Week 2 of the NFL season is already upon us! Welcome to my Pivot Plays article, I will be taking a look at some contrarian plays each week that we should take into consideration based off of all the talk about certain plays. I will try to find a high, medium and low salaried player that we want to look to pivot away from. We want to locate some pivots in order to hopefully take advantage of some of the duds that the popular plays will put up throughout the season. I will do my best to give you a few players from both DraftKings and FanDuel.
Starting with the QB position, I think the sites have done a good job adjusting their prices after week 1; however there are definitely some guys that are getting all the talk up to this point in the week! The first guy that EVERYBODY is talking about is Eli Manning as he gets to face a terrible Saints defense, at home. Last year the Saints-Giants game was a fantasy gold mine and while this one could certainly rival that one, I think there’s a chance it may disappoint. Let’s take a look at three QBs that will have heavier ownership and let’s see if we can’t find somebody in a sneaky good spot to replace them.
QuarterBack
Eli Manning – Manning comes in at $8100 on FD and $7600 on DK for the week 2 game against the Saints. While I think those tags are very generous for the match-up, I think his ownership is going to be thru the roof, relative to the other QB’s. On FD, I would look to pay up to $8300 for Ben Roethlisberger or to Carson Palmer at $8200. While on DK, I think you go with either Big Ben at $7500 or you pay up to Aaron Rodgers at $7800.
Matthew Stafford – Stafford is getting all sorts of love and for excellent reason as he is on fire under Jim Bob Cooter’s offensive tutelage. Stafford is sitting at $7800 on FD and $7300 on DK. On FD I would drop down to Marcus Mariota at $7500 in the same game as Stafford. On DK I am definitely dropping down to Carson Palmer at $6900 or to Blake Bortles at $6700.
Josh McCown – McCown is getting love thanks to his performances last season against Baltimore and while I can understand using somewhat recent history, there are a number of things that aren’t the same in the scenarios. I will gladly look to move off of McCown to somebody in his price range. On FD McCown is sitting at $6000 and on DK he is the minimum, $5000. On FD I am going to spend up to $6400 for Trevor Siemian against what is probably the worst defensive backfield in the NFL, currently. On DK, it is definitely Siemian at $5200 or whoever is named the Vikings QB this week as Sam Bradford is $5600 and Shaun Hill is just $5000. While it might be tough to take a Viking QB, I think that they are going to try and control the clock with AP, however if they get down against an explosive GB team, they are going to have to be more aggressive in playing catch-up.
Running Backs
Next we take a look at the RB position and we see a few guys that are going to be very popular as they have an excellent match-up. The three RB’s we are going to take a look at are DeAngelo Williams, Danny Woodhead and Theo Riddick.
DeAngelo Williams – Williams won people a lot of money last week and really cost some of us a TON of money in a few tournaments! He is going to be extremely popular again and while I know I will have my share of him, there are a number of lineups I am looking to pivot off of him for somebody that has upside, but might be in a slightly tougher match-up. On FD, Williams is $7600 and on DK he is $7100. At his price point on FD I would look to drop to $7400 and use what appears to be a rejuvenated DeMarco Murray. On DK I really like the idea of going up to Lamar Miller at $7200 or drop down to $7000 for Adrian Peterson. Miller isn’t getting a ton of mentions due to facing the Chiefs and AP had a terrible week 1 so people are going to back off just because of that.
Danny Woodhead – Woodhead is going to be the chalkiest RB on the weekend as he put up an impressive stat line against a tough KC team and now gets to face a Jacksonville team who is traveling across the country. Woodhead sits at $6400 on FD and $5200 on DK. On FD I want to pivot to either Ryan Mathews at $6300 or Rashad Jennings, who is also $6300. Jennings will be low owned because everybody wants to be on the Giants passing game and I think Mathews just gets over looked taking on a Bears team that everybody wanted to pick on with Lamar Miller last week. On DK I am going to spend up to $5500 for Thomas Rawls and hopefully pair him with the Seattle Defense! Rawls looked solid last week and has taken his starting spot back and now faces a Rams D that let Hyde roll to a two touchdown night.
Theo Riddick – Riddick won somebody a million dollars last week and I expect people to have that performance fresh in their minds. I certainly understand it as he is going to have a huge role in the passing game for the Lions. On FD he sits at $5900 and on DK he is a ridiculously cheap $4300. On both sites I am going to use Legarrette Blount. Blount is $600 on FD and just $4000 on DK. I feel like the Patriots game has Blount written all over it with what could be sloppy conditions. If you want somebody sneaky in what could be a shootout, Shane Vereen is just $5100 on FD and $3800 on DK.
Wide Receivers
The WR position is a bit tougher to predict as basically each of the top 4 guys are going to be popular, but I think Odell Beckham Jr will be the most popular of the expensive tier. The other two guys that I will take a look at pivoting from are going to be Willie Snead and Travis Benjamin.
ODB – Beckham Jr is going to be the chalk as everybody wants a piece of the Giants’ offense against a leaky Saints pass defense. ODB sits at $9400 on FD and $9500 on DK. Since nearly everybody around him is going to be popular, I will look to spend down to DeAndre Hopkins who is basically getting no love this week. Hopkins sits at $8300 on FD and $8700 on DK.
Willie Snead – Snead sits at $7200 on FD and $5800 on DK and is in a great spot being on the other side of the field of ODB. On FD I would look to go down to either Doug Baldwin at $7000 or Allen Hurns at $6900. On DK, I like Hurns at $5400 or I would spend up to $6000 for Emmanuel Sanders going against the walking dead unit of the Indianapolis Colts.
Travis Benjamin – Benjamin has become the Chargers #1 WR thanks to the knee injury suffered by Keenan Allen last week. Benjamin sits at $6100 on FD and $4400 on DK. On FD I would look to use Mike Wallace at $6100 or Tajae Sharpe at $6000. Wallace showed last week he still has some explosiveness and Sharpe looks like he is going to be a target machine for the Titans.
Tight End
At TE is really tough to get a read on where the masses are headed. One of the most popular is going to be Delanie Walker. Walker faces a Lions defense that was torched by the Colt TE’s, especially in the red zone. Another TE that I think will be popular is Kyle Rudolph.
Delanie Walker – Walker sits at $6600 on FD and just $4500 on DK this week. While his price is near the top on FD, I think we want to pay up to $7600 for Greg Olsen as he just seems to never get talked about and the Panthers should put it to the 49ers this weekend. On DK, I am probably going to spend down to $4300 for Jason Witten.
Kyle Rudolph – Rudolph’s $5000 price tag on FD will be tough to ignore, as will his pedestrian $3100 price tag on DK. On FD I am going to consider going with 2 guys: Brent Celek at $4800 or Jesse James at $4500. Celek should see an uptick with the injury to Ertz, who had a big game last week. James is in a great spot as he should find a ton of room to work underneath against the Bengals and played every snap last week for the Steelers. On DK I would either spend up to James at $3400 or drop down to Jacob Tamme at $2900 or Virgil Green at $2800.
That will do it for this week’s Pivot Plays articles. I didn’t touch on DEFENSE as it is so tough to figure them out on a weekly basis and I believe you always want to take one of the best defenses unless you want to take a shot on a D that creates turnovers and has a history of turning those turnovers into touchdowns. I will always recommend teams like Seattle, Carolina and Denver.
Make sure you hit me up on twitter with your thoughts as I love getting feedback on the content that I bring to you guys on a weekly basis. Do you have an idea for a weekly article? Post it in the comments below or send me a DM on Twitter! Best of luck everybody and may your bank account have extra numbers come Tuesday morning!
