How can you tell if you blew it on DraftKings after week one in the NFL? You’re logging into Paypal right now to add some funds so you can play in week two.
Not winning any of the contests you entered is a good indication that you need to scrap whatever strategy you employed in the opening weekend of pro football. And perhaps you should seek other forms of entertainment before you embarrass yourself further.
Maybe you should look into hobbies like bowling or scrapbooking. Just something that doesn’t require you to stretch your tiny brain with a million different football scenarios and endless stats.
But if you’re hard-headed like me, then you are up for more daily fantasy football, even if week one was a disaster.
At least with 16 games in the books, we have more to go on than wild speculations carried over from the preseason.
One way to see just how bad your draft went on DraftKings is to look at the perfect lineup from week one. DraftKings Playbook may have this info up at some point on Tuesday, but it’s not easy to find there sometimes. So head over to Fantasy Sports Co to see the perfect lineups for DK, FanDuel, and Yahoo! daily fantasy football.
This screenshot shows the best possible lineup for all the games during week one, Thursday – Monday Night Football.
And below is one of my lineups. Notice the level of suck produced by me and my gang of low scoring jabronies. The pitiful ownership rates tell the story of how my draft went. No, I was not drunk when choosing my team, although that may be a better strategy moving on to week two.
My leading scorer was Doug Baldwin, and he was outscored by all but two positions on the perfect lineup card.
So how does looking at the perfect draft from week one help us with the games coming up this week? Just picking the same guys for week two would be idiotic (or just crazy enough to work!).
Yet, we can look at how the lineup breaks down by salary and some of the matchups that lead to the perfect DraftKings score. That should help tweak your lineups in order to actually increase your DK bankroll this week.
Biggest Game Check – A.J. Green had the highest salary on the perfect lineup at $8400. His 39 DK points made it worth scratching that check. His matchup didn’t appeal to some since he was going up against Darrelle Revis. Well, Green planted his flag on Revis Island and burned the cornerback’s cabana down on Sunday, to the tune of 180 yards on 12 catches.
Space Maker – How do you afford a guy like A.J. Green? You have to draft a guy with a name like Henry Snedeker….or Jack Doyle. At just $2500, his 18.5 points made room for big-name ballers like Green and Brees. Doyle benefitted from Andrew Luck looking like his old self. And playing Detroit’s gentle defense didn’t hurt.
Stacks on Stacks – It takes lots of balls to pick three guys from the same team. But there were enough balls to go around literally, as Drew Brees scored 35.42 points and cost $8100. The two wideouts that benefitted the Saints and some fortunate DK contestants were Brandin Cooks and Willie Snead. The latter was a bargain, and the former was reasonably priced at $7700. The lesson here is that stacking is almost a necessity if you want to win a big pot.
Lucky Pick – If you drafted Spencer Ware, you got lucky. There was no way to know for sure which KC running back would get the biggest workload in week one. Even the local beat writers had different opinions on the workhorse predictions.
Defense wins $$ – Minnesota paid off not by being the best overall defense in week one. Fantasy points pile up by scoring touchdowns, and the Vikings got two of them on defense. One a fumble return for a score and a pick six produced the other TD. Don’t expect the same defense to score multiple TDs more than a couple times per year. Once is pretty fortunate.
Sure Thing plus a Value Pick – DeAngelo Williams was a popular pick on DK of course. But Theo Riddick was a value pick since he was at just $4000. Riddick benefited from being in a shootout with the Colts. Williams benefitted from Le’Veon Bell being an idiot. Bell’s suspension allowed Williams to get 32 total touches in this game, which produced two TDs and 38.1 DK fantasy points.
So how are you going to use this info to help you next week on DraftKings?
There’s lots of fantasy info out there to cloud your thinking. This is just one bit of intel that could help you in tournaments next week.
Hell, I may just take this exact lineup into week two, salary permitting. It couldn’t turn out any worse than my week one picks.
Bonus info: Last year Drew Brees was on the perfect lineup twice. Once he was stacked with two of his own receivers and the other time he had no stacks.
For reference, the League MVP, Cam Newton, quarterbacked the perfect lineup on DraftKings three times in 2015. He had no receivers stacked on any of those lineups. The Carolina defense was a part of one, though.