Adam Levitan projects ownership for every NFL DFS player each week in the FantasyLabs Player Models. Gauging ownership is important when it comes to tournaments so you can try to gain leverage on the field. You don’t need a team of 1%-owned players to win a tournament, but it’s also unlikely you’ll win a tournament with an abundance of highly-owned players.
The goal of this article is to give a brief rundown of the players we project to be the highest owned heading into the week, along with how they can affect roster construction.
Be sure to check the ownership projections throughout the week, as breaking news can cause these to fluctuate.
Note: Ownership percentages as of Friday morning.
Quarterbacks
As usual, the quarterback position has relatively flat ownership projections across both sites. Matt Ryan, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Kyler Murray, Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson all have ownership projections from 9-16%.
Given the comparable projections and similar prices, I wouldn’t expect any of them to dominate ownership in tournaments.
In terms of going contrarian, there is one quarterback who stands out… Jared Goff‘s Leverage Plus/Minus leads all quarterbacks by a substantial amount on DraftKings.
Running Backs
Leonard Fournette is projected to be the highest-owned running back with a projection of 31-40% on DraftKings and 26-30% on FanDuel. He’ll easily be the highest-owned RB in both tournaments and cash games. He’s still too cheap on DraftKings for his workload and his matchup against the Bengals. Even at his high ownership, he’d be tough to stomach as a fade.
Saquon Barkley checks in as the next highest projected running back at 17-20% on DraftKings (he’s tied with Fournette on FanDuel). He’s been practicing in full this week, so he should be all set to go against the Cardinals’ lackluster defense. Barkley could still be a viable fade if the Giants decide to limit him in any way, and his $8,900 price tag on DraftKings gives him a 1% Bargain Rating.
Unlike some of the previous weeks, there aren’t any cheap running backs available yet like we had with Malcolm Brown in Week 6. After Fournette, I’d expect Dalvin Cook and Chris Carson to soak up most of the ownership and be in a good amount of cash-game builds as well.
Knowing most of the ownership will be concentrated around just a handful of running backs, it won’t be difficult to figure out where to pivot.
Wide Receivers
