Daily Fantasy Football Top Stacks for FanDuel and DraftKings Week 3 - 9/24/17

Week two went a little better than week one but we still have a lot of room for improvement. Before getting into this week's picks, let's take a look back at the results from last week. First up was the Falcons and while they scored 34 points, two of the touchdowns came from Devonta Freeman on the ground thus limiting Matt Ryan to 28 pass attempts and 252 yards with one touchdown. Julio rebounded and had a big day, however, catching five of his nine targets for 108 yards. The correlation play of Jordy Nelson didn't work out as he left early with an injury and did not return.

First up was the Falcons and while they scored 34 points, two of the touchdowns came from Devonta Freeman on the ground thus limiting Matt Ryan to 28 pass attempts and 252 yards with one touchdown. Julio rebounded and had a big day, however, catching five of his nine targets for 108 yards. The correlation play of Jordy Nelson didn't work out as he left early with an injury and did not return.

The Patriots paid off in a big way as Tom Brady balled out completing 30 of 39 passes for 447 yards and three touchdowns. Two of those touchdowns hit our targets as Gronk caught six of nine targets for 116 yards and a touchdown and Chris Hogan caught five of his six targets for 78 yards and a touchdown. Your guess is as good as mine with Brandin Cooks only getting four targets with two catches and 37 yards. He will most likely be a boom or bust player all season so use him in GPP only moving forward.

The contrarian stack failed miserably as Jared Goff was limited to just 25 pass attempts vs. the Redskins and racked up just 224 yards and one touchdown. My PPR favorite, Cooper Kupp, also let us down with just three catches on six targets.

This week should be another nice week for stacking as there are six games with a Vegas Total over 46, two over 50 and we also get some tight spreads with just one team coming in as a double-digit favorite(NE -13.5 vs. HOU). Let's jump right in and take a look at a couple of the top stacks and my contrarian stack of the week.

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Oakland Raiders

Quarterback - Derek Carr
Primary Target - Amari Cooper
Secondary Target - Michael Crabtree

The Raiders show up as my top overall stack this week as they are involved in one of two games this weekend with a Vegas Total over 49 and the other good news is that the game vs. the Redskins also has thin spread. This is very important as a high-scoring blowout game usually leads to a ton of extra workload for the running game while the quarterback can just sit back and hand the ball off while running out the clock. The optimal gameflow is a high-scoring affair where both teams march up and down the field trading punches, keeping the game close so that the quarterback has to continue to throw. This is where I went somewhat went wrong last week with Matt Ryan. The Falcons got the lead early and have two very capable running backs who kind of stole the show in the second half. This had me alter my research and filters a bit this week so I added the High Pass Attempts filter(35+) to see who, during the 2016 season, attempted the most passes. With all three filters in play, I narrowed the list down to Carr, Stafford, and Cousins. The correlation here is that Lions, Raiders, and Redskins passing defenses all ranked in the bottom third of the league last year forcing the hand of the quarterback. Not a whole lot with the Raiders defense has changed and although they rank better in pass yards per game this year, it is a small sample and they did get an elite matchup last week vs. the Jets. The one risk here is All-Pro Cornerback Josh Norman on the other side of the ball but the thing to note here is that he doesn't move around the formation and shadow any specific wide receiver so look for the Raiders to continually be moving Cooper and Crabtree around. My favorite target of the two is Amari Cooper who has more upside, in my opinion, and is less touchdown dependent and is also likely to see most of his snaps against Bashaud Breeland who grades out quite a bit lower than Norman.

