Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games – Week 5

By Ha Kung Wong  Daily Fantasy Football

Twitter: @FBGarbageTime

And we’re back for Week 5 of the NFL season and MORE DFS CASH!  So, first of all, I apologize for Week 4.  Didn’t go according to plan and I’m totally going to own it.  Although I wasn’t perfect like I was in Week 1, or in in Week 2, though, I still had lineups that cashed.  And a 64% cash rate is still pretty good.  Just sayin’.

We all know that DFS is a great way to prove you have serious football IQ and earn you bragging rights among your friends (and if you’re like me, among your family as well!).  And heck, if you win cash, that’s just gravy, right?  (No need to answer that question, it was totally rhetorical. I know you all like cash. And gravy.)

So before we get to winning you bragging rights (and DFS cash), 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 5 of the 2017 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 5 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.

This week, my approach is to go high end with QB, 1 x RB, 2 x WR, and make room by grabbing value at RB, WR and/or TE.  I also like players in the two games with the highest over/unders of the week, Green Bay Packers @ Dallas Cowboys (52.5) and Seattle Seahawks @ Los Angeles Rams (47.5).

Dak Prescott

For QB, I went with Aaron Rodgers and Dak Prescott.  First of all, both are the game with the highest over/under this weekend.  Neither Green Bay’s defense nor Dallas’ defense are particularly competent against the pass, being ranked 15th and 21st according to Football Outsiders, as well as allowing the 16th and 13th highest passer rating to opposing QBs, respectively.  So far this season, Rodgers is averaging 286.5 yards and 2.5 TDs per game, while Prescott is averaging 235.3 yards and 2 TDs per game, and there’s no reason to think this won’t continue for both QBs.  I also like both top WR targets in Jordy Nelson and Dez Bryant, and instead of stacking them, hedged my lineups by pairing them with the opposite QB.

Todd Gurley

At RB, I like to go big with Todd Gurley and get value with Ameer Abdullah.  The Seahawks have a solid top 10 pass defense, but actually have the 3rd worst run defense according to DVOA.  That puts Gurley, who’s been revitalized this season, in a great spot.  That in addition to his increased involvement in pass game gives him a solid floor in PPR formats.  Abdullah finds himself in a potential high scoring affair coming off his best game of the season where he put up 94 rush yards, 15 receiving yards and 2 total TDs.  And he’s priced incredibly low on all sites, making him a great value.

For TE, I’m in again on Zach Ertz against the Cardinals bottom 10 defense against TEs.  But if you want to save cap space, Evan Engram is my value pick.  Engram’s receptions and targets have increased each week as he topped out with 6 of 11 targets for 62 yards in Week 4.  And now he faces the Chargers, who have the 3 worst defense against TEs in the NFL this year.

For Defense, I like the Seattle Seahawks against the Rams and the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Jaguars.  I do think that the Seahawks will allow some opportunity to Gurley, but I think they’ll also do a decent job of shutting down Jared Goff.  Plus they’re coming off a huge game against the Colts where they had two TDs, one from an INT and one from a fumble recovery.  The Steelers have allowed the second least total yards per game in the NFL and now face the inconsistent Jaguars, including turnover prone Blake Bortles.

Draft Kings 

For Draft Kings, you’ll note that I went with Jeremy Maclin in the FLEX.  I’m by no means tied to that pick, but the Raiders have the 5th worst passing offense in the NFL.  The yards haven’t been there, but Maclin has been averaging 5 targets per game and does have 2 TDs this season.  The price is right for the upside on full PPR sites like Draft Kings.

UPDATE – But if you want to pivot, I don’t mind using LaGarrette Blount instead for the same price in the FLEX now that Wendell Smallwood is unlikely to play.

Yahoo! DFS

Lamar Miller‘s price hasn’t moved much even though he had a monster game in Week 4 against the Titans with 131 total yards 2 TDs.  The Chiefs defense will be more of a challenge, but the Texans are rolling right now on offense and are giving Miller plenty of volume.  And Ameer Abdullah is almost criminally underpriced on Yahoo.

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 to the above, here are few other suggestions for players to use:

  • RB Ezekiel Elliott vs. GB (FD: $8900 / DK: $8800 / Y!: $37)
  • RB Kareem Hunt @ HOU (FD: $9000 / Y!: $40)
  • RB Bilal Powell @ CLE (FD: $6600 / DK: $6200 / Y!: $20)
    • UPDATE – With Matt Forte ruled OUT, Powell should get all he can handle against an exploitable Browns defense.

  • WR Antonio Brown vs. JAX (FD: $8800 / DK: $8400 / Y!: $32)
  • WR AJ Green vs. BUF (FD: $8300 / DK: $8200 / Y!: $30)
  • WR Randall Cobb @ DAL (FD: $6600 / DK: $6700 / Y!: $21)

UPDATE – With Wendall Smallwood likely out, LaGarette Blount (FD: $5900 / DK: $4200 / Y!: $19) becomes interesting as a cheap option that could push 15+ touches.

UPDATE – With TE Jack Doyle ruled OUT for Week 5, I now like WR TY Hilton (FD: $7300 / DK: $6000 / Y!: $22) as a decent play with increased opportunity against the 49ers.

Good luck everyone, and I hope you all win DFS Cash in Week 5!

tagged with , ,