DraftKings Millionaire Maker Champion:
ChipotleAddict (16) (200.02)

QB Blake Bortles – 19.02 (1%)
RB Matt Forte – 18.5 (17.5%)
RB Devonta Freeman – 37.9 (16.1%)
WR Amari Cooper – 14.9 (33.5%)
WR DeAndre Hopkins – 27.7 (10.1%)
WR Allen Hurns – 31.6 (2.6%)
TE Charles Clay – 18.3 (19.6%)
FLEX Demaryius Thomas – 18.3 (9.8%)
DEF Seahawks – 9 (12%)

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ChipotleAddict’s 16th Millionaire Maker entry, the magical collection of players that sliced through 376,766 foes to stand atop the daily fantasy mountain, was just a big pile of chalk with one big twist. Other than that twist, none of his plays stand out. The Addict used several of the week’s popular players and saw them all perform adequately. In a low-scoring week, the Addict was able to win the Milly despite middling performances from high-priced stalwarts Forte, Thomas and the Seahawks.

ChipotleAddict’s Jaguars stack of Blake Bortles to Allen Hurns was the key differentiator in his lineup. Bortles didn’t do anything special by himself, but the teal-and-gold duo scored a combined 50.62 DraftKings points for a total of $9000. Contrast this with chalky stacks like Dalton/Green (46.64 for $13,500) or Rodgers/Cobb (25.66 for $15,300) and you start to see how the Jaguars broke the MillyMaker code.

Not only did this stack score more points than every popular QB/WR combo out there, not only did they do it for just $9,000, but they did it for very few of ChipotleAddict’s competitors. We must remember that most people entering the MillyMaker are entering just one lineup and will be loathe to use sketchy options like Bortles and Hurns – which is exactly why we should.

FanDuel Sunday Million Champion:
brettrau24 (176.12)

QB Philip Rivers – 26.22 (3.5%)
RB Devonta Freeman – 35.4 (12.5%)
RB Karlos Williams – 14.5 (42.1%)
WR DeAndre Hopkins – 20.2 (12.9%)
WR Demaryius Thomas – 13.8 (9.1%)
WR Keenan Allen – 15.2 (10.4%)
TE Martellus Bennett – 19.8 (14.5%)
K Graham Gano – 13 (3.3%)
DEF Panthers – 18 (9.1%)

The three players shared by the million-dollar winning lineups this week were Devonta Freeman (obviously), DeAndre Hopkins (who didn’t even score a touchdown) and, strangely, Demaryius Thomas (who didn’t even meet value). Let’s examine these commonalities.

Freeman was the one mandatory play of the week. He scored bushels of fantasy points – but most significantly, he did it in a week when no one else went off. The gap between Freeman and the week’s other top producers was large, the gap between Freeman and the week’s other top running backs was huge, and the gap between Freeman and the week’s popular running backs was enormous.

He was fairly highly owned (16.1% on DK and 12.5% on FD), so if you didn’t have Freeman in your lineup, you were simply going to lose too many points to too many people to have a chance. I faded Freeman completely, a mistake I somberly realized by 1:00 PM Sunday would cost me virtually all of my tournament buy-ins for the week.

I note that fading Freeman was a mistake not because I didn’t expect him to perform, but because I overestimated his ownership percentages. I figured the week after his million-dollar-winning explosion, he would be prohibitively highly owned to consider in tournament play. What I didn’t fully consider was that half of lineups would have Karlos Williams at running back, making the medium-high priced Freeman less owned. I knew Williams would be the week’s most popular play, but failed to process how that would reduce Freeman’s ownership.

DeAndre Hopkins had a nice game in a week filled with high-priced disappointments, simple as that. Demaryius Thomas didn’t get to 100 yards and didn’t find the end zone; what he did was score more points than Julio Jones, Odell Beckham, Randall Cobb or Larry Fitzgerald. It’s hard – or at least, counterintuitive – to build a lineup without a top-shelf WR. Winning tournaments, even 400,000 player tournaments, is about avoiding landmines just as much as it is about finding hidden treasures.

What actually surprised me the most about brettrau’s winning lineup is that it didn’t have Cairo Santos on it. Santos scored an absurd 27 points on FanDuel, a sum so monumental I assumed it would be necessary to top the field. In reality, none of the top four lineups had Santos. The Brazilian kicker was just 1.2% owned, meaning just 2300 lineups were endowed with the 10-25 point head-start he provided. There were a lot of ways to die this week, and each of those 2300 lineups found its own method.

There’s another Millionaire Maker taking place for Week 5. Check it out by clicking hereand visiting DraftKings. There’s also a $5 million Sunday Million going on at FanDuel. Visit FanDuel here.