Week 10: DraftKings Optimal Lineup
It’s a bit strange that on a week where we saw a score of 165 barely cash in double-ups, the Optimal Lineup only put up 251.6 points. There have been weeks in the past where he Optimal Lineup puts up close to 300 fantasy points. Let’s take a quick look at this week’s squad and see if there is anything noteworthy:
Week 10 DraftKings Optimal Lineup
| Player | Pos | FPs | Salary |
| Aaron Rodgers | QB | 36.6 | $9,400 |
| Marshawn Lynch | RB | 40.8 | $6,700 |
| C.J. Anderson | RB | 24.3 | $3,000 |
| Preston Parker | WR | 17.4 | $3,000 |
| Dez Bryant | WR | 30.8 | $6,400 |
| Jordy Nelson | WR | 30.2 | $7,600 |
| Julius Thomas | TE | 21.3 | $4,900 |
| Justin Forsett | FLEX | 23.2 | $5,000 |
| Cardinals | DST | 27 | $3,400 |
| Total | 251.6 | $49,400 |
This was a week where a lot of the “suggested plays” had huge weeks and it shows in the Optimal Lineup. Aaron Rodgers, Marshawn Lynch, Dez Bryant, Jordy Nelson, and Julius Thomas were all highly recommended plays across the industry and they all had big fantasy outings. Once again, this suggests that in order to win a large tournament, you don’t always have to construct a lineup full of players that will have low ownership levels. Often times the best lineups are the ones that include 4-5 of the more popular picks mixed in with a few contrarian plays such as C.J. Anderson and Preston Parker listed above.
Defense is often a tough to predict because it’s a very volatile position in weekly fantasy football. The Cardinals were a top five defense heading into the week, but no one could have predicted them to score two TDs late in the game. It’s crucial to nail your defense selection in big tournaments, so my best advice is to use a wide variety of defenses in your tournament lineups. Using a single defense or two can really kill your lineups if they don’t perform how you expect them to. Check out RotoGrinders’ D/ST & Kickers to find out who which defenses you should be targeting each week.
Noto’s Week 10 Lineup
| Player | Pos | FPs |
| Matt Ryan | QB | 15.66 |
| LeSean McCoy | RB | 8.7 |
| Jamaal Charles | RB | 20.8 |
| Julio Jones | WR | 22.9 |
| Kelvin Benjamin | WR | 22.0 |
| Brandon Marshall | WR | 28.2 |
| Jimmy Graham | TE | 29.6 |
| Ronnie Hillman | FLEX | 4.2 |
| Lions | DST | 8 |
| Total | 160.06 |
What a frustrating week! Anytime you can put up a score of 160+, you certainly expect to cash in double-ups. But that wasn’t the case this week on DraftKings as there were so many popular plays that outperformed their salaries. Most notably, the key pieces that I was missing from my lineup were Aaron Rodgers, Marshawn Lynch, and Julius Thomas. All three of these guys were high on my list, but I couldn’t end up fitting any of them into my final lineup.
The biggest letdown by far this week was Ronnie Hillman. Once Montee Ball was ruled out, I wanted to get some exposure to him as he had been very consistent since taking over the starting gig. The issue was two-fold. He ended up rolling his ankle and backup C.J. Anderson came in and looked great. That basically ended Hillman’s day and it certainly cost me despite getting big weeks from a number of different players. I was hoping that the late garbage-time points from Kelvin Benjamin would put me over the top in double-ups, but he was so highly-owned, that I couldn’t make up enough ground.