“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 18 2022 Cash Games

January 7, 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 Week 18 of the 2022 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!

Let’s get to winning you some CASH in Week 18 of the 2022 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.

So, without further to do, here are my suggestions for the Best Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Cash Games and player props for Week 18 contests, along with they’re prices.

UPDATE (1/8/23 – 11:30 AM ET):

Mark Andrews is INACTIVE. I’ve replaced him in below lineups with Taysom Hill, Tyler Higbee, Dallas Goedert, George Kittle, David Njoku and Pat Freiermuth.

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.
Week 18 is rough for DFS since there’s lots of shifting motivation for teams to play starters with the playoff picture constantly changing throughout the gameday. So, my approach to DFS in Week 18 is to pay up for a top end QB that’s likely to play the entire game since taking a hit at the QB position is tough to recover from. I’ll get my value from the RB and WR positions but also pay up at TE.
No real “Free Square of the Week”™ this week but is you’re looking to punt at RB or Flex, I like both Corey Clement and Jonathan Williams.
- James Connor has been ruled out with a shin/knee injury so Corey Clement and Keaontay Ingram will take over. But is was Clement that got 29 snaps and 7 carries when Connor went out in Week 17. Not a sure thing, but he should have plenty of opportunity.
- Similarly, Brian Robinson has been ruled out, Antonio Gibson placed on IR and JD McKissic is still on IR, so it’s time for Jonathan Williams to just new Washington QB Sam Howell. It’s not going to be predictable, but he has a clear path to touches and costs almost nothing.
The New England Patriots @ Buffalo Bills game has the highest over/under (43.5) this weekend, and both teams have something to play for, so I like this game. I’m not a huge fan of the Patriots inconsistent offense, but I’m pretty much on board with Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs, Gabe Davis and Dawson Knox.
The Los Angeles Rams @ Seattle Seahawks have the 2nd highest over/under (42.5) this weekend and the Seahawks are motivated to win to have a chance at making the playoffs. For the Seahawks, I love Kenneth Walker who looks to be back fully healthy over the last two weeks, totaling 49 carries for 240 yards. Walker only needs 64 rushing yards to reach 1,000 yards on the season, so he has some personal motivation as well. Other than that, I don’t mine also playing DK Metcalf. The only Rams player I trust is Cam Akers, who’s come back to life in the back half of the season. He’s had a TD or at least 100 total yards in each of his last 5 games.
The Baltimore Ravens @ Cincinnati Bengals game has the doesn’t have the highest over/under (39.5) but both teams theoretically have something to play for. The Ravens are going to have issues again without Lamar Jackson, but I still like Mark Andrews who has the 3rd most receptions (4.86) on the 3rd most targets (7.53) for the 3rd most receiving yards (56.46) per game among TEs this season. For the Bengals, I like Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Joe Mixon and Tee Higgins, in that order. Burrow has the second most passing TDs per game (2.18) this season and should get at least two in Week 18.
- UPDATE (1/8/23) – Mark Andrews is INACTIVE. DO NOT play him in DFS. Look to Taysom Hill, Tyler Higbee, Dallas Goedert, George Kittle, David Njoku and Pat Freiermuth.
The hottest Carolina player lately is the resurgent D.J. Moore who’s had at least 70 yards and a TD in each of his last 4 games. Moore needs 122 receiving yards to reach 1,000 for the 4th straight season, so he also has some personal motivation this week even though his team has been eliminated from the playoffs.
I also like Chris Olave as he’s averaged 7.64 targets per game this season and only needs 18 more receiving yards to reach 1,000 for the year. The Panthers are just 23rd defending the pass, so there’s a solid matchup for him to reach that goal.
Don’t forget that the Atlanta Falcons Defense gets to face the Arizona Cardinals with David Blough under center, their 4th string QB who just joined the team a little over 2 weeks ago. Also, don’t forget that the top end San Francisco 49ers Defense is facing the Las Vegas Raiders who have just benched Derek Carr in favor of Jarrett Stidham. Both have great matchups.