top-option at 37.93%, but after the Ertz news broke, the masses went towards Trey Burton, who was on 34.96% of lineups for a minimum price of $2.5K. Crazy, but more lineups had Ertz (92) than the other min price option in Brent Celek, who made it onto only six lineups. Travis Kelce checked in far behind the top options, at only 4.57% owned.

Drew Brees was the top-QB at 32.19% owned, while Dak Prescott (20.64%), and Russell Wilson (11.74%) were your only other QBs at over 10% owned. 

While the Jags def dominated the FD ownership on defense, they were the third-highest owned defense in this DK cash game at 12.62%. The Eagles led the pack at 32.74%, with the Colts second at 24.18%. 

Finally, a surprise in my mind was Demarcus Robinson.  He was one of only five WRs that had over 10% ownership, as he ended up on 17.18% of lineups, more than twice of his teammate Tyreek Hill.  

NFL $3MM Fantasy Football Millionaire Maker:  176,470 entries.

https://www.draftkings.com/contest/gamecenter/47905237

The winning lineup scored 214.36 points with the pay line at 149.14

Than FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 174.34.

News and Notes:

125 users max entered this contest, spending $3,000 on their 150 lineups.  Even with over 176,000 entries, those 125 users made up 10.6% of the lineups.  Note that plenty more entered 50 or 100 plus lineups.  16th place wins $3,000.   Overall, there were 67,727 unique users filling out the 176,470 lineups.

For Week 9, we had max entry users finishing in four of the top-10 spots, including first place.  Single bullet users finished second and seventh though.

The winning lineup had just two positions at under 10% owned, both in the WR spots that produced for them.  Doug Baldwin’s 26.8 DK points was 9.7% owned, while Robert Woods’ 23 DK points finished at 5% owned.  

Their two highest-owned players were also the overall highest owned in this large GPP. Todd Gurley was the overall highest-owned player at 35.69%, with T.Y. Hilton the top-owned WR option at 32.8%. 

Three other RBs were in the top-seven owned with Ezekiel Elliott (26.37%), Adrian Peterson (25.31%), and Kareem Hunt (24.39%). 

Trey Burton dropped from his high cash game ownership to fall on just 6.47% of lineups.  Doyle though stayed strong, as he was the highest-owned tight end at 23.88%.  Ertz managed to stay on 1,703 lineups, with Celek on 560.