Sonic’s MME Pool 5.24
Sonic is a Milly Maker winner and large-field tournament mastermind who focuses on mass-multi-entry play
All the Deebo
No, I’m not locking him. But I love him, and I needed a cool title for this article.
With only 10 games on this week’s slate, player ownership will naturally condense, making it harder to find under-the-radar picks or pairings. But these tournaments still have thousands of entries we’ll be competing against, so let’s get digging.
These are contrarian moves I will be mixing into my rosters to differentiate from the masses. Many will miss, but if they hit, we’ll lap the field.
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.
Tee Higgins/Zay Flowers
This game has the highest Vegas-projected total on the slate, so points are expected to come from somewhere. The field seems to believe we’re in for a repeat of last week’s rout over Buffalo. But maybe Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry won’t combine for 253 yards and two touchdowns again. Perhaps some of those yards and points will emanate from the forward pass.
Flowers isn’t usually my type of play. He has yet to post a score that would give him 4x his Week 5 salary. To hit big, he’ll need a matchup against a struggling, banged-up defense and an explosive offense on the other side that can keep the pace. Enter the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Bengals rank 32nd in pass coverage and 23rd in tackling per PFF, so Lamar should have plenty of time to choose his target — and Flowers is one elusive cat. Tee Higgins led his team with 10 targets in his first game back from injury last week. With projected ownership under 5% for each, I’m comfortable taking a few shots at this pairing, even outside of the game’s main environment.
Both players’ ownership projections have risen since I started writing this. No worries. If they get steamed above our comfort zone, or if you need some salary relief, consider Andrei Iosivas (1.1%) or Erick All (2.3%) on the Bengals’ side, or Justice Hill (0.5%), Mark Andrews (1.5%), or Isaiah Likely (1.5%) for Baltimore. These guys probably need touchdowns to pay off, but this game should have its fair share.
D.J. Moore/Xavier Legette
To find high-ceiling plays at low ownership, we sometimes have to pull top-tier talent from less-than-ideal game environments. While this game isn’t projected for a ton of points, these two receivers fit a plausible narrative.
Moore (3.1% pOWN) is facing the team that valued him so highly, they threw him in as a sweetener in what became arguably the worst trade in NFL history. If the Panthers put up a fight and slow down the Bears running game, Caleb Williams will be forced to air it out, and D.J. will get his targets. If the Panthers find the end zone more than once, it could come from their rookie on the rise, Legette. Drafted 32nd overall in a wide receiver-heavy class, Legette (2.3% pOWN) might have been unlocked by the switch to Andy Dalton. If that’s the case, we won’t see him priced at $5,100 with just 2% ownership for long.
Other Secondary Stacks I Like:
Jaxson Smith-Njigba (5.6% pOWN) and Darius Slayton (5.2% pOWN)
Stefon Diggs (4.7% pOWN) and Keon Coleman (1.6% pOWN)
Tyreek Hill (0.7% pOWN) and Hunter Henry (3.2% pOWN)
