Cory Hanley

Chris Durell

There is a tremendous amount of data available in the Player Lab Tool , and I have been incorporating more and more of it into my models each week to build the optimal lineup stacks. The tool is fully customizable allowing you to filter only the data in that you want and enabling you to set the thresholds for each filter. Once you get players that look good to you per your specifications, you can easily flip it over into the lineup optimizer where you then can create and export up to 50 lineups.

Here is a look at a few of the filters/stats I look at when constructing my tournament stacks:

High Vegas O/U – I always start with this filter most weeks have the threshold set at 47 or higher. It’s pretty obvious as you always want to target players in the highest scoring games. Vegas isn’t always right, meaning you can find low-ownership by going outside the threshold but concentrating on more individual matchups.

Defense vs. Position Ranking – This one is also pretty obvious but is much deeper than just passing/rushing/receiving yards against. It incorporates DVOA (Defense-Adjusted Value Over Average) which is more of a situation and opponent based ranking. It helps us to really break down which are the best teams to target at each position and when I find one team who ranks poorly against almost all positions they are close to a lock stack for me.

Pace – This breaks down the number of plays the opponent allows per game. Finding teams who are projected to score a lot of points vs. teams who are weak against the position. This allows a lot of plays and is an excellent way to maximize the upside of stacking.

Let’s take a look at some of the top stacking options using these filters.
Good Luck everyone!

Green Bay Packers vs. Atlanta Falcons
QB – Aaron Rodgers
Elite Options – Jordy Nelson
Value Option – Randall Cobb, Davante Adams

Kicking off Week 8 is the Green Bay Packers who will make the flight South to Atlanta to face the Falcons in the highest projected Vegas total of the week (53). There are many reasons that favor Aaron Rodgers and the Packers offense over the Matt Ryan and the Falcons offense. Looking at the Player Lab, Rodgers is projected for around six more pass attempts, mostly due to game flow projections as the Falcons are early three-point favorites. Looking at the Pace column, there is also a big difference as the Falcons offense is allowing an average of 68 plays per game to opponents while the Packers just 58. Ownership is going to play a huge role this week as well as Ryan should be favored as he is the top QB in fantasy through seven weeks of the season while Rodgers has struggled with just one 300+ yard passing game. Rodgers is also the more expensive option. The Packers passing game should also receive a boost as they lack a trustworthy run game with Eddie Lacy out of action. The matchup vs. the Falcons secondary on a player vs. player basis doesn’t look great but on the Player Lab the Falcons rank 26th in Defense vs. the Pass. Rodgers favorite target Jordy Nelson was shadowed by Tracy Porter last week and is in line for a big bounce back game as he is projected for around 9.5 targets this week. If you feel the Falcons will put emphasis on Jordy then you will want to stack Rodgers with Devante Adams and *Randall Cobb who both shined last week with three combined touchdowns.

Tampa Bay Bucanneers
QB – Jameis Winston
Elite Option – Mike Evans
Value Option – Cameron Brate, Adam Humphries

The Bucs were my top stack last week and while Jacquizz Rodgers stole some of the show I am going back to the well again this week. The matchup is even better this week as they face a Raiders teams that ranks 27th in Defense vs. the Pass. The Raiders also have a very productive offense with Derek Carr, Amari Cooper, and Michael Crabtree and should prove to be a much stronger test for the Bucs than the 49ers were last week. This should keep the game close forcing more pass attempts for QB Jameis Winston. He comes at a very affordable price on both sites (DK-$5,700, FD-$7,400) and is ranked #1 in PTS/$ on both sites. His top target, as always, will be Mike Evans who sits third in the league in targets (73) and has already had his BYE week. He is projected for 11 targets on the Player Lab and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him once again exceed that number. If you want to add a value option to your Bucs stack consider punt TE Cameron Brate or value WR Adam Humphries who could see an uptick in targets this week.

Contrarian Stack of the Week

New York Jets vs. Cleveland Browns
QB – Ryan Fitzpatrick
Elite Option – Brandon Marshall
Value Options – Quincy Enunwa

As a disclaimer I will start off by saying that the Jets should not be used if you are in a high buy in or small field tournament. If you are multi-entering a large field GPP then they are definitely in play and will be very low-owned as their offense ranks 22nd in yards per game. The thing I like most about the Jets and Ryan Fitzpatrick is that unless he is injured there will be no replacing him and with no Decker you can expect a high usage rate for WR Brandon Marshall who is projected for the second most targets this week. You also won’t find a better matchup as the Browns rank dead last in Defense vs. the Pass when looking at the Player Lab tool for Week 8.

Defense/Running Back Stack of the Week

Denver Defense and RB Devontae Booker vs. San Diego Chargers

The Chargers will take their 1-3 road record into an extremely difficult environment in Denver to face one of the toughest and highest scoring defenses in the league. The Broncos are an elite unit who have allowed the third-fewest yards per game (291.6) and average 10+ fantasy points per week on both sites. The Broncos strongest part of their defense has been against the pass as they have allowed the fewest yards per game (175) and rank 4th vs. the Pass when looking at the Player Lab Tool. They will have a great opportunity for some turnovers as the Chargers have given up four interceptions and lost 11 fumbles on the year, which is the third most giveaways of any team.

After last week where the Broncos implemented a running back split, we didn’t feel very comfortable rostering either of the options. Well, that changed dramatically after news was released today CJ Anderson will be sidelined with a meniscus tear that will keep him out for the remainder of the regular season. This opens the door wide open for Devontae Booker who is now projected to get around 24 carries as the workhorse. The matchup isn’t great, but it isn’t bad either as the Chargers come into the week ranked 18th in Defense vs. the Run. The Broncos are also 4.5 point favorites so game flow should definitely be in Booker’s favor.

Chris Durell

Welcome to our early week article where we will be focused on recapping the prior week, previewing the Thursday Night game and going over some key defenses to target when looking at the Def vs. Position filter on the Player Lab tool.

What We Learned

We are going to switch it up a little bit this week. I am going to start by going over the stacks I recommended last week. It is extremely important to always look back and analyze not only what worked but what didn’t and why? If we can do this successfully every week we will continually help ourselves grow into better daily fantasy football players.

My first stack was the Bucs offense on the road in San Francisco. Running Back Jacquizz Rodgers stole the show a bit running for 154 yards but the combination of Jameis Winston and Mike Evans still managed to hit value on Sunday. Winston threw for 269 yards and three touchdowns, with two of those going Evans who caught eight of his 13 targets for 96 yards. Their value ended up a little better on FanDuel as both players were just short of their respective position bonuses.

It was a similar story with stack #2 as LeGarrette Blount ran all over the Steelers defense for 127 yards and two touchdowns. Tom Brady was expensive so his 22 yards and two touchdowns wasn’t quite enough but Rob Gronkowski definitely paid off making the most of his four targets recording 93 yards and a touchdown averaging 23.3 yards per catch. The value plays in the Pats offense worked out as Julian Edelman caught nine of 10 targets for 60 yards and James White got his touchdown on two catches and added 32 yards.

The contrarian stack was a let down this week as the Jags offense continues to struggle averaging under 20 points per game. Even against a weak Raiders defense they could only muster 16 points. Wideout Allen Robinson continues to struggle, and it comes down to the deep throws as he is averaging just 11.4 yards per catch after seeing an elite 17.5 yards per catch last year. I do think this is the player we will continue to see but until he and Blake Bortles get it going and show us some upside they have to be avoided unless you are of course playing the Monday-Thursday slate and working with late swaps on DraftKings.

The Defense/Running Back stack worked out for RB running back Demarco Murray who ran for 107 yards and a touchdown and also caught three passes for 20 yards. The Titans defense, however, didn’t hold up their end of the deal letting Andrew Luck go off for 341 passing yards and three touchdowns.

Game Balls of the Week

This section will highlight some of the top fantasy performers from the previous week, in no particular order or ranking.

Jay Ajayi went bonkers once again rushing 28 times for another 200+ yard game becoming just the fourth player in history to do so (OJ Simpson, Earl Campbell, Ricky Williams).

A.J. Green torched the Browns to the tune of 169 yards and a touchdown on eight catches.

Aaron Rodgers had a slow start in last Thursday’s game against the Bears but turned it on in the second half and ended up with 39 completions on a whopping 56 attempts and recorded three touchdowns. The Bears shut down Jordy Nelson prompting Rodgers to attack his other WR’s Randall Cobb (11 of 15 for 95 yards /1 TD) and DeVante Adams (13 of 16 for 132 yards/2 TD) who both had big days.

Julio Jones didn’t get into the endzone last week but he blew up catching nine of his 15 targets for 174 yards and leads the league with 830 yards on the season.

LeGarrette Blount rushed for a season-high 127 yards on 24 attempts and has now scored a touchdown in all but one of the Patriots seven games this season.

