Joe Pepe | Tue, Sep 3rd 2024, 7:03am EDT

NFL DFS Advice: Stacking Strategy (2024 Fantasy Football)

The NFL season is approaching, so the return of daily fantasy sports (DFS) is finally here. DFS lets us have a new season every week, and even every day, there is a football game. Nothing is more beautiful than more ways to play the game we love. However, with DFS, the game changes from your usual snake draft. You must work around salary caps, play game narratives, stack correctly and optimize your lineup to destroy your opponent’s hopes that they will walk away with some cash.

Today, we will teach you how to identify stacks correctly. Learning this skill will help you build a winning lineup weekly. Let’s get into the breakdown with the first strategy.

Stacking Strategy In DFS (2024 Fantasy Football)

QB + WR/TE Stacks

The most common place stack is to stack the quarterback with one of his pass catchers. Bear with me; I will break this down extensively to help set up all our stacks later. The NFL is now a passing league, so identifying the right quarterback to play each week is essential. However, finding the right pass catcher is crucial to success. It’s not as simple as “Jalen Hurts has A.J. Brown as his WR1,” so I’ll go here and win. Some weeks that works, but you have a few things you have to identify first.

The first step is to work within the game narrative. Let’s say the Philadelphia Eagles are playing the Washington Commanders for our hypothetical example. We also have the Houston Texans facing the New York Jets. Let’s look at each game narrative. The first one involving the Eagles has two defenses that wouldn’t be a top five in the league. The Commanders, while struggling to create pass rushers, also have one of the weaker defensive back rooms.

Meanwhile, the game between the Texans and Jets featured two more robust defenses with better cornerback play, especially with superstar Sauce Gardner. When we look at the quarterbacks, we could utilize Jalen Hurts, Jayden Daniels, C.J. Stroud and Aaron Rodgers. This simple breakdown shows the path of least resistance landing in the Philadelphia/Washington game. Even if we are eating a bit of the rostership cost (more on that later), we have identified the higher-scoring game allowing us to score more fantasy points.

Now that we have found the game narrative, we want to mosey down the DFS road with it. We have to identify the right players to pair with our quarterback. Let’s say, for conversation purposes, we chose Hurts over Daniels in this game. We have Brown, DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert, Jahan Dotson and Saquon Barkley as his main partners in crime for this Eagles offense. We must work the narrative within this game now and see which receiver is the best option.

When breaking down pass catchers, we must work within a few different arenas to check the right wide receiver into our starting lineups. You should always check how the other team ranks against the position. This research will show who struggles to stop the pass, specifically the pass to each position on the field. After that, research the wide receiver/ defensive back battles. In this Eagles/Commanders example, we used the 227lb Brown against the 181lb Emmanuel Forbes to take advantage of the size differential on the field.

Finally, we identify the rostership percentage. This percentage does not matter to me in cash games. However, suppose you are playing in a tournament (GPP). In that case, you need to decide if you want to eat the chalk on a player like Brown or if you can lean into a different play to gain leverage on the rostership percentage while still attacking a weaker defense. Suppose the WR2, like Smith, has the same level of talent, less salary, less rostership percentage and most likely fewer double teams due to Brown needing the coverage rolled to him because of his size advantage. In that case, Smith may be the optimal play to gather leverage on the field.

QB + WR + WR Stack

A two-wide receiver stack to a quarterback is another player we can identify and use within our DFS lineups. Let’s revisit the Eagles/Commanders game. If we believe the Eagles could dominate this game and score over 25+ points, we should utilize multiple weapons around Jalen Hurts. Now, you can eat the chalk entirely with Brown and Smith. However, doing so will raise your rostership percentage and make your lineup more like everyone else’s. You can also go with Smith and Dotson to lower your rostership percentage while believing the game narrative would swirl around Brown receiving blanketing double coverage so Smith will have more freedom. At the same time, Dotson utilizes his revenge narrative, and the Eagles trounce the Commanders.

This stack option is to be used when you believe this game is a blowout because if the Eagles only score 20 points in that game, your lineup is more than likely DOA.

Bring Back Stack

The bring-back stack is a prevalent option in today’s game. It features a stack of one team while utilizing a player on another. In this scenario, we believe the game is a shootout. Again, if we used our NFC East example, we believe the narrative will become the Eagles score 25+ points, but Jayden Daniels was able to fire back and put 20+ points on the board.

In this scenario, we quickly understood that the Eagles’ linebackers are a weakness in their defense. We could utilize Jalen Hurts, Devonta Smith, Jahan Dotson and Zach Ertz for the bring-back stack. We followed the narrative we had laid out earlier and attacked the Eagles’ defensive weakness while tossing in a second revenge narrative for good measure.

Double Stack With A RB

Some quarterbacks are lucky enough to have a running back who is an excellent pass catcher out of the backfield. This running back allows us to build a unique approach to our lineup, which can help us differentiate from the pack. A good example is last year. The combination of Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans and Rachaad White was a great way to soak up 60+% of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense each week in DFS. Identifying the right running back who is a pass-catching option can help elevate your lineups. One of my favorite sneaky plays this year will be Bo Nix, Courtland Sutton and Jaleel McLaughlin to help us avoid the beaten path.

P.S. I’m sure you are happy I finally moved away from my Eagles as an example.

RB + Defense Stack

This stack states that you expect this team to win and bleed the clock. When utilizing this stack, you must return to the game narrative and tweak the approach differently. We know that running back, volume is king. When do the “kings” receive the most volume? In favorable game narratives, aka when they line up as the favorites.

This season, in Week One, we have the Los Angeles Chargers vs. the Las Vegas Raiders. Both teams love to run the ball, yet the Chargers are the favorites in Vegas. Vegas, which is the mothership of betting, states that they believe a player like Gus Edwards can be useful for DFS because the Chargers should run early, run often and run to chew up some clock as they win the game.

Now we move to defense, and in my articles, you’ll see this equation more than anything else in your life

Pressures + Sacks = Turnovers

If you can find a defense that will create mayhem for an offense, you must approach that team as if they are the winning ticket for defense. Defense is always a wild card, but you can help your odds by considering the game narrative. In this Chargers/Raiders example, we face a run-first offense, which will limit points against us while facing a gun-slinging quarterback in Gardner Minshew. Minshew likes to take chances and isn’t an assassin under center, which leads to turnovers. The Chargers may not be the most popular option, but building leverage with rostership percentage from the defensive slot is an optimal way to jump multiple lineups at once.

In DFS, correlation is critical to taking down tournaments; stacking is the most effective way to capitalize on that. Remember to read all the fantastic work by yours truly and the team here at FantasyPros, as we will be creating a multitude of knowledge to help you bring home the bacon every week in DFS. If you need unique help, contact me on X at jpep20, and I’ll answer all your questions. Good luck this season, and remember, if you see me in the DFS streets, be prepared; I won’t take it easy on you!

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