Week 11 Daily Fantasy Football: Building the Optimal Lineup at DraftKings

A new week of daily fantasy football glory has arrived, as week 11 offers up some interesting value and a bunch of studs at DFS sites like DraftKings and FanDuel.

Last week was the week of the running back, as all of the elite rushers completely mashed the opposition. If you faded them, week 10 probably didn’t end all that well for you. If you used them, you were probably doing this:

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Except that physically isn’t possible. It would have gone more like this:

Science, people. Science.

It actually is physics, but hey, I didn’t pay attention to that stuff in school.

Moving on, week 11 could be a ton of fun in daily fantasy football, as some exciting players are back from their bye week, some big games reside on the schedule and a few injuries might open the door to some killer value.

We actually nailed it for the most part in our daily fantasy football optimal lineup breakdown from week 10, only to alter it later in the week. I really wish I hadn’t, as Russell Wilson, Le’Veon Bell, David Johnson, Kenny Britt, Rishard Matthews and Delanie Walker were all absolutely monsters.

The roster wasn’t completely perfect, of course, as Arizona, John Brown and Todd Gurley all got 6-8 fantasy points. Still, had you used that exact team in a huge GPP contest, you weren’t coming away sad.

Anyways, week 11 is a new one, so let’s get to our DraftKings optimal roster:

QB: Kirk Cousins – Redskins ($5.8k)

There are certainly a slew of quarterbacks you’ll want to consider this week, but Kirk Cousins is at home and gets to face a decimated Packers defense that just made Marcus Mariota look like Joe Montana.

It was incredible in the worst way possible.

In all seriousness, Cousins is flat out safe safe this year, as he’s put up at least 18 fantasy points in four straight games and seven times in nine contests this year. Now he’s at home with an amazing matchup and all of his weapons at full strength.

All of that is exciting, to be sure, but the real draw is a quality quarterback at a discounted price. That’s NFL DFS GPP 101.

RB: Frank Gore – Colts ($5k)

The story is similar here, as Gore is not explosive and won’t be the top daily fantasy football running back this week, but he also won’t crater your squad, either.

That’s the hope, at least, as the ageless veteran has a very nice role and is good for about 15 fantasy points per game. That’s certainly been the case lately, with Gore topping 14 fantasy points in each of his last four outings.

This week Indy has a must-win divisional clash with a pretty shaky Titans defense, one in which Gore crushed earlier this year to the tune of 19 fantasy points.

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That’ll do.

RB: Theo Riddick – Lions ($5.1k)

Ditto for Riddick, who never feels like a sexy play, but he actually has plenty of upside and is typically fairly safe. He struggled against a good Vikings defense in his last game, but poured in 26 and 27 fantasy points in his two previous outings.

Riddick’s value is all about DK’s love for the PPR scene, plus the Lions have no other viable running backs. A solid matchup with the Jaguars and a nice price are the dual cherry on top.

WR: Odell Beckham Jr. – Giants ($8.5k)

There are several elite wide receivers worth paying up for in week 11, but why not Odell? He’s been a monster with 20+ fantasy points in three of his last four games and it still feels like he hasn’t truly gone nuts in over three weeks.

Facing a bad Bears defense at home could be a great spot for that to change. Beckham has been in a serious groove lately and is averaging a ridiculous 25 fantasy points per game at home in 2016. This feels like a great spot to pay up for him and hope we get to see some field goal net kicking:

WR: Dez Bryant  – Cowboys ($7.2k)

Rolling with the elite wide receiver trend, why not get Dez Bryant before his price explodes? Bryant doesn’t have Tony Romo throwing him darts anymore, but that hasn’t stopped him from dropping in 24+ fantasy points twice in his last three contests.

In week 11 Bryant has it pretty good, as he’s at home against a Ravens defense that specifically struggles against the pass. Even if Dallas falls behind, Bryant figures to have a great chance at paying off this week and this price is too low for one of the game’s greats.

WR: Doug Baldwin – Seahawks ($5.7k)

We can’t call Baldwin elite, but we also can’t ignore how cheap he is this week at home, where he tends to go off. This year alone, Baldwin is killing it at his home stadium, putting up 19 fantasy points per game.

Baldwin seems to be back on the same mid-season tear he was on in 2015, as he scored three times last week and now has 12+ fantasy points in three of his last four games. Philly presents a bit of a challenge on paper, but Baldwin is a different guy at his home base. He might not score three times, but he’ll crush this cheap price tag.

TE: Martellus Bennett – Patriots ($3.7k)

One of the main things I love to do to help me build out my NFL DFS teams is concentrate on the top value plays I absolutely have to use, and work from there.

Bennett certainly ranks near the top of the list for me this week, as he dropped a solid 20 fantasy points last week and could have a huge role with Rob Gronkowski (chest) possibly out in week 11.

Bennett is a great price and gets the 49ers, who have been awful defensively all year. After losing at home to the Seahawks, Tom Brady and co. will be interested in putting on a whoopin’. That could mean great things for Bennett, who if you recall, has a 3-score game to his name this season.

FLEX: Jordan Reed – Redskins ($5.9k)

It might make sense to pair a Redskins receiver up with Captain Kirk, seeing as we’re invested in the Redskins at least a little going into Sunday Night Football.

If we’re doing that – and heck, maybe if we’re not – Jordan Reed stands out as an amazing option. He’s a borderline value play at tight end with Rob Gronkowski likely out this week, and he also gets a bad Packers defense that just got absolutely shredded by Delanie Walker last week.

Reed is way better than Walker has ever been or will ever hope to be, and it looks like his concussion woes are behind him. He slowed down in a tough matchup against Minnesota, but dominated with 24 fantasy points the game before. It’d be surprising if he didn’t step up with a big performance in this one, too.

DEF: Miami Dolphins ($2.9k)

A solid, hot defense against a raw rookie quarterback making his first ever start? Yeah, sign me up.

Seriously, the Fins have won four straight and just got done making Philip Rivers (4 picks) look like a fool. Their wild run has equated to DFS goodness, too, with 7+ fantasy points in four of their last five games and 13+ in each of their last two. Something tells me they’ll be just fine this week.

That does it for our week 11 NFL DFS optimal lineup. Whether you use this exact roster or not, we wish you luck in your daily fantasy football games this week!