Even in a 6-6 defensive grinding game Cardinals RB David Johnson continued his elite play. He rushed 33 times for 113 yards and also caught eight of his 13 targets for 58 yards. Continue to trust him in all formats as he is the most matchup proof RB in the game.

The Broncos continue to climb the Power Rankings and proved just how deep they are at RB. CJ Anderson (16) and Devontae Booker (17) split carries against the Texans on Monday night combining for 190 yards with both reaching the endzone. I will consider Anderson the lead back until we see proof of an equal split moving forward.

Defense vs. Position Rankings

Target the Oakland Raiders Defense
This week’s Matchup – Tampa Bay Buccaneers

They did a good job keeping the Jags off the scoreboard last week limiting them to just 16 points, but the Raiders defense did give up 344 yards of total offense and still sit dead last in yards allowed per game (430.4). Looking at the Player Lab Tool you will also notice their defense ranks 29th in Defense vs. the Run and 28th in Defense vs. the Pass. Stay tuned for the stacks article folks; you are going to see more Bucs this week.

Target the Colts Run Defense
This week’s Matchup – Kansas City Chiefs

The Colts have allowed the opposition to rush for 100+ yards in six out of their seven games. They rank dead last in Defense vs. the Pass when looking at Player Lab Tool and things won’t get any easier this week against the Chiefs and the red hot Spencer Ware. The Chiefs are the early road favorites in a game with a high 50 Vegas total. Look for Chiefs to gameplan around giving Ware and Charles 20+ rush attempts this week with upside for much more if they get up early.

Thursday Night Football

The Jaguars and Titans meet this week in Tennessee in an AFC West showdown. Both teams are coming off home losses but remain in striking distance of the division-leading Texans. The game is setting up to be a low scoring defensive battle with not a whole lot of fantasy appeal as both teams rank inside the Top 10 in yards allowed per game. The Titans are the early 3.5 point home favorites with the total floating around 43 points.

From a fantasy perspective I will be avoiding this game for the most part as I can’t trust the Jaguars struggling offense will get back on track on a short week against a defense that ranks 12th in Defense vs. the Pass and 10th in Defense vs. the Run when looking at the Player Lab Tool.

If you really want to get your feet wet in the Thursday action the one play to consider is Titans RB DeMarco Murray. He has been getting heavy usage this season with a heavy 67% load rating on the Player Lab Tool and is projected for right around 20 carries again this week and that’s not counting his targets in the passing game. Playing only Murray in Thurs-Mon slate cash game is a viable option as you will most likely find at least 5% of the field will roster a hefty amount of Thursday night players. This strategy is perfect for weeks like this where there isn’t much projected for fantasy points. If you want to fade the game completely I would still consider playing in some Thurs-Mon slate double ups and heads up contests and even a few GPP’s. If the game ends up like the Cardinals/Seahawks you will be way ahead of the rest of the field before your team even takes the field on Sunday. This strategy is best used on DraftKings where you have the late swap option.

Thanks for reading this week’s article and stay tuned later in the week for my favorite stacking options for the main slate this weekend. If you have any questions in the meantime be sure to hit us up on Twitter @jager_bombs9 & @lineuplab

Chris Durell

If you have been using the Player Lab Tool note that all the data took a season switch over over the past couple of days with 2016 data now displayed. There is a tremendous amount of data available, and I have been incorporating more and more of it into my models each week to build the optimal lineup stacks. The tool is fully customizable allowing you to filter only the data in that you want and enabling you to set the thresholds for each filter. Once you get players that look good to you per your specifications, you can easily flip it over into the lineup optimizer where you then can create and export up to 50 lineups.

Here is a look at a few of the filters/stats I look at when constructing my tournament stacks:

High Vegas O/U – I always start with this filter most weeks have the threshold set at 47 or higher. It’s pretty obvious as you always want to target players in the highest scoring games. Vegas isn’t always right, meaning you can find low-ownership by going outside the threshold but concentrating on more individual matchups.

Defense vs. Position Ranking – This one is also pretty obvious but is much deeper than just passing/rushing/receiving yards against. It incorporates DVOA (Defense-Adjusted Value Over Average) which is more of a situation and opponent based ranking. It helps us to really break down which are the best teams to target at each position and when I find one team who ranks poorly against almost all positions they are close to a lock stack for me.

Pace – This breaks down the number of plays the opponent allows per game. Finding teams who are projected to score a lot of points vs. teams who are weak against the position. This allows a lot of plays and is an excellent way to maximize the upside of stacking.

Let’s take a look at some of the top stacking options using these filters.
Good Luck everyone!

Tampa Bay Buccaneers
QB – Jameis Winston
Elite Options – Mike Evans
Value Option – Cameron Brate

With the news of Doug Martin out again this week and Vincent Jackson being placed on the IR there is going to be some additional targets to go around with limited options in the Bucs offense. Coming into the week Mike Evans is second to only Antonio Brown in targets per game (12.3) this season and like I said, that could get a boost this week. For those who aren’t already sold let’s take a look at the matchup. The Bucs face the 1-5 49ers who rank 22nd in Defense vs. the Pass on the Player Lab Tool and have allowed a high 69.5 plays to the opposition when looking at the Pace rankings. The game has a thin spread so if the game does stay close look for Jameis Winston to chuck it up 40+ times this game with Evans ceiling around 15+ targets. If Evans gets 15+ targets that means Winston has to be targeting other players as well. Cameron Brate makes an excellent value option at TE as he has received the 10th most targets per game (5.8) among TE’s.

New England Patriots
QB – Tom Brady
Elite Option – Rob Gronkowski
Value Option – Julian Edelman, James White

As long as Tom Brady keeps putting up elite numbers you will continue to see the Patriots listed as an elite stacking option. In his two games back he has thrown for 406 and 376 yards with three touchdowns in each game. No matter the game flow the Patriots keep throwing the ball like they want Brady to break records in limited action. Of all the QB’s in the upper tier in pricing he has the highest PTS/$ value as he is projected for 40+ pass attempts and 20+ fantasy points on both sites. His #1 option will once again be Rob Gronkowski who has put up back to back 100+ yard games. The ceiling is even higher as the touchdown totals should start to rise as well. If you are looking for value and low-ownership take a look at Julian Edelman who has been disappointing all season and has not recorded over 40 yards receiving in four straight weeks but has received 17 targets in two games since Brady returned. Another benefactor of Tom Brady’s return is RB James White who has received 15 targets in his last two games, catching 12 for 110 yards and two touchdowns.

Contrarian Stack of the Week

Jacksonville Jaguars
QB – Blake Bortles
Elite Option – Allen Robinson
Value Options – Allen Hurns

The Jags fall under the contrarian section as they are never high owned and have seen their prices drop considerably as they have disappointed for the most part averaging the 29th most yards per game (320) this season. Since week’s one and two where Blake Bortles threw for 300+ yards in both he has gone three straight without. There is a ton of upside however as he has an elite WR in Allen Robinson who he has targeted 10+ times in three of their five games. Robinson’s price has been steady in the low $8K range all season on FanDuel but has hit a low on DraftKings making a great buy low opportunity. It also helps the Jags get an elite matchup vs. the Raiders who rank 28th in Defense vs. the Pass and have given up the most yards per game (444.8) of any team in the NFL.

Defense/Running Back Stack of the Week

Tennessee Titans Defense and DeMarco Murray

The Titans haven’t exploded as a fantasy defense lately, but they have been incredibly consistent with six sacks in back to back games. They are a defensive team score away from a huge day but either way we will take the 6-15 points we have been getting with them. When looking at the Player Lab Tool, you will see they rank 8th in Defense vs. the Pass and 10th in Defense vs. the Run. They will get a great opportunity to once again put up big sack totals as they face Andrew Luck who has already been sacked a league-high 23 times.

While the defense will be doing their thing against the Colts offense, the Titans will once again put a big workload in the hands of DeMarco Murray who sits 4th in league rushing (526 yards) with an impressive 4.6 yards per carry average. He will be chalky this week as he faces a defense that ranks dead last in Defense vs. the Rush when looking at the Player Lab tool but is impossible to fade at this point.

Chris Durell

In this early week article, I am going to cover a few recaps from some of the prior week’s top matchups in the “What We Learned” section along with some defense vs. position rankings. I will then preview the Thursday night game from a DFS perspective if you just can’t wait until Sunday. Finally, I will have a look at each position and a few players to think about early in the week before giving you my top QB/WR stacks on Thursday/Friday.

What We Learned

Wow, What an odd week! Going to start off with some notable players who most likely helped absolutely no one this past weekend. If they did, good one ya. Where is your crystal ball? It started on Thursday night as the Chargers beat the Broncos. With the Chargers having a beaten up secondary you would’ve thought that Demaryius Thomas or Emmanuel Sanders was going to go off, but no, it was Bennie Fowler Jr. catching the only touchdown for the Broncos.

