“Buy or Bye”™: Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 3 2020 Cash Games

September 26, 2020

By Ha Kung Wong

In 2019, we were over 70% for cash lineups and we’re back with more Daily Fantasy Football advice for Cash Games for Week 3 of the 2020 season!

As usual, before we get to winning you bragging rights (and DFS cash), remember, the Oopoint 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 Week 3 of the 2020 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.

As per usual, 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 3 contests, along with they’re prices on FanDuel (“FD”), Draft Kings (“DK”) and Yahoo! Daily Fantasy (“Y!”).

FanDuel

Draft Kings

Yahoo! DFS

Game Notes:

For those new to this column, note that I never advocate against you paying up at any particular position. We all know that the likes of Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson are probably going to have the most consistent upside in terms of potential fantasy points from week to week. But remember that DFS is a salary cap game. You can feel free to sprinkle those into your lineups, but you can’t pay up at every position because there’s simply not enough salary to go around. I try my best each week to provide my thoughts on how you might want to balance your cash lineups in terms of points potential and salary. So feel free to sprinkle in those players if you have cap space.
“Free Square of the Week”™ – Well, we have two this week with all the injuries, so here they are in order of preference:
- The 49ers are without both Tevin Coleman who’s been placed on IR and Raheem Mostert who has an MCL sprain and is unlikely to suit up in Week 3, leaving Jerick McKinnon and Jeff Wilson Jr. to split the workload. Split may be a generous term as I’d bet McKinnon gets a majority of the snaps after showing some big play ability in Week 2, including taking a handoff on 3rd down and 31 for 55 yards. McKinnon totaled three carries for 77 yards and a TD against the Jets in Week 2 following up his 3 catches for 20 yards and a TD in Week 1, and with some guaranteed Week 3 volume is in line to be a monster, particularly against a Giants defense that has allowed a whopping 276 yards on 4.5 yards per carry to Benny Snell Jr. and David Montgomery. Don’t over think this, just lock McKinnon in at his value pricing and move on. If you’re feeling spunky, feel free to sprinkle in a little Wilson too.
- With Christian McCaffrey ruled out for 4 to 6 weeks, Mike Davis is the next man up. Davis took over for CMC in Week 2 and caught all 8 of his targets for 74 yards. Davis is likely to get a full complement of snaps including a decent amount of carries in Week 3 against a Chargers defense that’s only been 15th against the run per DVOA this season. Panthers Head Coach Matt Rhule loves him as dual threat running and catching the ball and you should too for your DFS lineups, particularly at his discount pricing.
With Marlon Mack out for the season, much hyped rookie Jonathan Taylor became the starting RB for the Indianapolis Colts. We recommended him last week and he didn’t disappoint. The second round pick out of Wisconsin carried the ball 26 times and caught both of his targets to total 110 yards and a rushing TD. The Colts are 11 point home favorites against a Jets team that hasn’t been able to stop the run.
The Dallas Cowboys @ Seattle Seahawks game has the highest over/under of the weekend (57), so I like a lot of players in this game. For the Cowboys, I like Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb facing a Seahawks defense that has surrendered the most fantasy points to opposing WRs so far this season. Also, feel free to add Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott as they both should have plenty volume in what looks to be a shootout. For the Seahawks, you can never go wrong with Russell Wilson, who’s started off incredibly hot, along with his two favorite targets, D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, particularly with Cowboys CB Chidobe Awuzie ruled out.
The Detroit Lions @ Arizona Cardinals game has the 2nd highest over/under of the weekend (55.5) and there’s plenty to like here as well. Kylar Murray is particularly fairly priced across industry and enters Week 3 with 516 passing yards, 158 rushing yards, and five total TDs. I’m all in on Murray at his price point this week. And of course, who could forget Murray’s top target DeAndre Hopkins. Through two weeks, Hopkins has clearly developed a rapport with Murray snagging a whopping 22 of 25 targets for 219 receiving yards and a TD. He’s seeing a 35.7 percent target share, good for second best in the NFL so far, and he’s seen 60 percent of the team’s red zone targets. In Week 3, the Cardinals get to face a Detroit secondary that has given up 240 passing yards and 2 TDs to Aaron Rodgers and 242 passing yards and 3 TDs to Mitchell Trubisky. Not to mention Lions top CB Desmond Trufant has been ruled out meaning Jeffrey Okudah will be covering Hopkins. Prepare to feast. On the Cardinals side, I also like Kenyan Drake in a bounce back matchup with depressed pricing from his Week 1 and 2 performance and Marvin Jones on the Lions since Kenny Golladay is still not 100% and the Lions are likely looking at playing catchup.
OK, here we go. The Bears have had some close wins and the Falcons had some serious implosions so and the two faceoff this week with the 3rd highest over/under (47.5) on the slate. The Falcons have the 5th worst pass defense per DVOA this season, and they don’t even have AJ Terrell this week, which can mean good things in what looks to be a potential shoot out for Mitchell Trubisky and Allen Robinson. Robinson hasn’t overly impressive this year, but he did have the 3rd most targets of any WR in the NFL in 2019 and is clearly still Trubisky’s favorite target. On the other side, with Julio Jones ailing, I don’t mind getting some value from Russell Gage.
I’m actually interested in the Washington Football Team as the Browns have the 3rd worst defense per DVOA this season, so I’m happy to use Terry McLaurin and am definitely interested in Logan Thomas at his rock bottom pricing. Thomas’ role continues to grow in Washington, as he was targeted 9 times in Week 2 after getting 8 targets in Week 1. I also don’t mind using Antonio Gibson as he’s getting the lion’s share of the carries and has at least 2 targets each week so far, plus is incredibly affordable for a starting RB.
The Eagles have had a tough couple weeks, but the Bengals have the 22nd ranked defense per DVOA in the NFL and have one of the weakest pass rushes in the NFL, so perhaps they can back on track in Week 3. I like their chances and I also like the depressed price for Carson Wentz and Miles Sanders.
With C.J. Uzomah going down with a torn Achilles, Drew Sample stepped in and grabbed 7 of 9 targets times for 45 yards. Joe Burrow certainly likes dumping off to his tight end and based on volume and his rock bottom pricing, I like locking him in to open up salary elsewhere.
At defense, I usually just take value, and there are a couple good choices this week depending on the site. As you can see, I like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense the most due to being the 4th best defense per DVOA this season, having value pricing across the industry and facing a Broncos offense that is starting Jeff Driskel behind center and with Courland Sutton out for the season with a torn ACL. I also like the Indianapolis Colts defense as they’re a lock against a Jets offense that’s a complete dumpster fire, but they can be a bit pricey depending on the site.