“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 16 2020 Cash Games

December 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 16 of the 2020 season! We’re 72% on lineups so far this year, but we’re looking to win even more in 2020!

And as a reminder, last week we managed to give you a lineup that ended up FIRST in a 1190 person tournament:

You’re welcome. ?

As usual, before we get to winning you more 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 Week 16 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 16 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 is 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 high priced players 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.
The “Free Square of the Week”™ is Giovani Bernard. Bernard has been the starting the running back since Joe Mixon went out weeks ago but had been relatively ineffective until last week in a surprise Bengals win against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Bernard had 25 carries for 83 rush yards and a TD, plus a 14 yard reception and a receiving TD against the then number one defense in the league. This week he faces the Texans’ second worsts run defense in the league, which allows over 180 scrimmage yards per game to opposing RBs. Lock him in at a nice discount. And feel free to play Tee Higgins in this game as well, as I like his chances on the cheap if you want to punt at WR or Flex.
Regardless of what I said in the intro, I’m all in on the Kansas City Chiefs this week against the 31st ranked Atlanta Falcons defense, particularly since the game has the highest over/under of any team in the regular Sunday slate (53). Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce are all at the top of my list, regardless of the cost. That being said, I’m prioritizing Hill first, then Mahomes and then Kelce.
And if you can’t fit in Mahomes, I like Jalen Hurts against the Dallas Cowboys. Hurts managed to torch a Saints’ defense that’s been on fire, throwing for 273 yards and a TD and tacking on a whopping 106 rush yards. He then just barely lost a game against the Cardinals with 338 passing yards and 3 passing TDs along with 63 rush yards and a rushing TD. The rushing floor is huge at his price across industry, particularly on Yahoo and Draft Kings.
With Julio Jones out again, Russell Gage steps in to the WR2 spot for a Falcons team that will have to throw to keep up with the Chiefs. Gage has had a TD in three straight weeks, so I don’t mind playing him again for the price, as you get a nice floor with upside.
The Jaguars have the worst defense in the league, which means I’m on the Chicago Bears this week, particularly after getting to .500 after Week 15. My top Bears target is David Montgomery, who’s been on fire with 4 straight weeks with at least 100 yards from scrimmage and a TD, and is still reasonably priced across industry. Mitchell Trubisky is also serviceable at a discount, as well as Allen Robinson and, if you want to punt at TE, Cole Kmet.
JK Dobbins has some good value after leading the Ravens in carries in Week 14 and 15 and having a TD in 4 weeks straight, particularly against a struggling Giants team.
At TE, I’m all in on the Noah Fant revival. He finally seems 100% healthy, and although Drew Lock is having trouble completing passes, he’s definitely “locking” on to Fant, targeting him a team high 11 times in Week 15 (see what I did there?) for 68 yards and TD. And while we’re on this game, I don’t mind playing Melvin Gordon either since Philip Lindsay is out.
With Jarvis Landry, Rishard Higgins, KhaDarel Hodge and Donovan Peoples-Jones out on the COVID list, the Browns have essentially no WRs for the game against the Jets. That means I’m in on Nick Chubb, Kareem Hunt and Austin Hooper as essentially all the weapons the Browns have on offense. You can also play Marvin Hall as the only remaining WR in Cleveland if you’re looking to punt at the position.
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 paying way down for the Denver Broncos defense, who have the 10th most sacks this season (37), against the Chargers.