In each of the first eight weeks of the season we looked at the top ten winning lineups in a variety of guaranteed prize pool contests (GPPs) from the week before to see what kind of lineup build and more specifically what lineup stacking method, if any, was the most common across the winner’s lineups. By doing that research we now know that game-stacking, found in more than 60% of winning GPP lineups, has been the most effective lineup build method for taking down GPPs in daily fantasy football.
In this weeks article, we’ll take a look back at my favorite game-stacks from last week. Then, We’ll go over my top games to build some stacks from for your GPP lineups this week in daily fantasy football. Finally, I’ll give you my favorite game-stack from each of those games to use in GPP lineups in week nine.
Daily Fantasy Lineup Stacks and Week Nine Options
Week Eight Stack Review
One thing that I noticed while doing my GPP lineup research in the first half of the season is that game-stacking works great in the small to mid-size GPPs. However, once you get into the huge Milly Maker size GPPs with hundreds of thousands of entries basic two-man stacks and three-man super-stacks (team-stacks) tend to be similarly effective. I believe that the reason for this has more to do with the winners of those contests hitting big on the low-owned players and slightly less to do with which stack they used but you really do need to have top scoring players at almost every spot in your lineup to win those enormous GPPs. However, game-stacking is a far superior lineup building strategy to all others when it comes to winning the small-mid size GPP tournaments, 200-50,000 entrants. Contest info found at (Draft Kings).
This week I took a look back at all of the GPP contests that I played last week to figure out the average cash-line across all of those contests, it was 156 points or 3.12x. Here’s a look at my favorite game-stacks from last weeks Daily Fantasy Football Lineup Stacks article and how my stacks performed. Player scoring found at (DK Live)
Aaron Rodgers / Davante Adams/ Geronimo Allison/ Todd Gurley= 76.14(2.62x)
Kirk Cousins/ Adam Thielen/ Stefon Diggs/ Michael Thomas= 95.46(3.34x)
Patrick Mahomes/ Kareem Hunt/ Travis Kelce/ Phillip Lindsay= 89.72(3.44x)
Week Nine Games to Target and My Top Daily Fantasy Football Lineup Stacks
Los Angeles Rams at New Orleans Saints
O/U (59.5) Saints +1
Implied points: Rams 30.25 Saints 29.25
Oh, the stacks we will build. This game between the undefeated Rams and the surging Saints under the dome in New Orleans has the highest Vegas point total for the week and one of the highest on the season so far. A likely back and forth shootout between two stacked offenses, this game has daily fantasy football players licking their chops. It’s unlikely that either teams’ defense in this match-up will be able to stop the other’s offense from scoring. Like Vegas, I too believe this game will be high scoring which means it will also probably be great for stacking in DFS.
It’s going to be a little tricky to pin down where all the points and production will come from outside of Todd Gurley. Drew Brees and Michael Thomas have cooled down after a hot start to the season. Since Mark Ingram has returned to the Saints the touch distribution between all of the offensive weapons has become more spread out. This has made it tougher to nail down who is going to be the most productive with their touches from week to week. However, I believe that the match-up and game-flow for New Orleans will force them to lean more heavily on the passing game this week. This suggests that it will be more of an Alvin Kamara week than a Mark Ingram one and Michael Thomas should be heavily involved once again.
For the Rams, it’s the Todd Gurley show and a very good complementary passing game that has them rolling this season and still undefeated. Gurley is a play in daily fantasy football every week whenever you can afford to fit him into a lineup it’s a good idea to do so. He has scored over 30 Draft Kings points in four straight games and his lowest score of the season is 25.6 DK points. That is just an incredible floor! Gurley has proven to be match-up proof and time and time again a week winner in daily fantasy football.
The passing weapons on the Rams should also be busy this week. The Saints should be able to hang in this game and force the Rams to stay aggressive on offense. Cooper Kupp should return this week if he does I would expect him to be targeted heavily by Jared Goff, who is also a good GPP play this week. The Rams outside receivers Brandin Cooks and Robert Woods are also in play for DFS lineups this week. One of them is likely going to have a big game. It may depend on which one sees the most coverage from Marshon Lattimore. I will be rolling out a few different combinations of game-stacks in my daily fantasy football lineups this week from this match-up. Here is my favorite stack from this game.
