Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games – Week 12

By Ha Kung Wong  Daily Fantasy Football

Twitter: @FBGarbageTime

Hope you followed my DFS advice for Thanksgiving Day, because if you did, you WON CASH!  And since I’m only happy when you’re happy, we’re back for the regular Week 12 NFL games and even MORE DFS CASH!

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!

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

FanDuel

At QB, I’m playing it safe this week with Tom Brady.

In recent weeks, I’ve been burnt by the likes of Derek Carr and Dak Prescott, not necessarily in DFS, but in season long leagues where I don’t have a choice.  I’m not interested in taking a chance this week at QB, since there’s enough value at the other positions.  So that’s where Brady comes in.

Brady has the 2nd most pass attempts (38), most completions (26.1) for the most passing yards (314.7) and 4th most passing TDs (2.2) per game this season.  Miami is ranked 31st at defending the pass this season.  Unstoppable force, please meet the totally movable object.

At RB, I like Todd Gurley and Tevin Coleman.

Gurley is having a renaissance season.  Even after a moderate dud in Week 11 (though he still managed a TD), he’s got the 5th most rush yards (791), most rush TDs (8), 4th most receiving yards (425) and 3rd most receiving TDs of any RB in the league.  And guess what?  The Saints have the 4th ranked pass defense in the NFL, so they’ll be challenging to throw on (although not so threatening with top CBs Marshon Lattimore (ankle) and Ken Crawley (abdomen) out this week), but they have the 26th ranked run defense.  I like Gurley’s chances to rack up some fantasy points here.

Coleman is a great play this week due to the fact that Devonta Freeman was ruled out AND he has a better matchup this week against the Bucs.  He got 20 carries and 2 targets in Week 11 without Freeman but wasn’t very efficient.  He has a great shot at the same value and better efficiency this time around, and the price is right.

As for WRs, I like AJ Green, Tyreek Hill and Martavis Bryant.

AJ Green – USA Today Sports Photo

Green is a monster, and since he’s in a bad offense that can’t run the ball, he’s going to get his targets.  He has at least 6 targets and a  TD in 6 of his last 8 games and now faces the 24th ranked Browns pass defense.  If you’re going to pay up, I like his chances.

Tyreek Hill is a human lottery ticket, but with better odds.  Every time he touches the ball, he could score.  The Bills are tough against WR2, WR3 and TEs, but they’re only ranked 24th defending WR1s, allowing an average of 90.7 yards per game to them.  If Hill adds a TD, you’ve it the jackpot.

Martavis Bryant complained a lot, got benched, and then came back to be moderately productive as a WR3, getting 9 targets over the last 2 games.  This week, JuJu Smith-Schuster is out with a hamstring injury, putting Bryant in line for WR2 duties against Green Bays 23rd ranked pass defense.  He should be able to reach value in this spot, and he’ll save you some cap space.

At TE, I went with Delanie Walker.  You could certainly pay up for someone else, but Walker has been solid plus gets to match up against a struggling Indy defense that is only ranked 26th defending TEs.  I like the price and the matchup.

On defense, I went with the Philadelphia Eagles against the Chicago Bears.  It really hurts to say this, since I’m a Bears fan, but the Eagles are rolling and the Bears are not.  Philly has the 4th ranked defense in the NFL overall, and although Mitchell Trubisky may the franchise QB of the future, right now, he doesn’t have many weapons at his disposal.  The Bears may make some headway on the ground, but in comeback mode, they’ll have to throw, and the Eagles have the 3rd most takeaways (20) this season.  Plus, the Bears are tied for the 4th most giveaways (17) this season.  Don’t think too hard about it, sometimes the right decisions are exactly as they appear.

Draft Kings 

On Draft Kings, I also liked Russell Wilson, DeMarco Murray, Brandin Cooks, Sammy Watkins and JD McKissic.

Alright, here a few quick hits as to why I like these guys:

  • Wilson averages over 300 total yards and 2.3 TDs per game and is facing the 49ers 30th ranked pass defense.  Another one of those, if it looks right, sometimes it’s just that simple.

  • Murray hasn’t been special this season, but he still gets the majority of backfield snaps with rates over 70% in each of the last three games.  Plus he’s cheap and now lines up against the Colts 19th ranked run defense.
  • I like Cooks for all the same reasons I liked Brady above.  Plus Chris Hogan is out again, and in the last two weeks without Hogan, Cooks has totaled 12 receptions on 20 targets for 223 yards and TD.
  • Watkins started out bust city and slowly evolved into an inconsistent asset.  But now with top target Robert Woods out with injury, he should see a few more targets.  And, as I mentioned above, the Saints top two corners are out this week.  His price is so low you’re paying less than punt price for him.
  • McKissic is mostly a value play on Draft Kings where you get a full PPR.  Over his last two games, he’s caught 9 of 11 targets and received 12 total carries.  He certainly carries PPR upside in a confusing backfield that just lost Mike Davis to a groin injury.  Clearly, Seattle doesn’t think much of Thomas Rawls or Eddie Lacy to start a newly promoted practice squad guy over them, leaving McKissic as the only sure part of the backfield there is.  Plus, the 49ers are ranked 31st defending against RB receptions.

Yahoo! DFS

With Yahoo, I also like Jared Goff, Michael Crabtree, Devin Funchess and the Cincinnati Defense.

These guys, as usual, are mostly value plays on Yahoo relative to the other sites.  But here’s a few additional reasons to consider them in your lineups:

  • Goff is looking like the guy he was supposed to be when he was drafted first overall last year.  And now he faces the Saints without their top two corners.
  • Crabtree has averaged 4.8 receptions on 8.3 targets and has 3 total TDs over the last 6 games.  And Denver isn’t as scary a match up as they used to be.
  • Funchess is doing great as the new WR1 in Carolina after the Kelvin Benjamin was traded to the Bills.  Over the last two weeks, Funchess is 10 of 13 for 178 yards and 2 TDs.  The Jets are ranked 23rd defending WR1s, so he should continue to roll this week.
  • Cincinnati has been a decent defense, but this week, they face the Browns who lead the week in total giveaways (28).

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:

  • QB Marcus Mariota
  • QB Ben Roethlisberger
  • RB Le’Veon Bell
  • RB Kareem Hunt
  • RB Christian McCaffrey – Since McCaffrey might line up a few times in the slot, he becomes an interesting play, particularly on full PPR sites like Draft Kings.

  • WR Antonio Brown
  • WR Rishard Matthews (if he plays)
  • WR Danny Amendola
  • WR Cooper Kupp
  • TE Rob Gronkowski
  • TE Jared Cook
  • TE Tyler Kroft

And, it looks like our readers also like the Oakland Raiders Defense to get their first INT of the year this weekend against new Broncos starting QB Paxton Lynch, so perhaps, if you have some Tums on hand, you give them a look as well.

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