“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 2 2021 Cash Games

September 18, 2021

By Ha Kung Wong

In 2020, we were over 70% for cash lineups and we’re back with more Daily Fantasy Football advice for Cash Games for Week 2 of the 2021 season!

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!

And this year, we’re also adding our ThriveFantasy prop picks to help you win even MORE money!

Let’s get to winning you some CASH in Week 2 of the 2021 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. ?

ThriveFantasy is actually quite a bit different. There you have your choice of various player prop bets to pick from. You can enter a traditional contest where you pick the Over or Under on 10 of the available prop bets, getting more points for risker picks, and compete for the most points in the contest. Or you can just select two, three, or four player prop bets to create a custom lineup from the list of player predictions. Pick 2/2 correctly, win 3.6x your entry amount ($10 entry wins $36). Pick 3/3 correctly win 6.2x your entry. Pick 4/4 correctly win 11x your entry amount. The only limitation is that you choose athletes from more than one team to be able to enter.

I’ll be providing my 4 way prop bet picks each and every week!

If you’d like to try ThriveFantasy, go to www.ThriveFantasy.com and use code GARBAGETIME to get an instant deposit match up to $100!

So, without further to do, here are my suggestions for the Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games for Week 2 contests, along with they’re prices.

FanDuel

Draft Kings

Yahoo! DFS

ThriveFantasy

Game Notes:

For those new to this column, note that I never advocate against you paying up at any particular position for DFS. We all know that the likes of Patrick Mahomes and Christian McCaffrey 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 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.
My approach to DFS in Week 2 is to rely on a solid QB and TE to anchor my team, since there’s plenty of value plays at RB and WR.
The “Free Square of the Week”™ is Ja’Marr Chase. Chase lit it up in his first regular season game catching 5 of 7 targets for 101 yards and a TD against the Vikings. Seeing as how Joe Burrow only had 27 passes, 7 targets is pretty significant target share. The Bears had trouble containing the Rams’ WRs allowing several big plays and a total of 236 receiving yards. He’s a solid value as the 28th priced WR on Yahoo and 39th on Draft Kings, but an absolute steal as the 50th priced WR on FanDuel.
The Minnesota Vikings @ Arizona Cardinals game has the fourth highest over/under of the weekend (50.5). And since I like paying up for QBs this week, Kylar Murray is at the top of the list after putting up over 300 total yards and 5 TDs in Week 1 (where I also picked him for DFS), but I like paying up for DeAndre Hopkins just as much. Murray’s rush yards give him a solid floor, and Hopkins is clearly his favorite target. I’ll probably stay away from the Arizona running backs, though, as it’s still a little hazy how it shakes out week to week. On the other side of the ball, I like Dalvin Cook, as the Cardinal have the 4th ranked pass defense, but just the 13th ranked run defense. You can bet the Vikings will dial up a bunch of quick runs to counter pressure from Chandler Jones.
The Dallas Cowboys @ Los Angeles Chargers game has the highest over/under of the weekend (55), and judging from Week 1, this may indeed by a shootout. That being said, I’m on Austin Ekeler and Keenan Allen on the Chargers, and I don’t mind considering Justin Herbert for some additional lineup diversity. Allen caught nine of his 13 targets for 100 yards in Week 1 and I don’t see that changing. Ekeler surprisingly didn’t get any targets, but did get 15 carries and a TD, and I’d be shocked if targets weren’t coming his way eventually. On the other side, I hate chasing past performances, but it’s hard not to consider Amari Cooper and Dak Prescott as well. I’ll probably stay away from Zeke Elliott until I see him put in a solid stat line.
Najee Harris didn’t light the world on fire with his 45 rush yards, but I think he’s still warming up to the NFL. I played all 58 offensive plays for the Steelers in Week 1, which clearly demonstrates their commitment to getting him on the field. The Raiders allowed the most fantasy points to running backs in Week 1, which indicates they did little to improve on the fact that they allowed the 4th most fantasy points per game to running backs last year. For the discounted price, Harris is a strong play this week.
The Jaguars constantly behind and playing catch up in Week 1 causing Trevor Lawrence to throw the ball 51 times. Laviska Shenault was significantly involved catching 7 of his 9 targets while Marvin Jones (Lawrence’s favorite preseaosn target) caught 5 of 9 of his targets but also got a TD. Denver let the Giants WRs pile on 246 yards, so I like both Jones’ and Shenault’s chances (in that order) of exceeding value.
I’m in on the whole Browns offense this week in what should be a solid game against the Texans, particularly after almost beating the Chiefs. Specifically, I’m targeting Nick Chubb and Jarvis Landry, but also like paying down for Donovan People-Jones, particularly since OBJ will miss another game. People-Jones only had one catch in Week 1, but he did get 80 percent of the Browns’ offensive snaps. The usage is there, so if you need a punt to get under the salary cap, Peoples-Jones makes for a solid bet. As for Chubb, he put up 101 total yards with two TDs in Week 1 was in on 53 percent of the Browns offensive plays. He should do at least that well against the Texans bottom rung run defense.
Darren Waller is the best TE in the regular slate after catching 10 of a whopping 19 targets for 105 yards and a TD. Against Pittsburgh, Derek Carr will need all the help he can get, which means plenty for targets for Waller.
Josh Jacobs and Kenyan Drake essentially split RB touches in Week 1 (12 and 11 respectively), with Jacobs getting the majority of the carries and Drake getting the majority of the targets, but it was Jacobs that ended up with all the TDs. Jacobs has been ruled out for Week 2, which leaves Drake to pick up the slack. Sure, Peyton Barber will also be in the mix, but Drake has a solid floor with upside and is value priced across industry.
On defense, I love taking value and paying down, and mysteriously, the second best defense of the weekend, the Pittsburgh Steelers Defense, is near bottom salary on Draft Kings. So load up. On FanDuel and Yahoo, I prefer the Buffalo Bills Defense at a discount. They’re a top 10 defense this year that is much better than they showed in Week 1, and come in near the bottom price point on those two sites. And I also really like the Arizona Cardinals on Yahoo, which is priced down even after Chandler Jones went off for 5 sacks in Week 1.
With regard to ThriveFantasy, I really like the Nick Chubb and Russell Gage props. You already know how I feel about Chubb from above, so exceeding 85.5 total yards seems like a good bet. The Falcons looked outmatched on every level in Week 1 versus the Eagles, and they’ll be even more more outmatched this week against the Bucs. That being said, Tampa has the top run defense and will score at will, meaning Matt Ryan will have to sling it in Week 2 in a futile effort to keep up. Calvin Ridley will drawn double coverage for sure, and Tampa will be without starting CB Sean Murphy-Bunting after he suffered a shoulder injury. The Cowboys put up over 300 receiving yards on the Bucs, and although I don’t expect that much, I like Gage’s chances to exceed 41.5.