Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games – Week 17 2018

December 29, 2018

By Ha Kung Wong

We were 28 for 36 (77.8%) in cash lineups over the last 7 weeks, and we’re back for more cash in Week 17!

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 17 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. 🙂

So, without further to do, here are my suggestions for the Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games for Week 17 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:

Your free squares this week are C.J. Anderson, Royce Freeman and Jeff Wilson Jr. Each of them are super cheap and will be leading their respective team’s backfield due to injury to the usual starter (i.e. Todd Gurley, Phillip Lindsay and Matt Breida, respectively). Anderson in particular had a career game subbing for Gurley last week with 167 rush yards and a TD in 20 carries just a few days after being signed off his couch. Wilson was productive in Weeks 13 and 14 when he essentially subbed for Breida, totaling 230 yards from scrimmage over those two games. Freeman has flashed all season, but hasn’t been given the opportunity. Well, the opportunity is wide open this week with Lindsay on IR.
Over/Unders don’t matter as much to me in Week 17 since it’s always hard to predict teams who might rest players mid-game, but I think will matter for the Kansas City Chiefs, who need this game to lock up homefield advantage, and Oakland Raiders who have the highest over/under of the week (52.5). Both defenses are rough, with the Chiefs having the 27th and the Raiders being the 30th ranked defenses in the NFL per DVOA, so I don’t expect a ton of resistance. We all know that the Chiefs have the BEST overall offense in the NFL per DVOA, so there’s no worries there, but it’s possible Mahomes takes a seat during the game to get some rest if they get up big. I still like Patrick Mahomes, but prefer to prioritize Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce, and unless Spencer Ware is ruled out, I’m staying away from Damien Williams, even though he’s performed well in the recent past. I Ware is out though, I’ll be loading up on Williams. On the Raiders side, I can bring myself to play Derek Carr, but I do like Jordy Nelson and Jared Cook, as Nelson has been on fire recently and Cook is always a nice TD bet.
The Steelers really put themselves in a corner losing yet again in Week 16. Now they need help to make the playoffs, but certainly need to also handle the lowly Bengals. The extra motivation is there, as well as the point potential, so I’m in on Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown (assuming Brown is healthy) and JuJu Smith-Schuster, and I don’t mind punting on Vance McDonald if you need to save cash. With James Conner likely back this week, I’ll stay away from both him and Jaylen Samuels, as I have no idea how the split will play out and whether Conner will reaggravate his injury.
The New Orleans Saints are great, but they’ve already locked up the 1st Seed in the NFC, so there’s lots of danger that players may be rested, so I’m avoiding Drew Brees, Alvin Kamara, Michael Thomas and Mark Ingram this week.
UPDATE – Both Drew Brees and Alvin Kamara will not play this week.
Julio Jones is playing injured, but is currently just 114 yards ahead of DeAndre Hopkins for the receiving yards crown, so he’ll have some extra motivation this week. Plus the Bucs have the 3rd worst defense against the pass in the NFL, so I like Jones’ chances to finish strong. Tevin Coleman should also be out there to finish off the season in charge of the backfield, so you’re welcome to punt with him, but his potential injury concern leaves me wary.
The Patriots don’t really need anything here, but Julian Edelman always manages to get his. He’s reasonably priced this week, and he’s getting even more looks with Josh Gordon away from the team (10 targets in Week 16), so I like him this week as I do in most weeks.
The Packers don’t have anything to play for, but Aaron Rodgers had a season best 442 passing yards, 2 passing TDs, 32 rush yards and 2 rushing TDs for good measure in Week 16. I don’t see why he doesn’t end the season strong against the lowly Lions, and I also like his number 1 target, Davante Adams (as long as he’s healthy), and Jamaal Williams who’s been decent in the backfield.
UPDATE – With Adams out, I still like Rodgers, but now like Randall Cobb and Marques Valdes-Scantling as cheap WRs.
The Giants also have nothing to play for, but Eli Manning will want to go out on an high note, and OBJ is out again, so I don’t mind going back to Evan Engram, who really broke out in Week 16, and Sterling Shepard, even against a tough Cowboys defense, although they’re just 17th defending TEs per DVOA.
I like Keenan Allen as well this week because he’s been taken off the injury report for Week 17 and will get to face the Broncos defense that just got torched by the Oakland Raiders in Week 16.
I’m a Robby Anderson fan again this week as Quincy Enunwa is out and Anderson has had a whopping 31 targets over the last 3 weeks as well as having TDs in back-to-back-to-back weeks, plus the Patriots are only 18th against the WR1s this year. They’re even worse against the run (20th) and only 21st against RB receptions, 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) Texans, (2) Seahawks, (3) Steelers and (4) Chargers.
UPDATE – With Ezekiel Elliott out, Rod Smith has been named the starter and is a great play on FanDuel.