Top Week 18 NFL DFS Stack Projections DraftKings & FanDuel Lineups 1/8

In addition to Sunday’s 13-game slate, Week 18 brings us a two-game Saturday slate on DraftKings and FanDuel. To gain leverage in GPPs, stacking is a strategy that every DFS player should use. Rostering a quarterback with one or more of his pass catchers gives lineups the upside it needs to have a chance at finishing near the top of the leaderboards. The NFL DFS advice below will evaluate how to utilize NFL DFS stacks projections for Week 18 Saturday Slate DraftKings and FanDuel lineups by finding the top the stacking options from Awesemo’s Top Stacks Tool. The Top Stacks Tool will break down the stack in terms of its overall projection of being the No. 1 stack of the week, the ownership of the quarterback, if it is a value or not and the overall leverage on the rest of the field.

NFL DFS Top Stacks Projections for Week 18 on DraftKings & FanDuel

Top Stack: Kansas City Chiefs

With only four teams in play, this one is a no-brainer. The Chiefs are the best offense in play on Saturday. They have the highest implied team total on the slate, and this game has the highest overall total. Additionally, they’re also the team with the most to play for on Saturday. Kansas City has a shot at the AFC’s top seed with a win in Week 18. Their opponents, the Broncos, have already been eliminated from playoff contention. Additionally, both team’s in the other game (Dallas and Philadelphia) are unable to make meaningful improvements to their playoff seeding with a win.

The other benefit to stacking the Chiefs is how concentrated their offense is. Nearly 50% of their passing targets flow to just two players: Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. That’s good for any team, but it’s great for a team like the Chiefs. They pass the ball at the sixth highest rate in the league, despite plenty of positive game scripts en route to an 11-5 record. Fitting both Hill and Kelce in with Mahomes is difficult though. They take up 45% of the DraftKings and just under 42% of the FanDuel salary cap. Both pass catchers can certainly go off in the same game — they combined for nearly 80 points in Week 15.

Stacking Mahomes with just one of his pass catchers is always challenging, given the seeming randomness of which of the two will have the big game. Hill has an edge this week though. Denver ranks sixth in DVOA defending tight ends, but only 20th against WR1s. That’s not extremely predictive, but could impact which of the pair has the better day. If rostering them both, be sure to include bring backs from the Denver side. It’s unlikely that there’s enough overall passing volume to support good days from both of them without Denver keeping up on the scoreboard.

Kansas City is the only stack in Awesemo’s Top Stacks Tool with a positive leverage score for Saturday’s slate.

Latest NFL DFS Content

Awesemo Top Stack Projection: 54.9%

Awesemo QB Ownership: 41.2%

Contrarian Stack: Denver Broncos

On the other end of the stacking spectrum lies the Broncos. The Broncos are expected to be the least popular team to stack, and also the least likeliest to finish as the top stack. However, they trail only the Chiefs in leverage score, as the Cowboys and Eagles are both expected to be too popular for their relative chances of success.

As discussed above, this game has the higher overall total of the pair. It’s also the only game with a team that has something to play for. Denver could be looking to play spoiler in this one. Even if they aren’t Drew Lock would certainly love to turn in a decent game as his NFL career is in serious jeopardy. Kansas City has a mediocre passing defense that ranks 22nd in DVOA on the season, so it’s an exploitable matchup. Given the Broncos +10.5-point spread, they’ll also likely need to throw the ball frequently this week.

Unlike the Chiefs though, the Broncos passing targets are much more evenly distributed. No player has received more than 20% of the targets — even when only counting games where that player was active. That makes it trickier to figure out who should even be in Broncos stacks. Courtland Sutton is probably the top candidate. He leads the team in targets on the season. He also has a very deep average depth of target (aDOT) of 15.68 yards. He’s a true deep threat option, which could be valuable with gunslinger Lock in at quarterback.

Outside of Sutton, Noah Fant is the next best choice. Lock has targeted Fant more than any other player in his starts. Additionally, getting production at tight end is always more valuable than at receiver, given the relative scarcity of the position. That’s less of an issue than normal on this slate — which features Kelce, Dalton Schultz and Dallas Goedert. Fant is the cheapest of them though, and gamers can roster two tight ends if they desire.

Awesemo Top Stack Projection: 5.5%

Awesemo QB Ownership: 6.2%

Thanks for reading to the end of this article! If you appreciate this free content and want to see more of it every day, you can help us out by sharing this article on social media!