Weekly DraftKings Recap
If you have blown through your DFS bankroll for the 2015 NFL season, then you can either study up on some NBA fantasy stats or find a part time job slinging pizzas to build some cash up for next football season.
There is just one more week remaining in the NFL regular season before the playoffs start and chances to win some money on DraftKings & FanDuel will become few and far in between.
This final week will hold many games that still have playoff implications, 11 in fact. But the rest of the games could result in some wacky outcomes with some unsuspected players rising to the top of the fantasy heap. Some teams will be looking at new guys for roster spots next year so a few guys will surface from out of the blue.
As you get ready to pick your daily fantasy football team, it’s best to see exactly what stood out last week. Just remember each week is different so don’t get too hung up on what happened in different matchups than what we will see this upcoming week.
For example, just because Atlanta beat an undefeated Panthers team does not mean my Dirty Birds won’t let New Orleans hang 50 on them.
The perfect lineup from week 16 is below provided by DraftKings Playbook.
These were the right plays from each position. It would have taken a some real luck to draft some of these guys or maybe some DFS sharks are just that smart. But come on…Jerick McKinnon behind a healthy Adrian Peterson? Who had the foresight to know that would work out?
Certainly not me. I had him on my bench as I lost my season long championship fantasy matchup. Maybe I’m just bitter about McKinnon and the fact that I also sat the Vikings defense who was a much better play than my Pats who scored just three defensive fantasy points
DeAngelo Williams owners benefited from the let down of the rest of the Steelers offense. I would not be scared to say Antonio Brown will have a career day in week 17 to make up for his lack of production against Baltimore last week.
The Cardinals were an expensive draft choice at $3300, but man did they pay off as they embarrassed the Packers. The Arizona defense was too good actually. That is if you had Carson Palmer in a season long championship game like I did. Palmer didn’t need to keep throwing once his Cards were comfortably ahead so his fantasy output sucked.
I knew I should have picked up Kirk Cousins on the waiver wire if only to keep my wife’s cousin (ironic huh) from picking him up and using him against me.
Vance Mcdonald was a wildcard at the tight end spot, but that position is a dice roll every week anyway. The fact that San Francisco had a guy in the perfect lineup is a miracle in and of itself.
Below are the players that saw the highest ownership last week.
Two Pittsburgh receivers were big time disappointments as was their QB Ben Roethlisberger. Look for that to be turned on its head next week as this team tries to remain alive for the postseason.
Julius Thomas was the most used TE, but he has been consistent in only one category this year, being the low scorer on fantasy rosters.
Players didn’t know which way to turn with Odell Beckham Jr. out. They should have avoided the Giants all together with Eli playing like a rookie, tossing three picks. Will Tye was the worst fill in for ODB with just five fantasy points while Rueben Randle did OK with 16.
The best values on DraftKings were as follows.
The only individual player in the in the top ten value guys with any name recognition was Allen Hurns who was one of the most “expensive” bargain guys in the top 20. He wasn’t cheap, he just had his biggest point total of the year with 33.
Defenses / special teams comprised 25% of the top twenty bargain picks while running backs were 35% of the fantasy clearance rack.
Use this past week’s data wisely. Blend it with trends from the past three weeks in order to make an educated guess about both the chalk and the outliers coming up in week 17.
In the usually gloomy legal portion of DFS news, there wasn’t a lot going on. Illinois’ state attorney general did decide to ban daily fantasy sports in their historically corrupt state. Of course the next move was for FanDuel along with DraftKings to file a lawsuit in hopes of a judge ruling that their games are indeed legal.
These are basically the same moves that were made in New York as apparently all the other states take their cue from one of the least free states in the union.
It will be interesting to see which states uphold these bans and which states have judges willing go in with an open mind.
It will also be telling as to which state legislatures introduce new laws that allow for DFS as long as the regulation is in place. Daily fantasy’s fate doesn’t look promising from the judicial standpoint, but lawmakers are more likely to make way for these new business models that will rake in millions in tax money on a weekly basis…if they are allowed to survive and thrive.