Sonic’s MME Pool 7.24

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

Puke Spot

In poker, a “puke spot” is when you’re stuck in a frustrating situation where every decision feels wrong, and that’s exactly what this DFS slate feels like. All the plays with a reasonable floor and ceiling are priced up, and we’re lacking cheap value to the point where a $4,000 JuJu Smith-Schuster might end up being chalk—yeah, I can feel my sushi coming up as I type this. It’s one of those slates where you’re forced to choose between overpaying for safe plays or scraping the bottom of the barrel for punts, and all of it feels gross—but we’re here to spend our money chasing first place, or die trying.

The good news? A good portion of the field isn’t going to know how to manage this. There’ll be plenty of top-down builds featuring double punt tight ends or, gasp, Elijah Moore. But here’s the thing—we’re focused on the $10 Milly Maker this week. To leapfrog a couple hundred thousand rosters, we’re gonna need to get freaky. And if there’s one thing I specialize in, it’s the off-the-wall, ‘wait, did he just do that?!’ kind of play. LFG!

These are contrarian moves I’ll be mixing into my rosters to differentiate from the masses. Sometimes we’ll miss, but the ones that do hit will help us 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.

Austin Ekeler/Xavier Legette

Here’s a simple step-by-step formula we use to identify good tournament plays in large-field MME:

1. Locate the highest game total on the slate.
2. Cross off the chalk.
3. Embrace the chaos—football is wild, and touchdowns or garbage-time points can pop out of nowhere.

Do you know which Commanders player (outside of Jayden Daniels) has the most red zone touches over the last two weeks? Of course, it’s Ekeler. Why else would I lead with that question? And he’s projected at under 3% ownership, by the way.

I’m assuming Diontae Johnson suits up, and between him and Chuba Hubbard, we’re looking at close to 50% ownership. Both are great plays, but for leverage and diversification, I’m opting to play the touchdown variance game on some rosters and roll with rising rookie Legette, who’s sitting at just 2.7% projected ownership. We don’t root for injuries—no need for that bad karma, DFS is tough enough—but if Diontae can’t go the distance, Legette and fellow rookie Jalen Coker could get those high-volume, catch-up targets from Andy Dalton. 

The same goes for Brian Robinson Jr: should play, knees are fragile etc.  We all wish we were the time traveler who banked a million with Sean Tucker last week, so throwing in some Jeremy McNichols (no relation to Kristy) sprinkles should scratch that itch.

Jeremy McSprinkles?

With a game total of 51, there’s potential for fireworks. If you’re leaning toward a popular stack and chalky punts, find correlations like this one to create some differentiation in your build.

Malik Nabers/A.J. Brown (Or DeVonta Smith)

Nabers will grab his share of ownership, but I’ve seen where Daniel Jones looks when Malik is healthy, and I’m all in. Fifteen targets per game over his last three contests is crazy. His ownership projection at 14%? Totally fine by me, especially since I’m making a game environment bet and pairing him with one of the perennially under-owned Eagles wideouts. Median projections don’t know that I couldn’t care less if these guys give me 13 points or three. I’m here for when the eventual 30 burger hit.

Note: I’ve been hearing A.J. Brown’s name tossed around a lot this week, so I’ve got some steam concerns—hence the mention of DeVonta as a pivot.

Xavier Worthy/Deebo Samuel (or George Kittle)

This one is especially appealing on FanDuel, where players who can score in bunches, score from anywhere, and generate fantasy points efficiently hold extra value.

This is a scary game environment because of the plethora of weapons on the 49ers side and the lack of explosive plays we’ve seen from the Chiefs. 

Brock Purdy has an embarrassment of riches in terms of playmakers. The problem is, they’re all pricey, and it’s possible the scoring goes full Oprah mode—“You get a touchdown, you get a touchdown”—and no single player hits a tournament-winning score. However, with less than 2% ownership on FD, it’s worth taking a shot on one of Deebo, Kittle, or even Jordan Mason, hoping the touchdowns are more concentrated.

Coming off the bye week, Andy Reid likely spent time assessing his offense and focusing on creating more explosive plays. There’s no better time to put more responsibility on a rookie’s plate. And at just 0.5% pOWN, there’s no better time to roster Worthy.

Other Secondary Stacks I Like:

Stefon Diggs ($7700) 4% pOWN and Christian Watson ($4900) 3.3% pOWN

LOWER-OWNED TREASURES

Running Back