DFS Stacks: Week 1
What do Steve Young and Jerry Rice, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, and Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute have in common? They’re all legendary 1-2 punches. When it comes to daily fantasy sports, you’re going to need one of those in your lineups — even if it’s one that’s only legendary for a couple of hours.
Whether it’s DraftKings, FanDuel, or Yahoo, having a productive quarterback and wide receiver from the same team is often the main ingredient of a money-making recipe. With that said, with the help of our premium DFS Stacking Tool, we’ll be giving you some value QB-WR combinations to keep an eye on, on a weekly basis.
These are the five options you’re going to want to consider heading into Week 1 of the NFL regular season:
Philadelphia Eagles vs. Atlanta Falcons
- QB – Jalen Hurts (DraftKings: $6,400 / FanDuel: $7,600 / Yahoo: $26)
- WR – DeVonta Smith (DraftKings: $4,500 / FanDuel: $5,300 / Yahoo: $17)
There wasn’t a team in football that gave up more yards per game through the air than the Falcons’ 293.6 in 2020. Atlanta made some moves to address the secondary during the offseason, but they didn’t do enough to make this anything less than a juicy matchup for Hurts and the Eagles.
Of course, there are concerns over whether or not Hurts is a good enough passer to be the long-term answer under center in Philadelphia. However, the 23-year-old was a fantasy monster when he took over as the starting quarterback last year. From Weeks 14 to 17, Hurts averaged 23.9 fantasy points per game, and that was with an abbreviated outing against the Washington Football Team in Week 17 — a game in which the Eagles were blasted for taking the dual-threat signal-caller out.
Hurts might not have the accuracy you want out of a franchise quarterback, but Philadelphia head coach Nick Sirianni — an impressive offensive mind — should be able to scheme receivers open against this miserable Falcons defense. Hurts won’t miss guys that are running freely over the middle of the field. On top of that, he’s good for 50 or so rushing yards and could rush for a touchdown, too.
As for Hurts’ running mate in this one, the right choice looks like rookie DeVonta Smith. Smith’s small frame made him the butt of every joke on social media heading into the draft, but physicality likely won’t come into play against a team like Atlanta. Two years ago, Hollywood Brown had four catches for 147 yards and two touchdowns in his first career game. Smith is a similar type of deep-ball threat, but he’s a much more precise route runner. It wouldn’t be too surprised if he put up some gaudy numbers in this one.
This combination should be in for a nice day on Sunday. And if you’re playing on FanDuel, it’s tied for our fourth-rated stacking option.
Carolina Panthers vs. New York Jets
- QB – Sam Darnold (DraftKings: $5,000 / FanDuel: $6,500 / Yahoo: $25)
- WR – Terrace Marshall Jr. (DraftKings: $3,000 / FanDuel: $4,900 / Yahoo: $11)
It’s fitting that Darnold’s first game will be against the team that drafted him. The 24-year-old never quite had a competent supporting cast in New York, and he now gets an opportunity to show the Jets that they made a mistake when they traded him and opted to draft Zach Wilson.
Darnold steps into a nice situation in Carolina, where he is surrounded by a deep group of wideouts — one that includes Marshall, who is better than his numbers at LSU suggest he is. With Joe Brady calling the shots, Darnold should have an opportunity to put up some good numbers and revive his career. That all starts with this meeting with the Jets, who had one of the worst secondaries in football a year ago. Robert Saleh is a great defensive mind and should be able to make New York a tough team to play against over time. However, the Jets haven’t invested nearly enough at the cornerback position.
Marshall is far from the top option in Carolina’s aerial attack, but he should be the starter out of the slot. Darnold loves to pepper his slot receivers, and he did so in his limited preseason action. At Marshall’s extremely cheap price tag, he looks like the best bang for your buck out of this group of wideouts.
This duo should serve you well anywhere, but it’s tied as our top-ranked stack at DraftKings.
New York Jets vs. Carolina Panthers
- QB – Zach Wilson (DraftKings: $5,000 / FanDuel: $6,500 / Yahoo: $20)
- WR – Corey Davis (DraftKings: $4,900 / FanDuel: $5,800 / Yahoo: $15)
Sticking with the same game, Wilson and Davis should make for an enticing combo in daily fantasy this weekend. The Jets brought in Mike LaFleur to run Saleh’s offense, and that means we should see some clever designs out of New York this season.
