Ins and Outs of Stacking

I hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend! I had some family in town that we don’t see often, so it was great to hang out and spend time with them while we could.

This week is all about best ball stacks and stacking. I because of having family in town, combined with my lackluster skills for mining this type of data, I wasn’t able to compile how many teams had done a certain type of stack or who they stacked or what not. I can only tell you it works. Listen to any podcast or read any article about best ball, and you’ll hear about it all the time. I can assure you it works.

Best Ball Stacking

What is stacking?

First off, what is stacking? For those who are familiar with DFS, it is pretty apparent what is meant by stacking. For those who aren’t, stacking means pairing a quarterback with at least one teammate, preferably a pass catcher. So Jalen Hurts with AJ Brown. Or Joe Burrow with Ja’Marr Chase. 🐯 

But it doesn’t have to be just wide receivers. Pass-catching running backs can be stacked as well. And don’t forget about tight ends! Stacking multiple pass catchers gives you a larger share in an offense or players you believe in and will give you a lot of weekly upside.

Where possible, it’s important to find value in stacks. Last year you could have reasonably stacked Tyreek Hill, Tua Tagovailoa, and Raheem Mostert for a relatively low cost in drafts (aside from Hill). Or Puka Nacua with Matthew Stafford. Brock Purdy wasn’t expensive, and neither were Jordan Love and his pass catchers. But all turned out well and were productive for fantasy and were also fairly cheap to acquire.

Why should we stack?

In season-long leagues, we fear the man who has the Patrick Mahomes/Travis Kelce stack. Or the Hill/Tua stack, or Burrow/Chase stack. Why? Because we know that they can singlehandedly win a week that could decide whether we will make it into the playoffs or not.

In big DFS tournaments, stacking can be the difference between winning money and losing it. You’ll seldom find a player who is very good at their craft and who does not stack.

In best ball, we’re essentially playing DFS in a season-long format. You’re trying to hit a ceiling outcome but over the course of a year not a week. But with that, comes the other side of stacking; the bringbacks. ◀️ 

How should we stack?

When playing DFS, often you’ll play your quarterback with at least one pass catcher and then play someone from the other team. If you think one team is going to score a bunch, the other team will need to keep up right? So you take a shot at who it might be for the opposing team. That is called a game stack. You can game stack in best ball as well.

Drafting a quarterback and some of his pass-catching options is the easy part, it’s trying to game stack that will prove to be difficult. Most people will try to game stack for Week 17, and it is important to do that to give yourself an edge in the final money-making round in Best Ball Mania, but having a Week 16 stack when you’re trying to get into the final round could prove just as vital. 🩺 

Here are some games you could target for week 16 and 17:

Why is game stacking difficult? Partly because it’s hard to keep track of just how many games there are available to you in a given week without having a sheet in front of you with all the info. Another reason is it can be hard to plan them out. If you go with an Arizona stack, you have to take Puka Nacua, hope Trey McBride falls to you, and then Kyler later on. All the while you will miss out on Marvin Harrison Jr. because of the Nacua selection. You can grab guys like Zay Jones or Michael Wilson later to grab stacking partners, so not all is lost. 🐦️ 

One tip for maximizing the number of game stacks you can have in a given year is taking pieces from good offenses in the same division. Say, grabbing Ja’Marr Chase and Amari Cooper. Or Dalton Kincaid and De’Von Achane. For the sake of this example, if you happen to grab all four of those guys (which is possible) you now have four different games in 2024 where you have a game stack.

Stacking can be hard, with drafts always being unpredictable and pick sniping and ADP being an issue for everyone but it’s very rewarding in the end. So remember,

1. Pair a quarterback with preferably two teammates (WR, TE, or RB).

2. Don’t forget to get game stacks for later on in the year (Weeks 16 and 17 to be exact).

3. Grab in-division players (GB-MIN, ARI-LAR, KC-LAC, HOU-JAX, etc) to maximize the amount of game stacks you have during the year. 🔥

Before I go, I recieved a message from a reader asking about how to win small 10-12 man bestball leagues as compared to the large tournaments where most content is geared (including this series). Once I wrap up this series on tournaments in the coming weeks, I’ll have a special newsletter just for that topic.

Thanks for reading and I will see you next week!