“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 12 2025 Cash Games

November 22, 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 12 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 12 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 12 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 12 is to anchor my lineup with at least one stud RB or WR and go relatively cheap at QB, filling in value elsewhere.
“Free Square of the Week”™ this week is Michael Wilson. But since there’s plenty of good plays with the Cardinals, I’ll cover them together.
The Jacksonville Jaguars @ Arizona Cardinals game has an a top 5 over/under on the main slate (48.5), but it’s more about the opportunity for me than the actual matchup. For the Cardinals, facing the 19th ranked Jaguars defense, I’m in on Jacoby Brissett, Michael Wilson, Trey McBride and Bam Knight. In 4 starts this season, Brissett is averaging 314 passing yards and 2 passing TDs. Add in a rushing TD in Week 9 and a handful of rush yards per week that’s some serious upside for price that remains relatively low across industry. And with Marvin Harrison out again, Michael Wilson makes for cheap exposure to the game, particularly seeing as how he’s playing over 90% of the snaps over the last two weeks and broke out in Week 11 catching 15 of a whopping 18 targets for 185 yards. Trey Benson remains out and now Emari Demarcado is out, leaving Bam Knight as the primary RB in the Cardinals backfield. Temper expectations, but even with competition in Week 11, Knight had 9 touches for 45 total yards and a TD. He’s a decent cap saver this week.
The New England Patriots @ Cincinnati Bengals game has the highest over/under of the main slate (51.5), so there’s also plenty of potential here. For the Bengals, I like Tee Higgins and Chase Brown. With Ja’Marr Chase suspended for a game, Higgins should be the clear cut WR1 in a game where the Bengals likely be facing a negative game script, plus he’s on a TD binge with 5 in his last 4 games, so we know that Joe Flacco likes looking for him in the redzone. The Patriots are a top 10 defense, but their vulnerable on the ground being ranked just 20th against the run, so Chase Brown is firmly in play, not to mention he has pass catching upside. For the Patriots, against a Bengals defense that can stop no one, I like Stefon Diggs and Hunter Henry. Diggs in particular broke out in Week 11 catching 9 of 11 targets for 105 yards.

Jahmyr Gibbs is in a smash spot this week at home against the New York Giants, who rank last in run defense allowing 5.8 yards per carry with 14 TDs. Gibbs has been on a heater gaining over 100 combined yards in 3 of his last 4 games. There’s an over/under of 50.5 with the Lions favored by 12.5 so I think Gibbs gets plenty of opportunity to hit those numbers again. He might lose a few reps to David Montgomery, but Gibbs has the 5th most receiving yards per game of any RB in the league, so the pass catching upside and higher share of carries makes him the top play.

Jahmyr Gibbs Game Log
			Rush	Rush	Rush	Rush	Rece	Rece	Rece	Rece
Date	Team	Opp	Att	Yds	TD	Y/A	Tgt	Rec	Yds	TD
2025-11-16	DET	PHI	12	39	0	3.3	8	5	107	0
2025-11-09	DET	WAS	15	142	2	9.5	4	3	30	1
2025-11-02	DET	MIN	9	25	0	2.8	3	3	3	0
2025-10-20	DET	TAM	17	136	2	8.0	3	3	82	0
2025-10-12	DET	KAN	17	65	0	3.8	2	1	0	0
2025-10-05	DET	CIN	12	54	0	4.5	2	2	33	1
2025-09-28	DET	CLE	15	91	1	6.1	2	2	6	0
2025-09-22	DET	BAL	22	67	2	3.0	6	5	32	0
2025-09-14	DET	CHI	12	94	1	7.8	3	3	10	0
2025-09-07	DET	GNB	9	19	0	2.1	10	10	31	0

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

The Baltimore Ravens have a great matchup against a Jets defense that’s ranked just 29th in the NFL. So I’m in on Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson. I’m leaning more towards Henry since I suspect Jackson won’t have to pass much for the Ravens to remain ahead of the Jets, and I can see Henry salting most of the 4th quarter away on the ground.
The Kansas City Chiefs need a bounce back fast, and if that happens, it’ll be with Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. Mahomes has the 2nd most passing yards per game among all QBs, and Kelce turned back time in Week 11 grabbing 9 of 13 for 91 yards and TD. I’d expect a shootout with the Colts, and both should benefit with the 49.5 over/under.
The Atlanta Falcons @ New Orleans Saints has only an over/under of 40.5, but it’s more about opportunity here than matchup. Kirk Cousins starts behind center for the Falcons, but with Drake London out, I expect Darnell Mooney to get increased run. He’s near minimum price, so he’s a great cap saver. For the Saints, I like Chris Olave and Alvin Kamara. No more Raheed Shaheed shipped out of town, Olave further cements himself as the primary target, and perhaps the primary player on team without many other options. Kamara has a solid matchup this week against the 26th-ranked run defense of the Atlanta Falcons and has played at least 60% of the snaps in seven of 10 games, so his depressed pricing makes for a decent cap saver.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba leads all WRs in receiving yards per game (115) and target share (almost 39%), plus he has the 4th most receptions per game (7) of any WR in the NFL. Sometimes I don’t need to sell the player, but he comes with a hefty price tag.
Note that if Josh Jacobs can’t play today, Emanuel Wilson would be a terrific cheap play against the Vikings 25th ranked run defense.
- UPDATE: Josh Jacobs has been ruled OUT. Emanuel Wilson now a decent play in DFS. In particular, I like diversifying lineups that have Bam Knight by swapping in some Wilson.
On defense, I love taking value and paying down, so I’m in on the Atlanta Falcons Defense against the Panthers, the opportunistic Chicago Bears Defense, which has the most takeaways of any team in the NFL this season (20) against the Vikings and the Baltimore Ravens Defense now that their healthy against the Browns.