Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games – Week 16

By Ha Kung Wong  Daily Fantasy Football

Twitter: @FBGarbageTime

Happy Holidays everyone!  Whether you like the holidays or not, at least you’re getting time off from work or school, right?  But what makes time off better?  Winning DFS CASH, of course!

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!

So without further to do, here are my favorite cash lineups for FanDuel, Draft Kings, and Yahoo! DFS, plus a few others suggestions you might consider for your lineups.

Let’s get to winning you some CASH in Week 16 of the 2016 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.

So, without further to do, here are my suggestions for the Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games for Week 16 contests, along with they’re prices on Fan Duel (“FD”), Draft Kings (“DK”) and Yahoo! Daily Fantasy (“Y!”).

FanDuel

Again, to encourage some diversity in your lineups, I’m giving you two sample lineups for FanDuel this week.

I’m a fan of Matt Ryan and Philip Rivers at QB in Week 16.  Ryan has been one of the best QBs in the NFL with the 3rd most passing yards (4,336) and the 2nd most passing TDs (32) in the NFL, and he’s facing the exploitable Panthers pass defense.  The Panthers are bottom 10 against the pass per Football Outsiders‘s DVOA, and this game has the second highest over/under of any game this week (52.5).  Plus, Ryan, for once, isn’t the most expensive QB on the board.  Rivers gets to face the hapless Browns defense ranked 2nd worst overall against the pass by DVOA in the NFL, and he’s quietly tallied the 4th most passing yards (3,795) and 4th most passing TDs (29) in the NFL.

For RB, I like Jordan Howard, Ty Montgomery, LeSean McCoy and Jonathan Stewart. 

Jordan Howard

I like Howard because he’s essentially all the Bears have at this point and has a terrific floor averaging over 100 total yards per game.  With Alshon Jeffery actually having one of his best games of the season coming off suspension in Week 15, this might further loosen the box for Howard to get even more room to run.  Plus, Washington is 27th against the run by DVOA in the NFL.  Montgomery came back to life over the last two weeks totaling 203 rush yards, 3 rushing TDs, and 46 receiving yards on 5 receptions.  He’s the clear lead back in Green Bay and gets to face a strong Vikings defense whose only weakness is on the ground.  McCoy is an all around stud averaging the 4th most rush yards per game (86.8) and has the 4th most rushing TDs this year (12), and he gets a great matchup against a bottom 10 Dolphins run defense this week.  Stewart had a huge game in Week 15 piling on 132 rush yards.  He should be in line for another big week in a matchup with the 2nd highest over/under of the week and against the 28th ranked Falcons run defense per DVOA.

Mike Evans, Dontrelle Inman, T.Y. Hilton, Brandin Cooks and Tyler Lockett.

T.Y. Hilton – Getty Images

Evans is facing a surprisingly effective Saints pass defense, but remains Jameis Winston’s number 1 target.  In fact, he has the most targets of any WR in the NFL this year (146).  He also has the 3rd most TDs among WRs (10) and the 5th most receptions (84 — 74 of which were for 1st downs).  You can bet he’ll be targeted early and often to keep up with a Saints offense that tends to click well at home and in a matchup tied for the second highest total estimated points this week (52.5).  Cook is also going to be in that game coming off a 186 yard and 2 TD performance in Week 15 and will be facing the 28th ranked Buccaneers pass defense by DVOA.  Inman may not be the WR1 in San Diego, but he’s consistently outperformed Tyrell Williams.  Plus, Williams is being slowed down by a number of nagging injuries, and someone has to take advantage of the 2nd worst pass defense in the league per DVOA in Cleveland.  Lockett is just a game changer.  Every time he touches the ball he’s a threat to score.  And although the Cardinals are 4th against the pass generally per DVOA, they’re actually 30th against WR2s.  Theoretically, Jermaine Kearse is the WR2 in Seattle, but Lockett has been essentially splitting that responsibility over the last several weeks and has consistently outperformed Kearse.

At tight end, you’re welcome to go high end, but I’ll take a solid middle of the road approach with Cameron Brate and Kyle Rudolph.

Cameron Brate

Brate has been essentially Winston’s second favorite target in Tampa, averaging almost 7 targets a week over the last four weeks, and is now facing a Saints defense that’s ranked 25th against TEs by DVOA.  And Brate is tied for the most receiving TDs (7) of any TE in the league this season.  Rudolph has the 4th most targets among TEs (66) in the NFL, and is coming off 8 receptions on 10 targets for 97 yards.  Rudolph has the most routes run per game by a TE (33) in the NFL.  And now he gets to a face a Packers defense ranked 24th against TEs per DVOA.  Play both with confidence.

I like two defenses this week — the New England Patriots against the New York Jets, the San Diego Chargers against the Cleveland Browns.  The Jets have been circling the drain for weeks, and now they’re looking to start an injured Bryce Petty under center.  The Patriots defense have allowed the least amount of points per game this year (16.6) and there’s no reason that will change this week.  The Chargers defense has been opportunistic with the most interceptions (17) in the league, and the Browns are horrific.  Cincinnati and Buffalo feasted on Cleveland over the last two weeks, so no reason to shy away now.  And we saw how well that went against Cincinnati last week.  So take your pick, whichever you’re more comfortable with seeing as how both a priced similarly.

Draft Kings

On Draft Kings, you’ll note that I took Frank Gore and Kenny Britt.  The price is right for all three, and the matchups also help.  Gore gets the 26th ranked Raiders run defense by DVOA and Britt gets the Rams defense who are the worst in the NFL against WR1s by DVOA.  Believe it or not, even in a garbagetime driven Rams offense, Britt is only 13 yards away from a 1000 yard season.  I’m sure he’ll get that and more this week.

Yahoo! DFS

For Yahoo, I also like Jarvis Landry.  Landry has come back to life after a slow start to the season, and did well with new starting QB Matt Moore in Week 15 grabbing 3 of 4 targets for 108 yards and a TD.

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, you’re welcome to use:

  • QB Drew Brees vs. TB (FD: $8500 / DK: $7400 / Y!: $37)
  • QB Derek Carr vs. IND (FD: $8100 / DK: $6800 / Y!: $38)
  • RB David Johnson @ SEA (FD: $8700 / DK: $9200 / Y!: $39)
  • RB Kenneth Farrow @ CLE (FD: $6100 / DK: $5000 / Y!: $16)
  • WR Michael Thomas vs. TB (FD: $6900 / DK: $6000 / Y!: $25)
  • WR Julian Edelman vs. NYJ (FD: $6700 / DK: $6900 / Y!: $20)
  • WR Pierre Garcon vs. CHI (FD: $5500 / DK: $4900 / Y1: $19)
  • TE Greg Olsen vs. ATL (FD: $6800 / DK: $5200 / Y!: $21)

UPDATE – With A.J. Green and Tyler Eifert out in Week 16, both Brandon LaFell (FD: $5800 / DK: $4800 / Y!: $15 ) and Tyler Boyd (FD: $5300 / DK: $4100 / Y!: $16 ) start to look interesting as DFS punt plays.  LaFell has averaged 8 targets over the last 5 games and Boyd has averaged 6.4 targets over the same span.  I like LaFell better as he’s used downfield more frequently, but Boyd is attractive in full PPR sites like Draft Kings.

Also, with Jordon Reed ruled out, Vernon Davis (FD: $4700 / DK: $3000 / Y!: $11) could be an interesting TE punt play.

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