The Football Diaries: Week 14
This is a weekly segment in which I break down a cash game and GPP lineup that I used. It’s an effort to show what my mindset was heading into the games and how those decisions ultimately turned out.
I believe the decision-making process is the most important thing in DFS and not necessarily the actual outcome. Hopefully reading this can help with roster construction in some way, either through my good rosters or even learning from my bad ones.
Cash Game Team
Aaron Rodgers – I had to wiggle a few things on this team to afford him, namely Kenny Stills instead of the WR I really wanted there, but I wanted AROD on the cash game team. He was easily the best QB headed into this past weekend
Jonathan Stewart – The price was too good to pass up on both sites. I actually didn’t expect him to be so highly owned in tournaments. I think it was a nice strike of gold, but I’ll probably be fading him from this point on.
Chris Ivory – One of my swings and misses this week. I expected a run-heavy approach, just like last week. With 16+ carries, Ivory can typically do a lot of damage. He just never got loose. To be honest, if JStew doesn’t break that long TD run, he and Ivory are sitting around the same point total. Ivory is the guy I pegged to break a long one.
Randall Cobb – I felt he was underpriced and had a great matchup. He came cheaper than Jordy Nelson and has done great things this year. This game was a fail though.
Kenny Stills – I came down from Julian Edelman to Kenny Stills in order to save $700 so I could afford AROD. This decision was NOT very well played on my part. In hindsight, there are tons of ways to save that money instead of in this spot, but I also never expected the Saints pass game to be so anemic.
Josh Gordon – Far and away my epic fail of the weekend. When I read Vontae Davis was out of this game, I had visions of Gordon being the top WR on the weekend, and it wasn’t even close. I expected a decent game from Hoyer to keep his job, but he let me down and missed on some big plays to Gordon. I had Josh in approximately 70% of all my games this weekend, both cash and GPP.
Jimmy Graham – Jimmy was the TE that I had to have in cash games. I believe he had scored TDs in six straight games against the Panthers, so I had to make room for him no matter what. That proved to be a poor decision.
GPP Team
Alex Smith – I paired him with Kelce and hoped for some magic. This was one of those teams where you look at the morning scores and realize the team is pretty good, then you’re kicking yourself for putting Alex Smith as the QB on it.
Le’Veon Bell – Sick player. In the ever-changing scheme of daily fantasy, Bell is the best player going right now. I’m sure in three weeks it will be a new name, but for the moment he reigns supreme. Bell will have some healthy ownership numbers next week in a cupcake matchup also. It will be tough to fade, but in GPPs you may want to take a chance if you have multiple lineups.
Arian Foster – I wanted a team with the two best RBs going (in my opinion) on this day. They performed well – it was the WRs that failed.
Kenny Stills – Stills again. He was really only meant for GPPs, but ended up on this cash team too.
Josh Gordon – Like I mentioned previously, Gordon was my top owned guy by a wide margin. He drug me down like an anchor.
Charles Johnson – I had CJ on some of my rosters earlier in the week, when I built teams not knowing the RB value that would be out there. As the week went on and value plays popped up, Johnson got rostered on fewer teams of mine. He’d been playing decent and had a great matchup. I wish I would have gone in heavier.
Travis Kelce – He’s the only real handcuff you can put with Alex Smith. This may have been my only team with Kelce on it. I was a much bigger fan of Jared Cook and Jordan Cameron if I was straying outside of Jimmy Graham.