4 NFL FanDuel Tournament Pivots for Week 9

Wide Receiver

Chalk

Following along our big-time scoring quarterbacks, it makes sense that wide receivers in those same contests could be heavily owned. Names like Michael Thomas, Robert Woods, Brandin Cooks, and a potentially returning Cooper Kupp will be heavily owned.

All of those names still leave out Adam Thielen, who is our highest projected wide receiver this week at 18.9 FanDuel points. Facing the second-worst pass defense per our metrics, and a scoring machine this year with a FanDuel average of 20.6 points per game, he will not fly under the radar.

This also could be the week that Julio Jones finds pay-dirt, but he's been pretty good without scoring this year. Jones has averaged 15.2 FD points per game in 2018, part of a passing offense that ranks fifth in our schedule-adjusted per play metrics.

Pivot

Devin Funchess, Carolina Panthers: $6,400 (vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers)

With quarterback Cam Newton projected for our highest point total of the day, there seems to be plenty of pass volume to go around for the Carolina Panthers. Should we be worried about Devin Funchess's declining workload when teammate Greg Olsen suits up?

Per the RotoViz Game Splits App, it's obvious that Funchess has performed at a higher level with Olsen out of the mix. But there's a few reasons to still keep the faith, starting with Olsen getting a limited practice in this week.

Couple that with an atrocious Bucs pass D, and a healthy target market share of 21% for Funchess, and buying in seems reasonable. He also ranks 11th in the league with a Target Air Yards percentage (TAY %) of 34.07%.

The Bucs have allowed a whopping 39.8 FanDuel points per game to wide receivers in 2018, so grab some ownership of Funchess at a depressed price point. Our projections have him posting 11.5 FanDuel points, but he possesses tournament upside up to 22.1 FanDuel points, which is a solid 3.5 points per $1,000 of salary.