“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 17 2024 Cash Games

December 28, 2024 Leave a comment

By Ha Kung Wong

In 2023, we were over 70% for cash lineups again and we’re back with more Daily Fantasy Football advice for Cash Games for Week 17 of the 2024 season! Yes, it doesn’t always work out, but we’ve cashed 14 out of 16 weeks this 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 17 of the 2024 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.

Also, starting this season, Fan Duel will be giving yards bonuses similar to Draft Kings.

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 for Week 17 contests.

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 Lamar Jackson and Saquon Barkley 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 16 is to either pay up or go all the way down for value at QB but pay up for RB and get value at WR and TE.
The “Free Square of the Week”™ is Chigoziem Okonkwo.
- Apparently, Mason Rudolph likes Okonkwo, so you should too. Since Week 15, when Rudolph replaced Will Levis, he’s totaled a whopping 17 receptions on 21 targets on a 26.4% target share for 140 receiving yards and 2.80 yards per route run. He’s essentially minimum salary across industry, so he’s a great way to open up salary elsewhere.
The Carolina Panthers @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers game has the 3rd highest over/under of the main slate (48.5), so there’s also plenty of opportunity here. In Week 13, the Buccaneers beat the Panthers 26-23 in overtime managing rack up 445 yards of offense. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that again, as Carolina’s defense is giving up the 2nd most yards (385.9) and most points per game (29.9) to opposing offenses. Specifically, the Panthers allow the 3rd highest passer rating (102.2) to opposing QBs and allow the most rushing yards per game (175.2), 2nd most rushing TDs (21) and the most rushing yards per attempt to opposing RBs. That means essentially everyone on the Buccaneers is in play, including Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans, Jalen McMillan and Bucky Irving. Mike Evans is commanding the most targets, but McMillan did score twice last week and is a lot cheaper. Mayfield makes a for a nice value play at QB with all the weapons and a must win week after slipping in Week 16. And Irving is in a complete smash spot against the worst run offense in the NFL. Absolutely feel free to play more than one Buc this week.
The Green Packers @ Minnesota Vikings game has the 2nd highest over/under of the main slate (48.5), so there’s also plenty of opportunity here. In Week 4 the the Vikings and Packers combined for 60 points with Green Bay totaling 465 yards on offense and Minnesota had 374 yards on offense, with Sam Darnold passing for 275 yards and three TDs and an interception and Jordan Love passing for 389, four TDs and 3 interceptions. Both get to face each other again in an important NFC North match up and I like players on both sides. For the Vikings, Sam Darnold, Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison top the list and for the Packers, I like Romeo Doubs. In particular, Jefferson is one of the top plays this week having the 6th most receptions (92), 2nd most receiving yards per game (92.5) and 4th most receiving touchdowns (10).
Tyjae Spears has taken over as the lead back for the Titans playing 57.5 percent of snaps over the last two weeks and getting the majority of the goal line carries. The Jaguars allow 127.9 rush yards per game and have allowed the 9th most rushing TDs (19) this season. For the discounted price, Spears verges on a Free Square.
It’s not like I think the Cowboys offense is good, but they’ve been giving it the good fight as of late with Cooper Rush under center winning 4 of their last 5. With CeeDee Lamb being shut down for the rest of the season with an AC joint injury, Brandin Cooks and Jalen Tolbert look to benefit with some increased targets, as would Jake Ferguson. The Eagles have been solid on defense, but I’d think the Cowboys will want to play spoiler. All three Cowboys are really cheap across industry, but I prefer Cooks and Ferguson since Tolbert has a pending finger injury.
As for defense, you know I love paying down and getting value to spend more of the cap space elsewhere, and this week we got a decent cheap option with the Las Vegas Raiders Defense facing the Saints who will be without Derek Carr and Alvin Kamara again.