Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games – Week 11

By Ha Kung Wong  Daily Fantasy Football

Twitter: @FBGarbageTime

And we’re back for Week 11 of the NFL season and MORE DFS CASH!  Hope you followed my advice last week, since most of my lineups CASHED!  If not, no worries, we got you covered for this week too.

We all know that DFS is a great way to prove you have serious football IQ and earn you bragging rights among your friends (and if you’re like me, among your family as well!).  And heck, if you win cash, that’s just gravy, right?  (No need to answer that question, it was totally rhetorical. I know you all like cash. And gravy.)

So before we get to winning you bragging rights (and DFS cash), remember, the point of this article is not just to give you one lineup for each site, it’s to give you examples of one or two POSSIBLE lineups.  Getting exposure to a few different lineups is always a good idea, so don’t forget to mix and match additional lineups from my suggestions below.  Trust me, it’s a lot more fun that way AND you’ll improve your chances of cashing!

Daily Fantasy Football

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 Week 11 contests, along with they’re prices on Fan Duel (“FD”), Draft Kings (“DK”) and Yahoo! Daily Fantasy (“Y!”).

FanDuel

To provide you with some diversity, I have two sample lineups this week.

[UPDATE – Sterling Shepard was added to the injury report late as questionable with migraines.  Adam Schefter now reports that Shepard is unlikely to play, so definitely keep a close eye on this and sub him out if he doesn’t play.  Migraines are no joke, we saw how they impacted Percy Harvin in the past.  At this point, I’d play it safe and roster someone else instead of Shepard.  I don’t mind using someone like Larry Fitzgerald, Jeremy Maclin or Davante Parker instead, which depending on your lineup might allow you a little extra cash to upgrade elsewhere as well.]

At QB this week, I like Tom Brady and Alex Smith.

Usually we could just stop the analysis at saying it’s Tom Brady, but this week he’s playing Oakland.  And Oakland has the worst pass defense in the NFL and will still be missing CB David Amerson.  Plus, this game has the highest over/under of any game this weekend (54.5).  Smith has the 6th most passing yards (271.6) and TDs (2) per game and has a similarly solid matchup against the 29th ranked Giants pass defense.  Plus he’s cheaper than Brady.

At RB, I like Kareem Hunt, LeSean McCoy and Melvin Gordon.

Hunt hasn’t been scoring TDs, but he still has the 2nd most rushing yards (800) this year of any RB in the league, and is facing the 27th ranked Giants run defense.  The Chargers have the 6th ranked pass defense and will be facing Nathan Peterman in his first start of the season for the Bills.  But the Chargers also have the 22nd ranked run defense and have to contend with McCoy.  With Peterman getting his first start, I see Buffalo trying to take pressure off by going run heavy, meaning more opportunity for McCoy.  On the flipside, Buffalo has the 2nd worst run defense in the NFL, and although Austin Ekeler got some run last week, Gordon is still the main guy in the backfield.  I’d expect him to find plenty of running room against the Bills, plus he’s had the 6th most targets (53) and most receiving TDs (4) of any RB this year.

As for WRs, I like Amari Cooper, Jarvis Landry, Sterling Shepard and Bruce Ellington.

Cooper is likely matched up against Malcom Butler, who’s struggled this year.  The Patriots have allowed the 2nd most receptions (121) and yards (1,765) to WRs this year.  Cooper has at least 9 targets in 3 straight games, and Derek Carr should have some time to find him against an underwhelming pass rush.  I like Michael Crabtree as well, but Cooper is actually cheaper and has just as much upside.

Landry gets to face the Bucs 28th ranked pass defense and has quietly averaged the 3rd most targets (10.8) and 2nd most receptions (6.8) of any WR in the league.

Shepard is a target monster with 22 in the last two games.  With no OBJ or Brandon Marshall, Shepard is a big time WR1 going up against the 22nd ranked Kansas City Chiefs pass defense.

Ellington has played over 77% of the snaps on the season and is clearly one of Tom Savage’s favorite targets, garnering 16 of the last 2 weeks.  Will Fuller is out this week with a rib injury, and DeAndre Hopkins is likely to be shadowed by CB Patrick Peterson, so Ellington should have plenty of opportunity and is dirt cheap.

