Week 3 of the NFL DFS season has arrived and it is time to win some big money using stacks.
While fantasy football stacks are becoming more prevalent in redraft leagues, the ability to stack players has always been one of the main strategic plays in daily fantasy.
This weekly article will focus on what are the best stack plays in a given week for DFS.
While these plays can be applicable to FanDuel and other daily fantasy sites, this article will focus primarily on DraftKings pricing.
What is stacking in DFS?
A fantasy football stack is when you take two or more players from the same team in order to double your points. This is a strategy that is especially useful in games with high over-unders.
While you are able to stack a quarterback with a running back and or a tight end, we’ll be focusing on the best stacks available between a quarterback and a wide receiver.
What is most important when stacking in DFS?
What is most important to pay attention to, with or without stacking, is a player’s cost and their ultimate output of points.
For example: QB Jalen Hurts had an average cost of $6,700 last season and had five weeks in which he scored 4x his weekly cost.
Ultimately, factoring in the elements of stacking players along with a strong return of investment on players’ costs will put you in the best position to cash in this season.
Week 3 NFL DFS Stacks & Picks for DraftKings, FanDuel
QB Kyler Murray ($7,300) & WR Greg Dortch ($4,300), Cardinals vs Rams
- Combined Price: $11,600 – 23.2% of lineup salary
Before going any further, the nomination of Greg Dortch is contingent on Rondale Moore missing another week due to his hamstring injury. If Moore plays, consider pivoting to Marquise Brown, who is priced at $6,000.
As of Thursday, Moore was again sidelined at Cardinals practice.
Getting back to Dortch, the third-year pass catcher is currently second in targets amongst Cardinals wide receivers.
Those targets would include Week 2 in which Dortch caught all four of his targets for 55 yards and a touchdown. He has also played on 93.3% of the Cardinals’ passing snaps.
With the volume Dortch has been receiving in this early season, the Cardinals receiver has scored four times his DraftKings price tag in both games this season.
Passing to Dortch this weekend will be Kyler Murray, who has scored 20 or more points in his first two games. Even with four total touchdowns to start the season, Murray has seen his DraftKings price lowered by $200 from this week.
Also important to note that two of Murray’s 10 games with 20 points scored last season came against this same Rams defense, which included 651 yards passing.
On top of all of this, we are looking for a return on investment with these players. This is only the third time since last season that Murray has been priced at $7,300 or less. On those other two occasions, the Cardinals quarterback scored three times his price.
Expect the Cardinals to throw against a Rams defense that is second in the NFL in points allowed to the quarterback and wide receiver positions combined with 157.22 points.
The Rams are also one of just five teams to allow 40 or more points to the wide receiver position in each of the first two weeks. This is a continuation of last season when the Rams had seven such games.
Until DeAndre Hopkins returns, these Cardinals wide receivers will continue to be serious values in all DFS formats.
QB Jared Goff ($5,800) & WR Amon-Ra St.Brown ($7,200), Lions vs Vikings
- Combined Price: $13,000 – 26% of lineup salary
Amon-Ra St.Brown was one of the top performers in Week 2 as he hauled in nine receptions for 116-yards and two touchdowns. Add two rushes for 68-yards and St.Brown would finish fourth among wide receivers with 42.4 points scored.
That strong performance has forced DraftKings to raise St.Brown’s price tag by $700. Even with that rising cost, the second-year pass catcher is still a great stacking option with Jared Goff this Sunday.
Along with St.Brown’s strong performance against the Commanders, Goff was able to score 26 points. The high-scoring weekend allowed Goff and St. Brown to finish with the fifth highest score among quarterback and wide receiver stacks.
On top of all of this, the Lions have been scoring and allowing high point totals. After two weeks, the Lions are first in the NFC in points scored and second in points allowed.
Opposing the Lions this weekend will be a Vikings team that was good in Week 1 and equally bad in Week 2. This past Monday against the Eagles, the Vikings were ninth in points allowed to wide receivers and third in points allowed to quarterbacks.
While the expectation is that the Vikings will play better offensively, this is still a Vikings team that has their issues defensively. Last season, the Vikings had five weeks in which they allowed a combined 80 points to the quarterback and wide receiver positions.
While that would mark the most in the NFL, the Vikings were also one of three teams to have multiple games of allowing 100 or more points to the positions. Unfortunately for Vikings fans, I see this trend continuing in 2022.
This matchup between the Lions and Vikings has the second-highest over-under point total of 53 and generally with a high point total in Las Vegas, the DFS points follow. Expect the Amon-Ra St. Brown revenge tour to follow suit.
