Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games – Week 15

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 14, we’re back for the Week 15 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 15 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 elsewhere.

At QB, I like Ben Roethlisberger and Blake Bortles.

  • As I mentioned in the most recent podcast and in our NFL Picks, Big Ben has been en feugo since the Week 9 bye, averaging over 336 passing yards, 2.8 TDs and just 0.8 INTs per game.  Additionally, the Patriots defensive front 7 is seriously depleted (with Trey Flowers (ribs), Kyle Van Noy (calf) and Alan Branch (knee) likely to miss the game or be limited), and the Patriots secondary was just torched by Jay Cutler.  This game also has the highest over/under of any game this week (54).
  • Bortles is a value play, as he’s had 3 straight games with at least 220 total yards and 2 total TDs.  He’s been productive throwing and running the ball and now faces the struggling Texans 18th ranked pass defense at home.

At RB, I like Alex Collins, Kenyan Drake and Kerwynn Williams.

  • Collins has been nothing short of amazing.  He’s had 5 TDs in the last 4 games, and has had at least 17 touches in each of those games.  Everyone knows he does Irish dancing, but who knew that being a good dancer and being cut by the Seahawks was all you needed to be a solid RB1?  Plus, he’s ridiculously underpriced.
  • Drake also put on a clinic, but no dancing was required.  He just totally juked the competition on his way to completely embarrassing the Patriots to the tune of 114 rush yards and 79 receiving yards.  Now he gets to face a Bills defense that made Frank Gore look relevant again last week.  And he’s also ridiculously underpriced.

  • Williams is another good value play as Adrian Peterson was finally placed on IR, leaving Williams to handle the load this week.  He’s had back-to-back solid weeks with at least 88 total yards and now he faces the 20th ranked Washington run defense.

As for WRs, I like Antonio Brown, Adam Thielen, Davante Adams and Dede Westbrook.

  • I like Antonio Brown for all the same reasons I like Big Ben above.  Plus he has the most targets (160) for the most receptions (99), most receiving yards (1,509) and 2nd most receiving TDs (9) of any WR in the league this season.
  • 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 3rd most receiving yards of any WR in the league this season (1,161), and has averaged over a whopping 10 targets per game over the last 8 games.  And now he faces a Bengals pass defense that was just torched by the Bears and Kendall Wright.  I expect Thielen will keep it rolling.
  • Adams has become the top target in Green Bay with Brett Hundley under center. But Aaron Rodgers is back, so doesn’t that mean all the redzone targets will go back to Jordy Nelson?  Nah, Adams was rolling before Rodgers was injured, and had 4 TDs in the 5 games that Rodgers actually played and finished this year.  Go ahead and roll him out there as a high ceiling play.

  • Westbrook has been terrific since Allen Hurns has been out.  He’s averaged almost 6 receptions on 9 targets per game over the last 3 weeks, and there’s no reason to believe he won’t keep it going, making him an excellent value play.

At TE, I went with Rob Gronkowski.

  • Gronk was suspended in Week 14 and the Patriots became dysfunctional.  He’s back now in an important AFC showdown against the Steelers which has the highest over/under (54) of the weekend.  You can bet that he’ll produce.

On defense, I went with the New Orleans Saints against the New York Jets.  The Jets were actually overachieving this year, but that all stops now with Bryce Petty behind center.  Plus, the Saints have the 9th ranked defense in the NFL this season.  You could pay up for the Ravens or Jaguars, but I’ll save a few dollars with the Saints.

Draft Kings 

On Draft Kings, I also liked Paul Richardson and the Baltimore Ravens Defense.

  • Richardson is averaging 6.5 targets over the last 4 games, and although he had one clunker in between, he managed at least 3 receptions and 56 yards in 3 of them.  And, most importantly, he’s really cheaply priced on Draft Kings.
  • The top ranked Ravens defense as per DVOA gets to face the winless Browns this weekend.  Yeah, the Browns look better with Josh Gordon back, but their still the Browns.

Yahoo! DFS

With Yahoo, I also like Jared Cook.  Amari Cooper has already been ruled out, leaving Cook as possibly the second option behind just Michael Crabtree.  And he’s facing a Cowboys defense that ranked just 27th defending against opposing TEs.

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 Aaron Rodgers
  • QB Philip Rivers
  • RB Le’Veon Bell
  • RB LeSean McCoy
  • RB Todd Gurley
  • RB Alvin Kamara
  • RB Mark Ingram
  • RB Samaje Perine 

UPDATE – With Leonard Fournette ruled out, I don’t mind using TJ Yeldon or Chris Ivory as a cheap punt play in the Flex, with a slight preference for Ivory due to volume.

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