NFL DFS Milly Maker Recap Week 2: Anatomy of a $1 Million Winning Lineup
Week 1 in NFL DFS bucked the usual trend of pro football getting off to a slow start. Week 2 seemed to swap scripts, with injuries, bad weather and low-scoring games dragging down plenty of DraftKings lineups. Someone still stood tall above everyone else: elidkatz1 won the Week 2 Milly Maker and $1 million with a 232.38-point lineup built on a Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle 49ers stack, plus Jaxon Smith-Njigba and CeeDee Lamb at wide receiver.
But was their path to glory logical, or even predictable? Using my DraftKings Milly Maker strategy as a backdrop, this Milly Maker recap Week 2 edition looks back at Sunday’s main slate to see if there was a clear route to a massive win, or if the eventual winner simply got lucky.
The Short Version
DraftKings player elidkatz1 won the NFL $3M Fantasy Football Millionaire with 232.38 points, 5.72 clear of second place in a 172,761-entry field. The lineup used all $50,000, stacked Brock Purdy with Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle, and rostered the two highest scorers on the main slate, Jaxon Smith-Njigba (45.5) and CeeDee Lamb (38.3). Seven of its nine players came from the late-afternoon games. It followed five of the six construction trends from the last 36 Milly Maker winners, and its score landed within a quarter of a point of their 232.6 average.
Week 2 DraftKings Millionaire Maker Winning Lineup
The Week 2 Millionaire Maker winning lineup belonged to elidkatz1: Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey, J.K. Dobbins, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, CeeDee Lamb, Tre Tucker, Dalton Schultz, George Kittle at FLEX and the New England Patriots defense. It scored 232.38 DraftKings points and, like the Week 1 winner, used every dollar of the $50,000 salary cap.
| Slot | Player | Game (Final) | Salary | Owned | Stat Line | DK Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QB | Brock Purdy, SF | MIA 13 at SF 35 | $6,200 | 9.5% | 287 pass yds, 2 TD; 30 rush yds, 1 TD | 28.48 |
| RB | Christian McCaffrey, SF | MIA 13 at SF 35 | $8,000 | 22.9% | 23 rush yds, 2 TD; 4 rec, 43 yds | 22.60 |
| RB | J.K. Dobbins, DEN | JAX 13 at DEN 20 | $5,000 | 2.5% | 36 rush yds | 3.60 |
| WR | Jaxon Smith-Njigba, SEA | SEA 31 at ARI 7 | $8,100 | 10.2% | 9 rec, 155 yds, 3 TD | 45.50 |
| WR | CeeDee Lamb, DAL | WAS 20 at DAL 37 | $7,300 | 19.0% | 8 rec, 153 yds, 2 TD | 38.30 |
| WR | Tre Tucker, LV | LV 26 at LAC 14 | $4,500 | 0.7% | 5 rec, 119 yds, 1 TD | 25.90 |
| TE | Dalton Schultz, HOU | CIN 20 at HOU 6 | $3,200 | 22.4% | 12 rec, 140 yds | 29.00 |
| FLEX | George Kittle, SF | MIA 13 at SF 35 | $4,600 | 4.5% | 4 rec, 80 yds, 1 TD | 18.00 |
| DST | Patriots, NE | PIT 3 at NE 20 | $3,100 | 5.3% | 4 sacks, 1 INT, 1 fumble recovery, 1 TD, 3 pts allowed | 21.00 |
| Total | $50,000 | 232.38 | ||||
Salaries, ownership and fantasy points from DraftKings’ Week 2 contest standings. Owned is the share of the contest’s entries that rostered each player. Points include DraftKings’ 3-point bonus for 100 rushing or receiving yards.
The Week 2 DraftKings Milly Maker winning lineup is very interesting, as it required some massive ceiling games and some stacking, but it also cleared the field despite a floor game from J.K. Dobbins. The winning build was elidkatz1’s 49th entry in the contest (the number DraftKings shows in parentheses is the entry’s sequence, not a total), and it finished 5.72 points ahead of second place, according to DraftKings’ own Week 2 recap.
We instantly see a decent amount of chalk here, and some past Millionaire Maker tendencies shine through. The Week 2 winner also scored 41.6 fewer points than the 273.98 that won Week 1, and it got there by almost entirely skipping the early games. Only two of its nine players, Schultz and the Patriots defense, played in the 1:00 p.m. ET window, where the eight games closed at an average total of 43.5 points at DraftKings and averaged just 32.8. Six of those eight went under, and Vikings-Bears, which closed at 46.5, finished 9-3.
What Actually Won the Milly Maker Last Week?
