“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 5 2020 Cash Games

October 10, 2020

By Ha Kung Wong

In 2019, we were over 70% for cash lineups and we’re back with more Daily Fantasy Football advice for Cash Games for Week 5 of the 2020 season! We’re 68.7% on lineups so far this year, but we’re looking to win even more in 2020!

As usual, before we get to winning you bragging rights (and DFS cash), remember, the Oopoint 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 5 of the 2020 NFL season!

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.

As per usual, 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 5 contests, along with they’re prices on FanDuel (“FD”), Draft Kings (“DK”) and Yahoo! Daily Fantasy (“Y!”).

FanDuel

Draft Kings

Yahoo! DFS

Game Notes:

For those new to this column, note that I never advocate against you paying up at any particular position. We all know that the likes of Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson are probably going to have the most consistent upside in terms of potential fantasy points from week to week. But remember that DFS is a salary cap game. You can feel free to sprinkle those into your lineups, but you can’t pay up at every position because there’s simply not enough salary to go around. I try my best each week to provide my thoughts on how you might want to balance your cash lineups in terms of points potential and salary. So feel free to sprinkle in those players if you have cap space.
As an initial note, don’t forget that the Bills v. Titans and Broncos v. Patriots games have been postponed due to COVID-19 to Monday and Tuesday, which means they don’t count for DFS this week.
No “Free Square of the Week”™, but Kareem Hunt appears to be very underpriced on Yahoo DFS, as is Lamar Jackson.
With Christian McCaffrey ruled out for 4 to 6 weeks, Mike Davis was the next man up. Davis took over for CMC in Week 2 and caught all 8 of his targets for 74 yards, following that up with 91 total yards from scrimmage along with a TD in Week 3 and kept going yet again in Week 4. Davis is likely to continue to get a full complement of snaps including a decent amount of carries in Week 5 against a Falcons defense that’s only been ranked 25th per DVOA this season, as well as allowing the second most points per game (34.5) of any team in the NFL. That means I’m also really in on Teddy Bridgewater, D.J. Moore and Robby Anderson. And as a bonus, all their pricing is aggressive across the industry, particularly Bridgewater. Plus, since this game has the second highest over/under of any game this Sunday slate (54), I also like Matt Ryan, Calvin Ridley and Todd Gurley.
Guess who has the LAST place defense in the NFL per DVOA? The Jacksonville Jaguars. Guess who the Houston Texans are playing this week? The Jacksonville Jaguars. I know Deshaun Watson has been dragging of late, but I think he bounces back this week along with his top target, Will Fuller. They’re also discounted based on recent team performance, so take advantage before they take off.
The Las Vegas Raiders @ Kansas City Chiefs game has the highest over/under of the Sunday slate (55), so I like a lot of Chiefs players in this game as they face a Raiders defense that is the 3rd worst in the NFL per DVOA. That makes Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce and Clyde Edwards-Hilaire prime targets this week if you have the salary.
The New York Giants @ Dallas Cowboys game is the third highest over/under of the Sunday slate (53.5) featuring a NY Giants defense that’s ranked 24th against the pass per DVOA and a Dallas defense that’s ranked 24th in overall defense per DVOA. So I really like Dak Prescott, Amari Cooper, CeeDee Lamb, Dalton Schultz and Ezeiel Elliott on the Cowboys and don’t mind playing Devonta Freeman of the Giants if you’re looking to save a little salary.
At defense, I usually just take value, and there are a couple good choices this week depending on the site. As you can see, I like the Arizona Cardinals defense the most since they face a New York Jets team without Sam Darnold and are value priced across the industry.