Every Friday, this article provides several FanDuel stacks. Most of these positively correlated combinations are best suited for tournament play. But some of the safer duos with high floors can be used in cash games. We'll discuss highly-owned stacks, dig deeper to find less common stacks, identify potential shootouts, and create strong lineup anchors with defensive stacks.
Highly-Owned Stacks
Cam Newton ($9,000) + Greg Olsen ($6,600) = $15,600
Against the comical Saints defense, Newton and Olsen form the super-chalk stack of the week. Both players had the highest ownership at their positions in Thursday night contests.
Twist: It seems likely that Ted Ginn Jr Jr. ($5,800) will get loose for a deep touchdown against the league's worst pass defense. You could triple-stack him or use him instead of Olsen to get a little differentiation.
Shootout: This game has shootout potential, but New Orleans will have to spread it around to compete. Josh Norman will blanket Brandin Cooks ($7,100). Willie Snead ($6,100) is banged up, missing practice on Wednesday and Thursday. None of the Saints' pass-catchers entice me this week.
Eli Manning ($7,600) + Odell Beckham Jr ($9,400) = $17,000
Beckham will be highly owned, but Manning is flying a little under the radar in this weekend's battle for New Jersey. Both Darrelle Revis and his backup, Marcus Williams, are unlikely to play for the Jets, leaving Beckham plenty of room to run wild. I project Beckham to be the top fantasy scorer at his position.
Shootout: On paper the Giants' pass defense looks like a great matchup for Brandon Marshall ($8,100) and Eric Decker ($7,200). The Giants have allowed the most receiving yards in the league over their last five games. But as fellow Footballguys staffer John Lee pointed out on our RotoGrinders show, much of that yardage was yielded by backup corners. Last week was Prince Amukamara's first game since Week 5. And the Giants' top corners did a solid job containing the Washington passing game. DeSean Jackson scored his long touchdown while Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie was out getting his ankle taped up. Both Amukamara and Rodgers-Cromartie are healthy this week, hurting the value of the Jets' top pass-catchers.
Jay Cutler ($7,000) + Alshon Jeffery ($7,700) = $14,700
The 49ers have allowed five receivers to burn them for more than 21 FanDuel points this year. Their defensive struggles are magnified on the road. Jeffery was the highest-owned receiver in most Thursday contests, as he should be. Use him but find differentiation elsewhere in top-heavy GPPs.
Less Common Stacks
Marcus Mariota ($7,100) + Delanie Walker ($6,000) = $13,100
Mariota has been a pretty inconsistent fantasy scorer this season, but his upside is appealing for GPPs. According to my Normalized Strength of Schedule, Jacksonville has allowed quarterbacks to overperform by 22% over the last five weeks. And while Walker will likely be a top-three-owned tight end this week, Mariota was largely overlooked in Thursday contests.
Shootout: With Allen Hurns likely to miss this game, it will be hard not to add target-monster Allen Robinson ($8,000) to Titans stacks as a positive correlation play.
Matt Hasselbeck ($6,500) + T.Y. Hilton ($7,300) = $13,800
Pittsburgh has allowed receivers to overperform by a league-high 50% over the past five weeks. I expect Hilton's strong connection with Hasselbeck to continue after last week's game-high 12 targets for two touchdowns.
Shootout: This game has the most shootout potential of the week. The question is which Steelers receiver should you add to a Colts stack? Vontae Davis has been shadowing top receivers more than last year, but he's still not a true shadow corner. I expect him to spend more time covering Antonio Brown ($9,000), so I like Martavis Bryant ($6,900) as the best value in the Steelers receiving corps. Pretend Markus Wheaton's ($6,000) 200-yard outburst last week never happened.
Defensive Stacks
Arizona Cardinals ($5,400) + David Johnson ($5,900) = $11,300
Pairing the most expensive defense with the week's best value at running back is the obvious choice. The Rams are averaging less than 13 points per game and have lost four games in a row.
New England Patriots ($4,800) + LeGarrette Blount ($6,900) = $11,700
Banking on a Bill Belichick running back can be a dangerous game, so this is strictly a GPP play. But the Eagles have allowed a league-worst 166 rushing yards per game over the last five games. With most of the Patriots pass-catchers banged up, it seems likely that the Patriots will finally lean on their ground game. The Eagles have failed to reach 20 points in each of their last three games, experiencing defeat at the hands of teams with losing records.
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. Also check out his Normalized Strength of Schedule tool or hit him up for advice on Twitter.
