Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games – Conference Championships

By Ha Kung Wong  Daily Fantasy Football

Twitter: @FBGarbageTime

I hope you followed my advice last week for your cash games, because if you did, you won money.  But hey, I don’t judge, I’m giving you all another chance in the Conference Championships!

Cash Games, for those who don’t know, are essentially the lowest risk games.  They include “50/50” games, in which half the entrants win about 1.8x the entry fee, and “Double Ups”, in which slightly less than half the entrants win 2x the entry fee.

Since there’s so many different sites, and I can’t cover them all, I’ve decided to cover just the most popular sites, including Fan Duel, Draft Kings and Yahoo! Daily Fantasy.

First of all, as a general rule for 50/50 Cash Games, there’s a basic target of points per salary cap spent that you’d like to look for:

• For Fan Duel try to target at least 2 fantasy points per $1000 spent.
• For Draft Kings, try to target at least 2.5 fantasy points per $1000 spent.
• For Yahoo! Daily Fantasy, try to target at least 0.6-0.7 fantasy points per $1 spent.

Remember, this article is not focused on GPP (Tournament) Games, JUST Cash Games.  Feel free to use a few of these suggested players as a base when constructing a GPP lineup, but you’ll have to take some chances on a few low cost, upside players as well.

So, without further to do, here are my suggestions for the Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games for the Conference Championships, along with they’re prices on Fan Duel (“FD”), Draft Kings (“DK”) and Yahoo! Daily Fantasy (“Y!”).

Quarterback

There’s only 4 QBs in play this week, and clearly, Peyton Manning is someone you can absolutely forget about in DFS.  So that leaves my two preferred options, in this order.

Cam Newton vs. AZ (FD: $8500 / DK: $7200 / Y!: $36)

• Last week, Cam Newton easily managed the Seahawks 2nd ranked pass defense for the second time this season.  It sounds strange, but the 7th ranked Cardinals pass defense aren’t nearly as intimidating, especially without Tyrann Mathieu.  And don’t forget, Newton also likes to run and is incredibly efficient with 10 rushing TDs.  I think Newton has the highest floor of any QB this week, with his ceiling significantly higher.  He’s the safest play at QB this week.

Tom Brady vs. DEN (FD: $8100 / DK: $7400 / Y!: $33)

• Tom Brady showed us last week why he doesn’t even need 100% healthy receiving options to be effective.  Gronkowski came into the game with both knee and back issues, and came out of the game with 83 yards and 2 TDs.  And Edelman returned without missing a beat snagging 10 of a whopping 16 targets for 100 yards.  This was Brady’s 17th career multi-TD postseason game, good for most of any QB ever in the NFL.  He’s about as steady as they come and makes for a great cash game play.

Running Back

There isn’t a ton of depth at RB this week, and there are several running back by committees in play (in particular the hard to predict Patriots backfield), making it tough to predict value.

David Johnson vs. CAR (FD: $8000 / DK: $6500 / Y!: $35)

• Johnson was limited last week by the Packers to only 35 yards on 15 carries. He pseudo-salvaged his value by adding 43 receiving yards on 6 receptions.  This week he faces a much better Carolina panthers run defense.  But Johnson has been more effective catching passes as opposed to toting the rock, and the Panthers allowed the second-most catches to running backs (106) during the regular season. Assuming Johnson’s toe injury isn’t serious, which at least appears to be the case, he should be a good play as he gets 90% of the snaps and will operate in catch up mode as well as killing the clock.

Jonathan Stewart vs. AZ (FD: $7000 / DK: $5900 / Y!: $31)

• Jonathan Stewart has become match up proof.  As I predicted, he managed 2 TDs last week against Seattle, one of the league best run defenses in the NFL.  Of 7 rushing TDs allowed by Seattle this season, Stewart is now responsible for 4 of them.  Stewart again provides a good base at RB, particularly with Newton as a constant threat to run, keeping the 6th best Cardinals run defense off the line.  As with last week, only health is a concern since it appears he tweaked his ankle, otherwise he’s again my second favorite RB of the week.

CJ Anderson vs. NE (FD: $6300 / DK: $4400 / Y!: $22)

• It’s hard to find value in this short slate, but if you need to find it at RB, I’d suggest CJ Anderson.  He basically split carries with Ronnie Hillman again, but he was much more effective with 72 yards and TD.  Hillman got some goal line work as well, but it was Anderson that converted.  He also got more targets in the passing game (3) than Hillman (1) last week.  He’s been a huge disappointment this year, but he’s had a TD in each of his last 3 games and has actually averaged a little over 4.7 yards per carry this year.  He’s definitely worth a look if you’re running up against the salary cap.

Wide Receivers

Julian Edelman vs. DEN (FD: $7800 / DK: $7500 / Y!: $34)

• Denver’s pass defense is elite, but this is Julian Edelman… and Tom Brady in the postseason.  Just see Tom Brady above as to why I think this is a good play.  And did you realize that the Pats have won 22 of the last 23 games Edelman has played?  Yeah, there’s a reason for that.

Demaryius Thomas vs. NE (FD: $7600 / DK: $7000 / Y!: $30)

• I don’t feel great about this one, but there’s potential here for the Broncos to fall behind, forcing Manning to throw.  Manning likes going to Thomas and Thomas likes scoring TDs.  Emmanuel Sanders is also in play, but I think Thomas is the safer option with the higher floor.  According to Football Outsiders, the Patriots only ranked 13th in DVOA in pass defense, so there’s some room here for the passing game to operate.

Larry Fitzgerald vs. CAR (FD: $8000 / DK: $6900 / Y!: $34)

• As with last week, the Carolina passing defense is not to be taken lightly.  However, we’re likely to see Josh Norman covering Michael Floyd for a majority of snaps, leaving Larry Fitzgerald open to be… well… Larry Fitzgerald.  He was fired up last week and was the hero of overtime.  I’d bet on his heroics continuing in this game as he’s been great after the catch his entire career.

Danny Amendola vs. DEN (FD: $6000 / DK: $4400 / Y!: $16)

• Ultimately, there’s not much in the way of value with WRs this week.  But if you need an upside guy to fill out your roster, Amendola is worth a look.  Sure, he only got 3 targets last week with Edelman back.  But Denver will be sure to pay much more attention to Edelman perhaps getting Amendola a few more looks.  Besides, he’s caught 74.4% of his targets this year and has averaged almost 10 yards per reception.  The floor is low, but the ceiling is high.

Tight Ends

Between the two TEs I suggest below, just go with the cheaper option for your DFS site.

Rob Gronkowski vs. DEN (FD: $8900 / DK: $7600 / Y!: $27)

• As always, my argument for playing Gronk should simply be “C’mon. It’s Gronk, people.”  But like Kansas City, Denver loves to blitz.  Brady has terrific timing, and I suspect he’ll do exactly as he did last week and go quickly to Gronk and Edelman to beat the pressure.  If you need more convincing, then you clearly haven’t seen him play recently.

Greg Olsen vs. AZ (FD: $7000 / DK: $7100 / Y!: $27)

• Olsen has been a monster for more than just this season, as he’s been the primary pass catcher for the Panthers.  He caught 6 of 6 last week for 77 yards and TD.  I can see him doing at least that this week.

Defenses

New England vs. DEN (FD: $4600 / DK: $3100 / Y!: $15)

• No, they’re not the best fantasy defense available.  But they have the highest upside with Manning throwing more INTs than TDs this year.  This will likely be a low scoring affair for the Broncos, and the Patriots defense have been opportunistic, so I like them best for the price.