Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games – 2019 Conference Championships

By Ha Kung Wong

Twitter: @FBGarbageTime

We’re back with more Daily Fantasy Football advice for Cash Games for the Conference Championship games!

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 a few 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 the Conference Championship games!

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.

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 the Conference Championship 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 Free Square of the Week™ this week A.J. Brown.  I understand that he’s had a total of 2 receptions on 4 targets in the playoffs so far, but he was a beast before that.  Brown has been one of the NFL’s most impressive playmakers, averaging 20.2 yards on 52 catches, having five 100+ yard games and scoring 9 total touchdowns, leading to him being graded the ninth best NFL receiver of 2019 by Pro Football Focus.  Chances are the Titans, who are 7 point underdogs, will have to keep pass, and that Ryan Tannehill won’t be able to get away with 15 pass attempts.  Davante Adams is the clear top WR play this week, but he’s incredibly expensive.  Brown is a clear WR1 and he’s 35% cheaper than Adams on Draft Kings, almost 20% cheaper than Adams on Fanduel and whopping 48% cheaper than Adams on Yahoo.  I’m playing him everywhere I can.
  • And the reason I’m looking to clear cap is that I need to fit Patrick Mahomes, Derrick Henry and Travis Kelce into my lineup, particularly because they’re in a showdown with the highest over/under of the weekend (53).
    • Mahomes has been one of the best in the business, and even in a “down” year, he’s had the 7th most passing yards per game (287.9), 8th most passing TDs (26) and the 2nd lowest interception percentage (1%), leading him to have the 2nd best QBR (78) of all QBs this season.  And his magic was on display in the Divisional Round Playoffs as he brought the Chiefs from 24 down to a 20 point thumping on the back of 321 passing yards, 5 TDs and 53 rush yards.  Now he faces the Titans who has the 24th ranked pass defense in the NFL.  Lock him in.
    • On the other side, Derrick Henry has been on a historic run.  Henry has the MOST carries (20.2), MOST rush yards (102) and 2nd MOST rush TDs (1.06) per game of any RB in the NFL this season.  Clearly, the Titans offense runs through Henry, and they’re not afraid to feed him, as we saw when he rolled up over 200 total yards against the Patriots AND the Ravens in back-to-back shocking playoff wins.
    • Kelce led all TEs in the regular season with 97 receptions on 136 targets and 76.8 yards per game. And even with an IT band injury, Kelce continued to dominate destroying the Texans racking up 10 receptions for 134 yards and 3 TDs.  Do I expect a repeat performance?  Well, perhaps not, but the Titans did allow the 5th most fantasy points to opposing TEs this season, and he’s the best TE option on the slate, so can you afford to fade him?
  • If you play all three plus A.J. Brown, then you’re going to have to go cheap on WRs and Flex.  Luckily, you have plenty of cheaper options.  Here are my favorites in order of value and upside:
    • Deebo Samuel (exploitable Packers secondary, averaged 5.6 targets per game over last 5, plenty of PPR potential underneath, 5 for 5 and a 100 yards in last regular season game),
    • Raheem Mostert (leading the 49ers in backfield snaps prior to Divisional Round Playoffs due to a calf cramp and the 49ers milking a big lead, still had 12 carries last week and is now fully healthy)
    • Sammy Watkins (2 receptions for 76 yards in the divisional round playoffs, averaged 4.2 targets over last 5 games, Titans 24th defending against the pass),
    • Mecole Hardman (cheapest way to get exposure to game with highest projected total points and against Titans that are 24th against the pass, return TD potential),
    • Jonnu Smith (had 3 TDs in last 6 games, Chiefs allow 11th most fantasy points to opposing TEs)
    • Kendrick Bourne (3 of 5 for 40 yards and a TD in the Divisional Round Playoffs, 6 TDs in his last 9 games)
    • Corey Davis (has his highest yards per target, yards per reception and catch percentage of his career this year and has potential with Titans likely needing to pass)
    • Allen Lazard (WR2 in Packers offense averaging 4.72 targets per game).
  • And if you prefer to avoid Henry, or pay down even more at other positions, I also don’t mind (in this order based on value and upside):
    • Damien Williams, who, after coming back from a rub injury piled up 246 total yards and three touchdowns in the last two games of the regular season, included a spectacular performance in Week 17 where he rushed for 124 yards and 2 touchdowns on 12 carries adding 30 yards on four receptions.  He led backfield touches for the Chiefs against the the Houston Texans, piling on 3 total TDs.  Plus the Titans have shown some susceptibility to pass catching backs.
    • Aaron Jones has the 8th most yards from scrimmage and the most rushing TDs of any RB this year, and in fact the most total TDs of any skill position player this year outside of QBs.  He put up 62 yards and 2 TDs against the Seahawks in the Divisional Playoff Round, and on a Packers team with few weapons outside of Rodgers and Adams, Jones looks to get plenty of volume against the 49ers.
  • And finally, I prefer stacking Mahomes with Kelce, but if you want to save cap space and play George Kittle instead, that’s a viable play with just as much upside.  Kittle had a remarkable 79.4% catch percentage this season and is Jimmy Garoppolo’s favorite and most reliable target.
  • I prefer to save money this week to make room for Mahomes and Henry, but the top choice at defense would be the San Francisco 49ers Defense (6th most takeaways this season) against the Green Bay Packers, followed by the Kansas City Chiefs Defense (5th most interceptions this season) against the Tennessee Titans.  The next level down would be the Green Bay Packers Defense (7th most takeaways this season) against the San Francisco 49ers.

Hope you all win DFS cash!

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