Trying to figure out how to maximize your redraft fantasy team’s potential without paying top dollar? Look no further than the fantasy football stack.
Stacks seem to be a more divisive topic in fantasy football than Joe Mixon (who I believe will easily beat out his current ADP, but that’s neither here nor there). Stacks can spark up heated debates, and for good reason. They can be volatile pieces in your starting lineup but, when chosen correctly, their boom potential can rocket you towards a championship.
Stacks
For those of you who are unaware, a stack is what happens when you have two or more players from the same team who can contribute to a boom/bust potential. (This strategy could have easily been called a “pile,” but that just doesn’t have the same effect.)
Before we go any further, I’m not saying that you should go out and reach for players to complete a stack. In fact, I’m saying the opposite. I’m talking value stacks. I mean, who wouldn’t love to stack up Patrick Mahomes with Travis Kelce AND Tyreek Hill. That’s a no-brainer. However, most of us won’t have the draft capital to do so.
I’m not going to just tell you that should stack your team and flutter away. I’m not that much of a jerk.
The stacks I’ll be discussing here come at a value. These will be players who I feel can outperform the outlook the public has on them and who you won’t have to spend high draft capital for. Some of the best stacking opportunities also come up serendipitously.
The ADP I’ll be using as a reference is the IDP Guys ADP.
In this article, we’ll go over three redraft stacks. Read my other article here for three dynasty stacks. A little variety, just because I like y’all so much.
Redraft
To begin, we’ll start where most of us started our fantasy football journey — in redraft. Here, we can draft a retirement home and win the league, and not feel guilty about it. The 30-year-olds’ points count just the same as the 20-year-olds’ points.
Minnesota Vikings — Kirk Cousins and Adam Thielen
This shouldn’t be a hot-take, but where these two are getting drafted, apparently it is. Cousins is going off the board as the QB23, and Thielen is leaving the board at WR33.
Cousins has posted a top-20 fantasy season each year with Minnesota, his best year with them landing as the QB11. With the arrival of Justin Jefferson, Cousins’ numbers have only gone up. He has an incredible RB behind him in Dalvin Cook, who is a threat every time he touches the ball. The support of Cook won’t allow the defense to cheat and only play the WRs.
Let’s address Thielen. A wide receiver who has posted a top-ten fantasy WR finish three of the last four years. Last year, he posted a massive 14 touchdowns, which is an incredible feat.
One might call it “touchdown regression, “which only seems to be a thing people say about players they already have some bias towards, but fair. It’ll be tough for Thielen to get 14 touchdowns again. I’m not disputing it, but even if he scored half the touchdowns he scored last year, he’d still end up as a top 24 WR.
Thielen was also top-five in Red Zone targets. So, there’s that.
(Bonus: Again, these are created to be based on Value. However, if you’re feeling the itch to splurge or you’re a Vikings fan who wants another reason to draft 3 of your best players, Jefferson is going around the tenth pick. If you had all three of them, they would’ve averaged fantasy 53.3 points a week when they all played together.)
New England Patriots — Cam Newton and Hunter Henry or Jonnu Smith
I’m not wearing rose-colored lenses predicting that Newton is returning to his MVP year. What I do see is that he posted rushing stats of 137 attempts, for 592 yards, and 12 TDs (9 of which were inside the 5) in 15 games.
I’d like to also remind the audience he recovered from Covid-19 in the middle of the season.
For my next point, while Newton was with the Carolina Panthers, Greg Olsen was THE guy. Period. He led the team in yards for multiple seasons and had 39 touchdowns. When Newton won the MVP award and went 15-1, ol’ Greg Olsen posted 1,104 yards on 124 targets with 77 receptions for 7 TDs. That’s 229 fantasy points.
Before you say anything, I know that’s an incredible season from an incredible TE. I’m not saying that Hunter Henry or Jonnu Smith are going to recreate that, but I’m also not not saying that. (Just in case they do, all my bases are covered and I look like a genius in hindsight).
However, New England decided to go out and spend ALL the money on tight ends. All of it. Every, single…money.
Fun fact of the day: New England went from being a team that spends the second least amount of money on the tight ends, becoming the second MOST team spending on the position.
They’re going to use their Tight ends.
Unfortunately, no one really knows who. There will be theories, some people will be and some will be wrong (I’ll end up being right since I covered all my bases). Someone who’s gone to greater lengths than I have about the TEs is our very own resident @DYNASTYSANTA in his article.
Cam Newtown is the 32nd QB projected to be taken off the board while Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith are going 10 and 17 respectively in the tight end position.
The question is which one to take. That’s for you to take a gamble on. Or, play it safe and get them both. Your call.
The Washington Football Team — Ryan Fitzpatrick and Curtis Samuel
Some players out in the league have such unique qualities about themselves that they’ve earned a nickname along the way. A few that stand out are Tyreek Hill‘s “The Cheetah”, Big Ben, and my personal favorite, Ryan FitzMagic.
FITZ JUST PULLED THIS OFF BLINDFOLDED 🤯 pic.twitter.com/7EkfSTnJCR
— Dolphin Nation (@Dolphin_Nation) December 27, 2020
Need I say more? (I don’t but I will)
There’s something electric about this journeyman QB that I don’t know how to put into words. He’s beloved by teammates, is a literal genius, and just seems like an all-around great guy.
As long as Ryan Fitzpatrick stays healthy throughout the year, he will be the QB1 during the 2021 season for the WFT. Neither Heinicke nor Kyle Allen seem to be the long-term solution as the cornerstone for the franchise. There will be no one the team is pushing to the forefront as was the case with the Dolphins and the Buccaneers.
I might also add that his average points per game last year was 17.75 which places him into the top 15 quarterbacks.
(The beard alone is reason enough to draft the guy. I mean, come on…it’s glorious.)
Let’s go ahead and move on to part 2, Curtis Samuel. The guy is ranked as WR45. Last year as the third wide receiver on his team, he was fantasy’s WR25 at the end of the year. He was competing with D.J. Moore and Robby Anderson.
Now, I know he’s gone onto a new team but the only WR ahead of him now is Terry McLaurin. The Ohio State alumni has consistently put up numbers year after year. He’s trending in the right direction.
Curtis Samuel really has an opportunity to put up some massive numbers with Fitzpatrick slinging the ball across the field. And you have an opportunity to get both of them on the low for your fantasy team.
Conclusion
ADP is there for a reason. I get it. I’m not suggesting that anyone reach for these stacks in their draft just for the sake of ‘having a stack’. That is incorrect. What I’m saying to you is if these players drop to you, the value is ripe for the taking.
I believe all of these players have a real shot at outperforming their ADP. Of course, they might not all end up top 5 in their positions but these stacks have a chance of helping any team reach a championship.
That’s what we’re here for at the end of the day.
Thank you for reading! Follow me on Twitter at @FFCAnabalon, and if you enjoyed the random assortment of letters and punctuation marks above, you can find more of my work here at idpguys.org.
