Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA Today Sports
Super Stack - Last week Alex Smith/Tyreek Hill/Travis Kelce dominated DFS as they ranked #1 in points at the QB/WR/TE positions. Looking at the main slate this week, give me (and explain) your top "Super Stack" (3 players from the same team).
Justin Bonnema: Why not just go right back to the Chiefs? They have the best matchup on the board in a game that could easily be the highest scoring of the week. But instead of going with Smith/Hill/Kelce, I’m going to go Smith/Hunt/Kelce. Hunt has fallen off a cliff in terms of fantasy production over the second half of the season, but he has a monopoly on the backfield and gets a good matchup against the Raiders, whose volume stats against running backs are a reflection of the lack of competition they’ve faced. Hunt dropped 117 total yards on them in Week 7, which is basically his floor.
You don’t need any reasons to start Kelce, but just to cover all bases, the Raiders have allowed the third most yards to tight ends this year and were exploited by Evan Engram last week to the tune of seven catches for 99 yards and a touchdown. Stacking him with Smith makes perfect sense, and by throwing Hunt in there as well you buy the entire offense. I know there will be some that want Hill instead, and I get that, just note that he has nine games of under 80 yards this season (though he did blow up against the Raiders in Week 7 with six catches for 125 yards and a touchdown).
Phil Alexander: Stacking Andy Dalton, Giovani Bernard, and A.J. Green combines for less than one-third of the salary cap on DraftKings, while still offering massive upside.
The Bengals are the biggest favorites on the main slate (-6.5) and are implied to score a solid (if unspectacular) 23 points against the Bears. Chicago's defense is no pushover -- especially on the ground -- but their home/road splits are severe. The Bears allow 27.8 points per game on the road vs. only 18.3 per game at home. Football Outsiders ranks Chicago 25th defending enemy WR1s, which points to another blow-up spot for Green, who would have finished with an 8-137-3 receiving line on Monday night if a phantom holding penalty on Bernard didn't wipe out his third (incredible) touchdown reception of the game.
A big game from Green lifts Dalton, who hasn't needed much help to pay off his middling salary recently. He has thrown at least two touchdown passes in four consecutive games, and by extension, exceeded a 3x multiple of his current DraftKings salary in each of those contests.
Playing Bernard near the site minimum is obviously contingent upon Joe Mixon failing to clear the league's concussion protocol, but the short week combined with the severity of the hit that knocked him out of Monday night's game puts Mixon's availability in serious doubt. For his own part, Bernard looked great racking up nearly six yards per carry against the Steelers and handling a full workload in Mixon's absence. Given his unquestioned ability as a pass catcher, Bernard could roll out of bed and 4x his salary without scoring a touchdown against the Bears. But if he does score -- and it comes on a pass from Dalton -- this stack would fly up the standings.
The Bengals are the biggest favorites on the main slate (-6.5) and are implied to score a solid (if unspectacular) 23 points against the Bears. Chicago's defense is no pushover -- especially on the ground -- but their home/road splits are severe. The Bears allow 27.8 points per game on the road vs. only 18.3 per game at home. Football Outsiders ranks Chicago 25th defending enemy WR1s, which points to another blow-up spot for Green, who would have finished with an 8-137-3 receiving line on Monday night if a phantom holding penalty on Bernard didn't wipe out his third (incredible) touchdown reception of the game.
A big game from Green lifts Dalton, who hasn't needed much help to pay off his middling salary recently. He has thrown at least two touchdown passes in four consecutive games, and by extension, exceeded a 3x multiple of his current DraftKings salary in each of those contests.
Playing Bernard near the site minimum is obviously contingent upon Joe Mixon failing to clear the league's concussion protocol, but the short week combined with the severity of the hit that knocked him out of Monday night's game puts Mixon's availability in serious doubt. For his own part, Bernard looked great racking up nearly six yards per carry against the Steelers and handling a full workload in Mixon's absence. Given his unquestioned ability as a pass catcher, Bernard could roll out of bed and 4x his salary without scoring a touchdown against the Bears. But if he does score -- and it comes on a pass from Dalton -- this stack would fly up the standings.
Jason Wood: I'll cheat and give you two, both a bit contrarian. One is the Seahawks power stack of Russell Wilson, Mike Davis and Jimmy Graham. The matchup against the Jaguars is going to keep ownership levels manageable, but for me this is a team on a roll and Wilson is the best (fantasy) quarterback in football right now. Davis' salary makes this super stack viable, because he's among the cheapest at the position.
The other stack I'm favoring? A GIANTS stack with Eli Manning, Sterling Shepard and Evan Engram. Eli's benching last week has him at or near minimum salary yet he's been re-installed as the starter. Shepard and Engram are healthy and I think this offense will bounce back toward respectability out from under the weight of Ben McAdoo.
The other stack I'm favoring? A GIANTS stack with Eli Manning, Sterling Shepard and Evan Engram. Eli's benching last week has him at or near minimum salary yet he's been re-installed as the starter. Shepard and Engram are healthy and I think this offense will bounce back toward respectability out from under the weight of Ben McAdoo.
Dan Hindery: On the other side of that Chiefs game, the Jets top players had huge fantasy days as well and have been playing well on offense in recent weeks. On paper, the Jets matchup with Denver isn’t attractive. However, in recent weeks the Broncos have looked like they’ve given up on their season. I wouldn’t be shocked to see the Jets go into Denver and blow out the Broncos. If they do so, Josh McCown, Robby Anderson and Austin Seferian-Jenkins couldhave big games. Seferian-Jenkins has the prime matchup against a defense allowing the 2nd most points to opposing tight ends. The matchup doesn’t look great for Anderson, but he has been absolutely on fire in recent weeks. He has gone over 100 yards receiving in 3-of-6 games and has 6 touchdowns in that 6 game stretch.
Devin Knotts: Here’s the thing, it is so rare that three players go off on the same team like Hill, Kelce and Smith did last week. With that said, you want a team that is actually going to throw the ball unlike Chicago who has elected that win or lose, they are not throwing he ball. With that said, the stack I am going with this week is Phillip Rivers, Hunter Henry and Keenan Allen. Allen is absolutely on fire over the last three weeks and Hunter Henry is a guy who is starting to emerge as the player that we thought he could be as he has two games over 75+ yards and Washington has been bad against the tight end this season. This could be a good spot in a potential shootout which is often required from a team stack.
James Brimacombe: I like Derek Carr, Michael Crabtree, and Jared Cook for my trio this week and don't even hate going with a Tyreek Hill or Travis Kelce on the other side of this game. I prefer the Raiders side of this game and really will be locked onto Carr/Crabtree/Cook if Amari Cooper were to miss the game. The Chiefs continue to struggle against the QB and WR positions coming in as the 6th worst against QB and 2nd worst against WR. Crabtree is coming off the 1-game suspension so he will be hungry and with this game being a battle of 6-6 teams it is going to be back and forth and could be an epic battle much like Week 7 when these two squared off in maybe the best game of the season so far. Carr put up 417 passing yards and 3 touchdowns in that game while Crabtree 3/24/1 and Cook 6/107/0.
