Fantasy Football 2023: Ranking the Top QB-WR Stacks

A strong quarterback-wide receiver connection can help guide a team to the Super Bowl. It can take a fantasy football team pretty far too.

Stacking is an age-old drafting strategy that involves picking two players whose production is connected. The most popular variety is a quarterback and wide receiver stack, which gives fantasy managers a relatively high floor if they target a good offense. The sky is the limit if the pairing happens to connect on a few touchdowns.

To really nail the strategy, it's ideal to target a QB1 and pair him with a receiver who is expected to command a large share of the targets and red-zone looks.

Typically, the better the offense, the better the stack.

Based on previous production, 2023 outlook and injury history, here are the top quarterback-wide receiver stacks to target in your leagues this season.

There are a lot of options when it comes to QB-WR stacks that can help you win your league. These options didn't quite make the cut but could probably be had for cheaper and still allow you to reap some of the benefits of stacking.

QB Dak Prescott and WR CeeDee Lamb, Dallas Cowboys

Lamb commanded a massive share of the targets last season and figures to do so again in 2023. The team landed Brandin Cooks, but he's more of a deep-threat specialist who is going to give Lamb more one-on-one opportunities. The concern with this stack is Prescott. He threw 15 interceptions last season, and Mike McCarthy taking over play-calling could lead to a slower pace with less volume.

QB Justin Fields and WR D.J. Moore, Chicago Bears

This is a new, intriguing stack. Fields' rushing upside helped him attain a top-five finish among quarterbacks last season. However, his passing was part of the reason there were no Bears receivers in the top 25 last season. Moore could change that. He's thrived in Carolina despite suspect quarterback play pretty much his entire career.

QB Matt Stafford and WR Cooper Kupp, Los Angeles Rams

Maybe the sun has set on this duo. Kupp only played in nine games last season due to an ankle injury and Stafford struggled to overcome an elbow injury that eventually took him out for the last two months of the season. Still, it's hard to imagine who else the Rams are going to give the ball to, and if Stafford really is healthy, he could have a bounce-back season.

QB Deshaun Watson and WR Amari Cooper, Cleveland Browns

This is a discount pairing that could reap big-time rewards. Deshaun Watson is going in the ninth round after struggling in a six-game sample with the Browns. Amari Cooper is going in the late fourth round despite finishing as WR10 last season. If Watson can recapture his Houston Texans form, they will both outperform their draft stock.

If we are looking for target magnets, then Amon-Ra St. Brown has to be mentioned. He was third in target rate and eighth in total targets last season, per Player Profiler.

His usage was consistent too. He had at least eight targets in 13 of the 16 games he played. Goff clearly favored the second-year player last season, and that connection should only grow as they get their second season in Ben Johnson's offense.

It's also going to help that Jameson Williams is suspended for the first six games of the season. The Lions brought in Denzel Mims to ease that pain, but Goff doesn't have another weapon that he's as comfortable with as St. Brown.

This isn't a completely unequal pairing either. Goff actually finished as QB10 last season.

The best part of targeting this duo is the draft value of the quarterback. Despite his top-10 finish, Goff is being drafted as QB17, according to Fantasy Football Calculator's ADP.

St. Brown is a lot more expensive on draft day. He's going as WR7 in the middle of the second round in 12-team leagues. That's about right, considering what he did last season and the potential to be better this season.

The Lions added Jahmyr Gibbs and Sam LaPorta through the draft. Both should make the passing game more dynamic while keeping St. Brown as the focal point.

When healthy, Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill each have the potential to lead their positions in scoring any given week. Tagovailoa had four top-five finishes last season and really took off in the first year of Mike McDaniel's offense. Hill had five such finishes.

Tagovailoa answered any question about whether he had the arm to capitalize on Hill's game-breaking speed. The only question remains is his health.

The Dolphins quarterback came out strong last season, throwing for six touchdowns in Week 2, but a concussion in Week 4 broke that momentum. He missed two weeks, but when he came back, he was once again a reliable fantasy starter.

From Week 7 to 15—the longest streak he had with good health—he was QB8 while Hill was WR3. It's worth mentioning that Jaylen Waddle was also WR11 in that same span, so he's worth stacking in his own right.

