Each week this season, we will spend some time on Tuesday analyzing the highest scoring lineups from the previous weekend's DraftKings Millionaire Maker contest. We highlight trends and strategy such as how much to spend per position, which stacking strategies (if any) have been successful, and which position has been best used in the flex spot. We will also compare results from the 2015 season to our in-depth study of the results from the 2014 season and see if the conclusions we drew over the offseason hold up when more data is added to the equation.
We will also look forward to the upcoming Millionaire Maker contest and point out some players who are in the same price ranges and have matchups similar to the players that helped previous DraftKings contest winners take home huge cash prizes.
THE WINNING LINEUP
DraftKings user gvalstyle scored 266.54 points with a lineup of Drew Brees, Todd Gurley, Darren McFadden, Julio Jones, Odell Beckham Jr, Tavon Austin, Benjamin Watson, Jonathan Stewart and the Texans DST. The Drew Brees-Benjamin Watson stack hit in a major way. He paid up for three of the top options at their respective positions (Gurley, Jones and Beckham) and each came through with monster fantasy performances. Darren McFadden and Tavon Austin were solid considering their bargain prices and necessary to afford the three aforementioned elite options. gvalstyle just needed a solid performance from Jonathan Stewart in the Flex spot on Monday night to take home the million dollar prize and Stewart's early fourth down touchdown run was enough to put him over the top. He was then able to have a relatively sweat-free Monday evening with only the Panthers defense looming far behind one the leaderboard as a potential thorn in his side.
THE TOP 20
Below are the lineups of the top 20 finishers in DraftKings' Week 8 Millionaire Maker tournament (RB1, RB2, and WR1-WR3 are ordered by price):
Rank | Pts | QB | RB1 | RB2 | WR1 | WR2 | WR3 | TE | FLEX | DST |
1 | 266.54 | Brees | Gurley | McFadden | Ju. Jones | Beckham | Austin | Watson | Stewart | Texans |
2 | 261.14 | Brees | Gurley | Ch. Johnson | Beckham | Snead | Mi. Floyd | Watson | Ju. Jones | Rams |
3 | 260.44 | Brees | Ingram | Gurley | Beckham | Cooks | Snead | Watson | Jeffery | Buccaneers |
4 | 259.04 | Brees | Gurley | Vereen | Beckham | Marshall | Snead | Watson | Cooks | Rams |
5 | 257.04 | Brees | Gurley | McFadden | Ju. Jones | Beckham | Diggs | Watson | Crabtree | Titans |
6 | 256.44 | Brees | Gurley | Hillman | Ju. Jones | Beckham | Cooks | Watson | N. Washington | Raiders |
6 | 256.44 | Brees | Gurley | Hillman | Ju. Jones | Beckham | Cooks | Watson | N. Washington | Raiders |
8 | 256.34 | Brees | Gurley | Blue | Ju. Jones | Beckham | Snead | Watson | Hillman | Rams |
9 | 256.04 | Brees | Gurley | Stewart | Beckham | Cooks | Snead | Watson | De. Thomas | Panthers |
10 | 254.24 | Brees | Ingram | Gurley | Beckham | Jeffery | Cooks | Watson | N. Washington | Rams |
11 | 254.04 | Brees | Gurley | Ivory | Beckham | Austin | Snead | Watson | Jeffery | Rams |
12 | 251.64 | Brees | D. Martin | Stewart | Ju. Jones | Diggs | Snead | Watson | Beckham | Texans |
13 | 250.94 | Brees | Freeman | McFadden | Ju. Jones | Austin | Snead | Watson | Jeffery | Rams |
14 | 250.84 | Brees | Ingram | Gurley | Beckham | Jeffery | Cooks | Tamme | N. Washington | Rams |
15 | 250.54 | Brees | Freeman | Gurley | Beckham | Cooks | Diggs | Watson | Snead | Raiders |
16 | 250.34 | Brees | Gurley | McFadden | Beckham | Cooks | Snead | Watson | Freeman | Panthers |
16 | 250.34 | Brees | Peterson | Gurley | Beckham | Diggs | Snead | Watson | Cooks | Broncos |
18 | 249.74 | Brees | Gurley | Ch. Johnson | Ju. Jones | Beckham | Snead | Watson | Blue | Rams |
19 | 249.34 | Brees | Gurley | Andrews | Ju. Jones | Beckham | Crabtree | Watson | Ch.Johnson | Rams |
20 | 249.24 | Brees | Gurley | Stewart | Ju. Jones | Diggs | Snead | Watson | AJ Green | Panthers |
THE TOP 3 PLAYS OF THE WEEK
In Week 8, it's impossible to limit the list to just three options, so we'll expand it to four. Drew Brees (100%), Benjamin Watson (95%), Odell Beckham, Jr. (90%) and Todd Gurley (90%) all appeared on nearly every top roster. In fact, each of the top 11 finishers owned all four of these key players. Week 8 is the first week we have ever seen such a big block of players who were 100% owned amongst the top 10 finishers. Nailing the top scorer at each of the four skill positions is never an easy task, but it was the requirement for assembling an elite lineup this past week.
