Devonta Freeman, Steve Smith Sr. spurred Week 3 winner in Million Dollar Baller
Week 3’s winner of the “NFL Million Dollar Baller” contest rode a balanced approach to a whopping 246.6 points, which would’ve beaten last week’s champion by 59.02. The winner took home a cool $100,000 while besting 77,786 other participants in a highly competitive Week 3 tournament.
Cam Newton was started by just 10.2% of the teams despite a modest price tag ($36) and up against a New Orleans secondary that has been shredded this season (they’ve now allowed 9.9 YPA and an NFL-high 119.6 QB Rating to opposing passers), which led to 29.90 points.
Brandon Marshall (19.90 points) came through as expected while not having to fight for targets with Eric Decker sidelined (Marshall’s 30.7% ownership is the highest on the winning team since we started tracking this last week), while Larry Fitzgerald followed up his three-touchdown performance in Week 2 with two more scores and 134 yards, producing 29.90 points. The 32-year-old wideout has averaged the second most FPPG (24.9) in Yahoo DFS this year, second only to Julio Jones (28.3). However, there are nine more expensive wide receivers than Fitzgerald ($28) for Week 4’s slate, so he could very well be someone to target yet again.
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The winner also had Devonta Freeman, who was this week’s top scoring back (39.80) yet was owned by only 16.9% of teams. Freeman is suddenly tied for the NFL lead with four rushing scores on the year, and he’s really impressed as a receiver. As a result, his cost has gone from $18 last week up to $27 in Week 4.
The winner also made a big profit on Greg Olsen, who was the No. 1 scoring tight end (29.40) and had an ownership of just 11.1%. The same could be said for rostering the No. 1 defense, as Arizona scored a whopping 28.0 points while recording two pick-sixes (and four interceptions in total) as well as a safety. The Cardinals were only $12 and were barely owned (10.8%).
One final home run this week’s winner hit was Steve Smith, who secured 13-of-17 targets for 186 yards and two scores, which was good for 37.10 points. Smith was owned by an anemic 5.3% of teams, so he might have been the single biggest difference maker of the week.
Our Week 3 winner entered Monday night with a comfortable lead and as the heavy favorite, but Aaron Rodgers’ 34.92 points made things interesting, as second place got to within 4.18 points (still a more comfortable margin of victory than last week’s 1.32 points). Clearly, scoring was way up this week, and our winner did a terrific job of avoiding any busts to take home the prize.
