“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 2 2023 Cash Games

September 15, 2023

By Ha Kung Wong

In 2022, we were over 70% for cash lineups again and we’re back with more Daily Fantasy Football advice for Cash Games for Week 2 of the 2023 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 as we did last year, we’re also adding our top two player prop picks to help you win even MORE money!

Let’s get to winning you some CASH in Week 2 of the 2023 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 2 contests, along with they’re prices.

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 and Christian McCaffrey 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.
My approach to DFS in Week 2 is to rely on at least one solid RB and WR to anchor my team, take a mid-ranged QB and fill up the remainder with value, particularly at TE.
The “Free Square of the Week”™ is AJ Dillon. Aaron Jones broke out in a big way in Week 1, but also ended up injuring his hamstring. Dillon stepped in to take over the backfield after Jones left and is the clear lead back if Jones can’t suit up in Week 2. Jones hasn’t been able to practice all week and is being listed as questionable, so it isn’t looking good. If Dillon takes the RB1 spot for the Packers in Week 2, he gets to face the Atlanta Falcons and their 28th ranked run defense. That’s some terrific upside here for hugely discounted pricing.
- Note that if Aaron Jones does suit up, I’ll likely pivot these to Joshua Kelley.
- UPDATE (9/17/23) – Aaron Jones appears unlikely to play in Week 2.

Packers’ RB Aaron Jones, listed as questionable for Sunday’s game due to a hamstring injury, is not expected to play vs. the Falcons, per sources. The Packers promoted RB Patrick Taylor from their practice squad Saturday.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 17, 2023

The Kansas City Chiefs @ Jacksonville Jaguars game has the highest over/under of the weekend (51.5) and just a spread of 3.5, so I’m in on most of the skill players here, particularly Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce for the Chiefs against the Jaguars 22nd ranked pass defense and Trevor Lawrence, Calvin Ridley and Travis Etienne for the Jaguars against the Chiefs 27th ranked pass defense. Lawrence in particular made huge strides last season with the 7th most passing yards and 6th most passing TDs in the NFL and had a solid start to the season. Ridley carried had a big first half in Week 1 and ended the game running routes on 97% of plays with a 35% target share and a 50% endzone target share. I don’t see either slowing down in Week 2.
The Los Angeles Chargers offense arguably is my favorite offense to stack this weekend, in particular prioritizing Justin Herbert, Keenan Allen and Joshua Kelley. Austin Ekeler is being listed as doubtful for Week 2, so Kelley gets to build on his 91 yards and a TD from Week 1 by facing the Tennessee Titans 25th ranked run defense, and he gets to do that at an extremely discounted price. As I mentioned above, if Dillon is not the lead back for Green Bay, I’ll be pivoting to Kelley. Herbert and Allen get to also build on a big Week 1 facing the Titans 28th ranked pass defense.

Chargers are listing RB Austin Ekeler as doubtful for Sunday vs. Titans due to an ankle injury.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 15, 2023

As I mentioned, I like paying up for a premium RB, and you don’t get more premium than Christian McCaffrey. His high involvement in the passing game gets him a nice floor, particularly for full PPR sites like Draft Kings, and you already know he gets plenty of touches in San Francisco. In fact, in Week 1, he had his longest run since joining the 49ers and got every redzone snap. I would be surprised if he doesn’t at least break 100 total yards and a TD.
David Montgomery was Detroit’s top back in Week 1 playing 55 snaps, touching the ball 21 times and scoring a TD. He’s priced aggressively and gets to face a weak Seahawks rushing defense that allowed 3 rushing TDs to the Rams’ running backs in Week 1.
James Cook is getting the majority of RB snaps in Buffalo and also managed to garner 6 targets in Week 1. The Bills are looking to bounce back against a Raiders defense that was 5th worst last season defending the run. He’s reasonably priced and should be very involved with the offense.
Amon-Ra St. Brown got off to a strong start in Week 1 and gets a favorable matchup this week versus a Seattle Seahawks secondary (currently ranked second to last in the league) that was just burnt by the Rams WRs without Cooper Kupp. St. Brown should remain the center of the Lions’ offense and I only see him picking up steam in Week 2.
Treylon Burks is a great value play this week with his dirtcheap pricing and DeAndre Hopkins potentially dealing with an ankle injury. He faces the Chargers defense which is currently last in the league against the pass.
Another injury special as J.K. Dobbins is out for the season with a torn achilles. Last week Gus Edwards got more carries when Dobbins went out, but Justice Hill got all the goal line touches (cashing in 2 of them) and gets most of the passing game work. So, I’m siding with Hill over Edwards, particularly at a slight discount.
I love Nico Collins. He’s extremely cheap and saw the 5th most targets (11) among WRs in Week 1. He was among the top 5 WRs last week in terms of target share and air yards share. CJ Stroud isn’t afraid to throw the ball and the Colts have just the 25th ranked pass defense.
Sam LaPorta is a great value at TE, participating in 83% of the offensive snaps in Week 1 and catching all 5 targets for 39 yards. He’s cheap and will have terrific opportunities in Week 2. The other TE I like is Luke Musgrave. He caught 3 of 4 targets for 50 yards in Week 1 and it looks like Christian Watson will miss another week due to injury, meaning Musgrave may become the de facto number 2 target for Green Bay again.
On defense, I love taking value and paying down, and one of the better defenses of the weekend, the Denver Broncos Defense, is almost minimum salary on Yahoo (and reasonably priced on FanDuel). They face the Commanders this week who allowed 6 sacks and a defensive score in Week 1. On FanDuel I like the Houston Texans Defense, who had 4 sacks and 2 turnovers in Week 1, against the Indianapolis Colts and on Draft Kings I prefer the Baltimore Ravens Defense, who had 5 sacks and a fumble recovery in Week 1, against the Cincinnati Bengals, which is essentially paying all the way down on both sites but reserving some upside.