San Francisco 49ers

DFS game stacks to target for week 3

Published Sep. 19, 2018 11:31 p.m. ET

Week 2 was another high scoring slate in the NFL and another week when daily fantasy sports contests were won by rostering the passing attack from just a handful of games.

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw for 300-plus yards and six touchdowns in a 42-27 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, including two scores to tight end Travis Kelce. Behind early and forced to play catch-up, Ben Roethlisberger aired it out 60 times, leading to a 450-yard performance to go along with three passing and one rushing touchdown. Wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster and TE Jesse James both cracked the 100-yard threshold and found the end zone.

In total there were more than 180 fantasy points scored in the Chiefs-Steelers game. Meanwhile at Lambeau Field, Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins connected with WRs Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen for 90 combined fantasy points.

Game stacks have been pivotal to winning daily tournaments this year. The Bucs-Saints shootout in Week 1 and the Chiefs-Steelers shootout for Week 2 both led to millions in prizes.

Here are game stacks to target for Week 3:

New Orleans at Atlanta (Over-under: 53, Falcons favored by 3 points)

The Falcons-Saints game has the second-highest Vegas total this week. Matt Ryan and the Falcons host Drew Brees and company in a game that could make a perfect game stack opportunity with the duo of Ryan and Julio Jones plus New Orleans running back Alvin Kamara. Jones has been targeted 28 times to start the season for nearly 500 air yards, a metric that balances target volume with the depth of those targets. Jones has a 40 percent market share of the Falcons passing attack. On the flip side, Alvin Kamara gets to face a Falcons defense that funnels targets to opposing running backs and gave up 14 catches for 100-plus yards to Panthers RB Christian McCaffrey last weekend. Kamara has 18 targets through the first two weeks and is in a prime spot to make a fantasy splash if the game in Atlanta turns into a shootout. Fantasy owners who are building multiple lineups could also consider mixing in Saints WR Michael Thomas and Falcons WR Mohamed Sanu to their stacks.

San Francisco at Kansas City (Over-under: 56, Chiefs favored by 6 1/2 points)

While a lot of the attention will be on Patrick Mahomes this week because of his 10 TDs through two games, winning daily fantasy tournaments requires separation from the crowd.

Jimmy Garoppolo is in a bounce-back spot against a Chiefs defense that has allowed more than 1,000 yards per game of total offense and given up more than 400 yards passing in back-to-back games. While the Chiefs defense should benefit from a home game at Arrowhead, Garoppolo is still in great position to throw for 300 yards and multiple touchdowns and will look to connect with his favorite target as Marquise Goodwin hopefully returns to the 49ers lineup. Garoppolo-Goodwin stacks can also be mixed with 49ers tight end George Kittle — who could be lower owned after disappointing players as a popular pick last week. He will return value for fantasy owners if he can even replicate half of Jesse James' stat line from last week. Chiefs players Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce and Sammy Watkins are all candidates to "bring it back" and should be inserted into your lineups to make a full-on game stack.

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This column was provided to The Associated Press by DailyRoto, http://dailyroto.com