Top DFS Stacks on FanDuel and DraftKings: Week 2

Stacking players is a stairway to the top of daily fantasy tournaments, maximizing upside by creating the sort of volatility that can help your roster post a crooked score—one way or another.

Below are some of the most intriguing stacking plays I found while sifting through the week's matchups, using 4for4’s Stack Value Report tool. Most of these options will leave room for high-ceiling studs. The goal, naturally, is to get a lot for a little. So let's get into it.

Atlanta Falcons (+4.5) @ Dallas Cowboys - O/U 52.5

QB Matt Ryan ($7,700 FD/$6,600 DK)

WR Julio Jones ($8,200 FD/$7,400 DK

WR Amari Cooper ($7,000 FD/$6,300 DK)

TE Dalton Schultz ($4,000 FD/$3,700 DK)

Some news: you won’t be the only one stacking this game. It’s decidedly stackable, in many different ways. This Ryan-Jones-Cooper-Schultz stack assumes a fairly even, high scoring affair in which both teams push the pace and pass a ton.

Ryan’s FanDuel price tag somehow dropped by $100 after throwing for 450 yards and two scores in Week 1. Now he gets a banged up Dallas defense that was quietly dismantled by Jared Goff last week, as the Rams QB piled up 275 yards on 31 attempts. Only two defenses allowed more yards per pass attempt in Week 1. Ryan probably won’t go for 400 yards again unless the Falcons are in garbage time mode for an entire quarter—as they were against Seattle—but Ryan still profiles as a ceiling play whose team is a 4.5-point underdog, likely to face pass-heavy, negative game flow.

If Ryan’s passing a ton, we know Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley are going to benefit from big-time volume. The target tree is narrow in Atlanta’s offense. Either guy works as a stack with Ryan. Both Jones and Ridley might work alongside Ryan, though it takes a chunk out of your salary on both DraftKings and FanDuel. While Ridley and Jones posted the same target share in Week 1 (23%), Jones was targeted on a higher percentage of his routes. And the Ryan-Jones combo has a slightly higher projected ceiling than the Ryan-Ridley stack, according to the Stack Value Report.

Cooper’s pricing is boggling my mind grapes. Coming off a game in which he caught 10 of 14 targets for 81 yards, Cooper’s DraftKings price has dropped by $700 and his FanDuel price fell by $100. Remarkable. His whopping 38% target share was the fourth-highest among all receivers last week, with CeeDee Lamb coming in second with a humble 16% target share. Cooper is a blow-the-roof-off sort of Week 2 option against a Falcons defense that allowed the fourth-highest yards per pass attempt, along with 232 wide receiver yards, and a long touchdown to D.K. Metcalf. He’s a perfect fit for this correlation game stack.

Blake Jarwin Szn has been canceled after the tight end tore his ACL last week against LA, leaving Dalton Schultz to take over at tight end for the Cowboys. Schultz, dirt cheap on both DFS sites, played a nice 69% of the team’s snaps against the Rams, lining up in the slot on 18 of his 48 offensive snaps. He was even targeted four times. The Falcons, meanwhile, appeared susceptible to tight ends last week. Seattle tight ends nabbed all seven of their targets, tallying 41 yards and a touchdown by the ancient Greg Olsen.

Tight ends getting opportunity against the Falcons is nothing new: last year, 23.33% of targets against Atlanta’s defense went to tight ends—the sixth-highest rate in the NFL. Tight ends facing off against Atlanta saw 7.44 targets per contest in 2019. Maybe Schultz doesn’t see quite that many, but he’s a salary cap saver who could get caught up in the scoring between these two potent offenses.

Minnesota Vikings (+3) @ Indianapolis Colts - O/U 48.5

QB Philip Rivers ($7,100 FD/$5,900 DK)

WR T.Y. Hilton ($6,300 FD/$5,700 DK)

WR Adam Thielen ($7,300 FD/$7,200 DK)

WR Jonathan Taylor ($5,800 FD/$5,700 DK)

This is another Week 2 game you likely won’t be alone in stacking. Both the Vikings and Colts defenses were shredded to varying degrees in Week 1, and we’re fairly sure where the ole’ pigskin is going to go in these offenses.

Rivers makes his second appearance in this space after throwing for 363 yards—the third most of opening week—along with a touchdown and two horrendous picks. He gets another prime matchup in Week 2 against a Minnesota secondary that was totally incapable of stopping Aaron Rodgers in Week 1. Rodgers ended with 364 yards and four touchdowns.

