“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 3 2025 Cash Games

September 18, 2025

By Ha Kung Wong

In 2024, we were over 70% for cash lineups again and we’re back with more Daily Fantasy Football advice for Cash Games for Week 3 of the 2025 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 3 of the 2025 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 3 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 Josh Allen and Jahmyr Gibbs 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 3 is to pay up for a stud RB mostly go mid-priced on WRs and TE while finding value at QB.
The “Free Square of the Week”™ is Jordan Mason. With Aaron Jones out with an injury, Mason has a very clear path to 20+ touches in the backfield. When Mason was filling in for Christian McCaffrey last year, he put up three 100-plus yard rushing performances in 4 games, averaging over 5 yards per carry. The Bengals are better at stopping the run than the pass, but they just gave up 176 total yards and 2 TDs to the Jaguars’ running backs on just 28 touches. There should be plenty of scoring opportunities for Mason to go along with his low-end price tag.
The Dallas Cowboys @ Chicago Bears game has the highest over/under of the main slate (50.5), so I’m in on most of the skill players here on both teams, with Dak Prescott, Javonte Williams, CeeDee Lamb, Jake Ferguson and George Pickens for the Cowboys (in that order) and Rome Odunze, Caleb Williams and De’Andre Swift (assuming he plays) for the Bears (in that order). The Cowboys eeked out a shootout with the terrible Giants in Week 2 after losing to the Eagles in Week 1 after Jalen Carter was ejected. The Cowboys allowed 37 points last week to the Giants, so they can’t stop anyone. Of course, the Bears are exactly the same, as they allowed 52 points to the Lions in Week 2 and made JJ McCarthy look like a pro-bowler throwing for 3 TDs in his first NFL start in Week 1. There should be plenty of offense to go around on both sides, so have at it.

Christian McCaffrey has averaged 124.5 scrimmage yards per game this season playing 76% of the offensive snaps, not to mention that he has the most receiving yards of any RB in the NFL this season, and he’s doing well regardless of whether it’s Brock Purdy or Mac Jones under center. He faces the 24th ranked Cardinals defense. He’s pricy, but I like him as an RB anchor on my lineups.

Christian McCaffrey Rushing & Receiving Stats
			Rush	Rush	Rush	Rush	Rece	Rece	Rece	Rece	Rece
Season	Team	G	Att	Yds	TD	Y/G	Tgt	Rec	Yds	TD	Y/G
2017	CAR	16	117	435	2	27.2	113	80	651	5	40.7
2018	CAR	16	219	1098	7	68.6	124	107	867	6	54.2
2019	CAR	16	287	1387	15	86.7	142	116	1005	4	62.8
2020	CAR	3	59	225	5	75.0	19	17	149	1	49.7
2021	CAR	7	99	442	1	63.1	41	37	343	1	49.0
2022	2TM	17	244	1139	8	67.0	108	85	741	5	43.6
2022	CAR	6	85	393	2	65.5	43	33	277	1	46.2
2022	SFO	11	159	746	6	67.8	65	52	464	4	42.2
2023	SFO	16	272	1459	14	91.2	83	67	564	7	35.3
2024	SFO	4	50	202	0	50.5	19	15	146	0	36.5
2025	SFO	2	35	124	0	62.0	17	15	125	1	62.5
9 Yr	9 Yr	97	1382	6511	52	67.1	666	539	4591	30	47.3
17 G	17 G	17	242	1141	9	67.1	117	94	805	5	47.3

CAR	CAR	64	866	3980	32	62.2	482	390	3292	18	51.4
SFO	SFO	33	516	2531	20	76.7	184	149	1299	12	39.4

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table

I think we have to start believing in the Colts offense as they destroyed the Dolphins in Week 1 and beat a really good Broncos team in Week 2. Daniel Jones is having a renaissance in Indy and Jonathan Taylor goes as the offense goes. Tyler Warren has been key to that, but his price is creeping up appropriately. Josh Downs is cheap and is getting some attention, so he may also be a cheap way to get exposure to this offense that faces a Titans defense that has allowed 53 total points of the first two weeks.
Am I too high on the Falcons? I don’t think I am. They proved to be an efficient offense after they manhandled the Vikings defense that was projected to be in the top 10 this season, and they now face a Panthers defense that has allowed 55 total points over the first two weeks. Bijan Robinson is always in play if you have cap space, but Drake London and Kyle Pitts are also in play.
This may be more of an opportunity and value play than anything else, but the Saints offense haven’t been terrible. In particular, Chris Olave and Alvin Kamara having been getting a very high number of touches, and there’s no reason for that to stop. They’re costs are reasonable, so have at it.
On defense, I love taking value and paying down, and mysteriously, some of the better defenses of the weekend, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Defense against the New York Jets starting Tyrod Taylor, is minimum salary on Yahoo. On Draft Kings and FanDuel, I like the Atlanta Falcons Defense.