Should You Stack in Redraft Fantasy Football?
For the purpose of this study and the data supplied, we will be focusing on 1QB, non-super flex, PPR leagues. Stack, stack, stack, and more stacking, is the unofficial official motto of bestball but it has not entirely been adopted in typical redraft leagues. I will dive into whether, based on the 2020 season, stacking is an optimal strategy in redraft.
This study was limited to the top 12 scoring QB’s and WR’s pairs (sorry Allen Robinson) for the 2020 season. We’ll begin with WR1 overall in PPG Davante Adams. For this exercise, we will be adding the top 12 QB weekly scores to Adams’ weekly scores. (All bye weeks, games not played, and week 17 were excluded from each chart).
When we look at this chart, we see that the Adams & Rodgers combo scored in the top five of QB1 & WR1 stacks in 10 out of 13 eligible weeks and had two top 2 finishes. So, what does this scoring rank mean? It means, that in weeks 1 & 14, only one other combination of Adams and a non-Rodgers QB topped Adams & Rodgers being stacked. In weeks 8,9,12,13, and 16, only three other QB’s were “better” for Adams then Rodgers. Although this is the first player of the group, this data partially confirms the held standard of boom/bust weeks when stacking.
Again, we see that Mahomes & Hill stack did not dominate week in or week out. However, for a better perspective, let’s again compare Mahomes & Hill stacks vs. Hill and the other top 12 QB’s.
This chart shows more of the same with a bit of a mixed bag.
The good: the Mahomes & Hill stack produced seven weeks scoring 4th best or better, including three #1 finishes.
The bad: Mahomes & Hill stacks also produced seven weeks of scoring 7th best or worse.
Lets review the rest of the top 12 WR/QB combos:
Based off this limited sample and data, we can see that stacking does have some serious advantages when it hits and some lows when it underperforms. Stacking is either going to boom or bust, and not produce middling weeks, which is why I think stacking QB1’s & WR1’s on the same team gives you an edge. It literally can win you a week. There are several key considerations to process when interpreting this data:
· Limited sample size (only 2020 season)
· Using the data after the fact vs. pre-season expectations
· There is variance between which position is doing the “lifting” (did the QB bail out the poor WR performance or vice versa).
· When people play in redraft leagues, they are more like a small GPP vs. a cash game stylistically. Meaning that stacking can provide a large single game advantage.
· A larger sample size is needed to confirm or reject stacking QB1’s & WR 1’s on the same team to confirm a weekly advantage in redraft.
*Special shout out to @Adamharstad for helping to make this study possible!
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By Clayton Jones