Say goodbye to the soft pricing of Week 1. With fewer bargains available, expensive stacks will put a choke hold on the lineup-building process. It's time to place a higher priority on value and uniqueness. Avoid stacks with high ownership projections. They're usually some of the most expensive pairings of the week anyway.
Finally having an official week in the books also means examining our recency biases. Are we overvaluing players coming off of big games and undervaluing players who let us down? Try to emotionally detach from what the teams and players did last week to dig deeper for DFS gems.
Every Friday, this article provides 7-10 FanDuel stacks for tournament play. We'll discuss twists that make highly-owned stacks more viable, unearth less common stacks for top-heavy contests, and create strong lineup anchors with defensive stacks.
Highly-Owned Stacks (with a Twist)
Sam Bradford ($7,500) + Jordan Matthews ($7,000) = $14,500
The Eagles are favored in the highest scoring game of the week again. Bradford and Matthews connected for plenty of yards last week but Matthews failed to score. This stack is hard to fade in such a high-scoring game, but Dallas somehow managed to shut down Odell Beckham Jr last week.
Twist: Despite recovering from injury and all the talk of Zach Ertz ($5,200) being behind Brent Celek on the depth chart, Ertz played twice as many offensive snaps as Celek in Week 1. Swapping him with Matthews offers $1,800 in salary relief for a total of $12,700.
Tony Romo ($8,500) + Terrance Williams ($6,300) = $14,800
On the other side of the 55-point matchup with the Eagles, Vegas predicts the Cowboys will play from behind for much of this game. With Dez Bryant sidelined, the hunt is on for Romo's new top target. Williams will be highly owned this week, and coming off of a two-touchdown performance, Jason Witten's ($6,000) popularity won't be far behind.
Twist: Devin Street ($4,500) inherits Bryant's vacated spot on the outside in the three-receiver sets, and pivoting to him from Williams recovers $1,800 in salary. Street will probably play less than half the snaps, but his salary relief and depth of target upside make him a better pairing for Romo in GPPs than pivoting to Cole Beasley ($5,700) for just $600 in savings.
Andrew Luck ($8,900) + Donte Moncrief ($6,000) = $14,900
According to Kevin Bown on Twitter, Coach Chuck Pagano has some optimism that T.Y. Hilton will play on Monday night against the Jets. Hilton got in a limited practice on Saturday but remains a game-time decision due to a knee injury. It's possible that Hilton plays and is healthy enough to be Darrelle Revis' primary focus. But if Hilton sits or plays as a decoy, Revis could switch to blanketing Moncrief. It's best to avoid this cloudy situation.
Twist: Vegas projects the Colts as the third highest scoring team of the week, so someone in their offense has to benefit. My money is on Dwayne Allen ($5,200). Stacking him with Luck should notch at least one touchdown for the pair.
Less Common Stacks
Andy Dalton ($6,900) + Tyler Eifert ($5,900) = $12,800
Eifert's two-touchdown performance will make him a popular pick on his own, but I don't foresee many owners stacking him with Dalton. The game has a low enough Vegas total to fly under the radar, but the 25-point Bengals projection for the still cracks the top 10. Most DFS players looking for a Cincinnati stack will abort the idea when they realize an A.J. Green ($8,100) stack will run them $15,000.
Ryan Fitzpatrick ($6,700) + Eric Decker ($6,000) = $12,700
Pro Bowl Colts corner, Vontae Davis, has historically covered just one side of the field. This year he started shadowing opponents' top receiving threat. With Brandon Marshall ($7,400) drawing his blanket coverage, Decker will be the Jets leading receiver on Monday night.
Joe Flacco ($8,100) + Steve Smith ($6,700) = $14,800
I don't usually like spending more than $13,000 on a less commonly used stack, but Steve Smith should have no trouble cutting through the Raiders' suspect secondary.
Defensive Stacks
Baltimore Ravens Defense ($5,000) + Justin Forsett ($7,800) = $12,800
As seven-point favorites with a projected top-ten score, the Ravens should dismantle the Raiders.
Miami Dolphins Defense ($5,100) + Lamar Miller ($7,300) = $12,400
The Dolphins' defense is the priciest of the week, but Miller offers a little salary relief in a tier below most other bell-cow runners. The Jaguars are projected to score less than 18 points in Miami on Sunday.
New Orleans Saints Defense ($4,500) + Mark Ingram ($8,000) = $12,500
The Saints are the most heavily favored team of the week, hosting the week-one-imploding Buccaneers at the Superdome. If C.J. Spiller plays, Ingram's value takes a hit to the point that you may want to look elsewhere. But if Spiller sits or rumors circulate about him playing limited snaps, then Ingram belongs in lot of lineups this week.
Austin Lee hang-glided in Rio, climbed The Great Wall, and spent much of his childhood mixing cherry slushies with vanilla milkshakes. For more of his DFS insights, watch The Footballguys Daily Fantasy Hour presented by Rotogrinders on Wednesdays at 9:30pm ET or listen to The Audible's FanDuel podcast on Friday mornings. Feel free to hit him up for advice on Twitter.