Drew Brees/ Alvin Kamara/ Todd Gurley/ Cooper Kupp(if active, if not, M. Thomas here)
Green Bay Packers at New England Patriots
O/U (57) Patriots -5.5
Implied points: Patriots 31.25 Packers 25.75
This should be a fun game to watch and I definitely want some exposure to this game in my daily fantasy football lineups. Deciding which quarterback to use here will be difficult. I certainly want to get some exposure to both Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady in my lineups.
Looking at the match-up it would appear that Rodgers and the Packers have the tougher match-up here. Then again, unless they make mistakes on offense they should be able to put up a good amount of points in this game and keep it competitive. Last week saw Randall Cobb and Geronimo Allison return to the lineup for the Packers. However, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Equanimeous St. Brown both stayed involved in the offense. This waters down the production of all the Packers receivers and makes it harder to pinpoint who will be the big point scorer each week. The only trustworthy receiver there is Davante Adams who has stayed on the field and remained consistently productive.
Tom Brady and the Patriots offense at home against a formidable opponent is a great spot to target some Patriots for daily fantasy football lineups. The Patriots will have to be aggressive and play at a high level to outscore the Packers. Which is typically what they do especially at when playing home. Depending on whether or not Sony Michel plays this week we might see a lot of James White again. White can still be productive even if Michel plays but If Michel does not play then White would be a top 5 running back play for me in daily fantasy football. If Michel plays he would be in play for GPP lineups.
Right now it’s hard for me to trust any of the Patriots pass-catchers outside of Julian Edelman and James White. Rob Gronkowski has not been used heavily this season like he was in seasons past and hasn’t looked like the same player he used to be. His lack of production has been in direct correlation to the downturn in targets. Josh Gordon has seen a lot of playing time and targets but he also doesn’t quite look like the marquee player that he once was. Plus, Brady is always going to throw to the open receiver and sometimes that’s Chris Hogan. While not a particularly appealing option Hogan is still out there gobbling up the leftover targets and watering down the production of the rest of the pass-catchers in the Patriots offense. It will be tough to pick out the top performers in this game. Here is my best crack at it with my favorite stack from this game.
Aaron Rodgers/ Davante Adams/ James White/ Julian Edelman
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Carolina Panthers
O/U (55) Panthers -6.5
Implied points: Panthers 30.75 Buccaneers 24.25
With the return of Ryan Fitzpatrick to the lineup this week I like the Buccaneers receivers a lot. Fitzpatrick has shown a willingness to throw it up to his receivers downfield and they have come down with the ball more often than not this season. Outside of one tough half against the Bears this year the Buccaneers offense under Fitzpatrick has been amazing. Fitz likes to keep all his weapons happy so look for DeSean Jackson to be a little more involved this week. Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and O.J. Howard are also all good options for daily fantasy football this week.
Cam Newton and company get to face the leagues worst pass defense at home this week in what should be a fun game to watch. I expect their to be a lot of passing in this game. Christian McCaffrey is definitely in play he will likely see his usual high volume of passes. Trying to figure out where the rest of the targets go will be a little tricky. Devin Funchess is probably a good place to start looking. He’s been consistently good but just not ever really great. However, the match-up here may be enough to boost his numbers into something worth targeting for DFS. Some other GPP options here are Greg Olsen, D.J. Moore, and Curtis Samuel. All have a good match-up and at least one player out of that group will likely have a big game. Here’s a look at my favorite stack from this game.
Ryan Fitzpatrick/ DeSean Jackson/ O.J. Howard/ Christian McCaffrey
Week nine daily fantasy football is here. Let’s stack those lineups and stack that cash this week. Remember these stacks are meant for use in small to medium size GPPs with something like 500-5000 entrants. If you’re playing in the bigger GPPs it might make sense to switch one of the high priced more chalky players for a lower priced slightly less popular player in the match-up and hope that player has the bigger week. Being a little contrarian helps you to separate yourself from the field when playing in the much larger GPP contests. Good luck this week. See you back here week ten.
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