Stacking is one of the most efficient ways to separate yourself from the field in FanDrill tournaments.
When an offense has a big day, your team benefits. When a quarterback throws for 300 yards and three touchdowns, there’s a good chance at least one of his pass catchers is putting up tournament-winning numbers right alongside him.
That’s why stacks matter: we are looking to build lineups with the highest ceiling to help you win a FanDrill tournament.
This week, we are identifying the highest-upside game environments on the Week 7 slate and the best stacks to pair with those matchups.
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#1 Jordan Love (QB – GB) and Matthew Golden (WR – GB) and/or Christian Watson (WR – GB)
Jordan Love has been playing at an MVP level over the last three weeks. In that time, he is PFF’s second-highest-graded passer (92.1), leads the league in big-time throw percentage (11.5%), and has the seventh-most passing yards (840). It’s truly incredible what this Green Bay Packers passing attack has been doing, considering the fact that there is no run game and they have PFF’s lowest-graded offensive line (46.8 pass-blocking grade).
The Packers take on the Detroit Lions, who have a bottom-three defense in the NFL. I won’t go crazy on the stats because I have in previous weeks, but we have all seen it. The only stat you care about is fantasy points, where the Lions allow 31.6 to the quarterback position, the most in the league. If there is one good part of this Lions defense, it’s the fact that they get pressure, ranking sixth in the NFL. However, Jordan Love doesn’t shy away from pressure; he welcomes it. Since Week 4, Love is third in PFF passing grade while under pressure (80.9), first in big-time throw percentage (20%!), and second in passer rating (128.9). The matchup is too good to deny, and with how well Jordan Love has been playing, he could easily finish as the fantasy QB1. I recently published a long-form film review on Jordan Love, where I go over plays that show he is playing at an MVP level in more depth.
Matthew Golden and Christian Watson have been absolute terrors for opposing defensive backs, if they hold onto the ball. Golden leads the NFL in drops with seven, and Christian Watson has three. It hasn’t mattered, though. Since the Packers cannot run the ball, they have to throw on nearly every second and third down. They are third in the NFL in pass rate at 65.7%. These two receivers have been benefiting from this offensive scheme in ways you couldn’t imagine, especially Golden.
We all knew who Christian Watson was coming into the year: a height-weight-speed receiver who can create an explosive play at any moment. However, he’s become much more than that. He is dominating in all areas of the field and is sixth in yards after the catch over expected at +64. Watson is the WR3 so far on the season, and in a game against a Lions defense that allows the third-most points to wide receivers, he could easily get 20 or more points this week.
The same goes for Matthew Golden. He was perceived as a bust because he had a “bad” rookie year, but if you watched the film, you knew he was a good player waiting to break out. I’m going to pull an “If Man” here and say that if Matthew Golden had better hands, there would be some very uncomfortable conversations on the internet about him. Drops are a fluky stat; they do not consistently carry over from year to year or game to game, unless you are Jerry Jeudy. Even with all of the drops, he is the WR8 on the season, has three 100-yard games, and has scored a touchdown in three of the last four games. I am not afraid of Matthew Golden’s drops because he can still produce. Rather, I am afraid that he continues to be a WR1 on the season and I didn’t draft him when he had an elite matchup.
Tucker Kraft is also an option, given that the Lions allow the most fantasy points to tight ends this year (20.8). However, his usage has not excited me this season, and I will be waiting to draft him in any FanDrill drafts until further notice.
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#2 Kyler Murray (QB – MIN) and Justin Jefferson (WR – MIN)
We finally saw Kyler Murray’s first good game as a Minnesota Viking in Week 5 against the New Orleans Saints. He finished the game completing 80% of his passes for 229 yards and a touchdown, adding 51 more yards on the ground for 18.26 fantasy points.
The Vikings take on the Indianapolis Colts at home on Sunday, and they are 6.5-point favorites for a reason. The Colts defense is abysmal. They allow the 10th-most fantasy points per game to quarterbacks (21.0). They are also 22nd in EPA per pass (-0.01), but the main thing? They are dead last in pressure percentage at 24.4%. Kyler Murray is going to have a field day standing behind PFF’s 13th-best offensive line. Well, if he can see over them.
The Colts also allow the ninth-most rushing yards to quarterbacks. While Kyler has not been running at the same volume he has in the past, last week showed some encouraging signs, as he had 10 rushing attempts. I could see him going over his rushing projection of 19.5 yards for the week.
Justin Jefferson is one of the best receivers in the NFL; we all know this. He is sixth in EPA per target and catch rate over expected (+0.75 and +16.5%, respectively). Jettas is one of the best route runners I’ve ever seen and one of the best receivers I have ever seen. I’m going to stop ogling over Justin Jefferson and tell you why I love this matchup.
The Colts run man coverage at the fifth-highest rate in the NFL at 27.5% and will be without their top corner, Sauce Gardner. Their presumed CB1, Charvarius Ward, has a 51.2 PFF man coverage grade, ranking 73rd out of 117 cornerbacks. It is safe to say Justin Jefferson is going to have a field day, just like he did against New Orleans in Week 5. I say this because Jefferson is sixth in PFF receiving grade against man coverage (89.6) and fifth in yards per route run (3.76). Without their top corner, Justin Jefferson has a real path to 100 yards and a touchdown.
The Colts are in a downward spiral right now after firing general manager Chris Ballard, and it will continue in Minnesota. Kyler could have his best game as a Viking against this putrid defense, and Justin Jefferson will be the main beneficiary of Kyler’s breakout game.
Longshot: J.J. McCarthy (QB – NYG) and Malik Nabers (WR – NYG)
“Nine” came to life in that fourth quarter. He threw for 243 yards in 11 minutes of play. I am going to keep this really short because there is only one scenario where J.J. McCarthy should even come within two scrolls of the draft board for you. If you draft a high-end quarterback early and Malik Nabers is staring at you in Round 2 or 3 of your FanDrill draft, think about J.J. later on. The Giants are taking on the Dallas Cowboys, who are allowing any and all quarterbacks to dominate them. If “Nine” can continue his doubled-up power as “Eighteen” that he found last week, then he could find himself firmly in the QB2 conversation. I’m being so serious when I say this: only do this if you like to play your cards, even if it is deuce-seven offsuit.
Joe Shea is a Fantasy Analyst for FanDrill. Follow him on Instagram @JoeSheaFootball and TikTok @JoeSheaFootball for more fantasy football content.
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