Slate-leading ceiling at the top of the salary chart, plus two cheap values that hit. Nobody on the main slate scored more fantasy points than JSN in Week 2, and CeeDee Lamb came in second. The Patriots were the second-best defense on the main slate, and Dalton Schultz was far and away the best tight end play, beating the next-best tight end (Jake Ferguson, 20.3) by 8.7 points.
Beyond JSN and Lamb, this lineup thrived off elite values paying off. Schultz ($3,200) and Tre Tucker ($4,500) cost a combined $7,700 and produced 54.9 fantasy points, and Tucker finished as the No. 5 wide receiver on the slate while sitting on 0.7% of rosters.
232.38
DraftKings points
5.72
Points clear of second
7 of 9
Players from the late games
5
Players under 10% owned
Translation: the Week 2 Milly Maker winner featured slate-leading performances at wide receiver and tight end. That allowed it to overcome a dud from Dobbins (3.6 points) without needing a bring-back from the other side of its 49ers stack.
This build also went double tight end, with Kittle in the FLEX alongside Schultz. That capitalizes on value and creates a unique build, but it can be risky because tight ends usually carry less ceiling than the backs and receivers you pass on. In our research, tight end was the least popular FLEX choice among past winners.
Did the Week 2 Milly Maker Lineup Follow Trends of Past Winners?
Mostly, yes. One of the major points of this weekly DraftKings Millionaire Maker recap is to gauge how much history actually guides the eventual winner, and the Week 2 lineup followed five of the six construction trends from the last 36 Milly Maker winners. The one it broke was the stud trend: it paid for three players above $7,000.
Based on our research of past Milly Maker winners, here’s how the Week 2 winning lineup stacked up:
For the second week in a row, the Milly Maker winner stuck to the overall blueprint: some form of stacking, cash saved at tight end, a defense priced above $3,000, and some key chalk while still working to be contrarian.
The stud trend is the one to watch. Paying for McCaffrey plus two receivers above $7K goes against what roughly two thirds of past winners did, but it has happened in this exact spot: the 2025 Week 2 winner also paired a $7K-plus running back with two $7K-plus receivers on the way to 260.20 points.
Score-wise, this winner landed right on history. Its 232.38 points sit within a quarter of a point of the 232.6 average for the last 36 winners, and between the Week 2 winners of 2024 (229.92) and 2025 (260.20). This build skipped a bring-back despite playing three 49ers, and it ate a good amount of chalk, so overall it stuck to a path that has won these types of tournaments before.
Was the Millionaire Maker Winning Lineup Predictable or Lucky?
Mostly predictable. On the surface, there wasn’t much that was “lucky” about this lineup: a 49ers stack at home against the Dolphins was extremely logical, and none of the studs this lineup paid for were outlandish plays.
Here’s a quick assessment of the lineup, each player’s points, and whether I deem them to be lucky or predictable plays:
| Player | Fantasy Points | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Brock Purdy | 28.48 | Predictable |
| Christian McCaffrey | 22.60 | Predictable |
| J.K. Dobbins | 3.60 | Unlucky |
| Jaxon Smith-Njigba | 45.50 | Predictable |
| CeeDee Lamb | 38.30 | Predictable |
| Tre Tucker | 25.90 | Lucky |
| Dalton Schultz | 29.00 | Predictable |
| George Kittle | 18.00 | Predictable |
| Patriots Defense | 21.00 | Predictable |
This was honestly a very predictable lineup. The exact production could be argued as lucky, but JSN popping off isn’t something that should shock anyone. He’s arguably the best wide receiver in all of football, after all: he led the NFL with 1,793 receiving yards last season and was named the 2025 AP Offensive Player of the Year. He did it this time in a Seahawks-Cardinals game that closed at a 40.5-point total, the second-lowest on the main slate.
Why the Rest of the Lineup Was Predictable
Any of the 49ers wrecking a bad Miami team isn’t crazy in the least. Dalton Schultz was a very obvious tight end punt with Nico Collins ruled out with a hamstring strain, and he turned 12 catches into 140 yards even though Houston scored just six points. The Patriots were in a get-right spot after managing six DraftKings points in their Week 1 loss at Seattle, and Pittsburgh’s implied total was just 18.5 with an immobile Aaron Rodgers under center. Rodgers was sacked four times and lost a fumble that Elijah Ponder returned for a touchdown. CeeDee Lamb was also in a smash spot, as Commanders-Cowboys closed at a 51.5-point total, five points higher than any other game on the main slate.
The 49ers Stack Was the Market’s Pick, Too
San Francisco was the biggest favorite on the board, closing at -12.5 against Miami at DraftKings with a 44.5-point total. That works out to an implied 28.5 points, the highest team total on the main slate, ahead of Dallas (27.5) and Baltimore (27). The 49ers scored 35, and Purdy’s 28.48 was the second-best quarterback score of the day behind Dak Prescott’s 29.76.