The fantasy owners of Mark Ingram were once again robbed of a touchdown as Coby Fleener took a 2-yard rush into the endzone on a 4th and goal. It would have salvaged his day as he rushed for just 51 yards. On the other side of the ball, I fully expected a bounce back for the Panthers, and while they started slow, their offense picked it up in the 4th quarter recording 21 points. However, it wasn’t Kelvin Benjamin or Greg Olsen getting the love. It was Devin Funchness and Ed Dickson getting the touchdowns.

Other notable irrelevant fantasy performances came from Arrelious Benn, Levine Tiololo, Darius Heyward-Bey(rushing TD), Cobi Hamilton(recently promoted from practice roster), Damien Williams and the biggest surprise of the day was a rushing TD from Dontari Poe. It was a lateral pass but either way, it was a touchdown for the 346-pound defensive linemen.

Other Notable Things to Take Away from Last Week

Ok, ok enough with the bad and onto the good things from last Sunday. LeSean McCoy got his revenge on Chip Kelly as he carried the ball 19 times for 140 yards and three touchdowns against the 49ers.

Marcus Mariota proved he is a top 10 fantasy QB completing 17 of 24 passes for 284 yards and three touchdowns while rushing the ball seven times for 64 yards. Demarco Murray continued to get the bulk of the Titans RB share with 21 carries but was limited to just 65 yards (3.1 Avg) but got close to value with a touchdown. On the other side of the ball, Terrelle Pryor made his return to fantasy relevance catching nine of his 13 targets for 75 yards and two touchdowns in a losing effort.

Odell Beckham Jr. has a monster day with eight catches for 222 yards and two touchdowns. He appears to be back to having fun as he proposed to the kicking net then seemed to be spooning with it on the ground. I guess we can put up with the weirdness as long as we continue to get these blowup games.

Terrance West continues to a heavy workload as he received 23 carries and produced 87 yards and got into the endzone twice. With Steve Smith out of the picture in week 6 Mike Wallace(9) and Dennis Pitta(10) received the largest target share but only produced 10 catches for 133 yards.

Drew Brees had another monster day with 465 yards passing with four touchdowns spread around to Coby Fleener, Michael Thomas, Brandon Cooks, and Josh Hill.

For the Panthers Jonathan Stewart returned to action and received 19 carries collecting 85 yards and two touchdowns. Cam Newton made up for a sloppy day in garbage time and reached 322 yards passing for two touchdowns and also rushed one in for a touchdown. The Panthers are in big trouble falling to 1-5 on the season and should be a good team to target going forward as they will have to play lights out to have a chance at playoffs or will be completely out of it and play with nothing to lose. The good news is they will most likely be less-owned than the first six weeks of the season and we all know the upside.

The Steelers lost more than the game to the Dolphins on Sunday as Ben Roethlisberger suffered a torn meniscus. The good news is there is a chance he may return after the Steelers bye week which comes in week 8. This most definitely downgrades Antonio Brown this weekend with Landry Jones at the helm, but you can continue to roll out *Le’Veon Bell who should see the same, if not more, workload in week 7.

The Dolphins saw the return of Arian Foster but is was Jay Ajayi who stole the show with 204 rushing yards and two trips to the endzone. Don’t get fooled and follow last weeks points as Ajayi will see a huge increase in ownership and now faces a tough test in the Buffalo Bills defense. Jarvis Landry bounced back catching seven of his nine targets for 91 yards so feel free to roll him out in all formats moving forward.

Tom Brady continued his comeback with and 350+ passing yard game with three touchdowns and it was Rob Gronkowski having the monster day with seven catches for 162 yards and a touchdown.

A.J. Green caught eight of his game-high ten targets for 88 yards but continues to be held back by the lack luster QB play of Andy Dalton.

The Falcons/Seahawks game looked to be over at half as the home team was up 17-3 and looked dominant.Christine Michael continued to be a strong option in the backfield rushing 18 times for 64 yards with two touchdowns while Jimmy Graham had another good day catching six balls on nine targets for 89 yards. Look for the Seahawks to continue to play defense, run the play and play-action to Jimmy Graham and Doug Baldwin. I say the game “looked” to be over as the Falcons came out of the gates after halftime on fire scoring 21 straight points. Matt Ryan continued his dominance throwing for his fourth 300+ yard day and 15th TD of the season. Julio Jones bounced back in a big way against Richard Sherman catching seven of nine for 139 yards and a touchdown. Look for another big day from Ryan and Jones on Sunday as the face the Chargers who rank 24th in passing yards allowed per game (279).

The Cowboys Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott continue to battle each other for the rookie of the year honours as Dak threw for 247 yards and three touchdowns while Zeke rushed the ball 28 times for 157 yards (5.6 average).

Last but not least we continued to see the dominance from Cardinals RB David Johnson on Monday Night Football. He carried the ball 22 times for 11 yards (5.0 avg) and got into the endzone on three occasions. He alo received six targets in the pass game, catching three for 27 yards.

Defense vs. Position Rankings

I will take a look at some top defenses to target at each position based on their early play and compared to last years ranks. For the Def vs. Pos Rankings I will be using the Player Lab Tool on the website. Let’s take a look.

Target RB against New Orleans Saints
This weeks Matchup – Kansas City Chiefs

The Saints have certainly struggled on defense overall and have allowed the 2nd most yards per game in the NFL. While you can target any position against them, it’s the run defense that we should be targeting this weekend. Using The Player Lab Tool you can easily see that the Saints have allowed the most fantasy points to vs. rushing and are the only team to allow ten rushing touchdowns on the season. The Chiefs got Jamaal Charles back last week, but he was heavily out-touched by Spencer Ware 24-9 while putting up 131 yards and a touchdown. Look for the Chiefs to try and run the ball 35+ times while trying to control the clock and keep Drew Brees and the Saints offense off the field as much as possible. Stay tuned for any news about the workload of each running back, but I don’t see how Spencer Ware isn’t going to receive another 20+ touches in this matchup.

Target the Green Bay Packers in the Pass Game
This weeks Matchup – Chicago Bears

The Packers defense has been elite vs. running backs allowing just 72 rush yards per game and the least fantasy points per game among all teams. It has been the complete opposite in the passing game as they have allowed the most fantasy points per game to wide receivers. They will face the Chicago Bears this week who have been surprisingly strong with Brian Hoyer behind center as he has thrown for a 69% completion percentage, 1,396 yards and six touchdowns with zero interceptions. Even with Kevin White out, Hoyer has still had two viable options to throw to in Alshon Jeffery and Cameron Meredith. Both received double-digit targets last week and Meredith has received double-digit targets two weeks in a row. With the Packers so tough on the running game you can also expect Jordan Howard to get targeted 5+ times in the passing game.

Thursday Night Football

This week on Thursday Night Football we get the Chicago Bears visiting Lambo Field to face the Green Bay Packers. The Packers currently are sitting as 9 point favorites at home and projected to score around 27 points while the Bears are projected to score under 20. The Packers sit at 3-2 in the NFC North and sit just two games back of the Vikings. That is pretty impressive considering QB Aaron Rodgers has been less than impressive averaging just 234 passing yards per game with a low 60% completion percentage. While he hasn’t gotten the yardage, he has already thrown for 10 touchdowns (8th most) and has huge fantasy upside. He has an elite WR in Jordy Nelson and also has Randall Cobb back involved the last couple weeks with back to back double-digit target games. With Eddie Lacy out, for what sounds like awhile, expect the Packers to go even more throw heavy.

On the Bears side of things, I discussed above in the Defense vs. Position section that the Packers are dominant in shutting down the run game allowing just 72 rush yards per game(2nd least). The Packers are the favorite and expected to get out front early which should force the hand of the Brian Hoyer who is projected to throw it 35+ times on Thursday night. He has elite WR Alshon Jeffery who has yet to break out in 2016 with just one 100+ yard game(week 1) and has yet to reach the endzone. Look for that to change this week. For PPR formats Hoyer also has Cameron Meredith who has been filling in nicely for injured Kevin White and has received 27 targets over the last two weeks and has caught 20 of them and recorded back to back 100+ yard games. You can also expect RB Jordan Howard to get involved in the pass game as he isn’t likely to do much damage on the ground. He has touchdown upside and will get the goaline attempts and has been viable in the passing game as well catching 14 of his 19 targets this season.

Thanks for reading this week’s article and stay tuned later in the week for my favorite stacking options for the weekend.

Chris Durell

If you have been using the Player Lab Tool note that all the data took a season switch over over the past couple of days with 2016 data now displayed. There is a tremendous amount of data available, and I have been incorporating more and more of it into my models each week to build the optimal lineup stacks. The tool is fully customizable allowing you to filter only the data in that you want and enabling you to set the thresholds for each filter. Once you get players that look good to you per your specifications, you can easily flip it over into the lineup optimizer where you then can create and export up to 50 lineups.

