“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Conference Championship 2025 Cash Games

January 25, 2025 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 2025 Conference Championships! Yes, it doesn’t always work out, but we’ve cashed 19 out of 21 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 the 2025 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.

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 2025 Conference Championship 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 the Conference Championships is to get pay up at RB and TE and get value at WR.
There really isn’t a “Free Square of the Week”™, but if I’m trying to save cap space I’m playing Austin Ekeler and Dyami Brown. Jayden Daniels isn’t a bad choice, but I prefer getting exposure to the Commanders via cheaper means, and both Ekeler and Brown are priced reasonably. I’m counting on this game being a neutral to negative script for the Commanders, meaning Ekeler should get plenty of targets. Over the 2 playoffs games, Ekeler has caught 7 of 8 targets for 67 receiving yards, and on top of the carries, he should have plenty of upside. Brown should also benefit already having caught 11 of 13 targets for 187 yards and a TD over the two playoff games. His target share and involvement on offense has increased dramatically over the last 5 games, and the Commanders will need him to be productive if they want to beat the Eagles.
On the Eagles side of the NFC Conference Championship, I’m focusing on Saquon Barkley. He’s pretty expensive, but he’s the focus of the Eagles offense with Jalen Hurts less than 100% and the Commanders allowed the 3rd most rushing yards per game (137.5) during the regular season. Barkley has the most rush yards (125) and 9th most rushing TDs (0.81) per game of any RB this season, plus has receiving upside with 43 targets. He’s rushed for more than 115 yards in each postseason contest, averaging 162 rushing yards this playoff. Barkley had two games against Washington this season, rushing for 146 yards and 2 TDs in their first matchup and 150 yards and 2 TDs scores in the second. This is an absolute smash spot for Barkley and I think he’s worth paying up for. I don’t mind sprinkling in Jalen Hurts, AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith, but prefer to get passing exposure from Dallas Goedert who quietly had the 6th most receiving yards per game among TEs this season and has 2 TDs over the last 4 games.
For the AFC Conference Championship, I’m in on a Chiefs stack mostly because of value. It sounds strange, but Chiefs players are among the cheapest option on the main slate, with Patrick Mahomes being the cheapest QB and Kareem Hunt being the cheapest RB1 across industry. Hunt has out touched Isiah Pacheco 18 to 12 and has both of the Chiefs rushing TDs in the postseason, plus the Bills allowed the most receiving yards (44.1) and receiving TDs (0.4) per game to opposing RBs this season. And even though Tarvis Kelce is the most expensive TE on the slate, he’s also discounted about 25% from where he was last season in DFS. Kelce’s is averaging 100.5 yards and a TD in the playoffs so far, and it’s pretty clear that when he’s Mahomes’ primary target in the postseason. Mahomes isn’t as explosive as he’s been in the past, but he’s still averaging almost 250 passing yards and 2 TDs per playoff game, and is well worth the discounted pricing, particularly against a Bills defense that allowed the 9th most passing yards per game (226.1) and the 8th most passing TDs (28) during the regular season. Obviously, Xavier Worthy is also in play but is a little pricy in a mostly unpredictable Kansas City WR room, so if I have to save more cap space, I’m looking to gamble with Hollywood Brown instead. Prior to the stinker last week, in two games back from injury, Brown had 9 receptions on a whopping 15 targets.
As for the Bills, Josh Allen has the 12th most passing yards (235), 6th most passing TDs (1.76) and 5th most rushing yards (33.94) per game of any QB this season. The Chiefs allow the 7th most rush yards per game (25.5) to opposing QBs and clearly that’s where Allen excels with 66 rush yards and 2 rushing TDs so far this postseason. As far as pass catchers, it’s pretty much anyone’s guess, but I prefer Khalil Shakir who typically operates on short and medium routes which I expect the Bills to take advantage of to maintain time of possession. James Cook has had a mini-breakout with a 7 TDs over his last 6 games and was only the 4th RB to exceed 100 rush yards against a tough Broncos defense this year. In fact, Cook had the most rushing TDs per game of any RB in the NFL during the regular season. That being said, the Chiefs aren’t particularly vulnerable to the run, so I’ll sprinkle him in, but prefer to pay down after Barkley.
As for defense, you know I love paying down and getting value to spend more of the cap space elsewhere, and this week we I’d just take whatever fits your build. If you go with a Chiefs stack, perhaps you play the Chiefs defense as well, and if you think the Bills can play ball control, then perhaps play the Bills Defense. But keep in mind that the Commanders defense, regardless of allowing lots of points, has been incredibly opportunistic with 6 turnovers in the postseason and a defensive TD.