Tre Tucker getting 25.9 fantasy points felt lucky. He was still a fine GPP value due to price and role, but he failed miserably in the same situation a week prior, with two catches for 27 yards (4.7 points) against Miami. He was an OK dart, but he’s probably the luckiest play of the lot, and Las Vegas won 26-14 as a 6.5-point road underdog.
J.K. Dobbins was actually unlucky. He wasn’t a very good play on paper against a capable Jaguars defense, and he finished with 36 rushing yards, but this lineup won in spite of him.
Overall, this lineup was very chalky in spots, and only one or two of the plays bordered on bad or lucky. You could have built a similar lineup from past Milly Maker data, Week 2 Vegas odds, projections and matchups.
What We Got Right Going into Week 2
Week 2 was rougher on my individual player picks, but my Week 2 NFL DFS picks did land on the two best quarterback stacks of the day. The first stack on my list was Brock Purdy with Christian McCaffrey and/or Mike Evans, which is the exact Purdy and McCaffrey pairing the winner used, and the second was Dak Prescott with CeeDee Lamb. Prescott (29.76) and Purdy (28.48) were the top two quarterbacks on the main slate.
| Play | How I Carded It | DK Points |
|---|---|---|
| Brock Purdy + Christian McCaffrey | Stack No. 1 | 28.48 + 22.6 |
| Dak Prescott + CeeDee Lamb | Stack No. 2 | 29.76 + 38.3 |
| CeeDee Lamb | Top spend at WR ($7,300) | 38.3 |
| Trey McBride | Top spend at TE ($6,900) | 18.1 |
| Tetairoa McMillan | GPP target at WR ($6,100) | 18.1 |
DraftKings points from official Week 2 box scores (CBS Sports and footballdb). Salaries and tiers as published in my Week 2 NFL DFS picks on September 18, 2026.
I was very high on Jayden Daniels, and I was also very into CeeDee Lamb across from him. Lamb smashed with 38.3 fantasy points, the second-best score on the main slate, and Cowboys-Commanders was the shootout I expected. It was the only main-slate game that closed with a total above 50, and it finished 37-20.
I highlighted Trey McBride as the one tight end over $5K worth getting serious about, and he was a solid play with a touchdown and 18.1 points. He was ultimately not very necessary, though: three tight ends outscored him, including Schultz by almost 11 points at less than half the price.
I also wrapped things up saying I was focusing on the Cowboys-Commanders, Bears-Vikings, Falcons-Panthers and Ravens-Saints games. Three of those four delivered: Carolina’s defense led every main-slate unit with 26 points in a 34-3 win at Atlanta, Bryce Young and Tyler Shough were the third- and fourth-best quarterbacks on the slate, and McMillan cleared 100 receiving yards. If you targeted players from those games, you had a chance to hit on some strong plays.
What We Got Wrong
The big mistake was targeting the Bears game. I thought Vikings-Bears would be explosive, and the market mostly agreed: it closed at 46.5 at DraftKings, the second-highest total on the main slate, even after sliding from 49.5 earlier in the week. Minnesota’s defense really stepped up and stifled the Bears instead, holding a team that scored 59 points the week prior to just a field goal in a 9-3 win.
| Play | How I Carded It | DK Points |
|---|---|---|
| Jayden Daniels | Top spend at QB ($6,300) | 14.74 |
| Bijan Robinson | Top spend at RB ($8,200) | 11.1 |
| Caleb Williams + Luther Burden III / Colston Loveland | Stack No. 4 | 8.72 + 6.2 / 1.3 |
| Carson Wentz + Justin Jefferson | Stack No. 6 | 6.32 + 8.5 |
| Colston Loveland | GPP target at TE ($5,000) | 1.3 |
Rain and wind at Soldier Field didn’t help matters, and Chicago lost Caleb Williams to a right hamstring injury midway through the fourth quarter. Wentz started for Minnesota but threw for just 143 yards, so every stack piece I liked from that game (Williams, Burden, Loveland, Wentz and Jefferson) came up short. It was a call that cost us (and you) in tourneys.
Daniels hurts for a different reason. He was off to a good start with 14.74 fantasy points in one half, then dislocated his left elbow on the final play of the first half and did not return. Bijan was the other big miss: Atlanta managed three points against Carolina, and he finished with 72 rushing yards and three catches.