In San Francisco, LaFleur worked under Kyle Shanahan and helped employ a play-action-heavy system, with receivers often getting the ball quickly and with enough space to make things happen in the open field. It’s not so different from what Sean McVay runs in Los Angeles, and Davis figures to play a Robert Woods-like role in the Jets offense this season. That means he’ll often chip a defender as a blocker before leaking out and running his routes. But regardless of how he does it, there’s no denying that Davis is the top receiver in this offense and this is a good matchup in Week 1.
Wilson will likely use Davis as his security blanket, as we saw a bit in his final preseason performance. The two flashed some great chemistry in a short period of time, and they now face a Panthers defense that allowed the eighth-highest passer rating in football a year ago.
On top of what Wilson might be able to do with Davis, the rookie also has an underrated set of wheels. That could come into play in Week 1, and his cannon for an arm might also mean a successful deep shot or two.
Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Houston Texans
- QB – Trevor Lawrence (DraftKings: $6,200 / FanDuel: $6,800 / Yahoo: $23)
- WR – Marvin Jones Jr. (DraftKings: $3,600 / FanDuel: $5,800 / Yahoo: $17)
Lawrence is the second rookie on this week’s list but being unproven means that he won’t be as heavily rostered as some of the other quarterbacks in the slate. Meanwhile, the 21-year-old clearly has generational talent — you’d be hard pressed to find many scouts that would disagree with that — and he gets an opening-week matchup against the worst team in football, by far.
Last year, only eight teams allowed more passing touchdowns than the Texans, and they had the second-worst opposing quarterback rating. On top of that, they also had the worst mark in opposing quarterback completion percentage. That’s not a great sign for a defense that also happened to lose most of its talent, with the team clearly heading towards a lengthy rebuild. In fact, Houston just traded Bradley Roby to the New Orleans Saints a couple of days ago.
With an already bad secondary having stripped down it’s already nonexistent talent, Lawrence should have plenty of opportunities to make plays. The youngster has a massive arm, which means he should be able to connect on some bombs. However, he’s also extremely fast for a guy his size, meaning he might have a Josh Allen-type of impact as a fantasy runner. Perhaps it won’t be to that extent, but he’ll be good for 20-30 yards per week on the ground. And he’ll have opportunities to run it into the end zone.
As for Jones, there’s just no reason not to roll with him at this price. The veteran is a bit banged up heading into the season, but Jacksonville paid him good money to come in and be the team’s top wideout. Jones has always had a knack for making big plays, and he has a real opportunity to go off right away.
This duo is tied for our third-best value on FanDuel, and it’s our fourth-ranked option on DraftKings and sixth on Yahoo.
Denver Broncos vs. New York Giants
- QB – Teddy Bridgewater (DraftKings: $4,800 / FanDuel: $6,600 / Yahoo: $20)
- WR – Jerry Jeudy (DraftKings: $4,800 / FanDuel: $5,500 / Yahoo: $15)
This last stack is tied for our second-best value on Yahoo and it’s also our fifth-best on DraftKings. Bridgewater needed almost the entire preseason to secure his place as the Broncos starter, but that doesn’t exactly matter anymore. For the time being, this is his chance to go out and make plays, and he is surrounded by an unbelievable group of weapons.
Courtland Sutton is back after tearing his ACL last season, and he’s a big body that loves contested-catch situations. Meanwhile, KJ Hamler has blazing speed and has all the potential in the world as a big-play burner. However, the best of the group is Jeudy, who should enjoy a breakout season this year — no matter who ends up throwing him passes when it’s all over.
Jeudy is one of the best route runners in the game, and he doesn’t need to be facing bad defenses to get himself open. That’ll happen because of his crisp footwork, and it should mean that Bridgewater will have a few chances to connect with him in this game. It won’t take long for Jeudy to start being priced a whole lot higher.
This offense might not strike you as one that will put up a lot of points, but Pat Shurmur has designed productive offenses with game-managing quarterbacks like Bridgewater in the past. He most recently did it with Kirk Cousins, who has been a factor in fantasy for years.
