“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 15 2021 Cash Games

December 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 15 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 15 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 15 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 Davante Adams 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.
This week is a little unique due to all the postponed games because of COVID, so we have a lot less options in the regular slates. Because of that, I don’t have a “Free Square of the Week”™, but I do think there’s some value to be had. In particular, with Corey Davis and Elijah Moore out due to injury, I like using Braxton Berrios as a WR/Flex punt play to open up cap space elsewhere. Berrios had 6 receptions on a whopping 10 targets for 52 yards last week with Davis and Moore out, leading the Jets on all three of those stats, and I don’t see why he can’t do that again with TD upside, which should meet or exceed his near minimum pricing.
The first decision you have to make is whether you’re paying up or down at QB.
- If you pay up, I like going all the way up to Kylar Murray against the defensively challenged Detroit Lions. Sure, it’s possible that the Cardinals get up big and may not need Murray to do much, but after dropping an important game against the Rams in primetime, I think Murray keeps his foot on the gas this week, even with DeAndre Hopkins out for the rest of the regular season due to injury. Speaking of which, AJ Green used to be good and reminded us again how good he was when he managed to grab 7 of 10 targets for 102 yards last week. There will be more targets to go around with Hopkins, and Green is a nice value play across industry. Plus, the Cardinals @ Lions has the highest over/under (47.5) of the regular slate. So if you want to play more Cardinals, I wouldn’t fault you for that.
- If you pay down, I like paying way down to Ben Roethlisberger against the Tennessee Titans, who are perhaps surprisingly bottom 10 defending against the pass. Plus, Ben has multiple TDs in 4 of his last 5 games and is coming of a 300-yard passing day against the Vikings. I like the upside compared to the rock bottom pricing. And I don’t mind also taking Ben’s favorite WR, Diontae Johnson, who quietly has the 2nd most targets (10.83), 6th most receptions (6.75) and 7th most receiving yards (82.5) per game of any WR in the league.
The next decision is what to do about RBs. There really aren’t any terrific premium options in the regular slate, so I’ve been gravitating towards James Robinson, since his recent performance has depressed his price, and he’s primed for a breakout with Urban Meyer fired and facing the Houston Texans defense who are ranked LAST in the league against the run. To make things better, Robinson no longer has an injury and Carlos Hyde has already been ruled out with a concussion. If ever there were a scenario for Robinson to be successful, this would be it.
At WR, if possible, I like jamming Davante Adams into my lineups. He’s facing a Ravens defense that’s second worst in the NFL defending against the pass and is not-so-quietly garnering the 2nd most receiving yards (100) and the 2nd most receptions (7.5) from the 3rd most targets (10.66) per game of any WR in the league. He’s the epitome of safe floor plus high upside.
On defense, I love taking value and paying down, which means that I like the San Francisco 49ers defense against the Atlanta Falcons and the Denver Broncos defense against the Cincinnati Bengals. The 49ers have 9 sacks and 5 takeaways over the last two games and has a plus matchup against a Falcons offense that averages just 18.8 points. The Broncos face a Bengals team that have the 6th most giveaways (21) and have allowed the 3rd most sacks (41) this season. Feel free to mix and match.
With regard to ThriveFantasy, I’m in on the Matt Stafford passing TDs + INTs prop and Chris Godwins receiving yards prop. Want to know why? Check out our “Scares & Dares”™️ podcast episode, and also get Joanne’s player prop bet picks of the week!