“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 9 2025 Cash Games

November 1, 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 9 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 9 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 9 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 9 is to anchor my lineup with a stud RB and then get value at WR and TE.
“Free Square of the Week”™ are TreVeyon Henderson and Kyle Monangai.
- The Falcons just allowed 141 rush yards to the lowly Dolphins in Week 8 and now TreVeyon Henderson gets to face them having come off a 75 yard breakout performance on just 10 carries. Not to mention that Rhamondre Stevenson has been ruled out and the only other healthy back is Terrell Jennings. Henderson is super cheap and gets a smash opportunity as the lead back for the first time this season, so lock him in.
- Both D’Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson ruled out, Kyle Monangai gets a primo opportunity as lead back against the Bengals’ 31st ranked run defense that has allowed 151.9 rush yards per game to opposing teams. The Bengals allowed the most PPR points per game to opposing RBs this season. Monangai is even cheaper than Henderson, so makes for a terrific play this week.
Speaking of the Chicago Bears @ Cincinnati Bengals game, it has the second highest over/under of the main slate (51.5), so there’s plenty of potential here.
- The Bears defense is getting better, but they still allow the 10th most PPR fantasy points to opposing QBs and 11th most PPR fantasy points to opposing RBs this season. A lot of this depends on whether Joe Flacco plays, but it might be worth considering Chase Brown either way.
- The Bengals defense have been an absolute disaster. They’re allowing the most yards (407.9) and most points (31.6) per game to opposing offenses this season. So in addition to Monangai, I’d consider Rome Odunze, Colston Loveland and Caleb Williams as well. Odunze got back on track as the WR1 in Chicago last week with 114 yards on 7 receptions, so regardless of everyone else, he’s going to get his. Cole Kmett is still out, so Loveland makes for a sneaky play against a Bengals defense that has allowed the most PPR fantasy points per game to opposing TEs. Williams I’m less sure of, but don’t mind sprinkling in for the upside.

The Indianapolis Colts @ the Pittsburgh Steelers have the 3rd highest over/under of the week (50.5), and I like both offenses.

The Steelers allow the second most PPR fantasy points to opposing QBs, so Daniel Jones is clearly in play this week, and carries a very reasonable price tag across industry. Believe it or not, Jones has the 7th most passing yards per game among all QBs this season. It almost doesn’t matter that the Steelers defense is middle of the road against the run because Jonathan Taylor is matchup proof with the 2nd most rushing yards (106) and rushing TDs (1.5) per game of any RB in the NFL this season. I’m jamming him in everywhere I can even though he’s the most expensive player across industry.

Daniel Jones 2025 Game Log
					Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	Rush	Rush	Rush
Week	Date	Team	Opp	Result	Cmp	Att	Cmp%	Yds	TD	Int	Rate	Att	Yds	TD
1	2025-09-07	IND	MIA	W, 33-8	22	29	75.9	272	1	0	115.9	7	26	2
2	2025-09-14	IND	DEN	W, 29-28	23	34	67.6	316	1	0	107.0	6	2	1
3	2025-09-21	IND	TEN	W, 41-20	18	25	72.0	228	1	0	113.4	4	27	0
4	2025-09-28	IND	LAR	L, 20-27	24	33	72.7	262	1	2	80.6	1	-1	0
5	2025-10-05	IND	LVR	W, 40-6	20	29	69.0	212	2	0	113.0	1	2	0
6	2025-10-12	IND	ARI	W, 31-27	22	30	73.3	212	2	1	101.0	5	20	1
7	2025-10-19	IND	LAC	W, 38-24	23	34	67.6	288	2	0	113.4	5	7	0
8	2025-10-26	IND	TEN	W, 38-14	21	29	72.4	272	3	0	136.0	1	3	0
				7-1	173	243	71.2	2062	13	3	109.5	30	86	4

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

The Colts defense has been pretty solid this season, but it still allows the 4th most passing yards per game (252.0) and 3rd most receiving yards per game (271.6), so I’m in on DK Metcalf and Aaron Rodgers.

The Patriots defense gas been good, but they’re one weakness is at the TE position, as they have allowed the 5th most PPR fantasy points per game to opposing TEs. Kyle Pitts was great in Week 8 and has a terrific matchup and a low price tag in Week 9.
Wan’Dale Robinson is Jaxson Dart‘s favorite target, and maybe the only weapon left in New York with both Malik Nabers and Cam Skattebo now out for the season. He’s averaging 7.13 targets this season and I’d take the over on that with the Giants likely to be trailing.
Travis Hunter has been put on IR pushing the lion’s share of targets to Brian Thomas Jr. The Raiders have the 28th ranked pass defense and Thomas has averaged 7.86 targets per game this season, so there’s some decent upside for his middle of the road pricing.
The Lions are coming off a bye to face the sliding Vikings, so I’m good with Jared Goff and Sam LaPorta. The Vikings pass defense is ranked just 19th in the league after giving up back-to-back 30-point fantasy performances to Jalen Hurts and Justin Herbert, and 20-plus to Dillon Gabriel 3 weeks ago.
Ladd McConkey‘s re-emergence has coincided with both Justin Herbert and the Chargers getting back on track this season. Ladd has 3 TDs over the past 4 weeks and caught 22 of a whopping 34 targets for 255 yards and 2 TDs over the past 3. The Titans have allowed the 3rd most points per game (28.8) to opposing offenses this season, so I love the upside.
On defense, I love taking value and paying down, so I’m in on both the Denver Broncos Defense and Houston Texans Defense against each other, as well as the San Francisco 49ers Defense against the under-manned Giants.