Draftkings NFL GPP Pivots: Week One Picks at Each Position

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GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN – DECEMBER 09: Julio Jones #11 of the Atlanta Falcons lines up for a play in the first quarter against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on December 09, 2018 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) Draftkings NFL /

Draftkings NFL GPP pivots: Week 1

The NFL is back in our lives once again! Welcome, Fansiders, to the 2019 edition of Draftkings NFL GPP Pivots. I’m “Thunder Dan” and I’ll be writing this column every week this season with the goal of giving you some of the best NFL DFS plays each week at low ownership.

There is a reason this article will always come out on Friday, as I have to wait all week and gather as much information as I can to feel confident about who the chalk is going to be and then determine where I want to pivot. Something that makes that process easier for me is using projected ownership percentages at FanShare Sports. While I can’t give you those specific ownerships (They charge for that info!), I can still give you an idea of which players are becoming trendy this week and which lower owned players I like just as much if not more for GPPs on Draftkings.

I want to make something clear right out of the gate. Chalky plays are usually optimal plays and if you’re building cash lineups you should be stuffing a lot of them in those lineups. But for GPPs we are looking for some leverage by either fading “bad chalk” or pivoting to some lower owned plays that can outscore the chalkier plays. You don’t need a lineup full of players who are 10% or lower to win a GPP. What you do need to do is mix and match the more popular plays with some of your favorite pivots in order to create some unique rosters.

My goal in this column every week is to try to help you find those pivots. My process is always to identify the chalk first, evaluate if these plays are worthy of being as popular as they will be on Sunday, and then identifying pivots at similar price points at the same position. You can pivot off one player in a popular offense to another teammate at a different position, too. Pivoting is all about thinking outside the box. If the DFS community is engaged in a massive groupthink all week about a certain player or game, then a good contrarian GPP player is going to go against the grain in spots that they feel strongly about.

Okay, enough strategy talk, for now, it’s time to go position by position and look at my top GPP pivots for week one, starting with quarterbacks!