Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games – Week 14

By Ha Kung Wong  Daily Fantasy Football

Twitter: @FBGarbageTime

Hope you followed my DFS advice this year, because if so, you’re cashing at over a 75% rate!  And after another strong showing in Week 13, we’re back for the Week 14 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 14 contests, along with they’re prices on Fan Duel (“FD”), Draft Kings (“DK”) and Yahoo! Daily Fantasy (“Y!”).

FanDuel

To provide you with a little diversity, I have two sample lineups for FanDuel this week.

The theory this week is to use some ultra-values at RB and pay up at WR.  With that said, there are two QBs I chose this week, Philip Rivers and Josh McCown.

Washington has a solid 12th ranked pass defense, but the still have allowed the 6th most passing TDs in the league (20).  Rivers is having an amazing stretch totaling almost 800 passing yards in the last two weeks and not throwing a single INT over the last three weeks.  In fact, he’s now got the 4th most passing yards (3,293) of any QB in the league this season.  I’m not saying he’s going to blow up against the Redskins, but this game has the 3rd highest over/under of the weekend (46.5) with the Chargers favored by just 6, so it promises to be a high scoring close game, keeping Rivers’ floor high, which is exactly what you want for cash games.

McCown has exceeded all expectations this year, as have his Jets, and now they face the struggling Denver Broncos.  The once vaunted Broncos defense is still 2nd versus the run, but is only 18th versus the pass.  And over the last 5 games, McCown has thrown 8 TDs to just one INT.  He’s also had back-to-back 300+ passing yard weeks.  Again, not a ton of upside, and I’d keep a close eye on whether Robby Anderson is a go, but I like his floor, particularly for the price.

At RB, I like Todd Gurley, Giovanni Bernard and Kerwynn Williams.

Gurley is having a renaissance season.  He’s got the 3rd most rush yards (939), 2nd most rush TDs (8), 2nd most receiving yards (563) and 5th most receiving TDs (3) of any RB in the league.  The Eagles have a daunting run defense, but they are only ranked 14th against running back receptions.  And clearly, Gurley catches a lot of passes.  He’s got a great floor in a game that promises to very competitive.

Bernard and Williams are terrific values this week.  With Joe Mixon and Adrian Peterson ruled out, both will take lead back snaps this week.  Bernard had 96 total yards in just about 3 quarters in relief for Mixon in Week 13, and this week faces a challenging 12th ranked Bears run defense, but he’s going to get there on volume and is dirt cheap.  Williams piled up 97 rush yards in Week 13 subbing in for Peterson, and now faces the Titans 14th ranked run defense.  I like him for volume and price as well.

As for WRs, I like DeAndre Hopkins, AJ Green, Adam Thielen and Larry Fitzgerald.

Hopkins is a target monster regardless of who’s behind center, with the 2nd most targets (139) for the 3rd most receiving yards (1,084) and most receiving TDs (9) of any WR this season.  A matchup against the 49ers 30th ranked pass defense doesn’t scare me.

We all know that AJ Green is an elite WR, and he’s really heating up with 4 TDs in his last 4 games, as well garnering a season high 16 targets last week.  He’s facing a solid Bears pass defense, but they’re only 28th at defending WR1s, so this promises to be a good matchup.

Thielen has become Case Keenum’s number one target.  In past years, that would be meaningless, but Keenum has been one of the top QBs in the league this season in Minnesota. Thielen now has the 4th most recieving yards of any WR in the league this season (1,056), and has averaged a whopping 10.3 targets per game over the last 7 games.  He’ll be facing Carolina’s stiff 8th ranked pass defense, but interestingly, they’re only 23rd at defending WR1s and 17th at defending WR2s.  So regardless of where Thielen is, he should get plenty of targets and should continue to have plenty of success.