Here is a look at a few of the filters/stats I look at when constructing my tournament stacks:

High Vegas O/U – I always start with this filter most weeks have the threshold set at 47 or higher. It’s pretty obvious as you always want to target players in the highest scoring games. Vegas isn’t always right, meaning you can find low-ownership by going outside the threshold but concentrating on more individual matchups.

Defense vs. Position Ranking – This one is also pretty obvious but is much deeper than just passing/rushing/receiving yards against. It incorporates DVOA (Defense-Adjusted Value Over Average) which is more of a situation and opponent based ranking. It helps us to really break down which are the best teams to target at each position and when I find one team who ranks poorly against almost all positions they are close to a lock stack for me.

Pace – This breaks down the number of plays the opponent allows per game. Finding teams who are projected to score a lot of points vs. teams who are weak against the position. This allows a lot of plays and is an excellent way to maximize the upside of stacking.

Let’s take a look at some of the top stacking options using these filters.
Good Luck everyone!

Pittsburgh Steelers v.s Miami Dolphins
QB – Ben Roethlisberger
Elite Options – Antonio Brown, Le’Veon Bell
Value Options – Sammie Coates, Jesse James

Looking at the QB position on the Player Lab Tool you will quickly notice that Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers rank high in many categories. The game has the second highest projected total (49) and Big Ben is ranked 3rd behind only Newton and Brees in projected fantasy points for the week. Even with the Steelers sitting as 7.5 point favorites Big Ben is still projected to for 40+ pass attempts which makes sense given he has attempts 37+ in four of his first five games. His top option is Antonio Brown who is one of the safest options at any position and leads the league in average targets per week (13.3). Star RB Le’Veon Bell also makes an elite play as he gets a ton of volume as a rusher and pass-catcher. In his two games since returning, he has rushed the ball 38 times for 210 yards while catching 14 of his 17 targets in the passing game. He has yet to reach the endzone this season, but that is likely to change Sunday. If you are looking for some value in your stack take a look at TE Jesse James who is coming off a season-high eight targets and has a touchdown in three of his last four games. If Sammie Coates makes the start he is also a high upside GPP play but will be highly-owned coming off a six catch 139-yard game reaching the endzone twice.

Carolina Panthers vs. New Orleans Saints
QB – Cam Newton
Elite Option – Kelvin Benjamin, Greg Olsen

The Panthers season has not gotten off to a positive start as they have gone 1-4 and sit in the basement of the NFC South. Sunday’s matchup against the Saints has quickly become a do or die situation. Cam Newton has been a full participant at practice and ready to roll after a week away with a concussion. Looking at the Player Lab Tool he is the highest rankings QB from a PTS/$ perspective and can beat you in many ways. Because of his ability to run he is a much better play on FanDuel as he rarely reaches the 300+ or 100+ threshold for the bonus points on DraftKings. Either way he is a top play this week. Kelvin Benjamin showed up on the Thursday injury report but got in a limited session and is expected to play. That is a good thing as he will get an elite matchup against the Saints and their 28th rank vs. the Pass. You can also rely on the Panthers elite TE Greg Olsen who has received double-digit targets in three straight games and leads all TE with 53 for the season.

Contrarian Stack of the Week

Tennessee Titans
QB – Marcus Mariota
Elite Option – Delanie Walker
Value Options – Tajae Sharpe

For my contrarian stack for large field tournaments this week I will be rolling with the Titans. How can they be contrarian as 7.5 point favorites against the Browns you say? Just because they have a good matchup doesn’t make it any easier to roster Marcus Mariota and his average at best-receiving core. They rank 15th in yards per game due to the beastly running of DeMarco Murray who has carried the Titans to an average of 148 rushing yards per game. Mariota has yet to throw for 300 yards in a game but has multiple touchdown passes in three of his five games. He now gets an elite matchup against the Browns who rank 31st in Defense vs. the Pass on the Player Lab. The most targeted receiver has been rookie Tajae Sharpe who has averaged 8.3 targets per game. He has been completely off the radar since week one though with only 11 catches for 113 yards. He is a very talented WR and will be extremely low-owned. The chalk play for the Titans is going to be Delanie Walker who proved to be Mariota’s favorite weapon last season as he recorded his first 1,000-yard season. He has already received 27 targets (5.3 per game) and should see that total go up once the offense starts clicking.

Defense/Running Back Stack of the Week

Tennessee Titans & DeMarco Murray

The Titans defense has been the bright spot of the team this far as they rank 10th overall in yards allowed per game. There is an excellent chance that ranking gets better after week six as they get an elite matchup vs. the Browns and their awful 0-5 record. The Titans have yet to recover a fumble which can be a bit flukey, but they have picked off six passes this year. The interceptions should start to grow as the pass rush starts to pick it up as they have only recorded seven sacks this year. It’s more about the opponent in this matchup as the Browns have turned the ball over a total of eight times so far in 2016 (10th most).

Pair the defense with RB DeMarco Murray who has been incredible so far this season with 461 rushing yards (2nd behind Zeke) for a cool 5.0 average per rush with three touchdowns. He has also been impressive in the passing game catching 24 of his 27 targets for 172 yards and two touchdowns. He is an elite option in an elite matchup and is safe in all formats.

Chris Durell & James Leer

In this early week article, I am going to cover a few recaps from some of the prior week’s top matchups in the “What We Learned” section along with some defense vs. position rankings. I will then preview the Thursday night game from a DFS perspective if you just can’t wait until Sunday. Finally, I will have a look at each position and a few players to think about early in the week before giving you my top QB/WR stacks on Thursday/Friday.

For those interested, we also have a video summary of this article located here.

What We Learned

Going to start this week with the most talked about game of the week. The return of Tom Brady! He picked up right where he left off and was amazing completing 28 of 40 passes for 406 yards and threw three touchdowns. Gronk also returned to a full snap count share and had a great day (5 of 7 for 109 yards), but it was the Pats other TE Martellus Bennett catching all three of Tom’s touchdowns. He actually out-targeted Gronk 8-7 catching six balls for 67 yards. With two big TE targets plus WR Julian Edelman who should start to get more involved, it will be tough to decide which option is optimal on a week to week basis. On the other hand, Brady looks fully capable of producing fantasy results for multiple targets. Follow the Player Lab closely to maximize your chances with matchups.

It was another big day for the Pittsburgh Steelers who pulled away in the second half for a 31-13 win over the Jets. Big Ben was very impressive once again completing 34 of 47 pass attempts for 380 yards and four more touchdowns. That is now nine touchdowns in the last two weeks. The monster performance came not from Le’Veon Bell or Antonio Brown but rookie speedster Sammie Coates who caught six of 11 targets for 139 yards and two touchdowns. Bell had a less than impressive day running the ball with just 66 yards on 20 carries (3.3 Avg) but caught nine of his 11 targets for 88 yards to salvage his fantasy day. He will continue to be an elite option with no game flow restrictions. Antonio Brown didn’t have a monster game like Coates but very productive also catching nine of his 11 targets for 78 yards and a touchdown. With the TE landscape a very tough one to predict on a weekly basis you can rely on the cheap option in Jesse James who has caught a touchdown in three of his last four games and ended up with a season-high eight targets on Sunday. The Steelers should continue to be a high-volume offense with multiple viable fantasy options.

The Player Lab Tool was all over the Chargers/Raiders game with a high total last week and neither team disappointed. In a losing effort, Philip Rivers completed 21 of 30 for 359 yards and four touchdowns. Melvin Gordon looked better running the ball with 69 yards on 16 carries (4.3 Avg) and also caught his only target for a touchdown. Rivers did a good job spreading the ball around to his WR’s with Tyrell Williams catching five of his six targets for 117 yards and a touchdown and Travis Benjamin catching seven of his 11 targets for 117 yards. Tight ends Antonio Gates and Hunter Henry split targets and both recorded a touchdown. Henry being the younger and faster of the two had a bigger day through the air averaging 24.7 yards per catch while Gates averaged just 7.5 yards per catch.

On the other side of the ball, Derek Carr continued to provide nice value despite completing just 25 of his 40 passes. He did record 317 yards and tossed two touchdowns. With a weak defense the volume for Carr is going to be there all season. I was on Amari Cooper all last week as a top play at WR with most people most likely turning to the red-hot Crabtree. It was Cooper having the much better day catching six of his 12 targets for 138 yards and a touchdown. If he can start hauling in more of those targets he will have even more monster days ahead. If you did play Crabtree over Cooper he ended up salvaging his day with a touchdown, catching three of his seven targets. Crabtree has been the better of the two when the Raiders get close to the goal line as he has caught four of his five end zone targets for touchdowns, while Cooper has caught zero of his five targets in the box.

Other Notable Things to Take Away from Last Week

David Johnson continued to prove he is an elite, workhorse RB in the NFL after rushing for 157 yards on 27 carries (5.8 Avg) while picking up two touchdowns. He also received six targets and sits tied for 5th among RB’s with 27 on the season.

