Peter Overzet …
Last week's stack ideas were solid, but you had to be perfect to win tournaments in Week 14 thanks to monster games from Josh Allen, Puka Nacua, and the Vikings passing game.
It's always going to be hard to win on those weeks, so we simply shake it off and move on to the next slate.
Luckily for you, I've been in the lab and have three more stack ideas to help you take down tournaments in Week 15.
These stacks are specific to DraftKings salary cap contests, but the macro matchups and correlation principles can apply regardless of where you are playing DFS.Â
If you'd like my favorite plays and sleepers that are specific for Underdog draft contests, I'll be posting a strategy video on the Deposit Kingdom channel on Friday afternoon.Â
Alright, let's get to it…
🏆 The Step Stool Stack (Cardinals)
- QBÂ Kyler Murray ($6000)
- TE Trey McBride ($6000) & WR Marvin Harrison Jr. ($5500)
Look, I get it. No one wants to trust these Cardinals. They've lost three straight and the offense flopped in all three of those games.Â
But I'm willing to cut them some slack when you look at the gauntlet they just traversed vs. the Vikings and two matchups vs. the Seahawks.Â
Everyone knows about the Vikings pass rush, but Seattle has quietly morphed into one of the best defenses in football. Since the bye, the Seahawks rank No. 1 in passing EPA allowed and also have a Top-5 run defense in both success rate and EPA per rush.
On the flip side, when this offense does click vs. softer defenses, it really clicks:Â
- Week 2 vs. the Rams: Murray (28.5 FP), McBride (9.7 fp), Harrison (27 fp)
- Week 8 vs. the Dolphins: Murray (22.2 FP), McBride (16.9 FP), Harrison (20.1 FP)
- Week 10 vs. the Jets: Murray (28.7 FP), McBride (9.1 FP), Harrison (13.9 FP)
McBride has been a steady producer all season who has simply struggled to find the end zone, but you'll notice that the Murray blowup weeks have mostly correlated with Harrison blowups.
And now they get one of my favorite matchups to attack in football as 6-point home favorites vs. the New England Patriots. Let's take a stroll through our DvP tool:
- Patriots give up the ninth biggest fantasy boost to opposing QBs
- Patriots allow the seventh most PPG (half) to opposing WRs (27.6)
- Patriots allow Top-5 targets per route run and TPRR boost to opposing TEs
The only concern here is that Kyler is priced so cheap that he becomes popular in tournaments paired with McBride.Â
Tossing in Marv, though, is the key to making this stack work from both an upside and uniqueness perspective.Â
🏆 Pay Up To Be Contrarian (Ravens)
- QBÂ Lamar Jackson ($8300)
- WR Zay Flowers ($6000) & TE Mark Andrews ($4100)
This is me learning my lesson after last week when I completely ignored Josh Allen, who I thought was too expensive to jam in tournaments.
But as we saw in Week 14, there's only a couple of QBs who can pop off for 40+ points and when that happens they break the slate … dramatic pause … and Lamar Jackson is one of them.Â
My hunch is that the field will gravitate to Derrick Henry ($8300) in this matchup vs. the Giants, but it's an equally good spot for the passing game coming off their Week 14 bye.
As Freedman highlighted earlier this week, the Giants are No. 28 in defensive pass DVOA and are completely ravaged with injuries on defense.Â
The other nice thing about leaning into Lamar here is that his two top pass-catching options are routinely overlooked by the field.Â
Flowers has elite peripherals on the year (26% target share, 30% air-yards share and 23% end-zone target share) and the talent to access massive ceiling games, like he did vs. the Broncos in Week 9 (27.2 FP).
Andrews started the season slow, but has now turned in three Top-8 finishes over the past four weeks. During that span, he's earned a 19% target share and found the end-zone three times.Â
There's no question that the Ravens are going to put up a massive score here—they have a 29 point team total—but there's potential for a huge windfall if the field is overconfident that those points come via the run game.
🏆 The "Vomit" Stack (Panthers)
- QBÂ Bryce Young ($5300)
- RBÂ Chuba Hubbard ($6500)
- WRÂ Adam Thielen ($5400)
You didn't think I was going to leave you without a vomit stack, did you?
Normally the vomit stacks feature a QB with two pass catchers, but Hubbard is such a massive part of the offense that it would be malpractice not to include him.
He leads the league in goal-line carries (17) and has been a usage monster in games without Jonathon Brooks (who is done for the year). The Cowboys are also atrocious against the run (No. 32 in defensive rush EPA).Â
It's also worth emphasizing that the Panthers are actually 3-point home favorites in this spot vs. the Cowboys. Life comes at ya fast.Â
Where I likely need to work the hardest is in convincing you that Young is a viable play. After the early-season benching, Young has been … another dramatic pause … serviceable, including a Top-7 QB finish vs. Tampa Bay in Week 13.Â
He then followed that up with a plucky performance last week (it should have been even better) vs. one of the best defenses in football.Â
And now he gets one of the better matchups in football vs. a Cowboys defense that gives up the third largest fantasy boost to opposing QBs (+4.9).
Of course, we can't tout a Panthers vomit stack these days without including Thielen.Â
Dwain did the heavy lifting in the Utilization Report this week—the usage is legitimately elite—and now Thielen gets a matchup vs. a Cowboys team that just got shredded by the Bengals on MNF.Â
For the low price of $17,200, you can get access to a highly condensed offense in a very good matchup at low ownership.