“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Conference Championship 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 the 2021 AFC and NFC Conference Championship games!

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 the 2021 AFC and NFC Conference Championship games!

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 AFC and NFC Conference Championship contests, along with their 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.
• I don’t have a “Free Square of the Week”™, but I do think there’s some value to be had at RB and WR.
  • Byron Pringle has 33 total targets over his last 5 games averaging over 11 yards per reception over that span.  And he managed to snag 3 TDs in the playoffs so far.  Mahomes seems to like him, which means you should too for his price.
  • Odell Beckham Jr. may not sound like he would be a value, but with Cooper Kupp on the team, his pricing is depressed across industry, even though he’s had 6.4 targets per game and 3 total TDs over his last 5 games.  Matthew Stafford is definitely looking at him more as defenses key on Kupp, so I like slotting him in as a value play in my lineups.
• The key for me this week is to focus on the Chiefs and Bengals offensive players as much as possible, as it has a far higher over/under (54.5) since both defenses have been vulnerable in the postseason, while the Rams and 49ers defense have been routinely locking down high-powered opponents, with the Rams shutting down the Cardinals and Buccaneers and the 49ers shutting down Cowboys and Packers.  So I’m prioritizing Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow at QB.  I’ve been making an exception at RB with Cam Akers and Eli Mitchell and TE with George Kittle as all three are priced down and do have decent floors with upside, which allows you to pay up for other Chiefs (Tyreek Hill, Jerick McKinnon and Travis Kelce) and Bengals (Joe Mixon, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins) players.
• With regard to ThriveFantasy, I’m in on the Cooper Kupp receiving yards prop and Jimmy Garoppolo passing 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!

Good luck everyone with your Conference Championship Cash Lineups, and I’ll see you next week for some Super Bowl Cash Lineups!