The NFL divisional round gives us daily fantasy footballers a "Take II" at pairing popular stacks with hold-your-nose contarian picks in DraftKings tournaments and GPPs.
Below we'll consider the budget required for the most popular stacks, then run down a few contrarian options that the public will fade hard (and with good reason). However, these complements also possess realistic enough upside to elevate lineups in small player-pool tournaments through a contrarian addition on the likely more popular stacks.
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Daily Fantasy Football Strategy: DraftKings GPP Stacks for Divisional Round Tournaments
Triple-stacks featuring three players projected by Collective Ownership Report to surpass 10 percent ownership this weekend at DraftKings.
Cowboys stack: QB Dak Prescott ($6000), RB Ezekiel Elliott ($8500), WR Dez Bryant ($6600) = 42% of budget ($21100/$50000).
Packers stack: QB Aaron Rodgers ($8200), RB Ty Montgomery ($5300), WR Randall Cobb ($5700) = 38% of budget ($19200/$50000).
Patriots stack: QB Tom Brady ($7600), RB LeGarrette Blount ($5800) WR Julian Edelman ($6800) = 40% of budget ($20200/$50000).
Falcons stack: QB Matt Ryan ($7000), RB Devonta Freeman ($5900), WR Julio Jones ($8400) = 43% of budget ($21300/$50000).
Seahawks stack: QB Russell Wilson ($6900), RB Thomas Rawls ($6900), WR Doug Baldwin ($8100) = 44% of budget ($21900/$50000).
While Le'Veon Bell ($10500) and Antonio Brown ($9600) are primed to go chalk, they could far more often go as the sole Steelers play in DK lineups. Ben Roethlisberger ($6500) hit a presser in a walking boot, TE Ladarius Green looks doubtful, and inclement weather is forecasted for Sunday, which should prevent a wide swath of the public from paying up for the Steelers stack at 53 percent of the budget.
Cheap Uber-Contarians
Aided by Collective Ownership Report projections.
We'll need to dig extra deep to identify true contrarians on such a small NFL slate. Could any of them really go Cobb? They should be against the grain, at very the least.
A gamble on Christine Michael ($4300) could pay off if the Packers take a multi-score lead as they did against New York last week, with the game script elevating Michael to 10 carries. Michael made the most of it with 47 yards, and he'd probably need a couple late goal-line attempts to hit 4-5x value in Dallas.
The Brock Osweiler fade should keep the public largely off DeAndre Hopkins ($5800), even as 16-point underdogs likely to face far more passing downs than Houston did over the past month. Hopkins still remains the WR1 in this offense.
Terrance Williams ($3100) gets basement price against a defense allowing the second-most DK points to opposing receivers in a game featuring the highest Vegas point total of the week. Collective Ownership Report projects him single-digit owned while Dez could top 25 percent.
Travis Kelce won't go contararian but could benefit from a Chiefs-Steelers fade the public doles at what should be a cold, wet Sunday in Kansas City. A medium-owned Kelce paired with a relatively low-owned Alex Smith ($5400) provides an edge if that stack goes off.