FanDuel GPP Picks Week 1
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Welcome to the inaugural Week 1 edition of FanDuel GPP Picks. It’s almost here folks. Can you feel it? All of your season long league drafts are in the books and it’s time to turn your focus to daily fantasy tournament action. Below you’ll find a list of Week 1 tournament “dart throws” from myself and 4 of our writers, which I’ll define for you now as a long shot, dark horse, or contrarian type of pick. They were chosen because they are “low budget”, less than obvious, picks that can help you win large tournaments, where having a unique lineup is key. Again, all of these should be considered in “GPP” or guaranteed prize pool tournaments, with large numbers of entries, not necessarily head to head match-ups or 50/50 smaller tournaments.
WR Anquan Boldin vs IND, $5800
There will likely be many DFS lineups in Week 1 that consist of stacking Matthew Stafford and one of either Golden Tate or Marvin Jones. The Lions vs Colts matchup is exciting from a fantasy perspective, having two teams that love to throw the ball around on offense and also have very questionable defenses. There should be plenty of touchdowns scored by the Lions, and it wouldn’t shock me at all if Anquan Boldin showed some veteran old man strength and caught multiple TDs while matched up against the 3rd best corner for most of the game.
–Travis Strickland, @DFF_Travis
WR Jermaine Kearse vs MIA, $5,400
“If you’ve been following my preseason DFS articles you’ll know what I’m talking about here: Seattle is a candidate for a Domination Bonanza this weekend. They are going to win with ease at home on Sunday. DeVante Parker might not even play because he’s dealing with a hamstring issue, Leonte Carroo might be a game day inactive, and Arian Foster is sure to look rusty in his first regular season game action since his torn Achilles last year. Adam Gase could very well prove to be a positive for Ryan Tannehill, but that won’t begin in Week 1. Seattle’s defense is going to have a field day, meaning they will be giving the ball back to Russell Wilson early and often. Seattle’s offense will have the ball plenty in this one and I expect them to light up the scoreboard. With Marshawn Lynch retired, Thomas Rawls likely to be rusty after only seeing two touches all preseason while recovering from his broken ankle he suffered last year, the regular season inexperience of Christine Michael, and rookie C.J. Prosise still being eased back into things after missing a large portion of training camp and preseason due to injury, I expect the offense to run through Russell Wilson on Sunday. Look for him to handle the football in most of the high leverage and red zone situations. That should mean good things for the Seattle pass catchers as Miami’s secondary still looks shaky after giving up the 12th most passing yards and 5th most passing TDs last season. Jimmy Graham might not even play and even if he does suit up, I expect him to be a non-factor. I love Doug Baldwin this week but for what it’s worth, Pro Football Focus reported slot cornerback Bobby McCain allowed just 0.27 yards per coverage snap when in the slot last season, by far the lowest average in the league. On the outside, offseason darling Tyler Lockett is sure to be higher owned than Jermaine Kearse despite Kearse being the one that saw more snaps with Russell Wilson at QB during the preseason. I won’t be shocked if Wilson throws 5+ TDs on Sunday and if he does, Kearse could be the beneficiary of a couple of them. At his sure to be drastically low own percentage, Kearse could be a GPP winner for you.”
–Ben Cummins, @BenCumminsFF
WR Tajae Sharpe vs MIN, $4800
“The hype is now a real thing when it comes to rookie wideout Tajae Sharpe. He’s guaranteed himself a WR1 position on the Titans roster doing a great job impressing his coaches and QB Marcus Mariota. Recently Mariota said, “He makes it easy, is great at getting separation from the defenders.” Yes they face a newly improved Minnesota defense, but with FanDuel having more of PPR scoring system this guy could rack up some serious targets and receiving yards. At such a low cost and owner percentage, he’s a dark horse to look at this week when trying to save some budget for other star players to fill in the rest of your team.”
–Brandon Sanders, @brandontsanders
TE Clive Walford vs NO, $4700
“Much of the offseason hype surrounding the second year tight end has died down after he failed to catch his only target from Derek Carr in Week 3 of the preseason. This makes him a perfect FanDuel GPP dart throw as he faces a team who gave up an average of 15.2 fantasy points per game last season to tight ends. It’s going to be a very high scoring matchup and Walford could be right in the thick of it.”
–Nick Martinez-Esquibel, @THENickMartinez
WR Mike Wallace vs BUF, $5400
“Wallace is the type of cheap WR lost in the endless barrel as you scroll through the FanDuel prices. Despite being a headache, Wallace displays big play potential that could win you a week. Flacco has a big arm and doesn’t shy away from taking deep shots. I project his ownership percentage to be 5% at best Week 1, making him a differentiator and essentially a DeSean Jackson-lite.”
–Kyle Borgognoni, @kyle_borg
WR Phillip Dorsett vs DET, $5400
According to reports, the Colts will be using a 3-WR set as their base offense in 2016. In a projected shootout on their home turf, Phillip Dorsett should see a significant snap share. Listed at $5400 on FanDuel, he makes for a sneaky cheap WR play with 3x upside.
–Michael Wenrich, @mpw270
And there you have it. Obviously, I wouldn’t recommend using all or several of these picks in any one lineup. They should be used when you set a lineup that you love and are running low on budget. We hope that these will be the types of picks that can put you over the edge by providing a shocking amount of value for how cheaply you can plug them in, and make your lineup one that stands out above the rest.
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