“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 5 2025 Cash Games

October 3, 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 5 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 5 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 5 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 4 is to pay up for a stud RB mostly go mid-priced on WRs and TE while finding value at QB.
So many “Free Squares of the Week”™ in Week 5!
- With Bucky Irving ruled out, Rachaad White will be in control of the Buccaneers backfield against Seattle. White is a known quantity who stepped in for Irving last year in Week 14 and get 19 touches for 109 yards and a TD on a 75 percent snap share. Sean Tucker will also get a few snaps, but there’s some upside here against a middle-of-the-pack 18th ranked Seahawks run defense for near minimum price.
- With Chuba Hubbard ruled out, Rico Dowdle gets unleashed in Carolina against Miami. Dowdle is only averaging a little over 3 yards per carry this year, but he’s shown flashes while leading the Dallas backfield last season and faces an abysmal Dolphins run defense that’s ranked 27th in the NFL. He’s even cheaper than White on some sites, so he’s a great value pick.
- The Cardinals apparently have a cursed backfield. First, James Conner hits the IR. And after his first game as the RB1 in Arizona, Trey Benson also ends up on IR. That leaves Emari Demercado to carry the load in Week 5 against the Titans and their terrible 28th ranked run defense.

The Dallas Cowboys @ New York Jets game has the second highest over/under of the main slate (47.5) and a spread of just 1.5, so I think there will be plenty of opportunity in what should be a relatively competitive game. The Jets have the 29th ranked pass defense, while having the 3rd ranked run defense, so I’m in on most of the Cowboys passing game, including Dak Prescott, George Pickens and Jake Ferguson (in that order). The Cowboys’ defense hasn’t been able to stop anything, allowing the most yards (420.5) and 2nd most points (33.0) per game in the league. That means I’m all in on Justin Fields and Garrett Wilson. Fields in particular hasn’t been great passing the ball, but he has the most rushing yards (59.33) and TDs (1) per game of any QB in the NFL this season. The rushing upside alone pushes him over the top, but he’s had two passing TDs this season as well, make him a cheap upside play across industry.

Dak Prescott Passing Stats
Season	Team	G	Cmp	Att	Cmp%	Yds	TD	Int	Y/G	Rate	QBR
2016	DAL	16	311	459	67.8	3667	23	4	229.2	104.9	77.6
2017	DAL	16	308	490	62.9	3324	22	13	207.8	86.6	70.0
2018	DAL	16	356	526	67.7	3885	22	8	242.8	96.9	55.2
2019	DAL	16	388	596	65.1	4902	30	11	306.4	99.7	71.9
2020	DAL	5	151	222	68.0	1856	9	4	371.2	99.6	73.1
2021	DAL	16	410	596	68.8	4449	37	10	278.1	104.2	60.5
2022	DAL	12	261	394	66.2	2860	23	15	238.3	91.1	59.9
2023	DAL	17	410	590	69.5	4516	36	9	265.6	105.9	72.7
2024	DAL	8	185	286	64.7	1978	11	8	247.3	86.0	41.9
2025	DAL	4	121	166	72.9	1119	6	3	279.8	95.4	65.2
10 Y	10 Y	126	2901	4325	67.1	32556	219	85	258.4	98.0
17 G	17 G	17	391	584	67.1	4392	30	11	258.4	98.0

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

The Detroit Lions @ Cincinnati Bengals game has the highest over/under (49.5) of the slate, and with the Bengals’ defense allowing the 3rd most yards (397.8) and the 6th most points (29.8) to opposing offenses, I love me the Lions skill players, including Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs and Sam LaPorta. Worried about a blowout? Don’t be. Remember that the Lions kept their starters in through most of the 4th quarter against the Bears even being up multiple scores and even went for it on 4th down in the 4th quarter to score a TD just for the heck of it. The Lions love to score, and if it embarrasses your defense in the 4th quarter, all the better. They don’t understand the meaning of the word “mercy”, so feel free to slot them all in. And as for the Bengals, I’m not touching any of them with a 10-foot pole until Joe Burrow returns.
Jaxson Smith-Njigba has proven that he’s an elite and trustworthy commodity in football and fantasy football. He’s averaging the 4th most receiving yards (100.5) on the 5th most receptions (6.5) per game among wide receivers. He has a 35% target share in Seattle and should continue to be targeted frequently against the Buccaneers and their middling 15th ranked pass defense.
With Tyreek Hill out for the year, Jaylen Waddle and De’Von Achane should get plenty of targets. And this a great matchup for the Dolphins facing the Panthers’ 24th ranked defense. Waddle was averaging around 6 targets a game with Hill and should tick up to the 7-9 target range as the unquestioned WR1 this week. Achane benefits from a soft matchup on the ground and from his involvement in the passing game, already having the 3rd most receptions (4.75) from the 2nd most targets (6.25) per game of any running back in the NFL along with a 74.1% route rate.
The Raiders have not been great against the run this season, allowing the 9th most rushing scores (4) and being ranked 25th in rushing yards over expected per attempt (0.60) and 24th in missed tackle per carry rate allowed (27.1%) to running backs. Jonathan Taylor, on the other hand, has been pretty great with the most rushing yards per game (103) on the 2nd most carries per game (19.25) among all running backs in the league. And since we’re talking about the Colts, you can’t forget about Tyler Warren, who currently has the most receiving yards per game (65.75) of any tight end in the league. Warren is sporting 22.7% target share and 2.53 yards per route run, and there’s no reason that won’t continue to grow this week against the Raiders.
The Titans have the worst pass defense in the NFL. Marvin Harrison Jr. got back on track in Week 4 with 10 targets and TD and is still relatively inexpensive across industry. Trey McBride has the 2nd most receiving yards on the 2nd most receptions from the 2nd most targets per game of any tight end in the NFL and gets over 20% of the Cardinals targets and team air yards. Both are strong plays this week.
On defense, I love taking value and paying down, so I’m in on the Houston Texans Defense against the Baltimore Ravens sans Lamar Jackson. But if I have cap space left, I don’t mind paying up for the Detroit Lions Defense against the dismal Cincinnati Bengals, who have the least yards per game (205.3) and the 3rd least points per game (15.3) of any team in the NFL.