I wrote these words before the 2015 Fantasy Football season, but they still ring true today.

“Stacking” is an extremely popular theory among daily fantasy players and for good reason. When you pair your quarterback with one of his top receiving options, you are really just doubling down on your quarterback. In other words, if your quarterback has a big game then his top receiver will likely have a big game as well.

Fantasy Football DFS Stacking

For example, during Week 6 in 2014, Andrew Luck threw for 370 yards and three touchdowns. T.Y. Hilton, his top receiver, accounted for 223 yards and one touchdown. 

But does it really make that much of a difference? Is it really that beneficial to stack even a mediocre Fantasy quarterback with a top receiver? 

Here’s another example for those who are not yet following:

Say you drafted Demaryius Thomas as your first-round pick in 2014 and ended up drafting Tony Romo as your quarterback in the late rounds of your draft. In Week 15 last year, Romo threw for 265 yards and three touchdowns against the Philadelphia Eagles. Thomas recorded 123 yards and a touchdown during that same week, which was a solid Fantasy performance.

However, if you drafted Dez Bryant instead of DT and stacked him with Romo, you would have been rewarded with Bryant’s 114 yards and 3 touchdowns.

That would have given you a total of 52 fantasy points between just Romo and Bryant, as opposed to just under 41 fantasy points with the Romo/Thomas combo.

TAKE YOUR TALENTS TO THE CLASSROOM AND LEARN HOW TO DOMINATE THIS SEASON

This is an example of just one game. But it has been proven time and time again that if you can stack your quarterback with his top receiver, you are increasing the overall ceiling of your lineup. This strategy gives you an opportunity to score more points.

More points = More wins. Easy, right?

Stacking in Standard Fantasy Football Leagues

While stacking is considered pretty common these days in terms of daily Fantasy Football, it is not as often implemented during seasonal redraft leagues. It always puzzles me when I see another player refuse to pair his quarterback with one of his top wide receivers.

Obviously, only do this in good spots. While a Robert Griffin III/Terrelle Pryor stack may be a sneaky good play for Week 1 DFS, I’m betting you don’t want to ride that out for the full season. That being said, if I drafted Allen Robinson in Round 1, then rest assured I am willing to reach a little to lock up Blake Bortles as my quarterback.

For those that are skeptical, just look at the past few seasons in terms of Fantasy Football scoring leaders. It is very likely that the quarterbacks who finished closer to the top for each season had at least one of their pass catchers finish in the top 12 in their position as well.

Last season alone, we witnessed Bortles support two wide receivers who finished in the top 14 in Fantasy points  in PPR leagues. Ryan Fitzpatrick had arguably his best season in 2015, finishing 11th among  in Fantasy points. Meanwhile, Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker finished among the top 10 at WR.

Being able to maximize your upside by stacking is a huge advantage that you should try to implement when able to. Stacking will increase the overall upside of your lineup from week to week.

It could also be the difference in you hoisting up a trophy come January.

For a full breakdown for Week 1 DFS strategy and plays, check this out!

Categories: 2016 Fantasy Football, 2016 Fantasy Football DFS

Tags: 2016 Fantasy Football, 2016 NFL DFS Week 1, Fantasy Football Stacking Strategy, NFL DFS Stacking