In a Desert of Byes, we find the Week 8 oasis. No teams on bye so we have access to a full slate of games when looking for our stacks to give us an edge. There are some sneaky high scoring games (I’m looking at you, Jax @ Pit) and a couple stinkers we’ll be avoiding (*cough* the battle of the New Jersey teams *cough*).
The whole point of stacking is to exploit correlations, taking the number of events you need to happen for success and cutting them down. A QB throwing a TD to a wide receiver on his team means you get credit for two touchdowns, passing and receiving, if you stacked those two players. If you are just starting studs across multiple teams, you need two touchdowns to get that same amount of points. It opens you up to bigger duds, but also means singular events on Sunday can have a bigger impact on your score.
Jacksonville Jaguars @ Pittsburgh Steelers
- Trevor Lawrence ($6200 DraftKings, $7500 FanDuel)
- Christian Kirk ($5900 DraftKings, $7000 FanDuel)
- Diontae Johnson ($6400 DraftKings, $5000 FanDuel)
The Steelers are giving up the 2nd-most fantasy points per game to opposing WRs. The Jaguars are giving up the 2nd most passing yards per game to opposing quarterbacks.
This game is going to have a lot of points scored and I want pieces on the winning side, i.e., Lawrence and the Jacksonville Squad.
Throwing away Week 1, Kirk hasn’t seen fewer than six targets (two games with double digit targets), hasn’t scored fewer than 13.9 PPR points and has finished as a WR2 or better in four of six weeks (the other two were still top-30 performances). While Calvin Ridley looked like that dude after Week 1, Kirk has made it clear he’s Lawrence’s preferred target.
Johnson walked straight on the field from being injured and immediately was heavily involved -- six targets in Week 7 and now a juicy matchup against a weak Jaguars secondary. Get Diontae in there as your bring-back player in this game.
Baltimore Ravens @ Arizona Cardinals
- Lamar Jackson ($8100 DraftKings, $8800 FanDuel)
- Zay Flowers ($6500 DraftKings, $5600 FanDuel)
Call it chasing points, but Jackson is ON right now and just reasserted himself as an MVP frontrunner in a dominant 4-touchdown performance against the Lions in Week 7. We’re running it back against a weak Cardinals defense.
The Cardinals are giving up the 4th-most points per week to opposing quarterbacks and the 6th-most points to opposing WRs. We’re matching a weak defense with an elite offense and an emerging rookie weapon.
Flowers has seen fewer than six targets only twice this season as a rookie and has seen double-digit targets on three occasions. On a team where it seemed predetermined that Mark Andrews would be the top target, Flowers is doing his best to take over as the team’s No. 1. The Cardinals have been surprisingly stingy against opposing tight ends, so roll with Lamar’s other favorite option for the stack this week.
Houston Texans @ Carolina Panthers
- C.J. Stroud ($6300 DraftKings, $7400 FanDuel)
- Tank Dell ($4900 DraftKings, $6000 FanDuel)
The Panther defense has been absolutely porous against the run, but the Texans have been unable to get things going on the ground. Dameon Pierce has the 9th-most carries in the league but is 28th in yardage. That’s not a recipe for winning games and the Texans should rely on their rookie QB to bring home the W.
It’s like a concussion and a bye week made everyone forget how good of a receiver Tank Dell was through the first five weeks. Consistency likely won’t be there for the rookie, but his first week back coming off a bye against a beatable secondary is a week I’m willing to take a shot.
Save some money to spend big on the rest of this full slate. Dell and Stroud will get it done in Carolina.
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