“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 8 2021 Cash Games

By Ha Kung Wong 

Twitter: @FBGarbageTime

In 2020, we were over 70% for cash lineups and we’re back with more Daily Fantasy Football advice for Cash Games for Week 8 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 8 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, users will get these special promotions:

• Pick 2/2 players correctly and win 4x your entry amount
• Pick 3/3 players correctly and win 7x your entry amount
• Pick 4/4 players correctly and win 12x your entry amount ($10 entry wins $120!)

So, without further to do, here are my suggestions for the Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games for Week 8 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 Josh Allen and Derrick Henry 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 Khalil Herbert.
  • No David Montgomery leaves Herbert and Damien Williams in charge of the Bears backfield, but Williams hardly touched the ball in Week 7 returning from from the COVID list.  Herbert has leaped Williams as the number 2 RB behind Montgomery even if Williams is 100%.  He became the first RB this season to run for 100 yards against a tough Buccaneers defense, playing 77%of snaps, and gets a much better matchup this week against the 49ers, who are 20th against the run.  Oh, and he’s also involved catching passes.  His price point still isn’t in line with other starting RBs, so take advantage while you can.
• The Tennessee Titans @ Indianapolis Colts has the highest over/under of (57.5) of the Sunday afternoon slate, with the Colts favored by 2.5.  I love the shootout potential here with two terrific teams, so on the Titans side, if you have the cap space, Derrick Henry is in play, plus you’re welcome to play some Ryan Tannehill & AJ Brown.  On the Colts side, I really like everyone, but in terms of value, I like specifically like Michael Pittman, Jonathan Taylor and Carson Wentz, in that order.  With respect to Taylor, he has over 100 combined yards in his last four starts, leading to 553 combined yards with six touchdowns and 10 catches while averaging 6.5 yards per rush.  Watch the rib issue, but Taylor is trending up fast.
• My favorite QBs of the week are Matt Stafford, Jalen Hurts and, if you’re looking to punt the position, Teddy Bridgewater.
  • Stafford has the 3rd most passing yards (310) and 2nd most passing TDs (2.71) per game and is facing the imploding Houston Texans, who have the 7th worst defense in the league.
    • For the same reasons, I also like Tyler Higbee at TE this week, as he’s priced way down and is averaging about 5 targets a week this season.  Desean Jackson isn’t playing after requesting a trade, which isn’t really 1-for-1 for Higbee, but it does open up a few more targets for Higbee.
  • Hurts hasn’t had the passing upside, but his 51.57 rush yards per game is the 2nd most among QBs this season, and his 5 rushing TDs lead all QBs this season, so I love his floor against the Lions, who have the 8th worst defense in the NFL.  The Lions are also only 22nd defending wideouts and are allowing 15.7 yards per catch with a high catch rate (68.8).  Hurts and his targets should feast while also having the rush yard floor.
  • Bridgewater faces the Washington Football Team, which are ranked last in the NFL defending against the pass and have allowed QBs in the last six games exceed 26 Fantasy points. Bridgewater has been above average and now gets Jerry Jeudy back. Generally speaking, always feel free to play a QB against Washington.
• Everybody on the Buffalo Bills passing attack is on my radar as well since Miami is 30th in pass defense and dead last in overall defense.  If you have cap space, feel free to use Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs, but I like getting exposure through a much cheaper Emmanuel Sanders who’s been averaging 6.5 targets per game this season with 4 total TDs in the last 4 weeks.
• On defense, I love taking value and paying down, which has me all in on the Chicago Bears defense, which got destroyed last week against the Bucs, but gets a much easier matchup this week against the 49ers and has the MOST sacks (21) in the NFL this season.  They’re essentially minimum salary this week, so I’m saving here to pay up elsewhere.  I also like the Cincinnati Bengals defense against the struggling injured Jets on Draft Kings and the Pittsburgh Steelers defense against the Cleveland Browns on Yahoo, both being underpriced.
• With regard to ThriveFantasy, I really like the Kyle Pitts receiving yards prop and Jared Goff passing yards props.  Kyle Pitts is a beast and he’s finally broke out and now has the most receiving yards (78.5) and 4th most targets (7.33) per game among TEs.  Exceeding 62.5 yards shouldn’t be a problem for Pitts.  Jared Goff on the other hand is looking like the Goff we remember from even before his first pseudo-breakout on the Rams.  The Eagles allow an average of 227.7 passing yards per game. Goff has exceeded 268 yards only twice this year, once against the Bears and once against the 49ers in the first game of the year.  I think he falls short of 265.5 passing yards this week.

Good luck everyone with your Week 8 Cash Lineups, and I’ll see you next week for some Week 9 Cash Lineups!