FanDuel offers some of the biggest payouts in all of daily fantasy sports. Among them is the $3 million FanDuel Sunday Million contest where a $7 entry has a shot at the $1 million first-place payout. This week in the contest there was a decent overlay (in the 10% range) and more than 25% of the field finished in the money, at least doubling their entry fee. Each week FanDuel will be running a Sunday Million GPP Contest and we will break it down here at Footballguys.com and see what the keys were to having the top lineup on the week and taking home the top prize of $1,000,000.
Here is how Week 2 of the Sunday Million shook out:
|
DFS Screen Name | Points | Prize Money |
1st | cpendolino | 192.18 | $1,000,000 |
2nd | mark83vt | 190.58 | $200,000 |
3rd | huger99 | 189.48 | $100,000 |
4th | dopey3399 | 187.98 | $50,000 |
5th | jahiggs7 | 187.48 | $25,000 |
For the second week in a row in 2017, the $1 million winner was a relative newcomer. Also, scoring was way up from what we saw in Week 1's contest. The winner last week (rubes1978) would have finished outside the top-100 in Week 2 with the same score. The race for the top spot was tight, but most were left with a combination of Devonta Freeman and Ty Montgomery from the Sunday Night game of Green Bay at Atlanta to finish out their scoring.
Ty Montgomery and the Ravens defense were the chalk selections of the winner's lineup, each close to 30% owned for the contest (and higher among the top-10). More than half of their lineup consisted of ownership rates below 10%, however, including Devonta Freeman (5%) and the hot name later in the week J.J. Nelson (6%) as John Brown ended up inactive.
The studs and duds approach this week was a common theme among top finishers, including winner cpendolino, with Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, and Devonta Freeman all high-salary options among their positional peers. Their kicker, Cairo Santos, was the lone player to not return at least 2x value, hitting nine points on $4,600 salary.
Position | Player | Salary | FanDuel Points | % Owned |
QB | Tom Brady | $9,200 | 30.78 | 16.6% |
RB | Devonta Freeman | $8,100 | 23.00 | 5.3% |
RB | Ty Montgomery | $6,500 | 26.00 | 28.7% |
WR | Michael Crabtree | $7,300 | 29.00 | 7.5% |
WR | Chris Hogan | $6,200 | 16.30 | 14.1% |
WR | J.J. Nelson | $5,300 | 20.50 | 6.1% |
TE | Rob Gronkowski | $8,100 | 20.60 | 8.1% |
K | Cairo Santos | $4,600 | 9.00 | 3.9% |
D | Baltimore Ravens | $4,700 | 17.00 | 28.2% |
$60,000 | 173.18 |
WHAT WORKED?
Tom Brady: After a lackluster Week 1, the stars were aligned for Brady to rebound in a big way in New Orleans this week. Even without Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski exiting with an injury, Brady easily hit 3x value on his high salary and was owned by 80% of the top-10 finishers.
Ty Montgomery: While six other running backs encompassed the top-10 lineups, Montgomery was in 80% of the them. With a workhorse-level snap count in Week 1 and a likely shootout in Atlanta this week, Montgomery's $6,500 salary proved to be one of the better values on the board for Week 2, hitting 4x value.
Michael Crabtree: Even more than Brady and Montgomery, Crabtree was a key to a strong finish in the contest. Crabtree was only 8% owned for the contest, but 90% within the top-10. His 6-80 receiving line was pedestrian based on volume, but the Oakland receiver found the end zone three times en route to 29 FanDuel points and a shade less than 4x value return.
Stack Patriots: Chris Hogan and Rob Gronkowski were each in on 50% of top-10 lineups, more than triple their ownership across the entire contest. In fact, five owners in the top-10 stacked Brady with Hogan AND Gronkowski in their lineups. Overall, the trio returned close to 3x value in their blowout win over New Orleans.
Crush Cleveland: The Ravens defense was the popular pick with 80% of the top-10. Tampa Bay was the only other defense rostered among them. Baltimore was a strong play among the entire contest at 28%. With five turnovers, three sacks, and a defensive touchdown, Baltimore returned 3.6x value. Only Houston has allowed more sacks through two games than Cleveland.
