Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games – Week 16

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 Week 16!  And don’t forget, for those of you in seasonal leagues, you can still check out my Waiver Favors column for pickups help!

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 in Week 14, along with they’re prices on Fan Duel (“FD”), Draft Kings (“DK”) and Yahoo! Daily Fantasy (“Y!”).

Quarterback

As I said last week, you’re welcome to pay up for a QB this week, but I think there are a good mid-tier / mid-cost options that I’d rather go with, including the three on this list.

Matthew Stafford vs. SF (FD: $7600 / DK: $6100 / Y!: $33)

• As I mentioned previously, Stafford has had a resurgence in the second half of the season.  He had 9 TDs total in Weeks 12 through 14 and he continued that hot trend against the New Orleans Saints in Week 15 with 254 yards and 3 more TDs.  He’s completing close to 70% of his passes in his last four weeks and has thrown only 1 INT.  San Francisco has allowed the 7th most passing yards to opposing QBs (261.7) and has the 5th least total sacks in the NFL.  There’s a good chance Stafford remains hot in Week 16 and his price has inexplicably dipped a bit.

Blake Bortles vs. NO (FD: $8200 / DK: $6500 / Y!: $36)

• Bortles has been lights out of late.  And now he gets the New Orleans Saints defense, which has allowed 39 receiving TDs this year, good for most in the NFL.  In fact, that’s 8 MORE than the next worst team, the Miami Dolphins.  And they just gave up 3 TDs to Matthew Stafford, so I’d expect Bortles to do at least that much damage this week.

Kirk Cousins vs. PHI (FD: $7500 / DK: $5500 / Y!: $32)

• Are we really recommending Kirk Cousins?  Yes we are.  I recommended him as a pickup in regular seasonal Fantasy Football for the championship game as well.  And now he gets the Philadelphia Eagles defense that’s allowed the 3rd most passing TDs in the league this year (31).  Cousins is worth your consideration.

Running Back

There are again a lot of value plays at RB this week, so don’t pay up for the big names.  Try these instead.

David Johnson vs. GB (FD: $7300 / DK: $5800 / Y!: $21)

• Andre Ellington may be back from turf toe, but Johnson should continue to get the vast majority of the touches.  His price keeps moving up (except for Y!, in which his price inexplicably went down a $1), but with 3 TD upside, are you really surprised?  He’s still very reasonably priced for his potential, and the Packers have allowed the 8th most rushing TDs in the NFL this year (11).

Denard Robinson vs NO (FD: $6400 / DK: $5400 / Y!: $14)

• “Shoelace” Robinson wasn’t terrific subbing in TJ Yeadon last week, but assuming Yeldon remains out, which looks likely, he’ll get all the carries against a New Orleans Saints defense that has allowed the MOST yards to opposing RBs per game in the NFL (137.1) this year.  Yeah, for the price, can’t get much better than that.

Charcandrick West vs. BAL (FD: $5900 / DK: $5700 / Y!: $23)

• Even if Spencer Ware returns this week, West is a great value play.  He’ll continue to get the majority of touches in the backfield and we’ve seen what can happen when that’s the case.  Baltimore is weaker against the pass than they are against the run, but Kansas City likes to run and will more than likely need to kill the clock at the end of the game.

Karlos Williams vs DAL (FD: $5400 / DK: $4500 / Y!: $18)

• With LeSean McCoy out, it will likely be a timeshare between Mike Gillislee and Karlos Williams.  Although it was Gillislee that had the long TD in Week 15, Williams has a track record of being productive on limited touches.  He’s had 7 TDs and 489 yards in just 76 touches.  So that’s 6.4 yards per touch and a TD every 11 touches.  I’d be shocked if he didn’t get at least 11 touches with LeSean McCoy out, which means he has at least a 50/50 chance of hitting about 70 yards and a TD this weekend.  And if he gets more than 11 touches?  Well, that would just be gravy at this price.

Wide Receivers

If you saved money on RBs as a suggested, you’ll have money to pay up for some WRs this week, so don’t hesitate to take more than one of these!

Antonio Brown vs BAL (FD: $9300 / DK: $9300 / Y!: $36)

• Brown is basically matchup proof with Big Ben at the helm.  Last week he burnt the Denver Broncos, who had allowed the least amount of receiving yards to opposing WRs in the NFL, for 189 yards and 2 TDs.  Baltimore will be a lot less challenging.

Allen Robinson vs. NO (FD: $8400 / DK: $7500 / Y!: $33)

• The Saints give up the 3rd most receiving yards in the NFL.  And Allen Robinson is leading the Jaguars in targets.  Enough said.

Jeremy Maclin vs. BAL (FD: $6900 / DK: $6000 / Y!: $27)

• Over the last 4 games Maclin has had 31 total receptions on 40 total targets for 373 yards and 4 TDs.  I’m going to bet he continues to get looks.

Tight Ends

Jordan Reed vs. PHI (FD: $6900 / DK: $6500 / Y!: $24)

• Reed continues to get plenty of targets, and the Redskins will have to keep throwing the ball in light of their less-than-stellar ground game.  He caught all 7 of his targets for 84 yards and 2 TDs in Week 15.  He’s clearly Cousins’ favorite target and has a high floor for the price.

Greg Olsen vs. ATL (FD: $6800 / DK: $7000 / Y!: $25)

• As I mentioned previously, Olsen’s the number one receiver in Carolina, and Cam basically locks on to him for critical down and distance situations.  Plus, he’s a huge endzone target.  He had 79 yards and TD in Week 15 and I can see him doing the same against the Falcons.  It’s like converting your TE position to a FLEX and adding a WR instead.

Zach Miller vs. TB (FD: $5600 / DK: $4000 / Y!: $14)

• Martellus Bennett is out for the season due to injury, leaving the resurgent Zach Miller as the TE1 in Chicago.  He didn’t disappoint in Week 14 with 85 yards and a TD and was serviceable in Week 15 with 6 receptions and 57 yards.  His price is still a great value.

Defenses

Seattle vs. STL (FD: $5400 / DK: $4300 / Y!: $14)

• It’s not that I think the Seattle defense will accumulate tons of points, its that they’re one of the safest in the NFL for DFS.  The don’t allow a lot of points, they manage to get a sack or 2 and a turnover most weeks, which means you can rely on them not sinking your team.  And there’s really not much to be scared of in St, Louis.

Kansas City vs. CLE (FD: $5400 / DK: $4200 / Y!: $16)

• Kansas City just has a way of making it happen.  Nothing like defensive TDs from your fantasy defense, and Kansas City had 2 in Week 15.  They probably won’t have that again, but I like their chances against a Johnny Football led Browns that likes to take chances down the middle of the field.