“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Wild Card Weekend 2021 Cash Games

January 15, 2022

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 Wild Card Weekend 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 Wild Card Weekend 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 Wild Card Weekend 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.
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.
- Devin Singletary appears to have control of the Bills backfield and has exceeded 100 total yards in each of his last 2 games with 6 total TDs over his last 4, including one against the Patriots. He’s mid-priced and has a nice floor facing the Patriots again seeing as how he gets plenty of touches on the ground and through the air.
- Darrel Williams will get the start in Kansas City with Clyde Edwards-Hillaire ruled out and is priced as a backup across most sites. He’s worth playing to save cap space while still having an RB1 in one of the most prolific offenses in the league.
- Cedric Wilson has stepped up with Michael Gallup out garnering 6 targets in each of his last two games while snagging 3 total TDs. He’s very discounted across industry and is a great way to save on cap space.
- Byron Pringle has 19 total targets over his last 3 games averaging almost 12 yards per reception over that span. Mahomes seems to like him, which means you should too for his rock bottom price.
At QB, I’m either paying up for Patrick Mahomes or paying down to Matthew Stafford. Mahomes faces the 25th ranked Steelers defense while averaging the 5th most passing yards (284) and 6th most passing TDs (2.17) per game this season. Playoff Mahomes looks healthy and should be looking to redeem what could be considered a “down year” after an embarrassing beat down in Super Bowl LV. Stafford has been pretty hit or miss recently in terms of efficiency, but he’s still averaging the 4th most yards (287) and 2nd most TDs (2.41) per game of any QB in the league this season. The Cardinals will be a tough matchup, but he’ll have to throw to win so I like the opportunity.
I’m doing the same at TE, paying up for Travis Kelce or paying down for Zach Ertz. Kelce is a no brainer with the 2nd most receiving yards and 4th most TDs from the 2nd most receptions per game of any TE this season. Ertz has quietly racked up a whopping 43 targets in his last 4 games. Opportunity is 50% of success in fantasy football, so feel free to roster him and save some cap space.
With regard to ThriveFantasy, I’m in on the Jalen Hurts passing + rushing yards prop and Tom Brady completions prop. Want to know why? Check out our “Scares & Dares”™️ podcast episode, and also get Joanne’s player prop bet picks of the week!