NFL DraftKings Lineup Walkthrough - Week 11
There is one word to describe this week: BLOODBATH.
Injuries and poor play ravaged my daily fantasy lineups this week and I’m sure I’m not alone. This is one of those times where we really have to trust the process over the results. The funny part is that my cash game lineup could have easily been much worse. I was very high on the Raiders’ passing attack this week, who forgot to show up against the Lions. I was high on both Jordan Reed and Antonio Gates, who combined for a whopping 12.2 fantasy points. And I was close to targeting the Eagles or Seahawks as my defense, both of which were letdowns.
But hey, If Rob Gronkowski and Danny Amendola combine for 80 fantasy points tonight, I’ll be right back in the mix.
Matthew Stafford: $5,400 (vs. Oakland Raiders)
My biggest regret of the week is coming off of Cam Newton. I wrote about him in my FanDuel column and he was surprisingly cheap on DraftKings at a price of only $6,900. The large spread scared me off of him later in the week. Instead, I chose to target Matthew Stafford at home against the Raiders in what many people had pegged as a shootout. Stafford has drastically different home/road splits and the Lions’ running game has been absent all season. Stafford ended up having a nice fantasy outing, which can’t be said for many of my picks.
Devonta Freeman: $8,400 (vs. Indianapolis Colts)
Injuries are just a part of fantasy sports. There is really nothing that we can do about it, but hope that we are on the right side of injuries more often than not. Freeman was my favorite running back of the week, as the Falcons were large favorites at home against an average run defense. Freeman is so involved in all facets of the Falcons’ offense that I had a hard time seeing him having a bad game against the Colts. He got off to a nice start, but unfortunately suffered a concussion early in the first quarter, which knocked him out for the rest of the game.
DeMarco Murray: $6,000 (vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
I was debating between Murray and Adrian Peterson in this spot. Murray was expected to see a larger workload, while Peterson had the better matchup of the two. I eventually settled on Murray, as he was expected to be the bell cow with Ryan Mathews out. Unfortunately, the Eagles got behind early and were unable to stop the Buccaneers’ offense. The 25-30 expected touches turned to 17 touches, as game flow was not in Murray’s favor. The Eagles turned to Darren Sproles for most of the second half.
Danny Amendola: $4,000 (vs. Buffalo Bills)
The good news is that Amendola has not played yet, so there is still a chance that he could play well. The reasoning behind the pick was very simple. The Patriots lost Julian Edelman last week and Amendola should immediately step in as Tom Brady favorite short-yardage weapon. The Patriots said that they may limit his snap count to around 70%, but is more than enough to reach value at a price of only $4,000.
Stevie Johnson: $3,900 (vs. Kansas City Chiefs)
Johnson was right there with Danny Amendola and Charcandrick West as my favorite value plays of the week. With Keenan Allen out (and Ladarius Green supposedly doubtful), Johnson was a no-brainer against the Chiefs. The Chargers have struggled to run the ball all season long and we could safely pencil Johnson in for 8-10 high-quality targets. He didn’t have the biggest game on Sunday, but he was one of the few players of mine that actually reach 3x the value of the salary.
Demaryius Thomas: $7,300 (vs. Chicago Bears)
Thomas was one of my favorite plays all week long. He had a nice matchup against the Bears and he had Brock Osweiler at the helm, who looked his way often in garbage time last week against the Chiefs. Once Emmanuel Sanders was ruled out on Sunday, I decided to roll Thomas out in both my FanDuel and DraftKings cash game lineups. After that first drive, Thomas was looking like the play of the week, but he sort of disappeared after that.
Rob Gronkowski: $7,700 (vs. Buffalo Bills)
With all of the value available this week, we had to spend up somewhere. While I didn’t exactly love Gronkowski in a fantasy points per dollar sense, he is the clear number one tight end each week. With a lack of cheap tight ends, this was a logical place to spend up. Gronkowski had a big game against the Bills earlier in the season and he should see a nice boost in targets with both Julian Edelman and Dion Lewis out.
Charcandrick West: $4,500 (vs. San Diego Chargers)
Charknado really let a lot of people down this week. He was basically the chalk play everywhere, given his incredibly cheap price tag, his expected workload, and the fact that he was facing the worst run defense in the NFL. West caught a long pass early in the game and then was basically an inch short of scoring a touchdown. After that, he didn’t do anything until he got injured in the third quarter. His backup, Spencer Ware, then came in and scored 23.1 fantasy points in a quarter and a half. Talk about rubbing salt into the wound.
Ravens D/ST: $2,700 (vs. St. Louis Rams)
It’s never a good sign when your cheap defense scores 15 fantasy points and that ends up being more than other every player in your lineup except for one. If you have read this column before, then you know that I like to target defenses that are playing at home and that are favored. The Ravens had both of those this week and they were facing Case Keenum, who typically makes a lot of risky throws. I liked the price and was obviously glad that I didn’t end up with the Seahawks or Eagles defense.
Sunday night update: I somehow snuck into the top half of most double ups and 50/50’s. What a strange week!