Adam Zibuda We have finally made it! The temperatures are starting to drop to more livable levels, there is a clean crisp in the air, and week 1 NFL football kicks off on primetime tomorrow night. Shortly after that, kickoff Sunday will be upon us and here at WDS, we have all of the content that you will need to be successful this season. My content will be covering the top quarterbacks and players to stack with them for GPP contests across the DFS industry, so any stack that I recommend is in play for both FanDuel and Draftkings. With that said, let’s get to the picks!
The QB’s
A. For those of you familiar with my MLB articles, I will be sticking to the same format here with a slight twist. My A, B, and C QB’s will then correspond to the A, B, and C stacks listed below, so the QB listed at B will then be the arm that you should stack with the skill position players listed in section B below. Focusing in on the main slate for week 1 NFL DFS, one of our best options at QB is without a doubt Kyler Murray ($7,600 DK / $8,400 FD). Kyler and the Arizona Cardinals draw a dream matchup with a subpar Tennessee Titans defense that is a group that I will look to target early and often this season. This game has one of the highest totals of all of week 1 and that is because these two teams love to play fast and do not have historically strong defenses. Kyler is one of the few quarterbacks that truly has massive running upside, which is always something that raises his floor and we should look to get plenty of exposure to him in this spot.
B. While I tend to try to avoid looking at data from previous seasons since so much can change during the offseason, right now we do not have too much else to work with. A potential cheap sleeper option for us to look to in NFL DFS at the QB position is Jimmy Garoppolo ($5,500 DK / $6,900 FD). Jimmy G should carry virtually no ownership on such a large 13 game slate, as his game only has the 10th highest total on the week. He will save us a ton of salary and the Detroit Lions ranked dead last in the NFL in DVOA against the QB position last season. The Lions did not do much at all to improve their chances on the defensive end, so this may be the best matchup that Jimmy G sees all season as he fights to fend off the rookie week 1.
C. The final quarterback that I will be looking to target in my stacks for GPPs on kickoff Sunday is Trevor Lawrence ($6,200 DK / $6,800 FD). This may be the cheapest price that we see Trevor at all season, as the uncertainty surrounding a rookie’s first NFL start has led to cheap price tags and potentially depressed ownership. This is another amazing matchup for an opposing offense, as the Houston Texans have arguably the absolute worst defense in the entire league. Lawrence will be looking to get his NFL career started off on the right foot and this is the exact spot for him to do just that. These prices are too cheap for an athlete of this caliber, and although he does not have the best offensive weapons surrounding him, he has rushing upside that will always provide him with a solid floor, although this is a ceiling type of matchup for his debut.
The Stacks
A. The easy choice to pair up with Kyler Murray is of course his all-star wideout, DeAndre Hopkins. DHop is a top three wide receiver in the NFL, and he now has a few other targets to take a bit of the heat of the double team off of him. A.J. Green is long past his prime, but rookie Rondale Moore has been getting more buzz out of training camp and the preseason than nearly any non-QB rookie. If choosing two WR’s to pair with Murray in NFL DFS this week, I would avoid Green. As far as the bring-back goes, unless you have been living under a rock since the Super Bowl, you know that the Titans now have Julio Jones. You can of course use him as a way to correlate for this potential shootout, or you could go A.J. Brown, or both, but keep in mind that this is sounding very salary-intensive and you may need to punt at RB and TE if you end up going this route.
B. When looking at stack options for Jimmy G and the 49ers, we have more of a “non-traditional” stack as the best option here in their tight end, George Kittle. I am honestly more than fine ending the 49ers side of the stack there for NFL DFS purposes, but if you insist on getting exposure to a wideout with your quarterback, then Brandon Aiyuk is really the only option I would look to here. The benefit of a stack like this is that you can afford to pay up at tight end for Kittle since your quarterback and wide receiver positions will be saving salary. It is really ugly on the Lions side of the football and it will be all season, so if you are looking to do more of a full game stack, this is not the way to do it. I cannot, in good faith, recommend bringing this stack back with absolutely anyone on the Detroit side of the matchup.
C. To close out my very first NFL DFS article, we have some intriguing pieces to look at on the Jacksonville side of the field. The Jags added veteran Marvin Jones to their young receiving core that includes DJ Chark and Laviska Shenault. I plan to take more of a wait and see approach with Jones, as I fully expect Chark and Shenault to lead this receiving core this season. They are clearly the top two options to stack up with Trevor Lawrence, and I would definitely avoid the TEs from this team for now, as Jacob Hollister has proven that he is largely useless when he was on the Patriots. Similar to the Lions, we should tread very lightly with the Houston side of this game, as this team is destined to be one of the bottom teams in the entire league in 2021/2022. If Watson does not get thrown into jail before this game kicks off, then we can look to Brandin Cooks, but I will never say any Houston player is a must play in any stack.
I am sure that you are all as happy as I am that the long wait is finally over. If I am not taking down the million this Sunday, then I hope that it is a member of our WDS fam! Please make sure to check out our projection model by clicking here, and if you have any questions about GPP strategy or top stacks for the week, I will be in our expert chat in Discord leading up to Sunday afternoon, so feel free to shoot me a DM or @ me in chat! Lastly, do not forget to subscribe to the WinDaily YouTube channel and follow me on Twitter: @AThr0ughZ!