The Vikings gave up a 72.3% completion rate and 8.3 yards per pass—the fifth-worst rate of the week. One of the best developments for Rivers in his first game as a Colt: he wasn’t sacked once and was rarely pressured. In fact, only Derek Carr saw less pressure than Rivers in Week 1; the Jaguars only pressured Rivers on 13% of his dropbacks. A Vikings front seven that didn’t get to Rodgers once might mean another day of unbothered passing for Rivers.

DFS players are going to be off T.Y. Hilton in Week 2 even though his price point has dropped on FanDuel and DraftKings. What that price drop doesn’t tell you is that Hilton tied Parris Campbell for the team lead in target share (20%). Campbell went for 30 more yards and got the touchdown, so he saw the Week 2 DFS price jump. While he works with this stack, I’ve included Hilton because he’s more likely to see the high-value downfield targets from Rivers and his Week 2 ownership will probably be really low in a game with plenty of high-scoring potential.

Thielen caught six of his eight targets for 120 yards and two scores last week against Green Bay. Of course, he didn’t do much until the Vikings decided it was time to try to score points after Rodgers had taken their souls. Thielen's unquestioned alpha role in the Minnesota offense means he comes into every matchup with upside. And the 4for4 Floor and Ceiling Projections tool agrees, giving Thielen the seventh-highest wide receiver ceiling of the week. The matchup looks legit this week, as Jaguars receivers caught 13 of 14 targets against Indy in Week 1, piling up 129 yards and three touchdowns in a low-volume Jacksonville passing attack.

I’d prefer Jonathan Taylor here over Nyheim Hines because the backs shared pass game action last week and Taylor profiles as the (much) more likely goal-line back. If Taylor indeed gets the bulk of rushing attempts, he has a plush matchup. The Packers gouged the Vikings for 158 yards last week, ripping off runs at 4.95 yards per tote. While FanDuel raising Taylor’s price by $500 this week takes some of the shine off his value, the rookie runner’s DraftKings price somehow remained stagnant. It’s like Taylor never caught six of six targets for 67 yards in his first pro game. Weird.

Baltimore Ravens (-6.5) @ Houston Texans - O/U 53

QB Lamar Jackson ($9,500 FD/$8,200 DK)

WR Marquise Brown ($6,200 FD/$6,200 DK)

WR Will Fuller ($6,100 FD/$6,300 DK)

Despite Marquise Browns’ skyrocketing salary—which was ridiculously low on both sites last week—this correlation stack isn’t the kind of salary cap backbreaker you might think it is. It’ll require 36.3% of your FanDuel budget and 41.4% of your DraftKings allotment.

Jackson, Brown, and Fuller might make the most sense for FanDuel simply because it’s a trio with lots of touchdown upside, and touchdowns matter a whole hell of a lot on FanDuel and it’s half-PPR scoring.

Brown’s Week 1 opportunity was as encouraging as one could hope for. He played 63% of the team’s snaps in a blowout victory, he drew 24% of the team’s targets, and he caught five balls for 101 yards. He might’ve pushed for 200 yards if the Browns had been competitive in Week 1. We’re going to want any WR1 whose team has an implied total of 29.5 points, especially when that WR1 is still (probably) underpriced. Jackson might not do what he did to this Houston defense last year when he threw for four scores and ran for 79 yards, but he should have an easy time of it against a secondary that didn’t come close to containing Patrick Mahomes last week. With a half dozen usable quarterback options at a far cheaper price, I’m a tad skeptical that DFS players will be willing to pay all the way up for Jackson in tournaments this week.

Fuller in Week 1 sleepwalked into 112 yards on eight grabs. He played 80% of the team’s snaps and dominated targets for Houston, commanding 32% of Deshaun Watson’s throws. He also dropped a 25-yard pass early in the game against KC. As heavy underdogs against Lamar’s Perfect Machine, the Texans will almost assuredly be left scrambling to keep pace. That might be good for a number of Texans pass catchers, but Fuller more than others. He’s the alpha with DeAndre Hopkins dispatched to Arizona. I’m OK plugging him into this stack even though he’s going to have high ownership in Week 2 contests. Sometimes you eat the chalk if the chalk has multiple touchdowns well within his range of outcomes.