If you read my blog with my betting results from Week 1, you know that I didn’t have a great week and went 3-12. However, and as I predicted, I had a way better showing with my Draft Kings lineups from Week 1 so I wanted to just quickly recap on that. This is something I didn’t do last year (Well at least not as it’s own separate blog), but I think that by recapping my lineups this way the following week it might help me work out some kinks and make better overall lineups going forward. That being said, lets take a look at the 3 lineups I submitted for Week 1 and how they did.

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TEAM 1

QUARTERBACK- Deshaun Watson ($6,800) VS. New Orleans Saints (31.72)

RUNNING BACK-  Marlon Mack ($5,600) VS. LA Chargers (28.40)

RUNNING BACK- Austin Ekeler ($5,500) VS. Indianapolis Colts (39.40)

WIDE RECEIVER- Deandre Hopkins ($8,200) VS. New Orleans Saints (34.10)

WIDE RECEIVER-  Mike Evans ($7,900) VS. San Francisco 49ers (4.80)

WIDE RECEIVER- Desean Jackson ($4,500) VS. Washington Redskins (38.40) 

TIGHT END- Jared Cook ($4,500) VS. Houston Texans (5.70)

FLEX- Hunter Henry ($3,900) VS. Indianapolis Colts (10)

DEFENSE/SPECIAL TEAMS- Jets ($3,100) VS. Buffalo Bills (18)

REMAINING SALARY- ($0)

TOTAL POINTS: 210.52

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TEAM 2

QUARTERBACK- Jameis Winston ($6,600) VS. San Francisco 49ers (10.06)

RUNNING BACK- Saquon Barkley ($9,000) VS. Dallas Cowboys (20.90) 

RUNNING BACK- Le’Veon Bell ($7,100) VS. Buffalo Bills (23.20)

WIDE RECEIVER- Adam Thielen ($6,800) VS. Atlanta Falcons (13.30) 

WIDE RECEIVER- Desean Jackson ($4,500) VS. Washington Redskins (38.40) 

WIDE RECEIVER- Curtis Samuel ($4,200) VS. LA Rams (6.20) 

TIGHT END- Evan Engram ($4,800) VS. Dallas Cowboys (31.60) 

FLEX- Hunter Henry ($3,900) VS. Indianapolis Colts (10)

DEFENSE/SPECIAL TEAMS- Jets ($3,100) VS. Buffalo Bills (18)

REMAINING SALARY- ($0)

TOTAL POINTS: 171.66

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TEAM 3

QUARTERBACK- Ben Roethlisberger ($6,300) VS. New England patriots (10.74)

RUNNING BACK- Le’Veon Bell ($7,100) VS. Buffalo Bills (23.20) 

RUNNING BACK- Austin Ekeler ($5,500) VS. Indianapolis Colts (39.40)

WIDE RECEIVER- OBJ ($8,100) VS. Tennessee Titans (14.10)

WIDE RECEIVER- Juju Smith-Schuster ($7,500) VS. New England Patriots (13.80)

WIDE RECEIVER- Desean Jackson ($4,500) VS. Washington Redskins (38.40)

TIGHT END- Hunter Henry ($3,900) VS. Indianapolis Colts (10)

FLEX- Matt Breida ($4,000) VS. Tampa Bay Bucs (3.70)

DEFENSE/SPECIAL TEAMS- Jets ($3,100) VS. Buffalo Bills (18)

REMAINING SALARY- ($0)

TOTAL POINTS: 171.34

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THE GOOD- As far as my position rankings are concerned, I would say I did a pretty decent job. If I had to give it a grade, I’d give it a B- overall, although there were for sure some duds and misses which I will discuss in the next paragraph. My first lineup was clearly my best, and also the one that won me the most money. Just good games all around except for Jared Cook and Mike Evans, who REALLY brought that lineup down, but I’ll take what I can get. Another positive was that toward the end of my Week 1 Draft Kings blog, I mentioned 3 players in particular that I thought were going to have unexpectedly great games: Austin Ekeler, Desean Jackson, and Hunter Henry. If you watched, you know that the first 2 went the fuck off (Ekeler with 39.40 points and Desean Jackson with 38.40), which, especially considering their low to moderate salaries, made them 2 of the best possible picks for Week 1. The 3rd player in that group, Hunter Henry, didn’t get as much action as I was hoping the Chargers offense would throw his way, but he still finished with 10 points, and with his next to nothing salary of only $3,900, he surpassed my expectations and was a good play at the flex spot. Lastly, and although somewhat by accident and just for fun, playing The Jets D for only $3,100 in every lineup ended up paying off big time. In fact, and while on the subject of low salary, pretty much all of my “Cheaper Sleepers” ended up having good games. Had only I mixed and matched those a little bit better, especially for Team 1, I could have cleaned house, but there’s always next week.

THE BAD- The phrase “Putting too many eggs in one basket” exists for a reason, and unfortunately I put a little too much faith in the The Tampa Bay Bucs offense, listing both Jameis Winston and Mike Evans as number 2 on their respective position lists. That game proved to be a bit of nightmare, and the combination of a much better than expected 49ers defense and Jameis Winston throwing 3 picks and only 1 TD (Not to Mike Evans) really lessened the value of my lineups that included these 2. Another big dud I had was Big Ben, as my hometown New England Patriots team held him to no touchdowns in Foxboro on Sunday night for the first time in 26 straight games (He had the longest active streak of consecutive games with a TD pass before this game). I knew our defense was good, but I didn’t think we would be this good. Truly a blessing and a curse.

NOTICEABLE MISSES- 

Christian McCaffrey (45.90 points)

Sammy Watkins (49.80 points)

John Ross (37.80 points)

Lamar Jackson (33.6 points)

Dak Prescott (36.40 points)

I call them misses, but with the exception of Christian McCaffrey, I don’t think anybody on this list expected performances like this. Not even the players themselves.

So that’s that. All in all, I’m pretty happy with my Week 1 performance on Draft Kings. All 3 of my lineups managed to at least keep me in the green (Team 1 doubled my money, and Teams 2 and 3 made my money back). Week 1 is always a toss up, so I’m glad that I was able to at least walk away with some money from DK, especially seeing as I got bent over on my game bets.

I’m gonna start working on both my Week 2 betting guide and Draft Kings Guide after work tonight, so be on the lookout for both tomorrow afternoon most likely. Lotta good matchups this weekend, so let’s get to it. We’re on to Week 2.