“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Conference Championship 2022 Cash Games

January 25, 2023

By Ha Kung Wong

In 2021, we were over 70% for cash lineups and we’re back with more Daily Fantasy Football advice for Cash Games for the AFC and NFC Conference Championships!

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!

Let’s get to winning you some CASH in the Conference Championships!

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 and give you a few notes to consider. You’re welcome.

So, without further to do, here are my suggestions for the Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games and player props for the Conference Championship contests, along with they’re prices.

UPDATE – Jan. 29, 2023 – 1:30 PM ET

Eli Mitchell has been RULED OUT. I’m happy to be overweight on Christian McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel, and punt with Jordan Mason at his minimum pricing.

FanDuel

Draft Kings

Yahoo! DFS

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 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.
For the Conference Championship slate, I like getting my value at RB and paying up elsewhere. With that said, don’t forget to put in a few different lineups and diversify your exposure to premium cap players on each team.
No real “Free Square of the Week”™ this week but as I mentioned I like getting value at RB, I like Isaiah Pacheco, Jerick McKinnon and Elijah Mitchell.
- Isaiah Pacheco has really come on in recent weeks. He’s had at least 70 yards or a TD in 7 of his last 8 games, putting up 101 total yards on 13 touches, most of which after Patrick Mahome injured his ankle. I’d be surprised if the Chiefs don’t rely on the run more to take pressure off Mahomes against the Bengals, and Pacheco’s price is still pretty low across the industry.
- Jerik McKinnon wasn’t great last week with 11 carries for just 25 yards, but he has a whopping 8 receiving TDs in the previous 6 games. As I mentioned above, I think the Chiefs lean more heavily on the run and on short passes with Mahomes not able to extend plays with the high ankle sprain.
- Elijah Mitchell returned from injury in Week 18 to join Christian McCaffrey in the backfield and still put up 55 yards and 2 TDs. And in the Wild Card game, Mitchell came through again with 4 touches for 27 total yards and a TD. He didn’t do much in the Divisional Round game, but he still got 14 carries, particularly with CMC having a calf injury. The 49ers are still a run first team with Brock Purdy under center and will continue to rotate both Mitchell and CMC since both have injuries, but Mitchell has proved be a significant part of the offense at a very discounted price, which should meet value against an Eagles defense that’s only 18th against the run this season.
I’m generally favoring Bengals and Chiefs players this week as it’s the game with the higher over/under (47.5) and the weaker pair of defenses. I’m all in on the Bengals offense, including Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Joe Mixon. Burrow in particular might be my favorite QB of the week against a Chiefs defense vulnerable to the pass and don’t forget that Burrow had the second most passing TDs per game (2.18) this season. As for the Chiefs, I’m in on Travis Kelce and Kadarius Toney, in addition to the afore mentioned RBs. Kelce had 14 receptions last weekend and Toney targeted on 60% of his routes, leading all WRs on receptions and yards. Check out my preview and prediction for the AFC Conference Championship for more as to why I like these particular players.
I’m not as bullish on the Eagles and 49ers as these are two of the best defenses in the league. That being said, I do like the 49ers RBs Christian McCaffrey and Elijah Mitchell (as noted above) since the Eagles are vulnerable to the run. I don’t mind sprinkling in Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk and I do think the 49ers will need some short passes to keep the chains moving occasionally, but I’d temper expectations against the number 1 pass defense in the league. As for the Eagles, Jalen Hurts is probably my second favorite QB based on his rushing floor, and I don’t mind getting some exposure to AJ Brown and Dallas Goedert, but again, I’d temper expectations against the 49ers defense which allowed the least points to opposing offenses during the regular season. Check out my preview and prediction for the NFC Conference Championship for more as to why I like these particular players.