STACKS
It was a clean sweep for the stacks in Week 8. Every single top finisher stacked Drew Brees with at least one of his targets. We're a proponent of the double-stacking strategy and many utilized it to great success this week. We're not generally fans of the triple-stack or the quadruple stack, but both strategies also found success in Week 8. Here is the breakdown of the Drew Brees stacking strategies used by the top finishers:
1. Single Stack (30%)- Watson (x5), Cooks (x1)
2. Double Stack (45%)- Watson/Snead (x8), Watson/Cooks (x1)
3. Triple Stack (20%)- Watson/Cooks/Snead (x3), Watson/Cooks/Ingram (x1)
4. Quadruple Stack! (5%)- Watson/Cooks/Snead/Ingram
Looking forward to Week 9, one of the stacks that looks most intriguing is Derek Carr ($5,500) with one or both of Amari Cooper ($6,700) and Michael Crabtree ($4,900). The Raiders have a tough matchup traveling to Pittsburgh, but the offense has been on fire the past two weeks. Drew Brees ($7,200) did not see a huge price increase (+$500) despite his ridiculous Week 8 production and has a nice matchup at home against Tennessee. His top targets Brandin Cooks ($5,800), Willie Snead ($4,800) and Benjamin Watson ($4,000) are all priced attractively. Lastly, Tom Brady ($8,500) is always worth mentioning despite his premium price point. He has a great matchup at home against Washington and pairing him with Rob Gronkowksi ($8,000) or Julian Edelman ($8,200) is a solid option.
QUARTERBACKS
The quarterback writeup will be incredibly short and to the point this week; all of the top finishers owned Drew Brees. He cost just $6,700 and put up an insane 50.54 points for a massive 7.5x multiple.
RUNNING BACKS
We keep recommending Todd Gurley and he keeps producing. He was again hugely owned, but fading him was a disastrous move. He was owned by 90% of the top finishers. Overall, the RB1s (primarily Gurley) averaged 22.8 points at a price of $6,500 for a multiple of only 3.5x. The RB2s averaged just 17.8 points at a price of $4,715 for a modest multiple of 3.8x. In short, it was not a good fantasy week for running backs. The elite tier at the position has been decimated by injuries (Jamaal Charles, Le'Veon Bell and Matt Forte). The best strategy in Week 8 was clearly to roster Gurley at his relatively bargain price of $6,300 and then look for a bargain RB2 who could at least hit double-digit points while still allowing you the ability to afford a pair of elite wide receivers.
Looking forward to Week 9, it feels like it could be another week where just obtaining solid production from the two RB spots at a low price is the best strategy. The sub-$5,000 options include Danny Woodhead ($4,800), T.J. Yeldon ($4,800), Ronnie Hillman ($4,600), Darren McFadden ($4,300), Jeremy Langford ($4,000) and Charles Sims ($3,600). Grabbing a pair in that range would allow you the ability to roster two or three top options at wide receiver.
WIDE RECEIVERS
Week 9 was another big week for wide receiver scoring. Odell Beckham, Jr. (42 points) and Julio Jones (36.2 points) led the way. Each of the top 20 finishers had one of those two players as their WR1 with ten having Jones and ten having Beckham as their top receiver. The average price of $8,850 was halfway in between the salary of Jones ($9,200) and Beckham ($8,500) as was the scoring average of 39.1 (4.4x).
Beckham was also featured heavily as a WR2 (90% ownership overall) along with players like Brandin Cooks ($5,400) and Alshon Jeffery ($6,400). Overall the WR2s scored 31.4 points at a cost of $6,480 (4.8x). The WR3s scored 25.4 points at an average price of just $4,675 (5.4x) and featured a wide variety of different players.
In Week 9, it could again pay to roster both Julio Jones ($9,300) and Odell Beckham, Jr. ($8,800). Both have favorable matchups and the bargain options at running back make paying up for two top receivers palatable. Julian Edelman ($8,200) and Antonio Brown ($8,100) both look like strong options as well. Pairing one of the two with Beckham or Jones provides some small price relief but still gives you massive upside at WR1 and WR2. Stefon Diggs ($5,300) is seeing his price slowly creep up, but it is still not fully reflective of his run of strong play. He makes sense as a bargain WR2 or high-end WR3. So too does Willie Snead ($4,800). Lastly, with Keenan Allen out, Malcolm Floyd ($3,900) and Stevie Johnson ($3,200) look like top notch WR3 options.
TIGHT END
As with quarterback, the writeup will be short and sweet at tight end; Benjamin Watson was owned by all but one of the top finishers. At a price of just $3,500, his 32.7 points produced an incredible 9.3x multiple.
It is tempting to go back to the well again with Watson in Week 9. He is still priced at an extreme bargain rate of just $4,000. Antonio Gates ($4,700) is another very attractive option as he moves into the go-to role for the Chargers dominant pass offense.
FLEX
The Flex spot was tilted heavily towards wide receiver (75%) over running back (25%) this week. Overall, the Flex produced 24 points at a price of $5,570 (4.3x).
TOURNAMENT PLAYER INFORMATION
The top four finishers were either single entry or small entry total (two or three) players. Only one of the top 20 was a high-volume player. TheClone was able to place one of his 498 entries into 5th place. Interestingly, user BABYKAIYA double-entered the same lineup. It finished in a tie for 6th place and a big combined payday of $125,000.