At TE, I went with Rob Gronkowski and Travis Kelce.  Oakland is ranked 30th defending against TEs per DVOA and, as I always say, Gronk is Gronk.  He has the 3rd most targets (7.9), most receiving yards (72.9) and 3rd most TDs (0.6) per game among all TEs this season, plus Chris Hogan has been ruled out again, leaving even more targets for Gronk.  Kelce is facing the 26th ranked Giants defense against TEs and has the 2nd most receptions (5.7) and receiving yards (69.9) per game among all TEs this season.  I think both are nice safe plays with upside.

On defense, I like the Baltimore Ravens against the Green Bay Packers and the Cincinnati Bengals against the Denver Broncos.  Hundley has struggled so far and the Packers are down to their 3rd string RB in Jamaal Williams.  The Ravens have the 3rd ranked defense, so I doubt they’ll have too much trouble containing the Pack.  The Bengals defense has been uneven, but the Broncos are a mess with Brock Osweiler under center suffering from a shoulder injury.  I think the Bengals get at least one turnover.

Draft Kings 

This week, I’m also providing you with some diversity on Draft Kings with two sample lineups.

[UPDATE – Sterling Shepard was added to the injury report late as questionable with migraines.  Adam Schefter now reports that Shepard is unlikely to play, so definitely keep a close eye on this and sub him out if he doesn’t play.  Migraines are no joke, we saw how they impacted Percy Harvin in the past.  At this point, I’d play it safe and roster someone else instead of Shepard.  I don’t mind using someone like Larry Fitzgerald, Jeremy Maclin or Davante Parker instead, which depending on your lineup might allow you a little extra cash to upgrade elsewhere as well.]

On Draft Kings, I also liked Derek Carr, Jared Cook, Vernon Davis and Dion Lewis.

As I mentioned with Brady, this game has the highest over/under of any game this weekend (54.5).  Plus, Carr had 3 straight 300 yard passing games prior to the bye. The Patriots have been better recently, but still have the 30th ranked pass defense in the NFL. And as I also mentioned above, the Patriots pass rush is rather unintimidating, being only 26th in sacks, so Carr should have plenty of time to throw.  Cook benefits from all of this, but also has the 7th most receptions (39) and fourth most receiving yards (499) of any TE.

Davis has the benefit of Jordan Reed being out, and was 7 of 11 for 76 yards last week in the same situation.  He’s a nice value again this week.

Oakland has the the 24th ranked run defense and 28th ranked against RB receptions.  I know James White has been leading the backfield in receptions, but Lewis has been dynamite on the ground, and does get a handful of targets per week.  Plus, he’s priced right in what should be a high scoring affair.

Yahoo! DFS

With Yahoo, I also like Ryan Fitzpatrick, Michael Thomas, Mike Evans, Evan Engram, Jamaal Williams and the Denver Broncos Defense

Essentially, all of these guys are strong plays that are criminally underpriced on Yahoo.  The exceptions are Fitzpatrick and Williams.

Fitzpatrick gets a nice spot against Miami’s 31st ranked pass defense that has also allowed the NFL’s 2nd highest completion rate (68.7%) and passer rating (104.8). Only eight teams have given up more TD passes (16) than the Dolphins.  Plus, Fitzpatrick is dirt cheap this week after the poor showing against the Jets last week.

Williams is a steal at just $12 and with Ty Montgomery ruled out and Aaron Jones out for the foreseeable future, he’s essentially a feature back.  He’s a purely volume dependent play, but it’s all the same in the end.

The Broncos are a top 12 defense facing off against a turnover prone Andy Dalton.  There isn’t tons of upside, but they’re definitely priced right.

Alternative Options

Feel free to use any of the players that I’ve selected on one site in any other site if you have cap space.

In addition to the above, here are few other suggestions for players to use:

  • QB Carson Wentz
  • QB Dak Prescott
  • QB Drew Brees
  • RB Todd Gurley
  • RB Alvin Kamara
  • RB TJ Yeldon IF Leonard Fournette is ruled out.
  • WR Michael Crabtree
  • WR Devante Parker
  • WR Devin Funchess
  • WR Jeremy Maclin
  • TE Zach Ertz
  • TE Cameron Brate
  • DEF Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Cleveland Browns
  • DEF Chicago Bears vs. Detroit Lions
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