Optimal Lineup

What is Optimal Lineup?

Optimal Lineup is the best possible starting lineup a manager could have set each week given the players on their roster. It retroactively fills each lineup slot with the highest-scoring eligible player, maximizing total points within the roster constraints.

The gap between a manager's actual lineup and their optimal lineup measures management quality — how much value was left on the bench due to imperfect start/sit decisions.

How Optimal Lineup is calculated

Each week, the system:

1. Takes all rostered players and their actual fantasy points scored
2. Fills each lineup slot (QB, RB1, RB2, WR1, WR2, TE, FLEX, K, DEF) with the highest-scoring eligible player not already assigned to a slot
3. Flex slots are filled last with the best remaining player from the eligible position pool (typically RB/WR/TE)
4. The sum of all optimally-placed players' scores is the Optimal Points

The roster slot configuration is pulled from the league's actual settings for that year, so it adapts to leagues that changed roster rules over time.

League-Wide Optimal Lineup

Beyond the manager's roster, the system also calculates the league-wide optimal lineup — the best possible lineup from ALL NFL players who scored fantasy points that week, regardless of roster status. This answers: "What was the theoretical maximum any lineup could have scored this week?"

This is particularly useful for evaluating how close the best-managed team came to perfection, and for identifying which positions had the deepest talent pool in a given week.

Lineup Efficiency

Lineup Efficiency = Actual Points / Optimal Points

Expressed as a percentage, this measures how close a manager came to their ceiling each week:

Season-level efficiency averages reveal which managers consistently make good start/sit decisions versus which ones leave production sitting on the bench.

Connection to Bench LAMAR

Bench LAMAR quantifies the value left on the bench in LAMAR terms (above replacement), while Optimal Lineup quantifies it in raw points. Together they paint a complete picture of roster management: Bench LAMAR shows how much above-replacement-level production was wasted, and Optimal Lineup shows how many points were left on the table.

See optimal lineups in your league

Import your league for free to see every manager's optimal lineup decisions across your league's history — and how much each manager has left on the bench.