Lineup Breakdown: Analysis of Week 11 Winning Lineups

After a down week in scoring resulted in a pair of low GPP winning scores in Week 10, the trend continued with a pair another drop in scoring in Week 11. Both the big winner in FanDuel's $2.5M NFL Sunday Million, "rvdwyertx," and the winner of the Millionaire Maker at DraftKings, "Noles2148," had at least one player on their roster that failed to reach double-digit fantasy points. There were four overlapping players between the rosters. Let's take a look at the two big winning rosters and see what set them apart from the pack.

This roster is a crazy mix of chalk (three players over 20% owned) and hidden gems (four players owned on fewer than 5% of rosters). Rvdwyertz made it all work, and won the $2.5M NFL Sunday Million, even with the whistle SNAFU costing Amendola points in the Monday Night Football contest.

QB - Russell Wilson ($7,600) vs San Francisco 49ers (2.1% owned) - Wilson is one of the best duel-threat quarterbacks in the league, and while it's been a long year for the Seahawks, he had a great week in Week 11 passing for 260 yards and three touchdowns and rushing for 30 yards. He didn't turn the ball over at all, and he bested 25 fantasy points at a low ownership rate. That's a good start to this winning roster.

RB - Thomas Rawls ($5,600) vs San Francisco 49ers (0.1% owned) - This was a lineup-carrying pick. Unlike at DraftKings, where gamers can make late lineup swaps, Rawls was a total dice roll before kickoff of the 1:00 PM ET games since it hadn't been announced Marshawn Lynch would be inactive. Kudos for having the marbles to make this call, and all Rawls did was rush for 209 yards and a score while adding three receptions for 46 yards and another score. In all, he scored 39 fantasy points and was worth 22.5% of this roster's total points.

RB - Latavius Murray ($6,800) at Detroit Lions (7.5% owned) - The Raiders laid a major egg in their juicy matchup with the Lions, and Murray was the second lowest scorer on this GPP winning roster, besting only the defense and special teams. His yardage total was pitiful (28 yards rushing), but he saved his day with a touchdown rush.

WR - Danny Amendola ($6,100) vs Buffalo Bills (28.2% owned) - Amendola was one of the chalkiest picks of the week, and he was heavily utilized in the Patriots' passing attack before exiting the game with an injury. He finished with a line of 9-117-0, even with a prematurely whistled dead play costing him fantasy points and possibly a touchdown. This was one of the chalk picks that panned out for gamers this week.

WR - DeAndre Hopkins ($8,900) vs New York Jets (2.6% owned) - Not even a trip to Revis Island paired with a backup quarterback, T.J. Yates, deterred this gamer from rolling the dice with Hopkins. Taking a chance on one of the best receivers in the game in a bad matchup with a below average signal caller was rewarded with a 5-118-2 line at a low ownership rate.

WR - Julio Jones ($9,100) vs Indianapolis Colts (29.8% owned) - Jones was one of the elite options at wide receiver this week, as he is every week, and even without a touchdown, he was excellent totaling 160 yards receiving on nine receptions. Again, he, like Amendola, was a chalk pick that paid off.

TE - Greg Olsen ($6,400) vs Washington Redskins (21.8% owned) - Rob Gronkowski was quiet on Monday night, and Olsen found pay dirt while totaling three receptions for 54 receiving yards. It wasn't a gargantuan scoring effort, but it was good enough.

K - Graham Gano ($4,800) vs Washington Redskins (5.8% owned) - Like most weeks, the GPP winning lineup featured a kicker who scored in the sweet spot of 12-18 fantasy points with Gano netting 16.

DST - Houston Texans ($4,500) vs New York Jets (4.1% owned) - Many gamers liked the Jets facing T.J. Yates, but the Jets offense has been quiet, and the Texans held them to 17 points. They added three sacks and a pair of interceptions and delivered as a bargain option.

Only three players netted yardage bonuses. The team did score a total of 10 touchdowns, though, and that helped power it to the top. A super chalky back failed the squad, but a diamond in the rough more than made up for the chalk back's underwhelming performance.

QB - Cam Newton ($6,900) vs Washington Redskins (8.6% owned) - Newton had been on back-to-back FanDuel Sunday Million winning rosters, but he had his streak snapped with Russell Wilson leading the way in Week 11. This week, perhaps he starts a new streak at DraftKings after passing for five touchdowns. He didn't even reach 250 yards passing or 20 yards rushing, but when you toss a literal handful (not JPP's hand, but you get the point) of touchdown passes, you don't need to pile up much yardage to crack the 30 fantasy point threshold.

RB - Thomas Rawls ($3,800) vs San Francisco 49ers (1.6% owned) - Rawls is one of the carryover players, and at DraftKings, his yardage was further rewarded with the 100+ yard rushing bonus.Even with the late swap availability, gamers simply didn't flock to Rawls and he was extremely low owned at under 2%.

RB - Charcandrick West ($4,500) at San Diego Chargers (57.2% owned) - Yuck. Between having a goal-line touchdown vultured by a defensive lineman and leaving early due to injury only to watch his backup go off, Sunday had to be a frustrating day for West and his owners. He was the low scorer on this team, and it wasn't particularly close.

WR - Danny Amendola ($4,000) vs Buffalo Bills (40.1% owned) - This is carryover member two from the other winning roster, and not only was he more valuable on DraftKings thanks to the 100+ yard receiving bonus, but also because his nine receptions were each worth a full point as opposed to half a point.

WR - Larry Fitzgerald ($7,200) vs Cincinnati Bengals (11.7% owned) - Fitz is enjoying a resurgent season with Carson Palmer playing at a high level. He led the Cardinals in targets (13) and receptions (eight) while netting 90 yards. He didn't score a touchdown or rip off the yardage bonus, but his 17 points kept this team from dropping out of the top spot. As long as Palmer remains healthy, Fitz will be one of the top options at wide receiver on a weekly basis.

WR - Julio Jones ($9,300) vs Indianapolis Colts (27.8% owned) - This is carryover three from the other winning roster. And like Amendola and Rawls, his yardage was especially valuable with the bonus at DraftKings, and ditto for the full point for each of his nine receptions.

TE - Greg Olsen ($6,200) vs Washington Redskins (10.6% owned) - The final carryover from the other winning roster made perfect sense as a stack partner with Newton. Only one of Newton's five scores were thrown to Olsen, but that was enough.

FLEX - LeSean McCoy ($5,500) at New England Patriots (4.6% owned) - The game never got out of hand, and that allowed Shady to stay active from start to finish. He carried the ball 20 times for 82 yards and a touchdown, and he added six receptions for 41 yards. This was a great selection by "Noles2148," and his 24.3 fantasy points helped them climb the ladder to the top of the heap as most of the top teams had to sweat out the Monday Night Football game.

DST - Kansas City Chiefs ($2,600) at San Diego Chargers (5.8% owned) - The Chargers haven't been good offensively without Keenan Allen, and that culminated in a three-point effort against the Chiefs. In addition to limiting the Chargers scoring, the Chiefs added three sacks, an interception and a fumble recovery while scoring one defensive touchdown. When you get 20 points from your defense, you're gaining a big edge. When you're doing so and that defense is under 6% owned, good things like winning a GPP can happen.