Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games – 2019 Week 17

By Ha Kung Wong

Twitter: @FBGarbageTime

We’re back with more Daily Fantasy Football advice for Cash Games for Week 17!

As usual, before we get to winning you bragging rights (and DFS cash), remember, the point of this article is not just to give you one or two lineups for each site, it’s to give you examples of a few 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!

Let’s get to winning you some CASH in Week 17 of the 2019 NFL season!

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.

And this year, I’m trying something different.  I’m going to provide you with a few sample lineups on each site and give you a few notes to consider.  You’re welcome. 🙂

So, without further to do, here are my suggestions for the Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games for Week 17 contests, along with they’re prices on Fan Duel (“FD”), Draft Kings (“DK”) and Yahoo! Daily Fantasy (“Y!”).

FanDuel 

Draft Kings 

Yahoo! DFS

Game Notes:

  • The Free Squares of the Week™ this week are DeAndre Washington, Kerryon Johnson, Dallas Goedert and Justin Watson.
  • With Josh Jacobs ruled out again, the Raiders should continue to lean on Washington, with some Jalen Richard as a change of pace or 3rd down back.  The Raiders need to win this one to keep their slim playoff hopes alive and the Denver Broncos defense is only 18th against the run and when Washington replaced Jacobs as Oakland’s starting running back in Week 17, he turned 25 touches into 106 yards and a TD.
  • Kerryon Johnson is finally back of injury and turned 11 touches into 43 yards.  He should get more of those 20-25 Lions carries this week and faces the Packers that are only 22nd defending against the run per DVOA, and have allowed the 7th most rush yards and the 9th most fantasy points per game to opposing RBs this season.  He’s essentially free across industry, so he makes for an excellent value.
  • Zach Ertz is out with a rib injury in a critical Week 17 game for the Eagles, but worry not, Dallas Goedert is here, and now he’ll get more than a full complement of targets with Alshon Jeffery on IR and Nelson Agholor out with a knee injury.  Speaking of which, Greg Ward remains a nice WR punt play too in light of all these injuries.
  • Justin Watson was the big winner last week with no Mike Evans or Chris Godwin in Tampa.  Maybe Breshad Perriman is the big winner this week, but Watson’s price is still depressed across industry, so I like his value better.
  • Christian McCaffrey has been in on 94.8% of the Panthers offensive snaps so far this season, which is the most of any RB in the NFL, the 3rd most rush yards per game of any RB (90.7), the 2nd most rushing TDs (14) and 2nd most receiving yards per game among RBs (62.2).  He’s expensive, but he’s also chasing a 1,000-1,000 season, so you can be sure he’ll get plenty of run, particularly with DJ Moore out and even more targets to go around.
  • Ezekiel Elliott has been in on 84.4% of the Cowboys offensive snaps so far this season, which is the 3rd most of any RB in the NFL, the 4th most rush yards of any RB (1,235) and the 6th most rushing TDs (11).  The Cowboys are in a must-win scenario against the lowly Washington Redskins ranked 25th against the run per DVOA and who’ve allowed the 4th most fantasy points per game to opposing RBs this season.  If you’re not paying up Run CMC, then Elliott is your guy.
  • The Buccaneers allow the MOST fantasy points per game to WRs of any team in the league.  That means the Julio Jones and Russell Gage have a great matchup with some terrific opportunity this week.
  • Did you know that the Minnesota Vikings allow the 9th most fantasy points per game to opposing WRs and they’re resting many of their starters this week against the Bears in a meaningless game, as they’re locked into the 6th seed of the NFC for the playoffs?  Did you also know that Allen Robinson has the 8th most receptions (89) of the 5th most targets (142) of any WR in the NFL?  Sounds like a good time to play Robinson, wouldn’t you say?
  • With most of the starters resting for the Baltimore Ravens, Robert Griffin III and Gus Edwards are interesting punt plays at their respective positions if you’d like to save some cap space.  And, in the same vein, the Pittsburgh Steelers Defense is ranked 3rd per DVOA and have to win to keep their playoff hope in play, so they make a great play at defense (or hedge with RGIII and/or Edwards), particularly since their price didn’t account for the Ravens resting their starters.
  • Michael Thomas has the most targets per game (11.73), most receptions per game (9.66) and most yards per game (112) of any WR in the NFL.  He’s matchup proof and is now facing the Panthers 26th ranked defense.  If you’re looking to pay up at WR, lock him in.
  • If you don’t like the Steelers defense, I’m also in on the Green Bay Packers Defense against the Detroit Lions.  As I mentioned above, the Packers are in an important game with playoff seeding implications and the Lions offense has actually regressed with David Blough under center, who has thrown 5 INTs in his last 4 games and was sacked 4 times in Week 16.

Hope you all win DFS cash!