Hill proved he is a fantasy standout even when separated from Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs last season. He finished as the second-highest-scoring wide receiver in PPR formats despite Tagovailoa missing multiple games.

That's great news for anyone who goes after this stack. Tagovailoa's history of injuries is the scariest part about the partnership, but Hill appears to be quarterback-proof, so he's a safe investment either way.

There's a reason that Justin Jefferson is going No. 1 overall in some leagues. He's one of the elite receivers in the sport and figures to be the central figure in the Vikings passing game, even with Jordan Addison being added.

He led the league with 184 targets last season and took full advantage of all that volume. Only Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts and Austin Ekeler scored more points in PPR leagues.

Cousins carried his weight statistically too. He was fourth in the league in passing attempts, which helped him finish ninth in scoring among quarterbacks.

As long as he continues to throw the ball that much, he's going to be a serviceable fantasy starter. His lack of rushing upside probably keeps him from reaching the elite tier of fantasy quarterbacks, but he's good enough to win, especially on a roster that has Jefferson.

With the Vikings moving on from Dalvin Cook and replacing Adam Thielen with Addison, they appear to be ready to air it out again in 2023. That's a good sign for this stack.

Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase have done a lot of winning together over the years. Fantasy managers who paired them together in 2022 probably won a lot as well.

The former college teammates were a deadly duo again. Burrow finished as QB4 in points per game last season, while Chase was one of the top receivers in the game with a WR6 finish in PPR formats on a per-game basis.

The chemistry between Burrow and Chase goes all the way back to their days when they were lighting up scoreboards at LSU. That has led to a lot of trust and a 29.3 percent target share, which ranked sixth in the league, per Player Profiler.

Tee Higgins isn't a bad stack, either, and it's hard to know which Bengals receiver will be the higher scorer on a weekly basis. The two were both in the lineup nine times during the fantasy season—Chase was the higher scorer five times to Higgins' four in PPR scoring.

The downside of going with Chase is he can be a bit boom-or-bust. He had four top-five finishes last season, but he also had four games in which he didn't even place in the top 30 among receivers.

It can be a frustrating waiting game, but the beauty of stacking them is Burrow's consistency. He finished as a top 12 quarterback in 11 out of the 16 weeks in which he played a full game from Week 1 to 17.

The Buffalo Bills did a lot to tweak their offense this offseason, but one truth remains: Josh Allen is going to look to Stefon Diggs a lot.

The Bills added some interior linemen in O'Cyrus Torrence and Connor McGovern, who should help the run game. They also drafted Dalton Kincaid, who gives them more flexibility to play in 12 personnel with Dawson Knox and the rookie on the field.

What they didn't do, was really acquire a receiver who is going to take attention away from Diggs.

There was a little bit of concern when Diggs didn't practice at the team's mandatory minicamp, but he showed up to training camp and assured the media his issues with the team are "water under the bridge."

That removes the only potential obstacle that would keep Allen and Diggs from being a lethal combination in fantasy football. Allen finished third in points per game among quarterbacks, while Diggs was the fifth-highest-scoring wide receiver by points per game.

The only major question facing this duo is whether Allen's rushing volume will remain the same. He had a career-high 124 rushing attempts last season. Allen has acknowledged he has to at least change his running style, and it's probably not a coincidence the Bills are more prepared to have a more traditional run game.

Last year, it was fair to wonder if there would be enough passing volume for A.J. Brown to be a true WR1 for fantasy purposes.

The answer was a resounding yes.

The Eagles offense morphed from a run-heavy attack that couldn't support a fantasy receiver in 2021 to a fantasy juggernaut in 2022. Hurts' development as a passer made him a fantasy star, finishing with the highest scoring average in the league.

Brown finished seventh in points per game in PPR leagues among all wide receivers.

Pairing Hurts with DeVonta Smith isn't a bad move, either. He finished 15th in points per game among receivers last season. But it's A.J. Brown who saw more targets and was second in the league in red-zone target percentage with 34 percent.

In other words, when things mattered most and the most valuable targets were up for grabs, Hurts was looking Brown's way.

Managers who stack Hurts and Brown are virtually guaranteed to be in the title hunt as long as those two stay healthy.

Scoring rankings from FantasyPros based on PPR scoring. Average draft position based on 12-team PPR league, per Fantasy Football Calculator.