Carolina Panthers

Quarterback - Cam Newton
Primary Target - Kelvin Benjamin
Secondary Target - Devin Funchess

Newton and the Panthers have started the season 2-0 but it hasn't been the best of days for the offense. Newton started out looking bad int eh first half of the 49er game but ended up throwing two touchdowns in a 23-3 win. His arm was hardly needed in the defensive battle last week as the Panthers beat the Bills 9-3. With Cam missing most of the preseason as he was recovering from shoulder surgery, I am going to chalk the first couple weeks up to an extended preseason. I feel this is the week the offense gets on track and I am not really going out on a limb as they face a Saints defense that ranks dead last in fantasy points to the quarterback and wide receiver position. Kelvin Benjamin looked like he was at risk to miss this game as he missed practice Wednesday with knee and rib pain but returned as a full participant on Thursday and does not appear on the Panthers injury report. He will most likely be shadowed by Marshon Lattimore who spent Week 2 shadowing Brandin Cooks who caught just one of his three targets for 15 yards. Benji is a completely different wide receiver and should be able to hit or exceed value this week. With Greg Olsen out for 8+ weeks, it could very well open up more opportunities for Devin Funchess who is another big body who makes a nice target in the endzone vs. the smaller Saints corners.

 

Los Angeles Chargers

Quarterback - Phillip Rivers
Primary Target - Keenan Allen
Secondary Target - Hunter Henry, Melvin Gordon

While you would think that targeting against the Chiefs defense would be a risky proposition consider they ranked 18th in the league in passing yards per game(247.4) in 2016. Through two games this season, things have actually gotten worse as they rank 27th overall allowing 273 yards per game. Don' get me wrong, the Chiefs are the better team here and have a ton of weapons on the offensive side of the ball(Tyreke Hill, Kareem Hunt, Travis Kelce) and this should only help our cause as the Chargers should be trailing most of the game forcing Phillip Rivers to attempt 35+ passes this week. Rivers has been good through two weeks throwing three touchdowns in the first game and while he only threw one in the second game, did eclipse the 300-yard passing mark. My favorite target for Rivers this week is Keenan Allen who is one of just three wideouts to receive double-digit targets in each of the first two weeks. What makes the matchup even better is that Allen plays out of the slot over 50% of the time and will get to face Phillip Gaines who ranks out at #90 of 96 corners ranked by PFF this season. That is bad! If you are looking to go contrarian with the Chargers I have no problem at all rolling with Melvin Gordon who trails only Tarik Cohen in targets from the RB position with 14, catching 13 of them for 90 yards and a touchdown. For a cheap tight end this week I like Hunter Henry who rebounded nicely in week two catching all seven of his targets for 80 yards. Now that Antonio Gates has got the TD record out of the way, I fully expect Henry to continue to get the share of targets at the position. The thing I like most about this stack is that it will likely be lower owned. Checking out the FanShareSports Most Tagged List this week, Rivers sits way down the list tied for 54th in total tags(8 for start) this week and 13th overall when looking at just quarterbacks. Be sure to check out the content from FanShareSports prior to setting your lineups weekly to get an edge in tournaments.

 

FanShareSports DraftKings Chalk Report

As you can see, Rishard "Hollywood" Higgins is going to draw a ton of ownership this week as he is one of the only healthy wideouts on the Browns roster after Corey Coleman broke his hand last week. He is also ultra cheap but if you are looking for a GPP picot in the same range consider Paul Richardson of the Seahawks who has seen 12 targets through two games including a touchdown last week. Next up we have Jack Doyle who is one of the top tight end targets this week going up against a Browns team that has allowed the second most fantasy points to tight ends through two games. It will be hard to pivot away from that low price but if you do, I like Hunter Henry(LARM) and Eric Ebron(DET) in the same range. At the running back position, it is going to be Jay Ajayi(MIA), Ty Montgomery(GB), and Le'Veon Bell(PIT) commanding most of the ownership this week. I think all three make excellent cash game plays but to pivot in tournaments I like Devonta Freeman(ATL), Christian McCaffrey(CAR), and Ameer Abdullah(DET) who faces a Falcons team who has allowed the third most fantasy points to running backs. At the quarterback position, it appears that Matt Stafford is going to be much more popular than Matt Ryan in the same game which brings Ryan into play in GPP formats. Kirk Cousins(WSH), Derek Carr(OAK), Cam Newton(CAR), and Jay Cutler(MIA) round out the Top 5 in tags at the position. A couple of the projected lower owned options I like outside of Phillip Rivers, who I talked about above, are Ben Roethlisberger(PIT) and even deeper I like Eli Manning(NYG) and OBJ stacked together.

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