Breaking Down Winning and Losing Lineups On DraftKings in Week 2

Week 2 turned into a big Monday night sweat for me in most of my cash games on DraftKings.  It all came down to Eric Decker against a beat up Colts secondary for me to have a positive weekend in DFS.  Luckily the scenario that we had all hoped would play out did as Vontae Davis covered Brandon Marshall early in the game and Decker was running free against linebackers and practice squad level corners.  If Decker had not hurt his knee and if Davis hadn’t been injured he actually could have saved some of my weaker tournament lineups that missed the money by a few points.

The big story for me was injuries and the top wide receivers actually paying dividends.  I did not have any of Julio Jones or Antonio Brown and it hurt quite a bit.  The only positive was more people faded Rob Gronkowski because of their desire to get Julio and Antonio into their lineups, which gave me a big edge at TE.   My biggest mistake was having too much exposure to Brandin Cooks at home against Tampa Bay.  I was prepared for Cooks to break out this week, but I wasn’t about to pony up for Drew Brees after watching him dump it off again and again the week before.  Cooks and the Saints struggles as a team almost cost me big time.  Luckily Jordan Matthews caught a garbage time touchdown otherwise I would be writing this a little poorer than usual.  (Give a guy a break when he has triplets.)

Tevin Coleman’s injury really hurt my cash lineups.  I teamed him up with Marshawn Lynch and obviously Lynch under-performed, but I could have absorbed that a little easier if I didn’t lose Coleman to cracked ribs late int he first half against the Giants.  I’m wondering if people will shy away from Lynch in cash during week 3 after his performance against the Packers even though he is facing the lowly Chicago Bears Defense.  I was kicking myself a bit for not having any exposure to DeAngelo Williams in the last week before Le’Veon Bell came back from suspension, and also not at least taking Torrey Smith a bit with the 49ers having to keep up with that amazing Steelers O.

My best late swap was getting away from the Titans Defense completely and using the Cardinals and Patriots across the board.  Something about Jay Cutler makes me want to start a defense against him almost every week.  It’s too bad he won’t be healthy enough to face the Seahawks this week as he has a strained hamstring from chasing a defender this past Sunday.  I felt like Decker and Terrance Williams were going to be owned a bunch in cash games and really wanted to stay away from canceling out on defense when there were other good options.

My Strengths this week:  Zeroing in on Carson Palmer and Ben Roethlisberger as my QBs and picking the right Defenses.

My Weakness this week:  Cash Game Running Backs, and not stacking (for some odd reason) in tournament lineups. (Larry Fitzgerald and Antonio Brown)

Some of the best post week breakdowns have been going up over at DraftKings Playbook.  Adam Levitan (formerly of Rotoworld) has written breakdowns of his cash game lineups the past two weeks that I believe they will really help people understand the difference between thinking about tournament lineup construction and cash game lineup construction.  This week he broke down some mistakes and you should definitely give it a look.
http://playbook.draftkings.com/nfl/nfl-cash-game-lineup-review-week-2/

Jonathan Bales (Author of Fantasy Sports for Smart People and Co-Founder of Fantasy Labs) broke down his winning DraftKings lineup in the higher stakes single entry DraftKings NFL World Championship Qualifier for week 2 in a video over at FantasyLabs.com.  I think it’s extremely important to pay attention to his reasoning for playing Dion Lewis against the Bills, putting Eric Decker in the Flex spot, and also taking the Patriots D.  This is god standard breakdown and it’s always fun to hear how a winning lineup was constructed.
http://www.fantasylabs.com/articles/draftkings-lineup-breakdown-week-2-championship-qualifier/