The idea of stacking in daily fantasy sports has changed dramatically over the past few years due to the potential advantage it provides if your team blasts off.  Stacking for NFL is a different challenge than for MLB.  In baseball, the hitters from the team you choose are generally all going to receive the same 4-5 at bats per game that players from all the other teams will have. This essentially means that cheap punt player you took will have the same amount of opportunities to swing his bat as the top-priced elite player. This is not the case for NFL.

There is much more that goes into determining your stacking route for NFL. Below are some strategies that compliment the great information already provided in the earlier draft guide articles about how to approach stacking in football.

Tip:  If you are completely new to NFL DFS, or want to try multi-entry stacking combinations for the first time, I suggest looking at week one’s late night Sunday/Monday or the 4:05 afternoon slate. Both will likely have large GPP contests, but only three games to work with over a full Sunday set of games.  

What not to do: Why users go all in on the first games of a slate just to see their names on the top of the leaderboard is something that amazes me.  It’s done all the time in the NBA and MLB. For NFL, you’ll see this the most with the Thursday-Sunday slates and the Monday-Thursday slates. The start times of the games don’t matter, as contests are not over until every game ends. Yes, it’s cool to see your current winnings, but it is the end result that you want. The same could be said for taking late-night hammer options to see yourself climbing up the standings. Although that is one of my favorite routes to take, you need to make sure there is a reason to late night stack over doing it just for the sweat purposes.

It starts with the QB:  If you choose to stack players from the same team in your lineup, the first step is choosing your QB. You can take two different approaches when deciding which QB you want. The first approach is taking a QB from a top-projected offense for the week. The playbook, rankings, and position coaches will help determine who those are, but typically, you can count on the top QB’s to attempt 40 passes and throw for 300-plus yards. The second approach is the garbage-time QB. Unlike basketball, you hardly see backup QB’s in games receiving opportunities in garbage time. The bonus with taking a QB from a team you think will lose is that the coverage becomes much softer when a team has the large lead. The garbage-time yards and touchdowns are meaningless in the games being played, but for fantasy purposes, they are just as important as what is done in the first half.   

Who to pair with the QB: Brett provided some great links in his 2017 Fantasy Football DFS Roster Contrsuction article in the draft guide that breaks down the types of stacking. While playing large field single-entry and multi-entry GPP's, you still need your lineup to stand out from others, but that doesn’t mean you have to always take risks.   

The top pairing that you will see most in both cash and GPP's is the QB with the WR 1 combination. Think Ben Roethlisberger to Antonio BrownMatt Ryan to Julio Jones, and Russell Wilson to Doug Baldwin as example of this. Choosing the receiver that you know will be targeted ten or more times in a game is your best starting point.  

Once the season has a few weeks under it’s belt, one of my favorite stats after targets for WR’s is looking at their opponent’s defensive-coverage ratings. For example, if Baldwin is up against a top-rated cornerback, but the Packer’s defensive back matched up vs Tyler Lockett allows xx number of completions, yards, and TD’s per game, making the move to the second or third receiver may place you in a better spot and allow some salary relief.

What to do about the Tight End: Similar to the catcher spot in baseball, many feel that the tight-end spot is a punt play. When looking to use your tight end for stacking, it is best to pay up for one of the top-targeted players. This may mean taking Delanie Walker over Eric Decker or something similar with another team.

Granted, if a team is facing a defense that is horrible vs the tight-end spot (i.e. Houston last year), pairing Ben Roethlisberger with Brown and then taking Jesse James as a punt tight end hoping for the TD is not a bad route to take as well.   

What about Running Backs: Stacking a team’s QB and RB works best if the running back is also one that is used in the passing game. You’ll see this with the top backs in David Johnson and Le'Veon Bell, but you’ll also see this with Christian McCaffrey.  

Although it is not as sexy as the other stack options, I am a fan of the RB-DEF stack. The assumption is that if a team’s defense is shutting their opponent down, their running back is going to receive the extra workload, as there is no reason to pass much if you have a shutdown defense. Pairing a strong defense with that team’s running back will add value to your stack, without having to worry about if you are spreading yourself too thin with an offensive stack. If you play FanDuel, the running back-defense-kicker combo is one of my favorite stacking options.

Using Vegas:  Looking at the game totals and spreads is key to figuring out which games may turn into shootouts and which ones may provide a kicking parade. You’ll see some higher totals in games played in domes while noticing line movements due to weather concerns in December will also be key to roster construction.  

The other feature that Vegas provides that is a key indication are their prop plays. These include touchdowns, passing yards, receiving yards, rushing yards, and so on. While you will typically see the same player’s listed in the props each week, finding the players that are usually not listed are the ones that stand out most to me. If a running back has 100 yards or more prop, but hasn’t had more than 60 rushing yards in a game all year, it’s worth a second look as to why. The same goes with TD props for QB’s. Finding ones at 3.5 TD’s that usually are only a 1-2 TD type passer should stand out to you. If that’s the case, then you know their WR’s are also in play. The same could be said looking at the opposite side with players having lower than their usual fantasy projections for the week.

Is Stacking a Must for NFL?

If you have the choice, it’s best to pair your QB with at least one of his receivers, but taking three to four players from the same team in football for me isn’t the play a majority of the time. I love stacking teams on smaller slates in which the chances are that the other five teams don’t perform as well as the stack team chosen. Earlier in the season, I don’t believe stacking is the key on large slates. The main reason is the softer pricing that the sites have the first few weeks. This is due to wanting to make it easier for the new players to feel comfortable creating rosters.