For the 49ers RB Carlos Hyde picked up another rushing touchdown and added 78 yards on 22 carries (3.5 Avg) vs. a tough defense in the Cardinals.

With Blaine Gabbert having another unproductive game it will be Colin Kaepernik behind center this week. It will be best to avoid all 49ers outside of Hyde until we see how the offense is going to run with Kaep at QB.

I was dead wrong about the Eagles as Carson Wentz finally threw his first interception and the Eagles finally lost a game. Who knew those things were correlated. (LOL.) Surely something is amidst when Nelson Agholor lead the team in targets with seven. Moving on.

Not much to talk about on the Lions side of things. Stafford threw for under 200 yards but recorded three touchdowns and no interceptions. Theo Riddick struggled rushed for 49 yards on 11 carries(4.5 Avg) and also caught all six of the targets he was thrown for 33 yards and two touchdowns.

One of the top QB’s from a PTS/$ perspective going into the week did everything we expected. Brian Hoyer performed well completing 33 of 43 passes for 397 yards and two touchdowns. Oddly enough the leader in targets was Cameron Meredith who caught nine of his 12 targets for 130 yards and a touchdown.

Jordan Howard had another big day rushing for 118 yards on just 16 carries (7.4 avg). Keep targeting the Colts defense with RB’s.

Andrew Luck was better throwing for 322 yards and two touchdowns but got sacked another five times this week as the offensive continues to struggle. TY Hilton was his primary target as he caught 10 of his 11 targets for an impressive 171 yards and a touchdown. TE Dwayne Allen was also impressive catching all six of his targets for 50 yards and a touchdown.

The Titans defense or rather the lack of offense for the Dolphins was the focus of the game as they only mustered 200 yards of offense.

The Titans, on the other hand, had just under 400 yards with 121 coming on the ground from DeMarco Murray who sits 2nd in league rushing with 461 yards. He out carried Derrick Henry 27-7 on Sunday.

In another defensive battle, the Redskins defeated the Ravens 16-10. Jordan Reed (Was) and Mike Wallace (Bal) led all pass catchers with 11 targets for their teams but no one had over 100 yards on the day. It was also odd to see Terrance West only receive 11 carries considering he turned them into 95 yards (8.6 Avg).

The one takeaway from Vikings/Texans game? The Vikings are an elite defensive unit and targeting against them is going to be a -EV proposition on a week to week basis. They are one of only four teams in the NFL to hold their opponents under 300 yards per week on average. DeAndre Hopkins got a late touchdown but was completely shut down for the most part with just five receptions on nine targets for 56 yards.

The Minnesota running game is going to be a tough one to nail each week with Matt Asiata possibly holding the best value as he gets the majority of goal line touches making him a touchdown dependant flex option or punt play.

The Falcons upset the Broncos at home ending their undefeated streak. It was mainly a defensive battle with fantasy points mostly coming from the Falcons running backs. Devonta Freeman rushed for 88 yards and touchdown while Tevin Coleman caught four of his six targets for a whopping 132 yards and a touchdown.

Emmanuel Sanders continues to own the Broncos target share with 51 on the season to Demaryius Thomas’s 34.

The Cowboys rolled over the Bengals on the back of their rookie star running back Ezekiel Elliott who rushed for 134 yards on 15 carries (8.9 Avg) and added two touchdowns. He leads the NFL in rushing with 546 yards and already had five rushes that exceeded 20+ yards. ELITE!

The Cowboys defense pretty much shut down the Bengals in every facet which lead to Brandon Lafell having his one good game a month with 68 yards receiving and two touchdowns. He is a boom or bust punt play on a week to week basis with defenses having to clamp down on AJ Green.

LeSean McCoy was another running back who went crazy on Sunday rushing for 150 yards on 18 carries (8.3 Avg) while Todd Gurley rushed for 72 yards on 22 carries (3.1 Avg) but picked up two touchdowns.

Defense vs. Position Rankings

I have added this section now that we have more than a one-game sample size. I will take a look at some top defenses to target at each position based on their early play and compared to last years ranks. For the Def vs. Pos Rankings I will be using the Player Lab Tool on the website. Let’s take a look.

Target RB against Detroit Lions
This weeks Matchup – Los Angeles Rams
Def vs. Pass – 32nd
Def vs. Rush – 31st

Looking at the Player Lab Tool going into Week 6 the one thing that sticks out is that the Lions rank right at the bottom against the Pass and Run. They have allowed a total of 378 yards per game (263.4 passing, 114.8 rushing). While the Rams offense has been one of the weakest in the league, this may be the week we see a breakout performance from Todd Gurley. He is getting the volume (105 attempts) but has struggled rushing for a low 2.7 average.

Target the Miami Dolphins
This weeks Matchup – Pittsburgh Steelers
Def vs. Pass – 29th
Def vs. Rush – 12th

The Dolphins have struggled through five weeks of the season with a 1-4 record and rank out as one of the worst defenses in the league allowing over 400 yards per game to the opposition. In each game this year they have either allowed a 100+ rusher or a 100+ receiver and rank as the top pace team when looking at opponents plays allowed per game (73.2). Things will not get any easier this week as they face the Steelers and Big Ben who has thrown for nine touchdowns over the last two weeks. They also have elite RB Le’Veon Bell back two weeks ago and he has already accumulated 210 yards rushing and 122 yards receiving on 17 targets. Load up on The Steelers this week.

Thursday Night Football

This Thursday brings us a division matchup between the Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers. The Broncos sit atop the AFC West tied with the Raiders while the Chargers sit in the basement at 1-4 after a barrage of injuries early in the season. The Broncos look like they will be starting Trevor Siemian who is returning from a shoulder injury. There are really only two fantasy options to consider for the Broncos tonight. Emmanuel Sanders has controlled the target share with 51 targets through five weeks while Demaryius Thomas has only received 34 on the season. At running back, C.J. Anderson is a great play as the game flow should dictate a heavy workload. The Broncos are currently -3 favorites, and if I had to bet today, I would easily take them to cover with their elite defense. This gives Anderson one of the highest projected attempts on the week (18.53) and is also tied for 15th among running backs with 19 targets in the passing game.

On the other side of the ball, Philip Rivers makes sense as the Chargers should be trailing in the second half leading to 35+ attempts. He has been excellent this season despite losing his #1 WR (Keenan Allen) and top RB (Danny Woodhead) in the passing game. He sits 4th in the league with 1,469 passing yards and has averaged the second-most yards per attempt (8.54) through five weeks. The target share has been split almost evenly between Travis Benjamin(39) and Tyrell Williams(34) with Williams coming off the 100 yard game and touchdown and is the much better play on DraftKings at only $4,000. Denver has been elite against the pass this year but struggled against the run allowing 115.4 yards per game. Melvin Gordon makes a viable option as he has received 14+ carries in each game (299 yards/6 TD) and has seen a total of 18 targets (122 yards/1 TD) this season.

Week 5 Top Games to Target

Pittsburgh Steelers (-9) vs. Miami Dolphins
Over/Under – 48

The Player Lab definitely favors the Steelers as they are a much better team and early 9 point favorites. Ben Roethlisberger is an elite option this week against the Dolphins who rank 29th in Defense vs. the Pass on the Player Lab Tool while allowing an extremely high 73.2 plays per game. Over the last two weeks Big Ben has dominated throwing for 680 yards and nine touchdowns and 29+ fantasy points per week on both sites. The Steelers will be a team that I will consider a full team stack in a few different combinations. I like Big Ben with Antonio Brown and Jesse James or Coates and Bell with Big Ben or Coates and Brown with Big Ben. Yep, I am all in on the Steelers and will have at least five different combinations going in GPP formats.

On the other side of the ball, I am only looking at the passing game which should have a ton of volume, especially in garbage time. Look for a bounce back game from Jarvis Landry who had his double-digit target streak broken last week. He still sits 8th in that department for the season. If you are looking for a punt play, consider Kenny Stills who is very boom or bust as a deep threat play but will be most likely less than 2% owned.

Dallas Cowboys vs. Green Bay Packers (-4.5)
Over/Under – 48

With just three afternoon games this week this matchup should be the focus of most everyone’s attention. It has a high over/under (compared to rest of slate) matching up two one-loss teams near the top of the NFC. Aaron Rodgers has seen his price drop to the low $7K mark after four straight sub 300-yard passing games. He has still been able to salvage decent fantasy days with nine touchdown passes and 17 rushes with two additional touchdowns. If you are looking for a near sure thing, get Jordy Nelson back in your lineup as he has been red hot to start the year with a touchdown in each of his first four games. Randall Cobb makes a better GPP play as he will be much lower owned and cheaper and coming off a big week catching nine balls on 11 targets for 108 yards. It was his first 100-yard game since September last year. Eddie Lacy is considered day to day right now and would be risky even if he starts. James Starks makes a decent punt play if Lacy is held out.

