“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 18 2024 Cash Games

January 3, 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 Week 18 of the 2024 season! Yes, it doesn’t always work out, but we’ve cashed 15 out of 17 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 18 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 18 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 18 is to either pay up or go all the way down for value at QB, pay down for RB since there’s so many value plays, including playing an RB at the FLEX, then pay up for quality WRs and TE.
The “Free Squares of the Week”™ are Blake Corum, Ray Davis, Michael Carter and Kenneth Gainwell.
- All four are backups who get a chance to start because of resting or injured starters and they each have solid matchups for different reasons. Blake Corum faces the Seahawks, who have allowed the 9th most yards per carry (4.6), Ray Davis faces the Patriots, who have allowed the 8th most rush yards (131.4), Michael Carter faces the 49ers, who have allowed the 2nd most rushing TDs (22), and Kenneth Gainwell faces the Giants who have allowed the 9th most rushing TDs (19) and 2nd most rush yards (141.6). All of them are near minimum salary, so I’m stocking up in both RB slots and the FLEX slot.
The New Orleans Saints @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers game is tied for the 2nd highest over/under of the main slate (43.5), so there’s also plenty of opportunity here. Essentially every Buc hit paydirt in Week 17, and Week 18 is a must win to guarantee the playoffs. 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 6 times over the last 4 games and is cheaper. Mayfield makes a for a nice play at QB with all the weapons and Irving is once again in a smash spot against the 3rd worst run defense in the NFL allowing 139.1 rush yards per game. Absolutely feel free to play more than one Buc this week. As for the Saints, I’m probably staying away from them, even if Derek Carr and Alvin Kamara miraculously return to the field.
The Carolina Panthers @ Atlanta Falcons game has the highest over/under of the main slate (48.5), so there’s also plenty of opportunity here. Carolina’s defense is giving up the most yards (396.3) and most points per game (31.0) to opposing offenses. Specifically, the Panthers allow the 3rd highest passer rating to opposing QBs and allow the most rushing yards per game, 2nd most rushing TDs and the most rushing yards per attempt to opposing RBs. So the Falcons are in play, including Michael Penix Jr., Bijan Robinson, Drake London and Kyle Pitts. Unfortunately, Robinson is probably my favorite play but near the most expensive RB across industry. Since there’s so much RB value elsewhere, I’m probably not going to have a significant share. For the Panthers, Adam Thielen and Bryce Young are both in play as both have been playing lights out since Thielen’s return from injury.
With Brock Purdy injured late in Week 17, Josh Dobbs stepped in against the Lions and in limited playing time completed 3 of 4 passes for 35 yards and added a 7-yard rushing TD. Purdy has been ruled out, which means Dobbs in in line for Week 18 and he’s literally minimum salary across industry. Remember that last year, Dobbs had some success with the Cardinals and Vikings totaling 13 passing TDs and 6 rushing TDs in 12 games, averaging 190 passing yards and just over 30 rush yards per game. Dobbs tends to do his best on his first couple starts for a new team, and he gets a nice matchup against the Cardinals, who have given up nine QB TDs over the last 6 weeks. That being said, Dobbs scrambling ability will likely open up some lanes for Isaac Guerendo as well, so I like sprinkling him in at RB as another low cost option.
On the other side, Trey McBride is a strong play at TE. He’s averaged 6.9 receptions on 9.1 targets for 72.1 receiving yards per game. Last time he faced the 49ers, McBride caught 6 of 9 targets for 53 yards, but that’s the floor in my opinion with TD upside playing with his usual QB in Kylar Murray.
Brock Bowers and Jacoby Meyers are the two brights spots on the Raiders. Bowers in particular has had a spectacular rookie season, setting the record for most for most receptions in a season by any Raider and most receptions ever by a rookie in the NFL (108). Bowers also broke Mike Ditka’s 1961 rookie TE receiving record with 1,144 receiving yards. He’s caught a whopping 18 of 20 targets for 176 yards over the last two games, and I don’t see him slowing down for the last game of the season. Meyers hasn’t as made as big a splash, but over the last 6 games, he’s averaged 5.8 receptions on 9.8 targets for 74.3 receiving yards.
If you have the Minnesota Vikings @ Detroit Lions game on your slate, you’re in luck. The game has the highest over/under of the weekend (56.5) with just a 2,5 point spread, so there’s tons of opportunity here in a game which has significant playoff implications for both teams. For the Vikings, Sam Darnold, Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison top the list and for the Lions, I like Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs and Sam LaPorta. I’m slightly favoring the Vikings skill players as the Lions have allowed 32.5 points and 428.5 yards per game over their last 4 games, mostly due to significant injuries on defense.
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 Seattle Seahawks Defense facing the Rams who will be resting most of their starters and the New York Jets Defense who will be facing a Dolphins team starting Tyler Huntley under center.