Week 4: DraftKings Optimal Lineup

by Derek Farnsworth (Notorious) Last Updated 2014-10-01 03:31:31

We saw an incredibly high-scoring week on DraftKings in Week 4, especially at the WR position. Steve Smith “ran around them boys like they were schoolyard kids” and put up a huge performance in a revenge game against the Panthers. Antonio Brown, Eddie Royal, Jordy Nelson, and Randall Cobb all joined in on the action with two TD catches apiece.

This week we are going to break down the optimal lineup for DraftKings. You typically look at an optimal lineup for the week and think: “There’s no way that anyone could come up with that lineup.” But last week’s optimal lineup wasn’t too far-fetched. Every single player in the lineup had a favorable matchup. This just goes to show that you don’t always need to take random picks when you are trying to take down a big tournament.

Week 4 DraftKings Optimal Lineup

Let’s start with the QB. Eli Manning had a prime matchup at home against a Redskins secondary that gave up a huge game to Nick Foles and the Eagles the week before. Pairing Manning with Larry Donnell isn’t a stretch either, as Donnell has been one of his favorite targets, especially in the red zone.

At RB, this was a week where it paid off to be cheap. How ironic. Matt Asiata has never been known for his athleticism or for his ability to make tacklers miss, but he’s always had a knack for finding the end zone. Asiata finished the day with three TDs on the ground against a struggling Falcons defense. Frank Gore also had a big outing against an Eagles defense that has been beat by the run all season. It also didn’t hurt that he had a 55-yard reception for a TD on a broken play.

Now we get to the WR position. The optimal lineup had four WRs all score over 30 DraftKings fantasy points. Randall Cobb and Jordy Nelson each had a favorable matchup against a thin Bears’ secondary that was missing Charles Tillman. Antonio Brown has been a PPR monster for each of the last two seasons and it’s not a surprise to see him have a big week against the Buccaneers, who have one of the worst defenses in the NFL. The one contrarian play in this lineup was Eddie Royal, but it wasn’t completely random that he scored two TDs. He had a great matchup against the Jaguars and has had a few multi-TD games over the last few seasons.

My Week 4 DraftKings Lineup

It was another disappointing week for yours truly. Colin Kaepernick was my favorite cash-game target all week long, and while he didn’t necessarily disappoint with 21.5 fantasy points, he wasn’t sharp against the Eagles and left us fantasy owners wanting more. Speaking of wanting more, most of the industry was disappointed with the effort that Donald Brown put up. The Chargers got up big against the Jaguars, but could never get the running game going, and with Philip Rivers locked in, they didn’t need to.

While Matt Forte played well with 25.1 fantasy points, he couldn’t have possibly done enough to make up for my WRs’ poor performances. I didn’t have a single receiver hit value. I paired Michael Crabtree with Kaepernick and the two weren’t in sync all day, from a dropped ball by Crabtree to a missed TD pass by Kaepernick. The other receivers didn’t fare any better. Brandin Cooks and Vincent Jackson both had a tough time getting going against the Cowboys and the Steelers.

Finally, we get to the TE and FLEX positions. I had Travis Kelce locked in all week. He is an extremely talented young player that was seeing an increase in snaps each week. I also loved the price for Rob Gronkowski, so I thought I would differentiate my team by going with both TEs. They both scored TDs on Monday night, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to save the rest of the lineup. With an extremely soft salary cap on DraftKings this week, I’ll look to get things rolling here in Week 5.