Daily Fantasy Sports
Sharp App
Season Long Fantasy
Free Month
Wall of Champions
Discord

Stacks and Stacks – GPP Approach in Week 6 of NFL DFS

Before I get to my GPP stacks for Week 6, let’s all give a boisterous standing ovation for DFS Army member, “jhawkfan25”, who took second place in the FanDuel Sunday Million contest and won $150,000! It was incredibly exciting to be a part of on our members only Slack chat service. I broke down the lineup he made and what he used on our website to create the life-changing entry. Give it a quick read if you are not familiar by clicking here! If you only have time for one read I implore you to read the $150,000 breakdown right now and to come back to my GPP stacks later.

 

Stacking has become second nature for a large portion of the DFS populous. It’s a very common strategy, especially in GPPs, to throw together a stack or two and hope that the roster correlation that you built into your lineup sets yourself apart from the field. It’s a great way to raise your overall ceiling and gain more exposure to certain players and teams that you are targeting.

The Following stacks are my personal ideas for Week 4 at the time the article was written. I will likely add a few more and I am sure a couple of these won’t make the final cut. Using our Domination Station in conjunction with my stacks is the best way to attack our ladder system approach for contests.

 

Top Stacks of Week 5

Kareem Hunt + Chiefs Def

Kareem Hunt + Chiefs Def + Harrison Butker

Stacking a running back and defense on a team that is favorited at home has a positive correlation. The strategy really starts to pay off when the defense starts to force turnovers and take over with a short field. This instantly leads to more scoring opportunities.

The Kansas City Chiefs are 5 point home favorites against the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers. The larger the spread the more we can start to use game theory in our GPPs. If the Chiefs are playing with a lead all game then the Steelers likely will be throwing the ball to catch-up. When this happens the defense can pin their ears back and be aggressive with the blitz. This is when the sacks and turnovers start to rack up.

As we’ve seen the Chiefs offense score 20-plus points in all five games this year, and twice scoring 42-points, we know they can score in a hurry. The Chiefs defense will be under-owned in Week 6 because there are a handful of other teams in perceived better spots with much larger spreads. This is a good way to grab a nice low owned defense stack two positions that they positively correlate with.

Alex Smith + Tyreek Hill

Alex Smith + Tyreek Hill + Antonio Brown

The Alex Smith to Tyreek Hill stack is going to be one of my favorite tournament stacks in Week 6. The larger the GPP the more likely I will be to use them together. I broke down both player in Friday’s GPP Data Dive. I also mentioned Tyreek Hill on our weekly public podcast on three separate occasions. Although my love for him this week has wavered as it looks like Travis Kelce is going to play, I still think he offers superb upside. However, I do think it is less probable that he explodes the way I thought he would if Kelce was going to be out.

If Smith to Hill comes through then the Chiefs are going to go up a few scores. As we saw in Week 5, when the Steelers are behind Antonio Brown is going to pile up stats. Brown leads the NFL in targets (64), target rate (33.0%) and has a 96.0% snap share this season. He also leads the NFL in receptions (40), receiving yards (545), air yards (372), and yards after catch (173). Somehow he only has one touchdown and he is due for some serious regression to the mean.

This stack is perfect for large field GPPs, although I am not quite sure I would use it in our DFS Army “ladder system”. If you’re new to our community, welcome! The ladder system is the strategy we have created to properly invest your DFS funds. The system is built to maximize your ROI (return on investment) for those times when you build a phenomenal lineup that blows up, while also limiting the damage your funds could take if your lineup duds for the week.

Kareem Hunt + Chiefs Defense + Antonio Brown

This stack is for large field GPPs only, as playing a defense against an opposing skill player is negatively correlated. However, in Week 5 we saw Leonard Fournette, Antonio Brown, and the Jaguars defense all go nuts and score 20-plus points each. The probability of Hunt exploding and the Chiefs defense scoring a defensive touchdown while Brown racks up garbage time is low. However, the upside is immense. If it goes off in the FanDuel Sunday Million, you’ll likely find yourself near the top of the standings.

Devonta Freeman + Atlanta Defense

Devonta Freeman + Atlanta Defense + Matt Bryant

Austin Hooper + Atlanta Defense + Matt Bryant

Atlanta Defense + Matt Bryant

This game has an 11-point spread and the Atlanta Falcons will likely pummel the lifeless Miami Dolphins in front of the Atlanta faithful. Freeman stacked with the Atl Def is a safe stack for Week 6. The Falcons should make Jay Cutler’s Week 5 look like a high point by the end of this game (especially without DeVante Parker). Similar to the Chiefs, if the Falcons force turnovers and short fields that will put Freeman into superb position to rack up multiple touchdowns.

By adding Matt Bryant we are able to grab another highly correlated play, Defense + Kicker, and stack that with Freeman. If the Falcons force short field opportunities due to Cutler’s turnovers then we can game theorize that Freeman is either going to score touchdowns or Bryant will kick field goals. This game could easily get out of hand pretty quickly though so this stack is for large field GPPs only, just in case Freeman is rested towards the end of the game if they’re pouring it on the Dolphins.

Tight ends have the same correlations as running backs. Generally, we want a home team that is favorited with a high implied team total. The Falcons are all of those things which instantly makes Hooper a great GPP play. He’s very cheap across Yahoo, FantasyDraft, FanDuel, and DraftKings. Sanu looks like he’ll be out too which opens up some targets in the middle of the field because of Sanu’s 17.9% target rate and a 14.3% target share in the red zone.

