DraftKings Diary | Buys, Sells, and What to Look for on DraftKings Reignmakers for Week 8
In the DraftKings Diary, each week Lucky Trader's Jason Rouslin will walk through his buys, sells, and team lookahead to give you insights from an experienced DraftKings Reignmakers player.
Check out Jason's full portfolio with the Lucky Trader Reignmakers Portfolio Tool.
Welcome to Week 8!
We are about halfway through the NFL regular season and teams are finally starting to round into shape. Though there are still a few surprises, as there always are in the NFL.
One of the biggest of the year is how good the NFC East is. The NFC East boasts three teams at or better than 5-2 through seven games, marking impressive standings for what many thought would be the worst division in football.
While only two teams are on bye this week, the absences are notable as the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers will take a week's reprieve.
Nevertheless, let's dig into my team diary from Week 7 and preview Week 8.
Week 7 Diary
If you missed last week's article, where I discussed my strategy up to this point in the season, check it out here. Interested in seeing what makes up the 700 + NFT card collection? Check it out here!
Week 7 Top Lineup Strategy/Tier & Contest
Contest: Elite Level | Deep Roster Format
Lineup:
- QB: Tua Tagovailoa
- RB: Kenneth Walker III
- RB: Austin Ekeler
- WR: Jaylen Waddle
- WR: DK Metcalf
- K: Daniel Carlson
- D/ST: Green Bay Packers
- Flex: DJ Moore
Total Points: 153.84
When the week started, most of the portfolio was back on the Main Slate, and the excitement was building. But it didn't last long, as Amon-Ra St. Brown got hurt on one of the first few plays of the game, and with him being in both of my main Elite lineups, the expected chances of winning were slim to none.
The rest of my portfolio in the 1:00 p.m. games disappointed as well, so it allowed me to take my four quality afternoon cards in Walker, Ekeler, Kelce and Metcalf, and pair them with Adrian Amos (Packers Defense) and Moore, who had already kicked off. This also left Tua and Waddle set to play the evening game on Sunday.
The late swap strategy worked out quite nicely, resulting in a $200 payout, whereas if I had done no late swapping, I would have returned zero dollars.
Overall the slate yielded $550, or about five percent of my total investment. With 89 lineups entered, this was a modest performance.
Week 7 Buys & Sells
The theme of this week was #packbreaks. I sometimes need the inspiration to go on a pack break, and my motivation to open packs this week came from Jordan Spieth. Yes, the golfer (in case you didn't know, my other obsession is Golf, check out my PGA content @fantasygolfbag on Twitter) was missing a ton of easy putts in the tournament. Nothing puts one (me) in a worse mood than seeing a golfer miss easy putts, so some cheering up was needed. Nothing cheers me up in this arena more than opening a few packs, and this time, it didn't fail.
I decided to open three Rare packs to start. I pulled a Josh Allen Elite and two Stefon Diggs Elites in them. An incredible pull for just three packs, and over the next few days, I'd open more Rare packs and get some other great pulls, including a Jalen Hurts Elite, a Kyler Murray Elite, a Jaylen Waddle Elite, and plenty more.
In addition to the great pulls, I was also in a reactive position and could scoop up a few Michael Carter cards just as Breece Hall went down. Sadly I wasn't as reactive to James Robinson being traded to the Jets, but I had already invested rather heavily in Travis Etienne, so it didn't sting as bad.
Now, on to the sell side. The biggest sell of the week, or trade, was trading one of the Diggs cards for a Saquon Barkley and trading Rhamondre Stevenson for A.J Brown. I didn't have any other players at the Elite level for the Monday Night Showdown slate, so I decided to liquidate the position.
Week 8 Lookahead
Week 8 brings four separate DraftKings Reignmakers slates.
- Slate #1: Baltimore vs. Tampa Bay
- Slate #2: Jacksonville vs. Denver
- Slate #3: Main Slate
- Slate #4: Buffalo vs. Green Bay
- Slate #5: Cincinatti vs. Cleveland
This is the slate the portfolio has been waiting for! It starts with an optimal lineup at the Elite level, with Baltimore going against Tampa Bay. One of the main cards in my portfolio is the Lamar Jackson Elite. Add in a mix of Chris Godwin, Leonard Fournette, Rashod Bateman, Justin Tucker and Mark Andrews, and it provides plenty of different options around that optimal lineup.
