When concocting your DFS lineup, stacking is super fun and super easy. Also, stacking can be a hugely successful methodology.
But stacking is also often wildly hit-and-miss, sometimes wildly reckless, and periodically wildly frustrating.
Stacking, in DFS Land, translates to the inclusion of more than one player from the same team into your weekly NFL lineup—i.e., a Miami Dolphins stack could look like electric quarterback Tua Tagovailoa paired with All-World wide receiver Tyreek Hill, while a Cincinnati Bengals stack might combine ice-cool signal-caller Joe Burrow with slick WR Ja’Marr Chase. If Tua and Tyreek or Burrow and Chase connect on a pair of 50-plus-yard tuddies, you all but needed them in your lineup.
But there are DFS players—among them, the author of this article—who have a proclivity for triple stacking, brave, hearty souls with the gumption and cojones to draft a single team’s quarterback, running back, and wide receiver…or QB, RB, and tight end…or QB, WR, and TE…or any combination thereof.
Tri-stacks are a risky strategy, because if the stack team in question screws the pooch, your weekly lineup is toast. But if you hit on the right team—if you snatch up Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Isiah Pacheco on a day the Kansas City Chiefs decide to go off—suddenly you’re the smartest bettor in the room.
In the DFS world, however, the best way to separate yourself from the pack is to…separate yourself from the pack. If the aforementioned defending champs are taking on a meh Los Angeles Chargers defense at Arrowhead Stadium, there’ll be a whole lot of DFS players riding the Mahomes/Kelce/Pacheco train. Joining them on that particular journey will have you finishing your tourney on the same plane as hundreds, if not thousands of other Chiefs truthers—and same planes doth not equal a quality day of NFL DFS.
On the other hand, if you go way against the grain and look to the other side of the ball—if you ride a Justin Herbert/Joshua Palmer/Gus Edwards stack versus a tough Chiefs D prowling their home turf—and the Chargers go off, you’ll likely be in excellent shape, as few bettors on the planet would have the gumption and cojones to stack three Chargers in the same lineup.
To that end, here are five oddball triple-stacks that might turn your 2024 DraftKings or FanDuel Sunday lineup into gold.
Atlanta Falcons
· QB: Kirk Cousins
· RB: Bijan Robinson
· TE: Kyle Pitts
Despite the fact he’s a consistent stat monster, fantasy players far too often dismiss Cousins. Admittedly, the league’s QB10 since 2018 (that’s right, folks, that’s not a typo, Cousins has been fantasy’s 10th highest scoring fantasy quarterback over the previous five seasons) had fellow Minnesota Viking and eternal WR1 Justin Jefferson in his back pocket. Nonetheless, Cousins can still sling it, and quality slinging generally translates into a quality fantasy week.
As for the Falcons’ skill positions, second-year man Robinson finished sixth amongst running backs in receptions in 2023, while Pitts ranked 13th in targets amongst tight ends. Considering new offensive coordinator Zac Taylor’s proclivity for dialing up pass plays—since 2020, his former QB Joe Burrow ranked sixth in the NFL in yards-per-game, so there you have it—you can fairly expect Bijan and Kyle to see plenty of action through the air.
Carolina Panthers
· QB: Bryce Young
· WR: Dionte Johnson
· WR: Adam Thielen
Let’s not mince words, y’all: Last season, Bryce Young kinda stunk.
The highly-touted 2023 first-round pick finished the campaign with the league’s ninth-worst quarterback passer rating, leading his Panthers to a grand total of four wins. On this stack’s mitigating side, Thielen was targeted 131 times, the sixth-most in the NFL, while during his final season in Pittsburgh, Johnson saw 126 balls thrown his way, ranking him tenth in the league. If first-year coach Dave Canales and his rookie offensive coordinator Brad Idzik let Young cook, this oddball QB/WR/WR stack could be a thing.
Jacksonville Jaguars
· QB: Trevor Lawrence
· RB: Travis Etienne Jr.
· WR: Gabe Davis
Lawrence hasn’t lived up to the generational hype, but that didn’t stop the Jags from throwing him a five-year, $275,000,000 contract back in June, meaning they’re fully committed. A full commitment should lead to opportunities galore, and opportunities galore could mean scary good DFS performances.
The cute little tweak about this potential stack is the choice of newcomer Davis over the team’s clear-cut WR1, Christian Kirk. But as of this writing, Kirk is dealing with what the Jax braintrust is calling a “mild calf injury,” the type of injury that, if it lingers, could impact his explosiveness over the season’s first couple of months, potentially leaving Davis with all the downfield targets he could ever dream of.
Los Angeles Raiders
· QB: Gardiner Minshew Jr.
· WR: Davante Adams
· TE: Brock Bowers
Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce doesn’t play DFS—or at least he shouldn’t, hashtag #illegal—so his decision to let Minshew handle quarterbacking duties isn’t based on whether or not Gardiner is a useful fantasy option…but it so happens that the journeyman is a nifty little DFS field general.
In 2023, Minshew averaged 13.8 DFS points, admittedly a less-than-stellar number, but now that he’s firmly entrenched as the starter—not to mention that he has the league’s third-most targeted receiver in Adams, as well as a potential Kelce-lite in rookie Bowers—he should be a safe fantasy choice…but a choice that few of your fellow DFS-ers might make, so yay for you!
New York Giants
· QB: Daniel Jones
· RB: Devin Singletary
· WR: Malik Nabers
We just looked up the phrase “much maligned” in the dictionary, and wouldn’t you know it, there’s a picture of Daniel Stephen Jones III. The sixth-year man out of Duke is the bane of Giants’ fans existence, but you know what? Dude has the potential to be a legit DFS option, as he finished 2023 with the NFL’s seventh-best rushing-yards-per-game average (34.3), a number that massively helps his fantasy stock. On the right week—e.g., their November 10 tilt against Carolina in Germany—a healthy Jones matched with bestial rookie Nabers and reliable former Buffalo Bill Singletary should constitute a shrewd on-the-DL tri-stack.