Sonic’s MME Player Pool 2.25

Sonic is a Milly Maker winner and large-field tournament mastermind who focuses on mass-multi-entry play

Signal from the Noise

“He who thinks he knows, doesn’t know. He who knows that he doesn’t know, knows.” – Lao Tzu

Yeah, you probably had to read that a couple of times and it feels like something you’d crack out of a fortune cookie. But the point is dead-on for DFS. The best players don’t play prophet, predicting which wideout is about to have a two-touchdown, out-of-body experience. They line up probabilities with value and ownership, then squeeze the smallest edges. Over time, expected value tilts in their favor.

The results of last weekend’s games gave us more actionable data than the last seven months combined, but the sample is still barely a blip. Was that player usage a product of opponent-specific design? Game script? Or are those snap and target counts a dependable sign of things to come? The edge in Week 2 comes from separating the signal from the noise — and punishing the field’s rush to treat fresh numbers as gospel.

Some of these are not for the faint of heart. These are players I will be mixing into my rosters to differentiate from the masses while adding correlation. Keep this stuff out of your cash games for god’s sake.

*Ownership projections are subject to change before lock. Check OWS projections on Sunday morning. 

Secondary Core-Relations

We’re always hunting for those high-ceiling combinations to add to our existing game stacks. It’s better to aim at getting four things right instead of trying to hit a nine-way parlay. I’ll lean on a handful of core secondary stacks that will be finessed into lineups whenever feasible.

Hollywood Brown/DeVonta Smith

With the Chiefs pass-catcher room looking like an Island of Misfit Toys in Week 1, Patrick Mahomes funneled a ridiculous 16 targets to Hollywood Brown. Projection systems — and the field — are expecting more of the same against Philadelphia.

Both Mahomes and Jalen Hurts are priced steeply enough that Brown and DeVonta Smith can realistically post tourney-winning scores without needing their QBs to smash. That opens the door to leverage — sprinkling this WR mini into stacks built around cheaper quarterbacks like Drake Maye, Joe Flacco, or Mac Jones.

The bet here is that Kansas City’s success through Brown forces Hurts to open things up a bit, giving Smith a path to spike-week volume at a discount. You can certainly flip to A.J. Brown in this setup, but Smith’s $1K savings helps roster construction while still tying into the ceiling potential of an Eagles response.

Brown (17%), Smith (6%)

Christian McCaffrey/Chris Olave

I’ve had two massive binks in my DFS life (shoutout me), and Christian McCaffrey was the one common thread. At $7,500, I’m not letting 33% ownership scare me off — CMC is close to lock-button territory this week.

The key is pairing him with a lower-owned piece that tells a story of San Francisco getting pushed. If the Saints can apply pressure, it forces urgency from the Niners and could mean even more Mac Jones dump-offs to CMC.

Enter Chris Olave. He opened 2025 with a 26% target share and 29% of the team’s air yards, cementing himself as the alpha. If Olave sparks the Saints offense (at 6% ownership), it not only offsets CMC chalk but creates a correlated path to ceiling outcomes on both sides.

McCaffery (33%), Olave (6.8%)

Tee Higgins/Travis Hunter

Tee Higgins is shaping up as chalk this week. At roughly $2K cheaper than Ja’Marr Chase, the field will flock to him — but the production gap isn’t as wide as pricing suggests. When both have been healthy the past two seasons, Higgins has averaged nearly 7 targets and 70 yards per game, compared to Chase’s just over 8 targets and 80 yards. That’s a thinner margin than salaries imply, which makes Higgins perfectly viable as a one-off even at elevated ownership.

To keep his chalk from becoming a liability, I’m pairing Higgins with Travis Hunter. Hunter saw 8 targets (24% share) and brings explosive, game-breaking ability. If Hunter pops for a big play or two, it forces Cincinnati to keep pace through the air — creating a direct path for Higgins to continue smashing. 

Correlating Higgins with Hunter turns a popular play into part of a contrarian story, and unlike the pricier Chase/Brian Thomas Jr. combo — who almost certainly drag their QBs along for the ride if they hit 4x — this pairing can realistically get there without needing Burrow or Lawrence to break the slate.

Higgins (18%), Hunter (5%)

LOWER-OWNED TREASURES

Running Back

I’m feeling a HUGE BINK this week. See you sickos in Discord.

LFG!

Sonic