The Cowboys come in as underdogs but have some intriguing fantasy options this week. Despite the tough matchup, Ezekiel Elliott is an elite play at RB who leads the league in rushing through five weeks and has gotten better each week. That is scary considering he is just five games into his career. While I wouldn’t consider stacking the Cowboys in tournaments, I would consider some pieces as excellent cash game options. Dak Prescott is affordable on both sites and while he is limited in the offense, he doesn’t turn the ball over and has scored 17+ fantasy points in four straight weeks on both sites. Cole Beasley carries the same cash game tag as his ceiling is limited, but he does offer a nice floor for the price and ranks high on a PTS/$ basis. He leads the Cowboys with 33 targets on the season, and it looks very unlikely that Dez Bryant will play this week.

Thanks for reading this week’s article and stay tuned later in the week for my favorite stacking options for the weekend.

Chris Durell & James Leer

Week 5 is alive and only 3 unbeaten teams remain. Will the surprisingly undefeated Vikings and Eagles prove that they are, indeed, for real? Will the Falcons decimate the Broncos like they stuck it to the Panthers last week? Will Tom Brady come back after his suspension, like Le’veon Bell, and show the fantasy world who’s boss? Lots of interesting situations to look forward to, I can’t wait for Sunday kickoff!

If you have been using the Player Lab Tool note that all the data took a season switch over over the past couple of days with 2016 data now displayed. There is a tremendous amount of data available, and I have been incorporating more and more of it into my models each week to build the optimal lineup stacks. The tool is fully customizable allowing you to filter only the data in that you want and enabling you to set the thresholds for each filter. Once you get players that look good to you per your specifications, you can easily flip it over into the lineup optimizer where you then can create and export up to 50 lineups.

Here is a look at a few of the filters/stats I look at when constructing my tournament stacks:

High Vegas O/U – I always start with this filter most weeks have the threshold set at 47 or higher. It’s pretty obvious as you always want to target players in the highest scoring games. Vegas isn’t always right, meaning you can find low-ownership by going outside the threshold but concentrating on more individual matchups.

Defense vs. Position Ranking – This one is also pretty obvious but is much deeper than just passing/rushing/receiving yards against. It incorporates DVOA (Defense-Adjusted Value Over Average) which is more of a situation and opponent based ranking. It helps us to really break down which are the best teams to target at each position and when I find one team who ranks poorly against almost all positions they are close to a lock stack for me.

Pace – This breaks down the number of plays the opponent allows per game. Finding teams who are projected to score a lot of points vs. teams who are weak against the position. This allows a lot of plays and is an excellent way to maximize the upside of stacking.

Let’s take a look at some of the top stacking options using these filters.
Good Luck everyone!

Oakland Raiders vs. San Diego Chargers

QB – Derek Carr
Elite Options – Michael Crabtree
Value Options – Amari Cooper, DeAndre Washington

The Raiders come into this game as 3.5 point home favorites in the week’s highest projected scoring game with an Over/Under currently sitting at 50. San Diego’s defense has been decent this year ranking 18th in the Def vs. Pass rankings on the Player Lab tool and could trend downwards for the rest of the season. It was announced earlier in the week that star corner Jason Verrett has a partially torn ACL that will end his season. Quarterback Derek Carr has averaged over 38 pass attempts per game and is projected for over 40 in this game. He has impressed this season completing 68% of his passes with nine touchdowns and just one interception. Carr has equally targeted his big WR’s as Michael Crabtree has seen 37 targets while Amari Cooper has seen 35. Crabtree has been more productive from a fantasy perspective with four touchdowns compared to Coopers zero, but both have recorded over 300 yards receiving on the season. If you are looking for a punt option at RB this week take a long hard look at DeAndre Washington who should get the start on Sunday with Latavius Murray doubtful to play with a toe injury. Washington was the most impressive of the three-headed attack last week with five carries for 30 yards, and he also caught all three of his targets in the passing game.

New York Giants vs. Green Bay Packers
QB – Eli Manning
Elite Option – Odell Beckham Jr.
Value Options – Victor Cruz, Sterling Shepard

If you are looking for volume this week one of the top games to stack is going to be the Packer/Giants matchup. I lean the road team for a few reasons. First of all, with the Packers coming off a bye week I fully expect a dominant effort, especially considering the Giants are on a short week coming off a loss to the Vikings on Monday Night Football. Game script could have the Packers lean to Eddie Lacy to carry the load while the Giants could be forced to throw a ton. Looking at the Player Lab Tool Eli is projected for the third-most pass attempts (41.6) of any quarterback and has the wide receivers to put up some big time yards and fantasy points. He has an elite option in Odell Beckham Jr. who has been a target monster so far this year with 39 targets (average 10 per week) and is due to break out of his touchdown slump. The pressure is on as he showed a little bit too much emotion on MNF where he recorded a career low 23 yards. Recency bias will have some people avoiding him but with a salary that has dropped $800 since the start of the season I will be all over OBJ this week. If you want to go the value route and still expose yourself (not in people please) to the Giants game script upside consider Sterling Shepard and Victor Cruz. Shepard has seen 7+ targets in each of the last three weeks. Cruz’s targets have been a little more scattered as the 3rd option in the passing game but has seen 8+ in two of the four weeks.

Contrarian Stack of the Week

Philadelphia Eagles vs. Detroit Lions
QB – Carson Wentz
Elite Option – Jordan Matthews
Value Options – Zach Ertz

The Eagles/Lions game falls outside the “High Vegas O/U” filter threshold and that is why it falls in the contrarian section this week. Looking at the “High-Opp Allowed Pace” filter it also comes in as one of the worst matchups. But here we are. The Eagles have been one of the surprises of the first quarter of the season going 3-0 and scoring 29+ points in each game. Some say the early bye week might disrupt the momentum they have had, but I am not buying it. I feel it gives them even more time to prepare for an opponent who is struggling on both offense and defense.

Despite being limited to an average of 34 pass attempts per game in the first three weeks, Carson Wentz has been impressive with a 7.54 yards per attempt with five touchdowns and has yet to throw an interception. [Which at 99 passing attempts without an interception currently stands as an NFL record for a rookie quarterback – editor] The Eagles are a team that have multiple target stacking options. Start with the Jordan Matthews who leads the team with 26 targets (8.7 per week). He had a touchdown last game but was otherwise quiet as the Eagles completely shut down the Steelers which made it a very balanced attack (31 pass attempts and 30 rush attempts). Expect the Eagles to have to throw it few more times this week (Wentz projected for 38 att). Wentz will also get his second favorite target back as Zach Ertz returns from injury. He was impressive in week one before going down catching six of his seven targets for 58 yards.

Defense/Running Back Stack of the Week

Pittsburgh Steelers & Le’Veon Bell vs. New York Jets

After an embarrassing loss to the Eagles in week three the Steelers rebounded in a big way last week with a 43-14 win over the Chiefs. [Which Chris, yet again, did an excellent job predicting the rebound in this Week 4 article here: http://bit.ly/2dSTI0j – editor]. They allowed them 357 total yards but limited them to 14 points and created two turnovers with four sacks. This week they get another great matchup as they sit as early seven-point home favorites vs. the Jets. Fitzmagic has been a turnover machine lately throwing nine interceptions in the last two weeks as the offense has looked awful scoring just 20 points. Matt Forte was a full participant in practice on Thursday but has been banged up with rib and knee injuries the last few weeks and Eric Decker is a long shot to play. Look for the Steelers defense to record multiple sacks with a few turnovers on Sunday.

The game script from a dominant defensive performance correlates closely with RB performance as they tend to get a ton of carries, especially in the second half while their team is just wearing the clock down. The Steelers got a huge boost last week when they got back elite RB Le’Veon Bell. Things didn’t look good early as Big Ben spread the ball around through the air, but Bell ended up with 18 carries for 144 yards and also caught five of his six targets. The Jets rank well in Def vs. Pass (6th), but the volume trumps the matchup rating this week.

Chris Durell

In this early week article, I am going to cover a few recaps from some of the prior week’s top daily fantasy matchups in the “What We Learned” section along with some defense vs. position rankings. I will then preview the Thursday night game from a DFS perspective if you can’t wait until Sunday. Finally, I will have a look at each position and a few players to think about early in the week for your optimized lineups before giving you my top QB/WR stacks on Thursday/Friday.

What We Learned

The Minnesota Vikings moved to 4-0 after a Monday Night Football victory over the New York Giants. Running Backs for both teams were the fantasy story Monday night as the Vikings Jerick McKinnon received 18 carries and ran for 85 yards (4.7 Avg) with a touchdown while the Giants Orleans Darkwa ran it 12 times for 48 yards (4.0 Avg) and a touchdown. Rookie RB Paul Perkins also broke out for a big play in the passing game with a 67-yard screen pass. Look for him to get more involved as the season goes on. Kyle Rudolph continues to show he is an elite option at TE with five catches on seven targets for 55 yards and another touchdown. One of the biggest things we learned in this game was that Xavier Rhodes can shut down the best WR’s in the game. After blanking out Kelvin Benjamin in week three, he shut down Odell Beckham Jr. in week four. Avoid WR’s all together at the moment against the Vikings.

