FanDuel's Sunday Million Week 2 Recap

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FanDuel was back at it again with their massive Week 2 Sunday Million contest, requiring a $25 entry fee with 23,381 people getting paid out at least $40. This massive $2 million GPP tournament had 92,485 entries available for buy-in and ended up overlaying as only 83,258 entries were sold before lineups locked. There was an overlay of 9,227 entries for $230,675, which helped to make your $25 entry go just a little bit further as it had a better chance at cashing. 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 $200,000.  

Here's how Week 2 of the Sunday Million shook out.

Animalparty posted a commanding score of 199.22 in Week 2 of FanDuel's Sunday Million which helped to pocket him $200,000. Animalparty is an "Experienced" player by his badge but this win bumps him up to the "Highly Experienced" level. He outscored the second place team by 14.80 points which is the widest margin of victory that I can remember for this particular contest. The 2nd to the 10th place teams were only divided by 5.50 total points so it goes to show you that Animalparty had a very good roster build and was a more than deserving winner in this contest. 

Looking further at Animalparty's team, he used his entire $60,000 salary cap just like Week 1's winner grohballs. Although the entire salary cap was used for his roster construction, the team itself was very unique and different as it had a wide range of lower owned players that out produced their scoring potential. At quarterback he went with Cam Newton at $9,000 who was in a great matchup against the 49ers and because of the high price and other quarterbacks such as Eli Manning in similar matchups he was under owned at only 10.4% in the tournament and well out performed the field at the quarterback position with 30.82 FanDuel points.

His running back combo of DeAngelo Williams and C.J. Anderson were the highest owned players on his team as Williams was 23.4% and Anderson at 36.0%. They were both running backs playing at home as Vegas favorites and both had very solid matchups and the production was a almost a given heading into their games. Next up were the wide receivers in Kelvin Benjamin, Travis Benjamin, and Stefon Diggs who gave him a combined 81.40 points. Kelvin Benjamin was the highest owned out of the bunch at 12.1% followed by Travis Benjamin at 5.1%, and Stefon Diggs at 1.9%. Once again we see another QB/WR stacking opportunity that takes down one of the big GPPs. This is becoming more common as the weeks go on as you need to find the top stack on the week to really climb up the leaderboard and win some big money. Diggs might have been the best play on Animalparty's team as the 28.70 points at a 1.9% ownership really helped to separate him from the field at the top of the leaderboard. 

At tight end he went with Antonio Gates who scored him 9.00 points as his lowest scoring player but remember last week in this same contest the winner had Gary Barnidge who scored 0 points. It is another week where the tight end really made no difference in the winners lineup as if Gates recorded a 0 himself, Animalparty would have still won by 6.5 points. This was a very balanced lineup that only had one player priced over $7,800 and that was Cam Newton at $9,000. 

Another interesting part of Animalparty's roster build was the Graham Gano play as he already had Cam Newton and Kelvin Benjamin rostered and Gano made for an unusual 3 player Carolina Panthers stack with the QB/WR/K. It worked out perfectly as Gano was priced higher at $4,900 at a position that people typically like to save money at and it showed as he was only owned by 6.1% of the field and scored 18.00 points. At defense many might have been scared off a tad by the Broncos as they had Andrew Luck and the Colts high scoring offense coming to town and as a result the Broncos were only owned by 9.7% of the field at a modest $4,700 salary and scored 22.00 points. Animalparty did a great job of going against the grain at the kicker and defense spots, getting low ownership at both and scoring a combined 40.0 points at a couple of tough positions to predict.

What Worked?

Stacking -- Going through the top 10 teams in Week 2 of the Sunday Million it was all Cam Newton at quarterback as all 10 teams rostered Cam Newton and his 30.82 FanDuel points. Going another step forward all ten of the teams stacked Cam Newton with his top wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin at $7,500 showcasing once again why a QB/WR stack in a GPP is so important and finding one such as Newton and Benjamin that is lower owned at 10.4% and 12.1% gives you an even bigger edge over your competition if it hits. 

Super Stacking -- The triple stack QB/WR/TE of Cam Newton, Kelvin Benjamin and Greg Olsen made it onto 5-of-10 of the top teams in this tournament and this was the case in Week 1 as well as a Brees/Cooks/Snead combo was heavily owned at the top of the leaderboard. You have to really study and predict game scripts to know which game each week is the one to target your super stack with. 

Chalky Running Backs -- Out of the top 6 teams in the contest this week four had C.J. Anderson and four had DeAngelo Williams. Both of these running backs had good matchups, were priced fairly, were playing at home in a game they were favored to win by Vegas, and you knew that they were going to get 20+ touches. You also knew that both Anderson and Williams were going to be very highly owned and it just didn't matter as you could pivot at other positions as you locked in two very solid plays at running back.

Opportunity Matters -- Travis Benjamin was priced at $6,100 and was San Diego's top receiving option as Keenan Allen was injured the game before. The Chargers had a great matchup on paper in a home game against the Jacksonville Jaguars and with no Keenan Allen it opened up a lot of opportunity in the Chargers passing game and the first big name that came to mind was Travis Benjamin and he scored 26.40 FanDuel points at a 5.1% ownership. Travis Benjamin was owned by 9-of-10 of the top teams in the tournament and was a good money saver, allowing you to spend up elsewhere.

WHAT FAILED?

Paying Down at Quarterback -- How many people played Eli Manning based on his potential matchup against the Saints this week and regretted it as the followed along the 49ers/Panthers box score and saw Cam Newton put up points left an right? Just paying the extra $900 to get off of Eli Manning and up to Cam Newton was most likely the difference in cashing this week. It is easy to fall in love with the matchup in DFS and that is what a lot of the field did this week when it came to the quarterback position in Eli Manning.

Paying up at Wide Receiver -- There were so many big name wide receivers to love this week in Antonio Brown, Odell Beckham Jrand AJ Green but each one of them underperformed for their high $8,900 plus salary and paying up likely got you off of playing Cam Newton at quarterback. Kelvin Benjamin was only $7,500, Travis Benjamin $6,100 and Stefon Diggs just $6,500 all players who saw a high volume of targets which could have been predicted before kickoff but all came at a fraction of the cost of the WR darlings of the week in Brown, Beckham and Green.

***FanDuel's Week 3 Sunday Million will remain almost the same as Week 2 with $2,000,000 in prizes with 23,645 out of 94,117 people taking home some cash. First prize remains at $200,000 as this contest offers a very balanced payout structure. So far the first three weeks of the Sunday Million have been about half the size of last years contest and if you are looking to crack the top 10 your odds are much better this year.

Head over to FanDuel now and catch the action for Week 3.

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