QB Kirk Cousins ($6,700) & WR Justin Jefferson ($9,300), Commanders vs. Lions
- Combined Price: $16,000 – 32% of lineup salary
This is the highest lineup salary percentage that I have suggested this season but if you read my previous stack nomination, I expect big points to be scored in the Vikings and Lions game.
There is no sugarcoating how bad Monday night was for Kirk Cousins. Prime time has never been kind to Cousins as he threw three interceptions in Week 2. To date, 64% of Cousins’s career interceptions have come in night games.
Thankfully, this week’s Vikings game against the Lions is on the early slate for Sunday.
There isn’t much else that can be said about Justin Jefferson that hasn’t already been said. He is an elite wide receiver. Back in Week 1, Jefferson scored 42.4 points which was more than four times his price tag of $7,800. That would even be good for four times his Week 3 cost of $9,300.
With 10 games of 20 or more points since 2021, Jefferson will take on a Lions defense that has allowed 65 points over the first two weeks of the season.
This Lions’ defense has not only allowed 30 or more points to wide receivers in the first two games, they have also had 10 missed tackles on passing plays.
The Lions’ troubles with wide receivers coupled with them allowing the fourth-most points to opposing quarterbacks seems like a prime opportunity for Cousins to bounce back, with one of the best receivers in football by his side.
QB Derek Carr ($5,900) & WR Davante Adams ($8,400), Raiders vs Titans
- Combined Price: $14,900 – 28.5% of lineup salary
Derek Carr and Davante Adams were a stack suggestion last week and it turned out to be a disaster. In spite of Carr and Adams combining for just 28.18 points against the Cardinals, Week 3 will be a bounce-back week for the Las Vegas connection.
The Titans play the Raiders this weekend and they have had their troubles on the defensive side of the ball. After two weeks, the Titans rank fourth in combined quarterback and wide receiver points allowed with 148.2.
Against another elite wide receiver this past week, the Titans were scorched by Stefon Diggs for 148 yards and three touchdowns.
Having trouble with wide receivers has been a recurring theme for the Titans. Looking back to last season, the Titans allowed the second-most points to the wide receiver position, which would include five games of fifty points or more.
Adams having just 12 receiving yards against the Titans is a rarity and one I expect him to bounce back from. Over the last two years, the Raiders pass catcher has had just six games with less than 50 receiving yards.
While Carr has yet to have a 20-point game this season, Week 3 will be the week. On top of allowing 32.68 points to Josh Allen on Monday night, the Titans had eight weeks in which they allowed 20-points or more to opposing quarterbacks.
Regardless of if the Raiders are able to earn their first win, this a DFS bounce-back game for the Carr and Adams stack.
QB Carson Wentz ($6,300) & WR Curtis Samuel ($5,100), Commanders vs Eagles
- Combined Price: ($11,400) – 22.8% of lineup salary
While I had every intention of nominating Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown, who I still like this weekend, it was hard to not nominate the connection Carson Wentz and Curtis Samuel again.
For what it is worth, a Hurts and Brown stack will cost $14,900 and will take up 29.7% percent of your lineup salary.
Last week it was suggested that you stack Wentz and Samuel and while things started slow, the connection ultimately delivered. Against the Lions, the Commanders duo combined for 54.68 points.
Headed into this week, Wentz and Samuel are fourth among all quarterback and wide receiver stacks with 107.60 points.
It is encouraging that beyond the points, Samuel is the Commanders’ target leader and is seventh in the NFL among wide receivers with 20. On top of that, Samuel has also recorded a touchdown in each of his first two games.
On the other end of that connection, Wentz has stayed hot in his first two games. While recording two 30+ point games, the Commanders quarterback has scored four times his DraftKings price tag.
The return on investment from Wentz has been the best in the NFL and even with his DraftKings price increasing another $500 in Week 3, I still firmly believe that Wentz is playing well enough to score four times his cost again.
For those needing a refresher on return on investment, for Wentz to score four times his cost of $6,300, the red-hot Wentz would need to score at least 25.2 points. The Commanders quarterback will slow down at some point, but this isn’t the week.
Then there is the Eagles who are one of thirteen teams to allow less than 100-points to quarterbacks and wide receivers combined. Looking closer at those numbers, it is hard to ignore the fact that the Eagles played a self destructive Kirk Cousins on Monday night.
What is telling is that the Eagles defense has 16 missed tackles on passing plays. My belief is that we see the Eagles team that allowed 39.4 points to opposing wide receivers in Week 1. Couple that with Wentz’s strong play and this Commanders stack has at least one more week of being profitable.
For those who are into this sort of thing, this is a Carson Wentz revenge game.
