Adam Zibuda Another week with some smash hits and some misses has come and gone. Let’s continue to try to keep the hits to a maximum and the misses to a minimum! As usual I will be covering the top quarterbacks and players to stack with them for GPP contests across the NFL 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. The Colts draw one of the best possible matchups for an NFL passing attack in week 3 on Sunday, but I cannot in my right mind recommend rostering Carson Wentz, or his backup Jacob Eason. Another team that has an impeccable matchup for their passing game is the Baltimore Ravens and their QB who is potentially the best dual threat quarterback in NFL history. Lamar Jackson ($7,800 DK / $8,400 FD) will be facing off against the defense ranked 31st out of 32 in DVOA against the pass on Sunday afternoon, as the Ravens roll into Detroit listed as 8 point favorites. This leaves the Ravens with one of the top three highest implied team totals on the slate, and LJ is a massive part of every scoring drive that this team has. He will definitely cost us a pretty penny, but if we can find some cheap enough ancillary pieces then Lamar is definitely a priority for week 3.
B. Another team that comes to mind when we think of mobile quarterbacks with very high rushing floors is the Arizona Cardinals. Kyler Murray ($8,300 DK / $9,000 FD) has been shooting up the NFL MVP odds boards almost as quickly as his DFS salary has been shooting up across the industry. With the weapons that he has at his disposal, he is in for an unreal 2021-2022 NFL season. This is definitely a week to target these mobile QBs, as the two top rushing quarterbacks in the league also happen to draw the 2nd and 3rd best possible matchups for an opposing passing attack. The Jaguars defense has struggled to defend nearly everything through the first two weeks, and while their defense is only ranked 19th against the QB position in DVOA, they are ranked 30th against the pass and 24th in overall defense DVOA. This team has scored 38 and 34 points thus far this season, and I do not see the 30+ train stopping this week.
C. My QB3 was the smash spot last week, as I had Tom Brady listed in this spot and he proceeded to roast the pitiful Falcons defense. Daniel Jones ($5,800 DK / $7,400 FD) has the pleasure of drawing that exact same matchup, and while he could not be much further in skill from the goat, this is the best spot that he will find himself in all season and his price is extremely reasonable. With the high price tags of my first two QB options, I had to find us a cheap arm in an excellent spot for lineups where we want to spend more salary on our skill position players. As I mentioned, if Jones does not smash this week, then we should never play him the rest of this entire season outside of showdown slates. The Falcons are ranked 29th in team defense DVOA, 32nd in DVP against opposing quarterbacks, and 11th in situation-neutral pace of play. While this is obviously only a GPP type of play, even an arm lacking as much skill as Jones should see success in this week 3 matchup.
The Stacks
A. When it comes to the Baltimore Ravens, I tend to avoid any RBs like the plague due to their propensity to have goal line work vultured by Lamar. When it comes to stacking, you only want to pair RBs with your quarterback if they are heavy pass-catching RBs, and none of these Ravens backup runners really fit that bill. Therefore, this leaves us with a three man combo of Hollywood Brown, Sammy Watkins, and Mark Andrews. I am really not very high on Watkins at all after he was essentially a useless ghost nearly every game in Kansas City. If he was useless with one of the best young quarterbacks of all time at the helm, then we cannot expect much from him with Jackson slinging passes. That leaves us with Brown and Andrews as our options for this stack, and we can bring it back with either Quintez Cephus, who looked really solid on Monday night, or T.J. Hockenson who caught a sweet touchdown pass on Monday.
B. You can essentially copy and paste what I said for the Ravens running game down here for the Cardinals. While Chase Edmonds does catch some passes, we pay the price for Kyler in the hope that he gets some rushing TDs, not that he dumps it off at the goal line to Edmonds. Luckily, the Cardinals have essentially zero tight ends that we need to worry about, because we already have our hands full at the wide receiver position. DeAndre Hopkins, Christian Kirk, rookie sensation Rondale Moore, and even the corpse of A.J. Green are all viable pass catchers for us to stack up with Kyler. I will continue to keep my lineups to a max of two of these guys, because again, there are only so many touchdowns to go around if we expect Kyler to run one or two in. For our bring-back, we should tread lightly with this Jaguars team as usual, and Marvin Jones is finally starting to see his price come up after being insanely underpriced through the first two weeks. DJ Chark and Laviska Shenault are fine options, but definitely limit your lineups to one Jaguar pass catcher in case this team totally flops.
C. The final team that I will be stacking in tournaments for week 3 is the NY Giants, who do have some tight ends and solid receiver options for us to pair up with Daniel Jones. Engram is returning from injury and has not played a snap yet this season, so we will have to keep a close eye on him. If he is playing without a snap count or restriction, then he is definitely in play and Kyle Rudolph becomes a very risky option. If Engram is out again then we can look to Kyle Rudolph to hopefully get there for us by catching a touchdown pass. As far as the wide receivers go, Kenny Golladay has the squeaky wheel narrative after his outburst on the sidelines, and I expect we could see an explosive ceiling game from him on Sunday. Slayton and Shepard are also fine options, but I would prioritize Kenny G in all G-men stacks. As usual, the obvious two run-back options on the Falcons are Kyle Pitts and Calvin Ridley, as will be the case for what I expect to be this entire season.
That will do it for this week’s article. 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 the top stacks for the week, I will be in our expert chat in Discord leading up to Sunday afternoon. 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!
