Week 17 of the NFL season was a little more spread out than usual with three games on Christmas Day, a pair of games on Saturday, and the upcoming Monday Night Football matchup to close out the week. Even with all those spotlighted games, the main slate had a solid nine games on Sunday afternoon in the featured NFL DFS slate, highlighted by the NFL $2.25M FANTASY FOOTBALL MILLIONAIRE [$1M TO 1ST]. After a nail-biter in Week 16, Week 17’s top entry turned this week’s contest into a rout, finishing an impressive 13 points clear of the field. The entry from furrmaster racked up 218.24 fantasy points, while only four other entries from the 132,352 entries were able to even get over 200 fantasy points. The entry focused on two of the early games with a couple of key contributors from the late games as well.
Here’s a look at the highest-scoring entry from the Week 17 millionaire contest:
Drake “Drake Maye” Maye leads the way
A trio of Patriots got things off to a great start for furrmaster, led by Drake Maye (32.44 FPTS) in a dominant performance against the Jets.
Maye finished with 256 passing yards and five passing touchdowns, while only throwing two incompletions. He became the first player in NFL history with at least 250 passing yards, a 90% completion percentage, and five touchdown passes in a single game.
He was the No. 1 QB on the main slate and was owned in 11.1% of entries in the Milly Maker. One of his top targets was Stefon Diggs (25.1 FPTS), who led a banged-up receiver group with a big game, hauling in six passes for 101 yards and a touchdown. He finished as the No. 5 WR on the main slate with dominant catches like this:
Out of the backfield, Rhamondre Stevenson (27.2 FPTS) was the No. 3 RB on the slate by catching one of Maye’s five touchdown passes with five catches for 55 yards and adding 47 rushing yards with a second score on the ground.
Chasing some history
In addition to the three Patriots in the early window, the entry from furrmaster included three players from the Bengals-Cardinals contest, led by tight end Trey McBride (23.6 FPTS), who was an expensive play but was able to deliver on his way to setting a new single-season record.
He finished with 10 catches for 76 yards and a touchdown against Cincinnati in another Arizona loss, and his teammate Michael Wilson (19.9 FPTS) joined him in the winning entry by tight-roping this catch for a touchdown as part of his five catches for 89 yards.
On the other side of the matchup, Chase Brown (32.1 FPTS) was another key contributor, running for over 100 yards and scoring two touchdowns for the Bengals in their 37-14 victory.
Brown started the season slowly but has been a key to many teams’ fantasy success over the last few weeks.
Aside from the Patriots and the Bengals-Cardinals game, the entry from furrmaster had one more play from the early wave, including Parker Washington (22 FPTS) as a key contributor for the Jaguars. While Washington didn’t get into the end zone, he still topped 20 fantasy points with eight catches for 115 yards.
Looking for a Giant finish
In the later wave, this entry had a pair of plays from the Giants-Raiders game, which was mostly intriguing for its implications on next year’s NFL Draft.
The Giants won the game thanks in large part to a strong effort from the Giants DST (18 FPTS), who had four sacks, two interceptions, and a return for a touchdown to help carry Big Blue to a road victory and furrmaster to the top of the standings.
On the other side of the matchup, Michael Mayer (17.9 FPTS) was a great play in the FLEX spot. His big game from his extremely low salary of just $2,500 was a win for game theory everywhere. Since Mayer’s salary was lower than any other position players, using him in a flex spot gave furrmaster more flexibility to spend up on the other players listed above, and the fact that he stepped in with nine catches for 89 yards while filling in for Brock Bowers allowed this entry to cruise to a dominant win.
The Bottom Line
Getting extreme value from Mayer and working that with the perfect blend of Patriots and pay-up plays who dropped big games on Sunday afternoon.
Looking ahead to Week 18, the NFL will have all 32 teams in action for the final week of the regular season. With just two games on Saturday and one on Sunday night, the Week 18 DFS main slate is well-stocked with 13 games. DraftKings will have another chance for a huge top prize in the NFL $2.25M Fantasy Football Millionaire [$1M to 1st]. To help you with your prep work for Sunday’s regular season conclusion and get you geared up for the playoffs, be sure to follow DraftKings Network’s coverage of both DFS and season-long fantasy football!
