Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games – Week 16 2018

December 22, 2018

By Ha Kung Wong

We were 23 for 31 (75%) in cash lineups over the last 6 weeks, and we’re back for more cash in Week 16!

As usual, before we get to winning you bragging rights (and DFS cash), remember, the point of this article is not just to give you one or two lineups 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!

Let’s get to winning you some CASH in Week 16 of the 2018 NFL season!

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.

And this year, I’m trying something different. I’m going to provide you with a few sample lineups on each site and give you a few notes to consider. You’re welcome. 🙂

And don’t forget to check out this week’s Podcast where Joey and I discuss some of our DFS thoughts at the end of the episode!

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

Draft Kings

Yahoo! DFS

Game Notes:

The New Orleans Saints and the Pittsburgh Steelers have the highest over/under of the Sunday day slate (53). Both defenses are solid, with the Steelers having the 17th and the Saints improving to being the 8th ranked defenses in the NFL per DVOA, while both offenses are top 5 with the Steelers having the 5th and the Saints having the 4th best overall offense in the NFL per DVOA. The Steelers managed an important win against the Patriots in Week 15 to end their slide, and the Saints managed to pull out a narrow win against an injured Panthers team on the road. Neither team have been overly impressive over the last month, but both are poised for the playoffs making this an incredibly important matchup. The extra motivation is there, as well as the point potential, so I’m in on Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster, assuming Smith-Schuster is healthy, and I don’t mind punting on Vance McDonald if you need to save cash. With James Conner out again, I don’t mind going back to the well with Jaylen Samuels, though I would temper expectations this week with the Saints 3rd best against the run. The same is true for the Saints, as I’m in on Drew Brees, Michael Thomas, Alvin Kamara and, if you’re just looking for a floor, Mark Ingram. This one promises to be a shootout, so I’m prioritizing this game for DFS this week.
The Texans have an important game against the Eagles on tap and couldn’t ask for a better matchup. Even with the impressive surprise performance against the Rams in Week 15, the Eagles are banged up in their secondary and are only 20th against the pass. I really like Deshaun Watson and DeAndre Hopkins (assuming Hopkins is healthy) this week. In the last 4 weeks, Watson has 7 total TDs and no INTs. Hopkins has been a target monster, have the 3rd most receiving yards per game (94.4) and the 3rd most receiving TDs per game (0.8). Feel free to stack them if you have the cap space.
Ezekiel Elliott has the most rush yards per game (96.4) of any RB in the NFL this year so far and even in a bizarrely bad game against the Colts in Week 15, he still managed 128 yards from scrimmage and 7 receptions. And he has at least 135 yards per scrimmage in his 5 games prior to Week 15 also totaling 5 TDs over that stretch. The Bucs have the 4th worst defense in the NFL, so I also like Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper, but there are other players I like slightly better at similar price points, so I’m not forcing them into lineups. I do like saving money on defense though, so I’m in favor of using the Dallas Defense as they’ll be looking to redeem themselves this week.
Your free squares at RB this week are Tevin Coleman and Jamaal Williams. Devonta Freeman is still not ready to return and Ito Smith was just put on IR, plus Coleman just came off a huge 145 yard game with a TD against the Cardinals and is affordable on all sites. Aaron Jones has also been placed on IR putting Williams back in control of the backfield, and he didn’t disappoint with 97 yards from scrimmage, a TD and 4 receptions against a tough Bears defense in Week 15. He’s also pretty affordable on all sites, so I’ve been building around both Coleman and/or Williams to pay up elsewhere.
I don’t love the Giants offense, but with OBJ out again, and Russell Shepard also out, I don’t mind looking to Sterling Shepard as a WR punt play and Evan Engram at TE. Indy is just 17th against the pass, and just 23rd defending TEs per DVOA.
I’m a Robby Anderson fan this week as Quincy Enunwa is out and Anderson has had a whopping 25 targets over the last 3 weeks as well as having TDs in back to back weeks. The Packers are only 24th against the pass this year and additionally “packed” it due to being eliminated from the playoff hunt. They’re similarly bad against the run (25th) so I’m happy to punt at RB with Elijah McGuire as well.
As for defense, I’d just take the best value on each site in this order: (1) Rams, (2) Bears, (3) Vikings and (4) Cowboys. Dallas appears to be the best value on most sites, but the Rams and Vikings are very reasonably priced on FanDuel and Draft Kings.