Kirk Cousins + Jordan Reed

Kirk Cousins + Jordan Reed + Pierre Garcon

This one is another large field GPP play only due to the insecurity but high upside Jordan Reed offers. Reed came out and said he isn’t fully healthy yet, however, the team seems to think he is as they removed him from the injury report in Week 6. I defer to the team on this one and can see him having an elite output that he has proven over the years to be capable of.

Cousins is a great pivot off of Deshaun Watson in GPPs because they are similarly price on both FanDuel and DraftKings. If the Redskins can’t move the ball on the ground they’re going to have to get to their 28-points Vegas ITT (implied team total) somehow, and that likely will be through the air.

If Cousins and Reed are pouring on the points, then the 49ers are going to have to throw the ball 40-45 times to catch-up. Pierre Garcon should eat this secondary alive as they are without their lockdown cornerback, Josh Norman. Garcon is a target monster and playing against his former team, a team he couldn’t wait to leave, I can see him being the type of WR play that can outright win you a GPP.

Samaje Perine + Redskins Defense

Perine is only $4,900 on FanDuel. We have discussed at length the benefits of playing a running back with a defense. The Redskins do have an 11-point spread and are home favorites. Those are the main two things are looking for when targeting defenses and we know a running back with that type of game script can rack up touches and touchdowns.

I also like that he has less competition in the backfield because of injuries.legitimatelytely is their only in between the tackles runner for Week 6. Whether he is doing well or not he’s going to get 15-18 carries and likely many more if they are winning. He should go under-owned because everyone wants to play Jerick McKinnon on both sites. I love this stack and if you are running out a bunch of lineups and ladders for Week 6, I would do whichever Cousins stack you liked best and then another lineup with Perine and Redskins defense to hedge your investments.

C.J. Anderson + Broncos Defense

This is the same concept as Perine and the Redskins defense. The Broncos are hosting the lifeless, and inept offense, of the Giants. The Broncos are going to feast and I can’t remember the last time I have seen a Vegas implied team total of 14 points (Giants ITT). They’re going to be chalk but they’re going to be good. If you are running one, two, or three lineups, I would want to make sure they were my defense for the majority of them (1 of 1, 1 of 2, 2 of 3 for example).

CJA should have plenty of opportunities to score touchdowns and rack up carries as the Broncos likely will be leading all game.

Tom Brady + Rob Gronkowski

Tom Brady + Chris Hogan

Tom Brady + Pass Catcher + Austin-Seferian Jenkins

Can you remember a week when the Patriots were implied to score 28-points but weren’t being talked about anywhere across the industry? Me neither. I think these stacks are fantastic for small field GPPs and our ladder system. I am not quite sure how many I will have though, at least on FanDuel, because I don’t see much of a reason to pay all the way up for Tom Brady. On DraftKings, he isn’t that much more expensive than Deshaun Watson who should be the highest owned quarterbacks of the weekend in all formats.

By targeting his two best red zone targets in either stack, or even a three-man (only for large field GPPs) Brady, Gronk, and Hogan stack, we are targetting all of the touchdowns. It’s expensive and again, I won’t have much of these.

By running any Patriots stack back with ASJ, we are concluding that the Jets will throw the ball a ton in comeback mode which could lead to a heaping amount of targets for the mercurial tight end.

Deshaun Watson + DeAndre Hopkins

Deshaun Watson + Ryan Griffin

Deshaun Watson + Lamar Miller

Deshaun Watson + Lamer Miller + Ryan Griffin

I will have a fair amount of these stacks in small field GPPs and the last three-man stack as the only one I think I will use in large field GPPs. Watson in small GPPs and our ladder system is a great play. I will use other plays in my lineup to make sure I have a contrarian play or two in my lineup to offset the high ownership that comes with using Watson.

Lamar Miller has played the fourth most snaps for running backs in the NFL over the past three weeks. If we use Watson and Miller together and the Texans exceed their four touchdown Vegas projection, then we could lock up every single touchdown with this combo.

In the Miller + Griffin stack with Watson, we are fading the high ownership of DeAndre Hopkins and hoping that Watson throws to Griffin in the red zone and Miller gets a rushing touchdown or two. In a stack like this, I would try to leverage the field even more by using a wide receiver that is similarly priced to Hopkins, someone like Keenan Allen.

So the roster construction would start like this: Watson, Miller, Keenan Allen, Griffin, and then I would build from there.

Leveraging Example

In GPPs, specifically large field GPPs, there really is no need for dart throws. For the most part, we just need to leverage situations. If the Saints passing game is going to be highly owned, use Ingram and hope for rushing touchdowns. That not only helps you but it hurts any lineup that had Brees with Michael Thomas. Focus on plays like that while constructing large field GPPs. Our $150,000 winner in Week 5 took second play in the Sunday Million by creating the ultimate leverage lineup. Every single player in his lineup was a good player. There was no Kenny Stills or Antonio Gates type plays. He chose guys who were talented and overshadowed by other plays at the position that would be more popular. If you want more examples and breakdown of how to leverage, read this.

Best of luck to you in Week 6. You can find me on Twitter @DFSnDONUTS or in Slack in the #NFL-TALK or #DAILYDONUTS channels.