The following slate is interesting, as Travis Etienne has seen his prices more than double after a breakout performance and the trade of James Robinson. He was mentioned last week in this article as someone to target going forward, and I heeded my own advice and picked up a considerable amount of his cards.
The portfolio will yield close to an optimal build for that Jacksonville-Denver game at the Elite level and below. For tiebreaker purposes, the lowest serial numbers will go into those lineups, while the rest of the players from these games will be used in the Deep Roster format.
Lastly, onto the Main Slate, where the full force of the newly built portfolio will be released. With game stacks in three of the highest projected scoring games of the week, the portfolio should have its best chance at a GPP hit to date. I'll need a few cards to optimize these lineups, and here's who I'm targeting for the week to complete them.
Week 8 Targets
Coming in off of a bye, Minnesota is primed for its best week in some time. Justin Jefferson and Dalvin Cook are at all-time lows in their card values and present some of the highest remaining equity among any players.
Their remaining schedule, and odds to make the playoffs, are just a few of the reasons to invest for Week 8 and beyond.
Unfortunately, this week there aren't as many big named players returning from injury as we had last week with Dak Prescott and Tua Tagovailoa. However, a few lesser names to keep an eye on are D'Andre Swift and Van Jefferson. The latter will be activated off of the IR this week and is expected to play.
While he'll likely be the third option for Matthew Stafford, he could give a boost to the entire offseason that hasn't been their best this year. For Swift, he practiced in a limited fashion all week last week, and with the Lions season in need of a big turn-around, he'll likely try and do everything he can to get on the field. When he's on the field he's a difference-maker and presents a solid risk/reward profile at his current prices.
Now, a check-in on some of the critical injuries from last week and a few players that seem to be on the verge of a breakout. First, the injury front.
Matt Ryan's injury (or non-injury) paved the way for Sam Ehlinger to be named the starter and with it a dramatic increase in his card prices at all rarity tiers. Ehlinger's player cards experienced almost a 500 percent increase in a matter of hours. While little is known of the Colts' plans, Ehlinger's running ability is seen to be a huge upside in terms of fantasy production.
A similar situation is brewing in Tennesee where Ryan Tannehill hasn't looked great and is injured. He may have to miss time, or he may not, but Malik Willis is ready to go and has a similar upside to Ehlinger. Willis' cards have not seen the dramatic price increase that Ehlinger's have, but he hasn't been named the starter as of right now, either.
Next up is we turn to the Oakland Raiders, who finally look to be hitting their stride. Josh Jacobs fantastic performances have been coupled with significant price decreases in Davante Adams' player card NFTs. I think that won't last, and given they've already had their bye, have a top 10 easiest schedule the rest of the year, and play in at least seven main slates, it seems like a solid buy-low spot.
There are also a few players on the verge of a breakout fantasy game, given their workload. The main one I'm focusing on this week is rookie Wan’Dale Robinson. Barkley and Daniel Jones seem to be quite the formidable duo for this New York team, but someone else is going to need to step up.
Robinson returned from injury in Week 6 and caught three of his four targets for 37 yards with a touchdown. He then received eight targets in Week 7, generating six catches for 50 yards.
His prices still remain at the bottom of the barrel for WR2 and he could end up being the number WR1 on this squad. On a lesser level, the other player of interest is Rachaad White in Tampa Bay. He was on the field for 29 snaps last week versus 40 for Leonard Fournette. White is clearly picking up work, and if Fournette has to miss any time he has a path to massive playing time.
Lastly, just two teams are on bye this week - the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers. If the marketplace has told us anything, the best time to buy is when the team is on their bye, and there are plenty of stars to add from these two this week - especially given the news Mike Williams will be out for an extended period of time.
That's all for now, good Luck with all your DraftKings ReignMaker Week 8 Lineups!
Looking for a few more additional tips for Week 8, check out the rest of the Lucky Trader Reignmakers content!