Fitzgerald is a reception fiend, as he has the 2nd most receptions per game (6.8) of any WR in the NFL this season.  Sure, he doesn’t score many TDs, but the number of receptions he gets keeps his floor high, so you rarely come away with a complete dud.  In his last 3 weeks with Blaine Gabbert under center, he’s averaged 9.3 targets and 7.3 receptions and 67 yards per game with two TDs.  I don’t see that slowing down against the Titans’ 25th ranked pass defense.

At TE, I went with Travis Kelce and Stephen Anderson.  Kelce has the most targets (94) for the most receptions (66), most yards (871) and 2nd most TDs (7) of any TE in the NFL this season.  And now he gets to face the Raiders defense that’s ranked 27th defending TEs in a game with the highest over/under (48.5) of the weekend.  If you have the cap space, he’s my top TE pick. But if you don’t have the cap space, I like going with super value Anderson.  I like him for all the reasons I already discussed in my weekly Waiver Favors column, the most important of which is that he’s now the starting TE in Houston with CJ Fiedorowicz on IR and is facing the 49ers 30th ranked pass defense.  They’re better at defending TEs, but the price can’t be beat.

On defense, I went with the Cincinnati Bengals against the Indianapolis Colts.  I hate to pick on my Bears, but they’re terrible right now.  The Bears have the 4th most giveaways (19) and the Bengals have the 5th most sacks (34) in the NFL this season.  Plus, the Bengals D are only the 11th highest priced D which makes them a real value.

Draft Kings 

On Draft Kings, I also liked Josh McCown, Josh Gordon, Dede Westbrook and the Jacksonville Jaguars Defense.

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

  • McCown has looked nothing like his previous season self this year.  He’s had multiple TDs in 7 of his last 7 games, with 19 total TDs to just 5 INTs.  He’s found serious rapport with Robby Anderson, Jermaine Kearse and Austin Sefarian-Jenkins, plus the Jets aren’t scared to throw it down field.  He gets to face a Denver defense that’s not as scary as people think and ranks just 18th against the pass.  Plus, McCown is cheap on Draft Kings.
  • Josh Gordon is BACK!  And he didn’t disappoint with 4 receptions for 85 yards in his first game in almost 3 years.  More importantly, he got a whopping 11 targets from Deshone Kizer, and there’s no reason to believe that won’t continue against a Green Bay defense that’s only 21st against the pass.

  • Westbrook has been impressive after coming off injury and will get to continue his impressive run with Allen Hurns on the shelf yet again.  In three games he’s grabbed 15 of 25 targets and will be needed again against a challenging Seahawks defense that surprisingly is only 27th at defending WR2s.
  • The Jaguars Defense has allowed the least amount of points per game (13.8), and have the most sacks (3.8), 2nd most INTs (1.3), most fumbles recovered (0.9) and most return TDs per game of any defense in the league.  If there’s any weakness, although the Jags are number 1 against the pass, it’s that they’re only 23rd against the run.  Thankfully, the Seahawks live or die on the back of Russell Wilson.  Perhaps the Jags defense doesn’t have the highest ceiling, but playing at home against a team that has travel east to west coast provides a solid floor.

Yahoo! DFS

With Yahoo, I also like Trent Taylor.

  • Taylor is total value play.  He caught 6 of 6 targets for 92 yards with new QB Jimmy Garoppolo at the helm.  And the Texans defense is a shelf of its former self being ranked 31st at defending WR2s.

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 Tom Brady
  • QB Russell Wilson
  • QB Derek Carr
  • QB Matthew Stafford (if he plays)
  • RB Le’Veon Bell
  • RB LeSean McCoy
  • RB Mike Davis
  • RB Lamar Miller
  • RB Samaje Perine 
  • UPDATE – RB Tion Green & Theo Riddick – Now that Abdullah is likely being benched, I don’t mine using Green as a punt play if you want to pay up elsewhere, or Riddick on full PPR sites like Draft Kings.

  • WR Michael Crabtree
  • WR Golden Tate
  • WR Marvin Jones Jr.
  • TE Evan Engram
  • TE Delanie Walker
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