How the Rest of My Week 2 Card Scored
For the full picture, here is the rest of that Week 2 card. The salary-relief tier was the weak spot: none of my four values reached 14 points, and Mayer and Wentz both finished under seven.
| Play | How I Carded It | DK Points |
|---|---|---|
| Carson Wentz | Best value at QB ($4,600) | 6.32 |
| Aaron Jones | Best value at RB ($5,100) | 13.5 |
| Devaughn Vele | Best value at WR ($4,200) | 11.4 |
| Michael Mayer | Best value at TE ($3,600) | 5.3 |
| Bo Nix | GPP target at QB ($5,700) | 15.12 |
| Ashton Jeanty | GPP target at RB ($6,800) | 10.3 |
| Jayden Daniels + Terry McLaurin / Stefon Diggs | Stack No. 3 | 14.74 + 7.0 / 21.7 |
| Jordan Love + Christian Watson / Matthew Golden | Stack No. 5 | 13.80 + 14.1 / 9.8 |
A performance recap of published picks, scored on official box scores. DFS contests are not single wagers, so this is not a profit or loss result.
The Daniels stack at least had a silver lining for anyone who played Diggs. He caught two touchdowns, one from Daniels before the injury and one from Marcus Mariota after it.
What Week 2 Teaches Us About the Milly Maker Lineup
The big takeaway from the Week 2 Milly Maker is that you can eat more chalk than you probably feel comfortable with. That, and sometimes the obvious plays or the best players are simply the way to go.
Once we got to Sunday, a $3,200 Schultz was one of the most obvious values you could play, while McCaffrey, Lamb and JSN were great spends that felt obvious after the fact. The winner also needed only two players from the early games, which is a reminder that one week of results never tells you where the points will come from the next.
Moving into Week 3, reflect on what won the Millionaire Maker in Week 2, then weigh it against what has won the contest in years past.
Carry These Into Week 3
Emphasize some level of stacking, eat the obvious chalk value, save cash at tight end and pay for a stable defense. Then find four or more players under 10% ownership. Two straight winners have followed that blueprint, and Week 2 showed that paying for more than one stud is fine when the best players are in the best spots.
I’ll get you headed in the right direction with my Week 3 NFL DFS picks. Until then, our daily fantasy sports hub has the rest of the NFL DFS playbook.
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Week 2 Milly Maker FAQ
Here are quick answers to the questions DFS players ask most about the Week 2 Milly Maker winner and what the result means for Week 3.
Who won the DraftKings Milly Maker in Week 2 of the 2026 NFL season?
A DraftKings player named elidkatz1 won the Week 2 NFL Millionaire Maker with 232.38 fantasy points. The NFL $3M Fantasy Football Millionaire drew 172,761 entries and paid $1 million to first place, and the winning lineup finished 5.72 points clear of second. It was built around a Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle 49ers stack plus Jaxon Smith-Njigba and CeeDee Lamb.
How many points did it take to win the Milly Maker in Week 2, and is that a normal winning score?
It took 232.38 DraftKings points, which is almost exactly a normal winning score. The average across the last 36 Milly Maker winners from 2024 and 2025 was 232.6, and the Week 2 winners in those seasons scored 229.92 and 260.20. It was 41.6 points lower than the 273.98 that won Week 1 this season.
Did the Week 2 Milly Maker winner play a lot of chalk, or mostly low-owned players?
Both, in about the proportions past winners have used. Christian McCaffrey (22.9%) and Dalton Schultz (22.4%) were chalk, and CeeDee Lamb was close behind at 19.0%. Five of the nine players were under 10% ownership, including Tre Tucker at 0.7%, which matches the four-or-more sub-10% plays that two thirds of recent winners carried.
Was the Week 2 Milly Maker winning lineup more skill or more luck?
Mostly skill. Seven of the nine plays were sound calls before kickoff: the 49ers had the highest implied team total on the main slate, Lamb played in the slate’s highest-total game, and Schultz was a cheap tight end with a big role. Tre Tucker’s 25.9 points were the lucky part, and J.K. Dobbins was the unlucky part at 3.6.
Can you really win the Milly Maker playing two tight ends in the same lineup?
Yes, the Week 2 winner did it with Dalton Schultz at tight end and George Kittle in the FLEX. Both cost under $5,000 and scored 29.0 and 18.0 points. It is still a rare build: tight end is the least common FLEX choice among recent winners, because backs and receivers usually offer more ceiling in that spot.
What should I take from the Week 2 Milly Maker winner into my Week 3 NFL DFS lineups?
Take the construction, not the names. The Week 2 winner stacked one team, paid for a defense above $3,000, saved at tight end and ate the obvious chalk value, then got different with five sub-10% plays. It also shows you can pay for more than one stud when the best players are in the best spots, even though most past winners did not.
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