NFL DFS: GPP strategy for FanDuel and Draftkings
By Dan Palyo
NFL DFS: Stacking
If you’re not stacking in NFL DFS, then you need to start. If you’re only stacking in some lineups and not others, you need to stack more! Stacking, meaning using teammates from the same team in the same lineup, is easily the most important thing you can do in your GPP lineups. It raises your lineup’s ceiling every time you do it, and I’m going to spend a few slides here talking about just how important it is and hopefully give you some creative new ideas for how to do it.
You have to understand that stacking players in NFL DFS is more important than just about any other DFS sport. If you play MLB DFS or NHL DFS you are probably already a pro at stacking and understand the basic concept of how it works and the merits of doing it. NFL DFS stacks can come in a number of different combinations, with the most common stacks being two-man stacks of quarterbacks with one of their receivers.
Not to overexplain here, but a touchdown connection between a QB and a receiver is a minimum of 10 FanDuel points and 11 Draftkings points before the passing and receiving yardage is even added. For comparison sake, it would take a 45-yard touchdown run by a running back to equal the same number of points as a 5-yard touchdown pitch and catch between a QB and his receiver using FanDuel scoring.
With the way that the NFL has become a passing league, we see multiple quarterbacks throwing for 300+ yards every week and 3 or more touchdowns. If you can pair one of these Quarterbacks up with the receiver(s) that catch those TDs, you are locking in a large chunk of fantasy points. While two-player stacks are the most common, three-player stacks are certainly viable if an offense is projected to have a big week and there is even some merit to a full four-player onslaught, especially on smaller slates.
Stacking is paramount in NFL DFS and I’d like to look at a few ways to correlate your lineups to give yourself some unique stacks and perhaps some different ways to give yourself exposure to specific scenarios by looking at the topic of correlation next.