WHAT FAILED?
LeVeon Bell: With 12% ownership, Bell struggled against a stout Minnesota defense to barely 1x value (91 total yards, four receptions, zero touchdowns).
Ezekiel Elliott: At 11% ownership, Elliott was a non-performer with 22 total yards in Dallas' blowout loss in Denver.
Antonio Brown: Teammate Martavis Bryant returned quality value, but Brown at 14% ownership stalled to less than 1x value and 5-62-0 against Minnesota at home.
Larry Fitzgerald: At 22% ownership, the field was on the Arizona receiver at $6,600. However, it was J.J. Nelson as the value play of the offense returning top return. Fitzgerald struggled to 3.6 FanDuel points on an ugly 3-21-0 line.
Brandin Cooks: While the masses loved Tom Brady, Brandin Cooks was one of the few offensive pieces for New England not to return value this week. Cooks at 22% ownership stalled with 43 total yards and two catches on his balmy $7,900 salary.
Tyreek Hill: At a balmy 21% ownership, Hill hit less than 1x value with 49 total yards and four catches.
Jordy Nelson: Injury derailed Nelson early in the Packers game to a blank stat line, plummeting his $8,100 salary and 17% ownership.
Jimmy Graham: Like Nelson, Graham missed a chunk of the game against San Francisco and had a single catch on his $6,300 salary.
Finish | Score | QB | RB1 | RB2 | WR1 | WR2 | WR3 | TE | K | DEF |
1 | 192.18 | Brady | Freeman | Montgomery | Crabtree | Hogan | J.J. Nelson | Gronkowski | Santos | BAL |
2 | 190.58 | Brady | Freeman | Montgomery | Crabtree | Hogan | Sanders | Kelce | Bailey | BAL |
3 | 189.48 | Brady | Gordon | Montgomery | Crabtree | Hogan | J.J. Nelson | Gronkowski | Gostkowski | BAL |
4 | 187.98 | Brady | Hunt | Montgomery | Crabtree | Evans | Hurns | Fleener | Bryant | BAL |
5 | 187.48 | Brady | Hunt | Montgomery | Adams | M.Bryant | J.J. Nelson | Gronkowski | Santos | TB |
6 | 186.48 | Brady | Gillislee | Montgomery | Crabtree | Adams | Hogan | Gronkowski | Folk | BAL |
7 | 185.70 | Carr | Hunt | Gurley | Crabtree | Evans | J.J. Nelson | Witten | Gano | BAL |
8 | 185.70 | Carr | Hunt | Gurley | Crabtree | Evans | Nelson | Witten | Gano | BAL |
9 | 185.48 | Brady | Freeman | Montgomery | Crabtree | Hogan | Kupp | Gronkowski | Boswell | TB |
10 | 185.48 | Brady | Gurley | Thompson | Crabtree | Hogan | Landry | Gronkowski | Gano | BAL |
SHOOTING THE NEEDLE
While most rostered options in the top-10 were moderate to highly-owned across the contest, here are some of the top performers with low-ownership in this week's tournament:
Javorius Allen: At 2% ownership, few took a shot on Allen at $4,900 salary. The Baltimore back dominated the snaps and touches of the backfield in the Ravens win and his 18.6 FanDuel points returned 3.8x value.
Chris Thompson: The Washington back was actually owned by the No.10 finisher for the week. With 0.2% ownership in the entire contest, Thompson returned 4.4x value with more than 100 total yards and two touchdowns on $5,500.
C.J. Anderson: At 1% ownership, Anderson nearly high 30 FanDuel points on $7,000 salary, fueled by 154 total yards and two touchdowns.
Brandon Coleman: At a sparse 0.6% ownership, Coleman hit 4-82-1 for New Orleans at just $4,600 salary for 3.5x value.
Emmanuel Sanders: While just 1.5% owned, Sanders hit 3.3x value with two touchdowns in Denver's impressive home win over Dallas.
Alshon Jeffery: Despite the tough matchup, the 2% who owned Jeffery in the contest were rewarded on his $7,100 salary for 2.7x value and 7-92-1 stat line.
Head over to FanDuel now and catch the action for Week 3.