“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 5 2021 Cash Games

October 8, 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 5 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 5 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! Also, new users will get these special promotions:

Deposit $10 and receive: 1 FREE $50K GTD Sunday NFL Ticket
Deposit $100 receive: 3 FREE $50K GTD Sunday NFL Tickets

So, without further to do, here are my suggestions for the Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games for Week 5 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.
The “Free Square of the Week”™ is Damien Williams. With David Montgomery on IR, Damien Williams will be leading the backfield in Chicago. He’ essentially be a bell cow with Tarik Cohen still on IR, and only rookie Khalil Herbert left on the depth chart. Add in the fact that the Raiders allow the 10th most rushing yards per game (132.3) in the NFL this season and I love the value you get from Williams. Williams is priced down across industry since prices were set before Montgomery was ruled out, so lock him in while you can.
The San Francisco 49ers @ Arizona Cardinals game has the 3rd highest over/under of (50) of the regular Sunday slate, with the Cardinals favored by 5. I love the shootout potential here, particularly with Jimmy G unlikely to suit up and the athletic rookie Trey Lance looking likely to start under center for the 49ers and the Cardinals being the most prolific and dangerous offense in the NFL this season. I like Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins on the Cardinals and really like Deebo Samuel, George Kittle and Trey Lance (in that order) on the 49ers.
- UPDATE – Trey Lance confirmed as starting and George Kittle ruled out for Sunday.
In Week 3, Alvin Kamara had a season-high 27 touches, totaling 118 combined yards and a TD. Then he played the Giants in Week 4 and set a season-high in carries with 26 for 120 yards. If I’m paying up, I like Kamara’s matchup against a Washington defense that is ranked 3rd to last this season.
I love paying up a little this week for one or two top end WRs, including Davante Adams, DJ Moore and Justin Jefferson. Adams has the most receptions (7.75) from the 2nd most targets (11.25) per game of any WR in the NFL this season. Clearly, Aaron Rodgers loves him and will lock on each and every week. Moore quietly has the 4th most receiving yards (99.5) from the 3rd most receptions (7.5) per game this season, and I is a little bit cheaper across industry. CMC still isn’t 100%, so Moore should continue to pick up the slack. And finally, Jefferson has been consistent all year averaging 84.5 receiving yards per game and totaling 3 TDs, and he now faces the bottom barrel Lions defense. Should be plenty of production to go around, particularly with Dalvin Cook not yet 100%.
With Rob Gronkowski out, I like Antonio Brown and Cameron Brate to pick up the slack this week against the Miami Dolphins. Brown got 11 targets and Brate got 6 targets last week without Gronk, and that was in the rain. Imagine what they can do when it’s dry? Both are reasonably priced, and I like Brown better, but Brate is a decent TE punt.
With Joe Mixon much less than 100%, I don’t mind using Samaje Perine as an RB or FLEX punt to open up some cap space.
I really like Mike Gesicki‘s chances to get some production against the Bucs this weekend as Miami will need to throw a lot to keep up. Plus, the Bucs are quietly ranked the worst pass defense in the league. Gesicki has averaged 8 targets over the last 3 weeks and should have some TD upside as well.
On defense, I love taking value and paying down, which has me all in on the Minnesota Vikings defense against the cellar-dweller Detroit Lions. The Lions have scored the 9th least points per game this season (20.3), also having allowed 10 total sacks and 5 total giveaways. The Vikings have the 5th most sacks this season (13). Need I say more? The Vikings are cheap across industry, so lock them in. I also don’t mind the Dallas Cowboys defense, who have the second most takeaways this season (10), facing off against the division rival New York Giants.
With regard to ThriveFantasy, I really like the CeeDee Lamb and Keenan Allen receiving yards props. The New York Giants have allowed Jerry Jeudy. Terry McLaurin and Marquez Callaway exceed 67.5 yards over the first four weeks. The Cowboys sometimes go ground heavy, but the Giants allowed the 6th most receptions of any team this season, so I like Lamb’s chances to break the modest 67.5 yard total. The Cleveland Browns have allowed Tyreek Hill, Brandin Cooks and Justin Jefferson to eclipse 76.5 yards over the first 4 weeks. Allen should be able to reach that as well being the clear WR1 for the Chargers, and Justin Herbert’s favorite target.