The NFL is almost at the halfway point of the season. The Week 8 slate consists of two games that have point totals over 50.0 points (Detroit – Miami/Las Vegas – New Orleans) and just one that has a point total under 40.0 points (Washington at Indianapolis). There are also two teams who are larger than 10-point favorites in the Eagles and Bills. The Stokastic Top Stack Tool has a surprising team at the top this is also a week where lots of mid-tier stacks are projecting strong. Let’s dive into the best NFL DFS stacks for Week 8 including Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings.
This article will use the Stokastic Top Stacks Tool to gain leverage on the field, either through ownership or by rostering the other side of the game on a popular stack. Here are some of the top opportunities for Week 6 below based on where they stand in Stokastic’s NFL DFS ownership projections.
Top NFL DFS Stacks for Week 8 on DraftKings & FanDuel
Top Stack: Minnesota Vikings
The Vikings are ranked second in the Stokastic Stacking Tool this week in terms of top stack probability. It’s a strong second place, though, as last week no team projected for over 14% to be the top stack. They’ll take on a Cardinals defense who has been getting turnovers but who also just allowed Andy Dalton to throw for 361 yards and 4 touchdowns. In a lot of ways, Kirk Cousins is just the souped-up version of Andy Dalton anyways and also has his elite wide receiver healthy in Justin Jefferson. Jefferson makes for an easy stack with Cousins that takes little to no thought.
Jefferson comes into this game with an elite 28% team target share and has now posted 100+ yard games in three straight — that includes last week when Cousins threw for just 177 yards. There are a couple different ways to go about finishing off a Cousins-Jefferson combo, but Irv Smith Jr. is up against a Cardinals defense that loves to leave tight ends open in the middle of the field and in the red zone. That makes him a great third man in. Arizona’s allowed the most receptions and touchdowns to the tight end position this year and defensive coordinator Vance Joseph’s heavy blitz style will likely make Smith a pivotal target this week for Cousins.
On the flip side, this game is also uber-appealing for the fact that DeAndre Hopkins is playing. Hopkins saw 14 targets and caught 10 passes in his return last week. The Vikings secondary isn’t going to be issue for him and he makes for a great comeback play to complete this stack, and on that will be easier to fit with the $6,100 Cousins at quarterback versus the $7,500 Kyler Murray on DraftKings.
Stokastic Top Stack Projection: 14.0%
Stokastic Quarterback Ownership: 7.5%
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Top Low-Owned Stack: New York Giants
The Seattle vs Giants game has lots of fantasy potential this week despite just a mediocre over/under of 44.5. The Seahawks have allowed the 11th most fantasy points per game to opposing quarterbacks and are fifth-to-last in yards per pass attempt allowed this season. While Daniel Jones hasn’t passed for more than 217 yards this year — and has attempted more than 35 passes just once — this week does feel like one where he’ll need to drop back a few more times.
New York is last in yards per rush allowed and is facing running back Kenneth Walker III on the other side who averaged 7.3 yards per rush against a similar weak rush defense in the Chargers last week. Walker actually makes for a great comeback play with a Jones-centric stack and, with the rebirth of Darius Slayton to fantasy relevancy, that is a legit downfield threat to pair with Jones. Slayton caught a 32-yard touchdown last week and led the Giants in air yards despite being out-targeted by rookie Wan’dale Robinson. One could look to a double wide receiver stack with these players, who have seemingly taken over as starters, but given the savings starting with Jones at quarterback, mix in Saquon Barkley.
Barkley rarely comes off the field and is taking on a Seahawks team who has allowed the fifth-most yards and receptions to opposing running backs. Barkley has seen 13 targets over his last three games and feels likely to breakout as a receiver in this spot against a weak Seattle linebacker crew. Mixing him in with the low-owned Slayton — and dual-threat quarterback in Jones –offers a unique stack that offers great upside and good leverage off Seattle passing stacks, and other highly owned stacks this week.
Stokastic Top Stack Projection: 1.4%
Stokastic Quarterback Ownership: 5.7%
Tournament Leverage Stack: Los Angeles Rams
There’s a couple of different reasons to like the Rams this week as a leverage play. For starters, the 49ers are one of the top trending DST’s right now in the Stokastic ownership projections and will certainly be popular in big fields, just given Matthew Stafford’s INT tendencies this season. The second is that no one seems excited about paying up for Cooper Kupp this week, who brings in a 32% team target share which leads the league.
Kupp is expensive but the fact he’s projecting well outside the top five players at his position is reason enough to roster him. The 49ers have already been burned by hybrid slot receivers on multiple occasions this season, and are coming off a game where they essentially allowed JuJu Smith-Schuster to beat them, as he posted catches on eight targets, for 124 yards and a touchdown in the loss to Kansas City.
Kupp-Stafford aside, one could game stack with another elite offensive player in Christian McCaffrey on the other side. McCaffrey should get ramped up this week, especially with Deebo Samuel (hamstring) now officially out for this game. He caught two passes for 24 yards last week and could look to double his touch count of 10 in this pivotal game. This game offers access to two elite skill players, a potentially sub-3% owned Stafford and good leverage off a higher-owned DST. All this and the Rams are also trending strongly in the Stokastic projections, with the fourth-highest probability ranking to be the slate’s top stack. It’s a great time to target this game in large GPPs.
Stokastic Top Stack Projection: 8.3%
Stokastic Quarterback Ownership: 1.8%
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