“Daily Fantasy Sports” (FanDuel, DraftKings, etc.) have recently seen a huge uptick in popularity. The appeal is obvious: unlike a yearly league, where you’re stuck with the same players every week, you can “re-draft” your team every Sunday.
Throughout this season I will be producing a weekly piece where I suggest potential lineups and discuss my own personal lineup decisions. While I hope you may find it helpful, at the very least I think it will be interesting from both a DFS perspective but also a general fantasy one-- by following a players assigned value, we can examine their movement throughout the season and, hopefully, pick up on trends which will help aid with decisions in your standard weekly lineups.
Typically, when I make my own lineups, I like to mess around and do things like a “homer lineup” (where I pick players I just sort of like), an “experts lineup” (where I pick players that so-called fantasy experts recommend), a “hedge-my-bets” lineup (where I use players that I have benched in my “normal” fantasy leagues or who I am also going up against), or a variety of other generally foolish “themed” lineups. For the purposes of this piece, I will focus strictly on trying to assemble the best potential lineups available based on value and performance projection. Also, for each lineup, the values and website I will be using is FanDuel.com.
For week 1, I have assembled 3 lineups, each with different strengths and weaknesses. Let’s take a look at each 3:
Lineup 1
Carson Palmer ($6900)
Joicque Bell ($6800)
Rashad Jennings ($6700)
Brandon Marshall ($8100)
Dez Bryant ($8500)
Marques Colston ($5700)
Jimmy Graham ($8100)
Greg Zuerlein ($4500)
Houston Texans ($4700)
No waste! This lineup fit the $60K salary cap perfectly. One of my obvious strategies is loading up at receiver. I spent the most money, by a wide margin, on pass catchers. It is important to remember: FanDuel scores as a half-point PPR. Marshall and Bryant need no comment, but Colston I like a lot at the price. As we discussed on this week’s podcast, I expect New Orleans - Atlanta to be a high-scoring affair. The Texans I think are a bit of a risk, but with the addition of Jadaveon Clowney and the return of Brian Cushing, I think they should be vastly improved and expect good things, hopefully as soon as week 1. At Running Back, I again looked for players who will be involved in their respective team’s passing game. I like both of these guys at the value, but need to keep an eye on Ellington, who reportedly was held out of practice with a foot injury on Thursday.
Lineup 2
Colin Kaepernick ($8500)
Giovani Bernard ($8000)
Chris Johnson ($6500)
Julio Jones ($8000)
Andre Johnson ($7400)
Emmanuel Sanders ($6400)
Martellus Bennett ($5800)
Robbie Gould ($4700)
Detroit Lions ($4600)
I love Sanders at $6400. With Welker out and his early chemistry with Peyton Manning in the preseason, I expect a big game. I love pass-catching RBs, and Bernard fills that role. While Chris Johnson is a bit of a risk, I expect him to get the majority of the work and, against a bad Oakland team, I like his chances of finding the endzone at least once. Here, I spent a little more than I normally would like to at the QB position, but Kaepernick has a great matchup and I was able to save money, again, on defense, where the Lions go up against the turnover-happy (or unhappy) Eli Manning.
Lineup 3
Jay Cutler ($8000)
LeSean McCoy ($9400)
Jamaal Charles ($9800)
Demaryius Thomas ($8700)
Marques Colston ($5700)
Marqise Lee ($4800)
Zach Ertz ($4500)
Greg Zuerlein ($4500)
Detroit Lions ($4600)
Again, I’m using the Lions and the cheapest kicker, Zuerlein, to balance the lineup. Here, I went “studs and duds” and am hoping for a big game out of the rookie, Lee. I like what I saw of him in the preseason and I expect the Jaguars will be in catchup mode, well, pretty much from the first minute. I couldn’t quite move up a tier in quarterbacks to, say, another Kaepernick, unless I was willing to downgrade from McCoy to DeMarco Murray ($8800), which I seriously considered. Nonetheless, I like any lineup with McCoy, Charles, and Thomas in a regular fantasy league and I think it should do rather well in DFS, too. True success comes from “hitting” on your gut calls- the cheap players like Ertz and Lee who could have nice weeks. That’s what I’m looking for, here.
Best of luck if you choose to play. Check back next week to see how I did and my lineups for week 2. As always you can tweet me: @pkaragianis for questions, comments, rants, or other general hilarity.