Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games – Pro Bowl & Super Bowl

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.  So now you have one more chance, with the two week contest that includes the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl!  Unfortunately for Yahoo! players, these contests only exist on Fan Duel and Draft Kings.

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.

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 Pro Bowl/Super Bowl contests, along with they’re prices on Fan Duel (“FD”) and Draft Kings (“DK”).

Quarterback

There’s plenty of QBs to pick from this week, but only two are going to play an entire game.  Sure, the Pro Bowl guarantees scoring with an over/under of 71, but the problem is there’s no good way to predict where that scoring will come from.  I really hate to take a chance on a QB, arguably your most important scoring position, with a Pro Bowl QB who might be in for 5 series, or just 1.  It’s just too much risk for me.  Feel free to take a stab at Russell Wilson, Eli Manning (who is my preferred Tournament play – at a measly $3600 on Draft Kings – since he’s paired with his favorite target, Odell Beckham Jr., and they’re sure to look put up a TD or 2 in whatever limited series they play together) or Tyrod Taylor in a Tournament play, but for cash this week, there’s only one QB I want.

Cam Newton vs. DEN (FD: $9200 / DK: $9000 )

• Cam Newton easily managed the Seahawks 2nd ranked pass defense twice and then destroyed the 7th ranked Cardinals pass defense in the NFC Conference Championship with a whopping 335 passing yards, 2 passing TDs, 47 rush yards and 2 rushing TDs.  Since the mid-season, including the 2 playoff games, Newton has 24 passing TDs and 7 rushing TDs to only 2 INTs.  So he’s averaging over 3 TDs per game.  I don’t care that he’s facing the NFL’s best pass defense with the most sacks of any defense in the NFL, this is the Super Bowl and Newton is match up proof.  Again, he’s the safest, and potentially ONLY, play at QB this week in cash games.
• Of course, the only other QB I would consider for cash games is Peyton Manning.  He’s not great against a strong Panthers defense, but he’ll play a whole game and has a lot of motivation if this is indeed his “last rodeo”.  Plus he’s a LOT cheaper on Draft Kings, while being a little bit cheaper on Fan Duel (FD: $7700 / DK: $6000 ).

Running Back

Like at QB, RB is a position where I want some “guaranteed” volume.  And by that, I mean we need 10+ touches to even be considered.  So again, you should stay away from Pro Bowl players here, and stick to the primary options in the Super Bowl.

Jonathan Stewart vs. DEN (FD: $6700 / DK: $6600 )

• Stewart managed 2 TDs against Seattle, one of the league best run defenses in the NFL.  And he managed a reasonable 88 yards on 21 touches against the 6th best Cardinals run defense.  Again, only health is a concern since it appears not practicing yet due to a tweaked ankle, otherwise he’s my favorite RB of the week.

CJ Anderson vs. CAR (FD: $6500 / DK: $5400 )

• He still basically split carries with Ronnie Hillman, but he was much more effective in the Divisional Playoffs (72 yards and TD with more targets in the passing game (3) than Hillman (1) last week) and did it again in the Conference Championship (totaling 90 yards on 19 touches as compared to Hillman’s 23 yards on 12 touches).  He’s averaged a little over 4.7 yards per carry this year, and is averaging close to the same in the playoffs.
• However, if you want to pivot away from the masses, I’m not opposed to playing Ronnie Hillman (FD: $6400 / DK: $4100 ).  He’s still getting plenty of touches and has been effective earlier in the season.

Wide Receivers

OK, now, if you’re feeling gutsy, you can take a flyer on some Pro Bowl players at WR.  We all know it only takes one big reception to meet value, and there tends to be tons on offense in the Pro Bowl, particularly with the restrictions on the defense.  In fact, you’ll probably have to take a few chances at WR this week, since you’ll be paying up at all the other positions.  Of course, as much as I’d like to have OBJ, his price is simply too high on DFS sites in comparison to his playing time risk.  But there are others that might be good values.

Emmanuel Sanders vs. CAR (FD: $7700 / DK: $7300 )

• Sure, Demaryius Thomas is likely the better WR, but guess what?  That’s probably what the Panthers defense is thinking as well.  Sanders has actually been leading the team in targets (8) per game in the playoffs, which, coincidentally, are the two games which Peyton Manning has started.  Sure, the Panthers pass defense is elite, but if there is a soft spot, it’s in the secondary.  Josh Norman can’t be everywhere, and I think Thomas will see him much more often than Sanders.

Ted Ginn Jr. vs. DEN (FD: $6900 / DK: $5700 )

• He’s not getting as many targets as Greg Olsen throughout the season, and has been challenged by Corey Brown in recent weeks, but he’s still the default WR1 on the team, so he’ll get his fair share of looks.  He even demonstrated some versatility last week with nifty 22 yard run into the end zone.  This might be more of a case of “beggars can’t be choosers”, but there’s a reasonable floor here for Ginn for the price.

Corey Brown vs. DEN (FD: $5800 / DK: $4700 )

• I’m well aware that 86 of his yards and his TD was on one broken play.  But hey, he only needs one to do it all again.  Plus he was targeted 7 times, second only to Greg Olsen.  He averaged 14.4 yards per catch during the regular season, and if you look at his last 6 games, including the last 2 playoff games, he’s averaging just under 6 targets per game.  Opportunity abounds for Brown.

Jarvis Landry vs. IRV (FD: $6200 / DK: $4500 )

• He was selected third by Team Rice in the Pro Bowl Draft and is clearly going to love playing across from his college teammate OBJ.  And since OBJ will likely draw more coverage, I could see Eli checking down to Landry a few times.  He had few TDs in the regular season, but ended up with 110 receptions, which bodes well for PPR sites.

Amari Cooper vs. IRV (FD: $6300 / DK: $4700 )

• Cooper was drafted fifth by Team Rice, and Again, to the extent he plays on the field with OBJ and Landry, I could see him drawing the least amount of coverage.  Plus, his QB, Derek Carr, was drafted fourth by Team Rice, so there’s a good chance that they’re on the field together for a few series, which could turn into a couple nice plays based on familiarity alone.  He had over 1,000 yards and 6 TDs during the regular season with Carr.

Tight Ends

Again, you really don’t have a choice here with TE.  You can’t rely on anyone in the Pro Bowl, as you have no idea how many series they’ll play, and when they do play, you don’t know how often they’ll just be blocking.

Greg Olsen vs. DEN (FD: $8000 / DK: $8500 )

• 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 a TD against the Seahawks and followed that up with 6 of 8 for 113 yards against the Cardinals.  He’s the closest thing to a sure thing at this point.
• The only exception is on Draft Kings, where Owen Daniels is a measly $3400.  He’s almost entirely TD dependent, but if you need to save salary, he’s cheap enough to offset the risk.

Defenses

Carolina vs. DEN (FD: $5800 / DK: $4100 )

• They’re the best defense on the board, particularly with the fact that they’re sure to see plenty of rest with the Panthers offense controlling the ball.  Manning threw more INTs than TDs during the regular season, so they might be good for a TO or two as well.  It’s a high price to pay, but it’s either the Panthers or the Broncos defense.  And the Panthers offense is just too hot right now to bet against them.
• However, if you have too many Panthers on your roster (since many DFS sites limit you to 4), then feel free to pivot to the Broncos defense (FD: $5300 / DK: $3600 ) and hope that Demarcus Ware and Von Miller play at the same level they did against the Patriots.