The Panthers/Falcons game saw a late week Vegas line movement as the Over/Under rose close to five points on many sites. It’s like they knew what was coming as Matt Ryan and Julio Jones torched the Panthers on Sunday. Ryan completed 28 of 37 passes for 503 yards and four touchdowns while Julio caught 12 of 15 targets for 300 yards and a touchdown. At RB Devonta Freeman out carried Tevin Coleman 13-8 while picking up the rushing touchdown. Look for Freeman to get the larger share of the touches this week as Coleman deals with a sickle cell trait which can be affected by high altitudes like in Denver. As for the Panthers it was another disappointing loss as they fell to 1-3 on the season. Cam Newton suffered a concussion on a rush attempt in the 4th Quarter and is considered day to day until they release an injury report on Thursday. If Cam is out it may be best to avoid the Panthers offense in their upcoming MNF matchup with the Bucs.

Sunday Night Football saw two elite RB return to action as Jamaal Charles and the Chiefs took on Le’Veon Bell and the Steelers in Pittsburgh. Charles was limited as he was returning from an injury and only saw two carries and just one target. He now gets a bye week to get back to full health. Bell, on the other hand, returned from suspension and appeared to be in peak physical form. He got a full workload with 18 carries, rushing for 144 yards (8.0 Avg) and also caught five of his six targets for 34 yards. Antonio Brown saw just five targets on Sunday night due to the fact the Steelers got up early and ran the ball. Markus Wheaton and Darius Heyward-Bey also vultured some fantasy points from the big boys as both of them caught their only targets of the game for touchdowns while DeAngelo Williams received just four carries but ran one in for a touchdown.

Other Notable Things to Take Away from Last Week

AJ Green had a monster night on Thursday Night Football catching 12 of his 14 targets for 173 yards and a touchdown.

Jeremy Hill received 21 carries as the Bengals had the lead but ran for just 71 yards (3.4 Avg).

Andrew Luck struggled once again going 27 for 42 for just 234 yards while getting sacked six times. You can safely avoid the Colts until they show they can protect him and give him time to throw.

Allen Robinson saved his fantasy day by recording a touchdown after catching just five of his ten targets for 55 yards on Sunday.

Jordan Howard was the highlight in the Lions/Bears game as he rushed 23 times for 111 yards (4.8 Avg) and also caught three of his four targets in the passing game. His price has gone up, but as long as he is going to be heavily involved, regardless of game flow, he will be a top option from a PTS/$ perspective.

Isaiah Crowell continued to prove he’ss one of the best RB in the NFL with his second 100+ yard game in four weeks for the Browns. He sits second in league rushing and first in average yards per carry (6.5).

Terrelle Pryor was good in the first half catching a touchdown but was shut down in the second half when Josh Norman shadowed him.

DeMarco Murray had another big day as he picked up 25 carries for 95 yards with two touchdowns while also catching both of his targets in the passing game. He appears to be the bell cow back with Henry in a full backup role for now. Murray looks safe in all formats on a week to week basis.

Jimmy Graham is back in our fantasy good books with back to back 100+ yard games. Even with Russell Wilson at less than 100%, Graham was still able to catch six of his eight targets for 113 yards.

The Bills defense smothered the Patriots on Sunday but take little away as Tom Brady will now be returning which will boost the value of every single offensive player on the team.

Derek Carr didn’t accumulate the yards (199) on Sunday vs. the Ravens but did throw four touchdowns, with three of them going to Michael Crabtree who caught seven of his team-high 12 targets. Crabtree has now seen double-digit targets in back to back weeks while Amari Cooper hasn’t seen double-digit targets since week one.

On the Ravens side of things, the big story was Terrence West who held the bulk of the load at RB on Sunday with 21 carries for 113 yards and a touchdown. He will be the early-down pounder from here on out as the Ravens have released Justin Forsett.

The Rams/Cardinals game was an uneventful one from a fantasy standpoint as there were only three touchdowns in the game with two of them going to the Rams Brian Quick. The other going to Michael Floyd of the Cards.

David Johnson received 17 carries, rushing for 83 yards (4.9 Avg) while catching all four of his targets. He is another RB that can be trusted weekly as he is getting the bell cow work at RB.

The Cowboys rolled over the 49ers with Dak Prescott throwing two more touchdowns while still not throwing an interception. Not turning the ball over is the name of the game in big D.

The other key for the Cowboys was RB Ezekiel Elliott who is getting better every game. He rushed 23 times for 138 yards (6.0 Avg) and added a touchdown.

Defense vs. Position Rankings

I have added this section now that we have more than a one-game sample size. I will take a look at some top defenses to target at each position based on their early play and compared to last years ranks. For the Def vs. Pos rankings I will be using the Player Lab Tool on the website. Let’s take a look.

Target the Oakland Raiders
This week’s Matchup – San Diego Chargers
Def vs. Pass – 29th
Def vs. Rush – 26th

If you have been targeting the Raiders this season you have probably fared quite well. They rank dead last in passing yards allowed per game (325.5) and second last in rushing yards allowed per game (134.5). They have allowed opponents to score 27+ points in three of their four games and get another matchup with high scoring potential this week vs. the Chargers. These two teams are two of only five teams in the NFL to score and allow 100+ points on the season. Melvin Gordon should get a little more space this week while Philip Rivers should once again exceed 300+ yards with three viable WR options in Tyrell Williams, Travis Benjamin, and Dontrelle Inman. Don’t forget about TE Hunter Henry who has caught nine balls on 12 targets over the last two weeks.

Target the Washington Redskins in the Run Game
This week’s Matchup – Baltimore Ravens
Def vs. Rush – 32nd

Through four weeks the Redskins rank dead last in defense vs. the rush. They have allowed an average of 133 yards per game and have faced a Steelers team without Lev Bell, a Cowboys team working in rookie Zeke Elliott, a Giants team with multiple “average at best” runnings backs and a Browns team who is splitting the carries. They will face the Ravens this week who just finished releasing Justin Forsett after Terrance West who tore it up Sunday with 113 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries. Look for another heavy workload in a great matchup this week.

Thursday Night Football

This week’s Thursday Night Football game could be a low-scoring affair. I say this expecting Carson Palmer to sit out with a concussion he suffered on Sunday. If he is indeed out it will be backup Drew Stanton at QB for the Cardinals. He was awful after relieving Palmer on Sunday completing just four of his 11 passes for 37 yards and two interceptions. The 49ers defense could have a hay day on Thursday. While I wouldn’t consider rostering any of the receiving options for the Cards, I do think David Johnson will once again see his share of carries and gets a matchup vs. the 49ers who have allowed a league-worst 140 rushing yards per game through four weeks.

The fantasy outlook for the 49ers isn’t much better as they are lead by Blaine Gabbert who has completed less than 60% of his passes through four weeks. His top target has been Jeremy Kerley with 32 targets. Kerley missed Monday’s practice and was seen limping around which would increase the targets for Torrey Smith and possibly Quinton Patton but I would avoid the passing game altogether. Like the Cardinals, I think the 49ers top fantasy option on Thursday is going to be RB Carlos Hyde. Through four weeks Hyde has rushed for 299 yards and five touchdowns. He hasn’t been targeted a great deal in the passing game(8), but that could change Thursday if Kerley is out.

So unless you are trying to be super sneaky, I would only consider rostering the defenses and running backs on Thursday night.

Week 5 Top Games to Target

San Diego Chargers vs. Oakland Raiders

As I always I gravitate to the highest projected Vegas total. Early in the week this game sits around 50 in most spots and should have a ton of fantasy options on both sides of the ball. As I mentioned above in the Defense vs. Position breakdown, the Raiders rank right near the bottom against the pass and the rush. Philip Rivers will be one of my top QB’s this week at $6,900 on DraftKings and $8,300 on FanDuel. He has attempted 6+ pass attempts in three of his first four starts and thrown seven touchdowns with just one interception. He spreads the ball around extremely well this season without the services of Keenan Allen so stacking him with one WR is a tough thing to do. His top options have been Travis Benjamin and Tyrell Williams who have both seen 6+ targets in each of the last three weeks. A sneaky punt play on DraftKings ($4,100) is Dontrelle Inman who caught seven balls on 11 targets last week for 120 yards and a touchdown. Melvin Gordon was disappointing last week in the sense that he only averaged 1.9 yards per carry but made up for it with two touchdowns and also caught six of seven targets he received. That is two weeks in a row with seven targets. The price has gone up, but he is clearly being leaned on week in and week out. If Antonio Gates continues to struggle with injuries, Hunter Henry makes a fantastic value play at TE. Over the last two weeks, he has caught nine of his 12 targets for 133 yards and a touchdown.

