4 NFL DFS Stacks to Target in Week 5

Stacking in NFL DFS on FanDuel is a vital strategy as a way to shoot for upside. There are a few different ways to correlate lineups that can help us maximize our ceiling.

The classic stack is a quarterback with one of his pass-catchers. Sometimes, it makes sense to double-stack and use two pass catchers with their signal-caller, especially when the target share is concentrated around two players.

In other situations, we can pair a running back and a defense on the same team. This makes sense when a team is a huge favorite and expected to dominate, which can lead to carries for the back and chances for sacks and turnovers for the D/ST.

We also can look to deploy a game stack. One example is rostering a QB, one of his pass-catchers, and a pass-catcher from the other team. Game stacks can work best in matchups that have high totals and close spreads.

Our Brandon Gdula did a study on stacking that is worth checking out before you make your lineups.

Using our NFL DFS projections as a guide, here are four of the best stacks to zero in on in NFL DFS for this week's main slate.

All NFL odds come from FanDuel Sportsbook and may change after this article is published.

NFL DFS Stacks for Week 5

Green Bay Packers at Los Angeles Rams

Josh Jacobs ($7,000) and Kyren Williams ($8,400)

Sunday's Green Bay Packers-Los Angeles Rams game might be the chalk game of the slate. It's got a 48.5-point total, 3.0-point spread and is indoors. While I am worried about how much attention this game will attract, going with a RB-RB stack might be a way to be a little different if the masses flock to the passing games.

Jacobs is one of my favorite plays of the week. LA's defense has been getting shredded this season, including allowing the sixth-most FanDuel points per game to running backs (26.1). Jacobs' rushing plus receiving yards prop is set at a solid 81.5 yards, and he owns -140 anytime touchdown odds. My hope is people turn to Jordan Love and company for their Packers exposure.

With Williams, he's got a strong case to be the slate's RB1. His rushing plus receiving prop is up at a huge 103.5 yards, and he's a cool -230 to score a touchdown. It's hard to beat that. Our NFL DFS projections peg Williams for 16.7 FanDuel points, tops among all running backs.

The lone concern with him is popularity as Kyren is likely to be very popular. Personally, RB is the position where I'm most OK with swallowing chalk, so I'll have plenty of Williams.

Baltimore Ravens at Cincinnati Bengals

Lamar Jackson ($8,800), Zay Flowers ($6,900) and Tee Higgins ($6,800)

The Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals meet up in another contest that should be a great DFS environment (48.5-point total and 2.5-point spread). Although you can make a case for either QB, I'm much more interested in stacking the Ravens and going to Cincy for a bring-back piece.

Lamar Jackson has been his usual self this season, averaging 23.8 FanDuel points per game and scoring between 23.0 and 28.2 in three of his four games. He's run for at least 45 yards in every outing, including spike weeks of 122 and 87 rushing yards. He's an elite DFS play every week, and this is no different as we already saw a Lamar-like QB torch the Bengals' D when Jayden Daniels racked up 28.06 FanDuel points at Cincinnati in Week 3.

Zay Flowers has clearly overtaken Mark Andrews ($5,900) as the go-to stacking partner for Jackson. Flowers boasts a 100% route participation clip, per PlayerProfiler, and his 26.2% target share is tops on the Ravens.

As for the bring-back piece, if you have the salary for Ja'Marr Chase ($9,300), go for it. I probably won't given that I'm really prioritizing RB this week, so that leads me to Tee Higgins. Across his two games since returning from injury, Higgins has seen 16 targets, including 10 looks last week. The matchup is there this week as Baltimore has surrendered the 10th-most FanDuel points per game to WRs (30.1).

Buffalo Bills at Houston Texans

C.J. Stroud ($8,400), Stefon Diggs ($7,600) and Keon Coleman ($5,400)

After looking pretty darn good through the first three weeks, the Buffalo Bills' defense got rocked by the Ravens a week ago. I think the Houston Texans do something similar this week.

This is another clash that profiles as an excellent fantasy environment. It's indoors and carries both a high total (47.5) and close spread (1.5).

C.J. Stroud opened his season with three meh weeks. He bounced back in Week 4 with 345 passing yards and a pair of scores in addition to 17 rushing yards. With his talent and the weapons around him, Stroud offers massive upside each week, and so far in his career, he's got glaring home/road splits -- 309.1 yards per game at home with 20 passing TDs compared to 230.1 yards per game on the road with 9 passing scores.

My reasoning for going with Stefon Diggs over Nico Collins ($8,800) is most about the salary, not the revenge-game narrative. As I said when talking about Chase-Higgins, I need salary for RB this week, so that steers me toward Diggs. Through his first four games in Houston, Diggs holds a solid 22.4% target share and is almost equal to Collins in snap share (82.7%).

The receiver situation for Buffalo is up in the air as of Friday morning. Khalil Shakir ($6,200) didn't practice on Wednesday or Thursday. If Shakir plays, he's a quality option at his modest salary. If Shakir sits, it opens up some value on the Bills and leads me to Keon Coleman.

Coleman has led Buffalo's WRs in snaps in three of the first four games. It hasn't resulted in many targets -- just 11 total so far -- but if Shakir sits, Coleman could get a few more looks.

New York Giants at Seattle Seahawks

Geno Smith ($7,400), Tyler Lockett ($6,200), Jaxon Smith-Njigba ($6,300) and Darius Slayton ($5,000)

The first three stacks I wrote up are all fairly normal. Let's get a little weird.

The Seattle Seahawks have the slate's fourth-best implied total (25.0), but I'm not expecting their passing attack to be all that popular. It makes sense, too. Not only is Seattle a tough team to stack due to having three good wideouts, it's fair to have concerns about the New York Giants' ability to keep this game close, especially with Malik Nabers ($8,100) looking unlikely to play.

However, the spread here is only 6.5 points, so I'm willing to roll the dice on the G-Men keeping it competitive. Plus, I love the salary savings this game stack offers.

Geno Smith has scored at least 18.0 FanDuel points in three of four games, and he's running a decent amount, notching at least 30 rushing yards in two outings. We project him as the slate's QB7, forecasting him to amass 18.1 FanDuel points.

I am into the idea of double-stacking Geno with Tyler Lockett and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Both come at easy-to-like salaries, and they're playing a good amount of snaps.

JSN is running as Seattle's WR2, logging a snap rate of at least 79% in every game thus far. He's the better play over Lockett, especially with their salaries about even. With that said, Lockett has run the 12th-most routes in the league among all WRs, so he's not some shot-in-the-dark play.

Assuming Nabers is out, there's a gaping hole in Big Blue's passing game. Wan'Dale Robinson ($6,100) will probably catch 10 balls for 40 yards, so I'd rather take a flier on the upside of Darius Slayton, who has played at least 82% of the snaps in three straight games. Slayton boasts the second-best TD odds on New York (+230), and we know he's capable of a big play.

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The above author is a FanDuel employee and is not eligible to compete in public daily fantasy contests or place sports betting wagers on FanDuel. The advice provided by the author does not necessarily represent the views of FanDuel. Taking the author's advice will not guarantee a successful outcome. You should use your own judgment when participating in daily fantasy contests or placing sports wagers.