Daily Fantasy Football Top Stacks for FanDuel and DraftKings Week 5 - 10/8/17

Welcome back for another week of daily fantasy football. It was a tough week for me as a Minnesota Vikings fan as Dalvin Cook went down with a non-contact injury and is lost for the season with a torn ACL and Case Keenum came back to Earth and looked like...well...Case Keenum. Enough about my fandom and more about DFS as the stack I recommended last week turned out much better than the week before. As always, I will provide a quick recap of how things turned out before getting into this week's picks. Let's do it!

It started early Sunday with the game at Wembley Stadium in London and to be honest, I was a bit scared of how the week would turn out. I slept through the entire first half and when I woke up it was 3-0 Saints at halftime. Before going right back to sleep I decided to watch the first drive and was thrilled to see Drew Brees drive the ball down the field and throw a touchdown to Michael Thomas. The Saints only put up 20 points in the end but considering it looked like a 9-6 type game at halftime, I will take it and run. Brees ended up completing 29 of 41 passes for 268 yards and two touchdowns while Michael Thomas caught eight of his 11 targets for 89 yards and a touchdown. Coby Fleener was a bust but I am willing to cut those losses and take the points I got from Brees/Thomas.

The Cardinals and 49ers game also came in under the number last week but Palmer and Fitz continued to roll. Without David Johnson, the system was bullish on Palmer's pass attempts(49) and he outperformed that by two completing 33 of 51 and recorded his third straight 300+ passing yard game. That made up for the lack of touchdowns in this low-scoring game but thankfully the one he did throw went to Larry Fitzgerald. Even with bye weeks and limited options this week, both are still underpriced, in my opinion, on both sites.

There were a few high-scoring games I missed out on last week(Rams vs. Cowboys, Panthers vs. Patriots) but the Texans and Titans was not one of them. Rookie Deshaun Watson had a terrific game for fantasy completing 25 of 34 passes for 283 yards and four touchdowns. He narrowly missed out on the 300-yard bonus on DraftKings but made up for it adding a fifth touchdown on the ground. He continued to favor DeAndre Hopkins who had double the targets of any other receiver as he caught 10 of his 12 targets for 107 yards and a touchdown. I never mentioned Will Fuller in his return to the lineup but don't sleep on him moving forward as he was targeted in the endzone twice, catching both for touchdowns.

With all that said, let's move on to my top stacks for week 5 in the NFL.

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Green Bay Packers

Quarterback - Aaron Rodgers
Primary Target - Jordy Nelson

Dallas Cowboys

Quarterback - Dak Prescott
Primary Target - Dez Bryant

The first set of bye weeks(not counting TB/MIA in week one) plus DraftKings removing the Sunday Night Football game from the main slate, gives us a limited selection of quarterbacks this week. On top of that, Derek Carr will be out anywhere from 2-6 weeks and Marcus Mariota is also dealing with an injury and will be a game-time decision. Chaos! For me, there are two elite stacks this week, and at different price points which opens up a bunch of different roster construction possibilities. The Green Bay Packers will travel to Dallas this week to face the Cowboys in one of the Sunday afternoon games. I didn't need to go too deep into my filters on the Player Lab to narrow down these two teams as Vegas has this as the only game with a total of 50+ and they also have the spread of -2 which is currently in favor of the home team.

I will start with the Packers and Aaron Rodgers who currently sits fourth in passing yards(1,146) and second in touchdown passes(10) behind Tom Brady who has one extra game played. Going into last week, he has attempted 42 or more passes and 300 or more yards in each game. The volume was not needed last week vs. the Bears as the Packers had excellent field position on most of their drives. Despite on completing 18 passes on 26 attempts for 179 yards, Rodgers still came through in a big way for fantasy with four touchdown passes. With both of these offenses capable of putting up 25+ points and with Ty Montgomery in danger of missing the game with a rib injury, Rodgers should get back to being a high volume passer in a projected shootout between two high-powered offenses. Rodgers also gets the benefit of throwing to one of the best wideouts in the league in Jordy Nelson who despite only having 206 receiving yards, has scored a league-high five touchdowns and faces a Cowboys secondary that has allowed the ninth-most fantasy points to wideouts.

If you are looking to save some salary to beef up the rest of your lineup, consider Dak Prescott and the Cowboys on the other side this matchup. Prescott is $1,300 cheaper on DraftKings and $1,800 cheaper on FanDuel and while he may not have exactly the same upside as Rodgers, it's pretty close. He has attempted 35 or more passes in three of his first four games and comes into this week with multiple touchdowns in three straight games. I would lean Prescott a little more on FanDuel where there is no bonus for the 300-yard game as he hasn't recorded one yet but don't count it out. I will be pairing him with Dez Bryant who also comes at a discount from his counterpart Jordy Nelson($1,600 cheaper on DK, $800 cheaper on FD). After some very tough matchups to start the year, Dez gets a nice one this week as he will facing Kevin King and Damarius Randall of the Packers, both of which rank outside the Top 85 when looking at Pro Football Focus rankings.

The majority of my lineups this week will be built around one of these two stacks and I will also be using the correlation stack of the opposing wideout and hoping for the aforementioned shootout. For example, if I am stacking Rodgers and Nelson, I will also be using Dez and if I am stacking Prescott and Dez, I will also be using Nelson in those lineups.

Arizona Cardinals

Quarterback - Carson Palmer
Primary Target - Larry Fitzgerald
Secondary Target - Andre Ellington

I will be going right back to the well with the Cardinals and Carson Palmer this week. With David Johnson out for the season, Palmer has been one of the highest volume passers in the league with 36 or more attempts in each of is four games and has 48 or more attempts in three of those with three straight 300+ yard games. That more than makes up for the lack of touchdowns so far in 2017. I don't see much changing in week five and he gets one of the best matchups on paper as well facing an Eagles team that has allowed the third most passing yards per game(285) and ranks 27th when looking at fantasy points allowed to the position. On top of that, Palmer offers a big discount from Rodgers and Prescott, especially on DraftKings where he comes with a price tag under $6K. Speaking of discounts, his #1 wide receiver, Larry Fitzgerald,  is also in a nice spot under $7K on both sites. Age is definitely not a factor for Fitz as he sits fourth in the league behind Hopkins, Brown, Evans, and Landry in average targets with 10.3 per game. If you are looking for a salary relief option at the running back or flex position(DraftKings), consider Andre Ellington. He is being out carried by Chris Johnson(that can't last) but has seen his targets in the passing game rise each week and had a whopping 14 last week.

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