On the other side of the ball, the Raiders have been an extremely effective team to start the season as they sit 3-1 on the back of their offense who have scored the 3rd most points (108) in the AFC. They will continue to provide value in fantasy until their defense improves as they need to keep up to stay in these games which ranks them right up there in pace. Derek Carr continues to sit in the second tier of pricing on both sites and has attempted 35+ passes in each of the first four games with nine touchdowns and just one interception. Over the last two weeks, it has been Michael Crabtree leading the way with 15 receptions on 23 targets for 190 yards and three touchdowns. He is also still $300 cheaper than Amari Cooper on both sites. With a RBBC in the backfield and no real TE threat the Raiders make a nice three headed stacking option. The matchup isn’t the greatest as the Chargers rank 18th in Defense vs. the Pass, but the volume will be there this week.

New York Giants vs. Green Bay Packers

Early in the week, the Packers are -7 home favorites and if you are a sports bettor I would lock that in as I see it climbing as the weekend approaches. The Giants are coming off a Monday night loss to the Vikings where they were dominated and now have to travel to Green Bay to face the Packers who are coming off a bye week. Going into their bye week we saw their offense explode on the Lions as Eddie Lacy led the way with his first 100+ yard game of the season. Aaron Rodgers didn’t accumulate the yards due to game flow and field position but racked up four touchdown passes with two going to his BFF Jordy Nelson who caught six of his seven targets for 101 yards. The Giants also present a nice matchup as they rank 28th in Defense vs. the Pass. If the Packers get ahead early look for Eddie Lacy to get another 15+ carries and it’s possible he could record back-to-back 100-yard games.

The Packers should be ahead for most of this game which is going to force the Giants to throw the ball a ton. I am not really on Eli even with the pass attempt projection above 40 this week as he has tossed it up 35+ times in three of four games this season and has yet to record 20 fantasy points. If you are looking for some high upside/ownership WR this week consider Odell Beckham Jr. who is coming off a dud vs. the Vikings where he faced a tough corner in Xavier Rhodes. He will get a much better matchup vs. the Packers this week. If the Packers do decide to blanket OBJ it will be Sterling Shepard at a much lower price who could go off. He has seen 26 targets this season and recorded double-digit fantasy points in three of four games this season.

Thanks for reading this week’s article and stay tuned later in the week for my Favorite Stacking options for the weekend.

Chris Durell

Week four is gearing up to be quite fascinating from a DFS perspective. The Eagles and Packers are beneficiaries of the first early season by while Colts and Jaguars travel to London for an early Sunday morning game starting at 9:30 a.m. ET. It won’t be included in the main so I will focus my stack recommendations on the 12-game main slate.

If you have been using the Player Lab Tool – Note that all the data took a season switch over the past couple of days with 2016 data now displayed. There is a tremendous amount of data available and I have been incorporating more and more of it into my models each week to build the optimal lineup stacks. The tool is fully customizable allowing you to filter in the data you want while allowing you to set the thresholds for each filter. Once you get the players you want you can then flip it over into the lineup optimizer where you can create and export up to 50 lineups.

Here is a look at a few of the filters/stats I consider when constructing my tournament stacks:

High Vegas O/U – I always start with this filter most weeks have the threshold set at 47 or higher. It’s pretty obvious as you always want to target players in the highest scoring games. Vegas isn’t always right, meaning you can find low-ownership by going outside the threshold but concentrating on more individual matchups.

Defense vs. Position Ranking – This one is also pretty obvious but is much deeper than just passing/rushing/receiving yards against. It incorporates DVOA (Defense Adjusted Value Over Average) which is more of a situation and opponent based ranking. It helps us to really break down which are the best teams to target at each position and when I find one team who ranks poorly against almost all positions they are close to a lock stack for me.

Pace – This breaks down the number of plays the opponent allows per game. Finding teams who are projected to score a lot of points vs. teams who are weak against the position. This allows a lot of plays and is an excellent way to maximize the upside of stack.

Let’s take a look at some of the top stacking options using these filters.
Good Luck everyone!

Carolina Panthers vs. Atlanta Falcons
QB – Cam Newton
Elite Options – Kelvin Benjamin, Greg Olsen
Value Options – Ted Ginn Jr.

Look for a big bounce-back effort from the Panthers after losing two of their first three games of the season. The slow start can most certainly be accredited to the quality of defenses they have seen in the Vikings and Broncos who both rank inside the Top 10. We can expect more of the Panthers offense we saw in week two when they blew the 49ers out of the water 46-27. They get one of the best matchups of all 24 teams on Sunday when looking at the Player Lab tool highlighting Pace, Vegas O/U and Poor Defense vs. Position. Cam Newton is projected for just 35.7 pass attempts but he can also hurt a defense with his legs. The Falcons defense is ranked dead last against the pass on the tool and allow the third highest plays per game (70). Kelvin Benjamin should see a ton of targets early as he was shut out last week on just one target. The safest option in the offense is TE Greg Olsen who sits first in targets (27) and yards (259) at the position. If you want more of a value home run play take a look at Ted Ginn Jr. who acts as the deep threat most of the time and has seen a target uptick in each of the last three weeks.

San Diego Chargers vs. New Orleans Saints
QB – Philip Rivers
Elite Option – Travis Benjamin, Melvin Gordon
Value Options – Tyrell Williams, Hunter Henry

The Chargers and Saints game holds the highest projected Vegas O/U of the slate and has a thin spread of four points leaning towards the home team. It will be an exceptional game to stack all around but I lean the home team as they may come a bit lower owned and are also one of the teams that fits under my three filters. The Saints are rated as the second worst team when looking at the Player Lab’s Defense vs. Pass rating and have allowed a pace of 67.3 through three games. Rivers is projected for 40+ pass attempts this week and will have two elite targets in Travis Benjamin and Tyrell WIlliams who have nice matchups vs. the Saints corners Ken Crawley and Sterling Moore. Both WR’s have received 20+ targets this season and have filled in admirably without Keenan Allen. Another loss that has hurt and helped the team from is Danny Woodhead. It hurts from a real life perspective as he was an excellent player with tremendous hands. It helps us from a fantasy perspective as it has opened the door for Melvin Gordon who already holds a 64% Load Rating on the Player Lab tool which is just the % of carries that player receives in the offense. Without Woodhead that number is sure to go up. One trend we noticed last week is that he received seven targets in the game, catching four and picking up 43 yards. The extra yardage he will get in the passing game makes him a near must play on both sites. If you want a value option you can once again punt with Hunter Henry if Antonio Gates is out of the lineup. In his first start, Henry caught all five of his targets for 72 yards and could have had a bigger day if not for a fumble lost.

Contrarian Stack of the Week

Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Denver Broncos
QB – Jamies Winston
Elite WR Options – Mike Evans
Value Options – Cameron Brate

I know what you’re thinking. It’s the Broncos, they are really good. I do agree, but love a Winston/Evans stack from a game flow perspective this week. The Broncos are favorites and will most likely win the game which will force Winston to continue to throw it up at a Drew Brees like pace. With 142 pass attempts through three weeks, he leads the league in that category and has already had two games with 50+ attempts after just one all last season. It’s clear the coaching staff has unleashed the beast. It helps he has an elite WR to go to in Mike Evans. Yes, he is labeled as a guy who drops passes, but when you get the volume he does (37 targets, 2nd behind Antonio Brown) you can afford a few here and there. He is a physical monster at 6’5” 231 lbs and if the Bucs can move him around and match him against Bradley Roby he could have a huge day. Be patient in this one as the bulk of the Bucs fantasy work could come in garbage time in the second half. It doesn’t matter where the points come from as long as they come. If I am playing a single entry or low entry max I will probably just go with the chalk in the first two stacks but in the larger guaranteed prize pool tournaments I will target the Bucs who will be extremely low-owned.

Defense/Running Back Stack of the Week

Arizona Defense
RB David Johnson vs. Los Angeles Rams

The Cardinals were somewhat embarrassed in Buffalo last week allowing the Bills to rush for 208 yards and three touchdowns. Carson Palmer looked awful completing just 26 of 50 passes for 287 yards while throwing four interceptions. The one thing that continued to work for the Cards was RB David Johnson who rushed 19 times for 83 yards (4.4 average) and two touchdowns. He continues to get the bulk of the work for the Cards with a 66% Load Rating and also sits 5th in targets by a RB (17) this season. The Rams present a tough matchup for Johnson ranking 10th in Defense vs. the rush, but the game flow should dictate this one and Johnson should see the volume as shown by his 18.2 project carries. The defense gets a great matchup vs. the Rams who are only averaging 15.3 points per game and face a QB in Case Keenum who has a season high of 239 passing yards. Look for multiple sacks and turnovers for the Cardinals in a huge bounce back win.