“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 3 2021 Cash Games

September 25, 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 3 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 3 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 2 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 3 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 3 is to get value from my WRs and pay up elsewhere. I also like going with one mid-range and one high-range RB, as I think there’s some good mid-range options this week for you to save some cap space.
The “Free Square of the Week”™ is Rondale Moore. Moore has an astounding 182 receiving yards on 11 receptions from 13 targets over the first two weeks, and the Jaguars have the 3rd worst defense in the league. He’s priced moderately across all sites and is nice value play with upside.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Los Angeles Rams game has the highest over/under of the weekend (55.5). The problem is that I’m never sure who on Tampa Bay will get all the opportunity, and I don’t want to pay up for Tom Brady, who has a nice floor, but doesn’t come with as much upside as scrambling QBs. With Antonio Brown out, I don’t mind investing a little in Chris Godwin and Mike Evans, though. And on the other side, I really like Cooper Kupp, Roberts Woods and Tyler Higbee. In particular, Higbee is really cheap across industry and Tampa Bay is mediocre defending tight ends allowing 16 catches and 159 yards to tight ends over the first two weeks, while allowing a 94 percent catch rate. And I’m looking at Woods over Kupp just because the significant price disparity.
The Seattle Seahawks @ Minnesota Vikings game has the 2nd highest over/under of the weekend (55), and I like both sides here too. In particular, since the Vikings have given up the 7th most receiving yards this season (294.0), I really like DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, in that order, as Metcalf tends to be slightly cheaper. That being said, I also like Chris Carsons who also has a decent matchup and a solid floor with the 11th most carries in the league over the firts two weeks. On the other side, I like Justin Jefferson and Kirk Cousins, in that order, as opposing offenses have a 65 percent time of possession advantage against Seattle. That means plenty of opportunity as well as the likelihood of a shootout.
The Arizona Cardinals @ Jacksonville Jaguars game has the 3rd highest over/under of the weekend (52), and I like getting a piece of this game as well. I don’t trust Trevor Lawrence or most of the Jaguars against the Cardinals’ disruptive defense, but I don’t mind diversifying with Marvin Jones since he’s priced reasonably and still appears to be Lawrence’s favorite target. On the Cardinals side, though, I really like Kylar Murray, DeAndre Hopkins and Rondale Moore against a Jaguars defense that’s 3rd worst this season. Murray hasn’t disappointed yet with 9 total TDs in just two games, and his legs provide a terrific floor. Plus, the Jaguars gave up 619 passing yards and 4 TDs to Tyrod Taylor and Teddy Bridgewater over the first two weeks. Hopkins is his favorite target and you already know how I feel about Moore.
- UPDATE: Hopkins looks like he’ll play through a rub injury, but double check before the 1 PM start time.
Folks were worried that Austin Ekeler didn’t get get targets in Week 1, but I wasn’t and I recommended him last week. Well, all those targets came flooding back as he caught 9 for 61 receiving yards. Over the first two weeks, Ekeler averaged 16.5 touches per game being in on the field for about 60 percent of offensive snaps. Plus, the Chiefs have had trouble with RBs so far allowing 352 combined yards with 5 TDs. There’s lots of upside here.
T.J. Hockenson has had back-to-back big games (8 receptions for 97 yards and a TD and 8 receptions for 66 yards and a TD). The Ravens rank last in the league defending TEs and have allowed 100+ yards and TD in both weeks to opposing TEs. Pricing is still relatively cheap on Hockenson compared to Kelce, Waller and Kittle, so take advantage while you can.
On defense, I love taking value and paying down, which has me all in on the Las Vegas Raiders defense against the Tua-less Miami Dolphins. And the numbers don’t reflect it because they had to face the Chiefs in Week 2, but the Baltimore Ravens defense are also a decent unit that has a good matchup against the Lions and are priced down. Just beware that the Ravens have placed a number of defensive players on COVID list, so this might be a little more of a gamble than usual.
With regard to ThriveFantasy, I really like the Taylor Heinicke and Ty’Son Williams props. Heinicke attempted 46 passes last week against the Giants, completing 34 of them for 336 yards in a really close game. Washington is currently 7-point underdogs in Buffalo in Week 3 so I expect a negative game script leading to Heinicke to go over his 236.5 line for passing yards. Williams is averaging 6.5 yards per carry and continues to out-touch Latavius Murray. The Ravens should manage to stay ahead of the Lions providing lots of opportunity for Williams to carry the ball, particularly with Lamar Jackson still a little under the weather.