It is very important to analyze your daily Fantasy Football lineups after the contests are over.

It doesn’t matter if the results are good or bad. You need to review why you made those decisions, and what you are going to do moving forward.

I know it’s tough not to become result-based oriented. One bad week could make you want to abandon your normal strategy. You could have made the perfect calls that week, but it just didn’t work out for whatever reason. 

But analyzing previous lineups will  help you identify any weak areas that you may have had so that you can fix them in the upcoming weeks. Maybe there’s just one small area of your DFS Fantasy Football strategy that needs adjusted before you cash in big. 

This past week, I was fortunate enough to have a couple nice wings on DraftKings and FanDuel.  The late Denver D/ST touchdown ended up dropping me from 2nd place to 4th, but I held 4th place through the Monday night game

I can’t complain.

What does a winning NFL DFS lineup look like?

Here was my 4th place lineup in the $100K Sun NFL Sweep (Single Entry) contest on FanDuel:

QB: Cam Newton 30.82
RB: C.J. Anderson 16.8
RB: T.J. Yeldon 7.8
WR: Julio Jones 19.1
WR: Travis Benjamin 26.4
WR: Kelvin Benjamin 26.3
TE: Jesse James 10.4
K: Josh Lambo 8
D/ST: Arizona Cardinals 23

Total Points: 168.62

I targeted Newton because he was in a great spot at home against the San Francisco 49ers. Also, Chip Kelly’s pace allows opposing teams to run more plays than their average, so that is always something I look to take advantage of when possible.

Stacking Cam with Benjamin was the way I started this lineup and many others. Benjamin is always going to be the number one target in their passing attack. If you think Cam is going to have a big game, expect Benjamin to be heavily involved.

How I Chose My Running Backs For DFS

Next, I wanted to lock in my running backs. I knew my running backs were going to be chalky, but that doesn’t usually bother me. I just look to differentiate myself elsewhere.

Anderson had a great matchup against the Colts and was very affordable. He was a no-brainer. Yeldon didn’t work out, but I do not regret the play. I feel that the process behind it was accurate. With Chris Ivory out, I thought Yeldon could easily see 18-20 touches as the main back against the San Diego Chargers. He was only $6,500, so I wasn’t overthinking it.

I have no regrets behind my decision-making process. 

Why I Chose Travis Benjamin

Sticking with the game I mentioned above, I expected it to be a high scoring affair. Both teams can score a lot of points, but neither have a particularly intimidating defense. With Keenan Allen out, I knew Benjamin would be the number one guy in the offense. It was impossible to predict the two-touchdown game, but it was easy to see the volume would be there.

For just $6,100, it was difficult to find a scenario where he wouldn’t have the opportunity to reach value. It was shocking to me that Benjamin was only 4.2% owned in this tournament, and that gave me a huge edge against my opponents. 

Drafting My Tight End, Defense, and Kicker 

I always like to fill out my tight end, kicker and defense before checking to see how much salary I have left for my last wide receiver slot.

James was a pretty popular play because the Cincinnati Bengals allowed Heath Miller to catch 10 passes in both regular season meetings last year. What I liked about James is that he was on the field for 100% of the snaps in Week 1, and there was no reason to think that would change for Week 2.

He only had three catches, but luckily one was for a touchdown.

For my kicker, I chose Lambo from San Diego. Again, I expected this game to be high scoring and that was basically my only reasoning.

Note: Most of the time I completely whiff on my kicker, so I’ll take eight points from Lambo.

I chose the defense for the Cards because I expected them to blowout Tampa Bay and force Jameis Winston to throw more. That is exactly what happened, and at 3.4% owned, that was a big way for me to differentiate my Week 2 DFS lineup.

Drafting My Final DFS Receiver

For my last wide receiver slot, I debated about putting A.J. Green in the lineup. I thought he would have a big game, but after seeing the weather report in Pittsburgh, I was slightly worried. I decided Julio Jones would be another way to differentiate my lineup because so many people would be on Odell Beckham and Green.

Whenever you can get a stud wide receiver at low ownership-regardless of matchup – pull the trigger. This one was actually a great matchup as Oakland has given up a ton of yards through two weeks.

It ended up working out in my favor as Green and Beckham both disappointed, and Julio had a very solid game with just 7% ownership.

The lesson from all of this? You do not have to choose crazy picks in order to capitalize on getting players with low ownership. Do your research and see who the majority of people will be on. Use everyone else over drafting a player to your advantage.

You don’t always have to fade the popular guys completely, but try to attack it from another angle that some people won’t be looking at.

Ultimately, our end goal is to improve our process so that we can see real results and to have fun in doing so.

Best of luck this week everyone!

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Categories: 2016 Fantasy Football DFS

Tags: DFS 2016 Lineups, DFS Lineup Help, DFS Lineup Review, DFS Winning Lineup, FanDuel Week 2