4 NFL FanDuel Stacks for Week 1

One of the most unique advantages you can give yourself in daily fantasy sports (DFS) is stacking players in your lineup. Whether that’s stacking up multiple players from one team or multiple players from both teams, you can look for different ways to maximize the upside of lineup and make your lineups contrarian to the rest of your competition.

In this article, I will reflect my favorite DFS stacks for this week. These decisions are made by using player projections, Vegas implied team totals and player ownership projections.

Kansas City Chiefs and Jacksonville Jaguars

Patrick Mahomes ($8,700), Travis Kelce ($7,800) and Leonard Fournette ($7,200)

The first stack of Week 1 may come as no surprise to many people, but it includes Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs are heading into Jacksonville this week to play the Jaguars, where the implied total for the game is set at 51.5 points -- the highest implied total of any game on the 12-game main slate. The Chiefs are projected to score 27.5 points, while the Jaguars are projected to score 24.0 points.

Mahomes is projected to be the second-highest scoring quarterback this week with 20.7 FanDuel points, but if this game turns into a shootout, his ceiling can go much higher. He stacks up nicely this week with his tight end, Travis Kelce, who racked up 5 catches for 100 yards in their meeting against the Jaguars last season. Kelce is projected to be the highest-scoring tight end this week, with our models pegging him to score 13.3 FanDuel points.

If you want to run it back with a player from the Jaguars, look no further than Leonard Fournette. Per our own Brandon Gdula, Fournette is set to play a KC defense that ranked dead last in rush defense last season, per our metrics. Fournette is also projected to see the fifth-most rushing attempts this week and has a 65% chance of scoring a rushing touchdown.

Seattle Seahawks

Chris Carson ($6,600) and Seattle D/ST ($4,500)

One the more unique ways to stack your lineup is by rostering a team’s starting running back along with their defense. This week, I happen to like that exact type of lineup stack with the Seattle Seahawks in running back Chris Carson and their defense.

The Seahawks are implied to score 27 points and are favored to win at home against the Cincinnati Bengals by 9.5 points. As a home favorite, this is a positive game script for Carson facing a Bengals defense who had the second-worst rush defense last season. At his price on FanDuel, Carson is tied for the third-best value at the running back position this week in terms of points per dollar.

We have him projected to reach 16 carries this week, which isn’t far from his magic number 19. In 2018, Carson rushed the ball 19 plus times in seven games. In those seven games, he averaged 108.6 yards and 1.0 touchdowns.

Stack up Carson with the Seattle defense, who just added Jadeveon Clowney to their defensive line and are projected to hold the Bengals to 17.5 points on Sunday. The addition of Clowney should boost their Pass Pressure Rate from last season, which finished at a 30%, per Football Outsiders . And with one of the loudest crowds in the NFL behind this defense, look for the Seahawks to be hyped up and get after this Bengals offense.

Detroit Lions

Matthew Stafford ($6,600) and Kenny Golladay ($6,900)

The Detroit Lions start the season on the road against the Arizona Cardinals, who bring an entirely new identity into the 2019 season. That partially includes the trainwreck their defense could be identified as heading into Week 1 of the regular season. That is largely due to the Cardinals not having their top two corners backs available this week, as Robert Alford is out with a leg injury and Patrick Peterson has been suspended for the first six games of the season.

This is a juicy spot for Matthew Stafford and the Lions receiving corps to get off to a hot start. With Golden Tate out of Detroit and Marvin Jones coming off an injury riddled season, it’s time for Golladay to take over as the number-one receiver in Detroit. Golladay is projected to see 7.88 targets this week, and Golladay has been an absolute monster when seeing more than five targets throughout his career.

Should Kyler Murray be able to put up points against the Lions defense as well, this could lead to a nice little shootout between the two teams. The game currently sits at a total of 45.5.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers and San Francisco 49ers

Jameis Winston ($7,500), Chris Godwin ($6,900) and George Kittle ($7,300)

One of the most popular games to be stacked this week will be the clash between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and San Francisco 49ers. This game has the second-highest total on the main slate this week, with the Buccaneers as a 1.0-point favorite at home. This game has shootout potential written all over it, as the Buccaneers gave up the second-most points per game last year while the Niners allowed the fifth-most. This game could lead to a lot of high-scoring players when all is said and done.

On the Buccaneers side, I like stacking up Jameis Winston with wide receiver Chris Godwin. Godwin is set to have a breakout year in his third NFL season, after posting 59 receptions, 842 yards and seven touchdowns in his second campaign. He’ll line up across from his teammate Mike Evans, who missed practice on Friday due to an illness. While Evans is expected to be fine, there's a chance he may not be at full strength. Either way, there will be plenty to go around, as Winston is projected to have 37.43 pass attempts this week, the most on the main slate.

Running it back, we can stack up this game with 49ers tight end George Kittle, who is in a smash spot this week against a Buccaneers defense who was 26th in Target Success Rate allowed to tight ends last year. After the breakout season Kittle had a season ago -- 88 catches for 1,377 yards and five touchdowns -- he should eat up this defense to kick off his 2019 campaign. We project Kittle to have 6.80 touchdowns this season, and he could get off to a quick start on reaching that number against a porous Bucs defense.

Griffin Swanson is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Griffin Swanson also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username GriffDogg_. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel. (edited)