If you're new to daily fantasy football, then you'll have to make some changes to your fantasy football strategy. You don't have "your guys" on a weekly basis -- and you need to adjust to each and every matchup.
A big part of building your roster is weekly quarterback selection. In terms of salary, passers range from the top of the player pool to the bottom, with some replacement-level passers sitting at the same price point as kickers and defenses on FanDuel.
Along with those quarterbacks, though, you have the option of pairing pass-catchers with your signal caller, and per 4for4, a quarterback's top receiver has the strongest positive correlation to quarterback success -- while his tight end and second receiver are next in line.
If you're going to stack, though, you need to have a purpose. If you're trying to win a big tournament, you'll want to find a combination that can put up points in bunches -- especially if that also comes with low ownership percentages. Who fits that mold in Week 9?
Los Angeles Rams
Jared Goff ($8,400)
Cooper Kupp ($6,800)
We kick off Week 9 in New Orleans, where the Los Angeles Rams are taking on the New Orleans Saints in the game with highest over/under on the slate (60.0) according to our heat map. Goff has routinely smashed this season when the opposing team has been able to keep pace with the Rams offense, he has FanDuel point totals of 39.3 and 26.5 in the two games that the Rams have allowed 27+ points to the opposing team. Given the outrageously high O/U, and the fact that the Saints are just one point underdogs, we should expect them to put up points and thus Goff will be able to keep throwing rather than have this turn into a hand-it-off-to-Todd Gurley game. The Saints have allowed the ninth-most passing touchdowns in the NFL, while allowing the fewest rushing yards speaking to how strong the matchup truly is.
Cooper Kupp has missed two games due to injury, but it appears he should be back in time for this shootout with the Saints. Before Kupp went down, he saw six or more targets in all but one game, the outlier being a 5-41-1 line against the Los Angeles Chargers. Kupp will be matched up with P.J. Williams who is Pro Football Focus' second-worst graded corner this season. It is also worth-noting that Kupp is eighth-overall in targets inside the 10 yard line (7) so the red-zone usage should be there as well.
New Orleans Saints
Drew Brees ($8,400)
Tre'Quan Smith ($5,100)
No game-stack options were listed in the Rams section because we obviously are going to dedicate a separate stack to the Saints in such an attractive game environment. Brees always seems to go over-looked now that Mark Ingram is back and the Saints are doing their 2017 impression of running the football, but he's still averaging 21.44 FanDuel points per game. Fact is, the Saints are going to need to put up points in this game so there shouldn't be any reason to believe that Brees won't be airing it out, and this game does take place in New Orleans where we know Brees owns positive historical splits.
Some people may be off of of Smith after back-to-back sub-six FanDuel point performances, but fear not, the breakout game is coming. Smith exploded for the entire country to see on Monday night football the first week that Ted Ginn Jr. was out, putting up a monster 3-111-2 line against the Washington Redskins. In the past two weeks, he's seen 10 targets and has been on the field a ton. As Adam Levitan pointed out, he's severely out-snapping Cameron Meredith and in this type of game he could be ready to break out fully. The easy partner with Brees would be Michael Thomas who has a great individual matchup with Marcus Peters, but let's shoot for the moon and take the upside of Smith for a ton of savings.
Carolina Panthers
Cam Newton ($8,600)
D.J. Moore ($5,300)
Newton figures to be one of the chalkiest Quarterback's on the slate this weekend in a matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers secondary that has allowed the fourth-most passing yards in the NFL through nine weeks. Carolina Panthers Offensive Coordinator Norv Turner has masterfully used Newton this season in both real-life and fantasy football. His lowest rushing output of the season is 29 yards, and being able to lock in that type of point floor on the ground goes a long way in daily fantasy. He's not doing everything on the ground though, he's tossed two or more touchdowns in every game this season outside of Week 1, so he should be able to thrive in this good of a spot.
Torrey Smith has already been ruled out for the Panthers this week, which opens the door for another D.J. Moore week. He's an athletic freak, just take a peek at his player profile, and he stepped in for Smith last week hauling in five of six targets for 90 yards while also ripping two long runs totaling 39 yards. This spot against the Buccaneers secondary is as good as it gets, and it's easy to fit in Newton when you are saving so much at wide receiver. This game owns a 55.0-point over/under, so it certainly falls under the game-stack category, with Mike Evans and DeSean Jackson as viable run-back candidates.
Minnesota Vikings
Kirk Cousins ($8,300)
Adam Thielen ($8,900)
This is the stack that should fly a bit under the radar, the Minnesota Vikings are implied for 27.00 points, but will fall behind the aforementioned stacks in terms of ownership. Cousins hasn't flashed his ceiling in recent weeks, but he's been remarkably consistent putting up less than 17 FanDuel points just twice this season, and throwing for multiple touchdowns in five games. They continue to feature a pass-heavy game plan as Cousins ranks third-overall in the NFL in pass attempts (341), just one behind Andrew Luck and Joe Flacco who are tied for the lead.
Stefon Diggs is currently listed as questionable for Sunday with an injury to his ribs, but even if he's able to give it a go Thielen is your top stacking partner with Cousins. Thielen has been the best receiver in the NFL through eight weeks of football, going over 100 yards in every game and finding the end zone in six of his last seven games. Last week was the first time all season he didn't see double-digit targets, and we should expect that number to get back over 10 this week especially if Diggs is unable to go. He's no longer just a possession receiver, with a team-high 13 red-zone targets as well. With Golden Tate getting shipped to Philadelphia, you can look to run this stack back with one of Kenny Golladay or Marvin Jones.
Ben Hossler is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Ben Hossler also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username oatw. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.