“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 16 2025 Cash Games

December 20, 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 16 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 16 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 16 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 16 is to anchor my lineup with at least one stud RB and a top 10 QB but then pay down for RB and TE.
No “Free Square of the Week”™ but there’s plenty of value this week, like Audric Estime and Michael Carter.
- The Saints were down yet another RB when Devin Neal exited with a hamstring injury in Week 15, and Audric Estime ended up taking the lion’s share of touches rushing 3 times for 11 yards and 3 receptions for 39 yards. There’s no guarantee this will work out, but he’s likely to have starters reps against a Jets defense that has allowed the 4th most rush yards per game (137.2) and 5th most rushing TDs (18) to opposing offenses. That plus his minimum pricing essentially across industry make for a solid value play.
- The Cardinals are dealing with the same issue with James Connor, Trey Benson and now Bam Knight out for the season. Michael Carter stepped in after Knight’s injury in Week 15 turning 18 touches into a season-high 94 scrimmage yards. He gets to face a Falcons’ defense that has allowed the 8th most rush yards per game (127.9), so his depressed pricing makes him a nice value play as well.
Speaking of the Cardinals, I’m back on board with my “I Just Can’t Quit the Cardinals” ways for DFS. The Falcons 16th ranked pass defense shouldn’t be an issue after Brissett managed to torch the vaunted Texans defense, so I’m in on Jacoby Brissett and Trey McBride. In 9 starts this season, Brissett is averaging 301.2 passing yards and 2 passing TDs a game. Add in a rushing TD in Week 9 and a handful of rush yards per week and that’s some serious upside for price that’s starting to catch up but remains strangely reasonable across industry. McBride has had a banner season but is pretty pricey. If you can afford him, he’s my favorite TE of the slate.
The Los Angeles Chargers @ Dallas Cowboys the 2nd highest over/under of the slate (50.5), and there’s plenty of options, but mostly expensive. Both pass games also benefit from avoiding all the cold and windy games across the NFL by being indoors in Dallas.
- The Cowboys allow the most passing yards per game (254.8) and most passing TDs (31) to opposing offense this season. That bodes really well for Justin Herbert. Herbert hasn’t been consistent in terms of passing yardage but does have the 6th most passing TDs (23) and 3rd most rushing yards (419) of any QB this season, so I have confidence he’ll be able to take advantage of this fantastic matchup. The only problem is I can’t figure out which pass catchers are going to benefit from this, so I’m going to fade the receivers except for TE Oronde Gadsden II who’s pretty inexpensive and coming off a 4 catch for 61-yard performance.
- The Cowboys are a slightly different story, since they’re facing a Chargers defense that’s given up the second least yards per game (279.1) to opposing offenses this season. I’m good with CeeDee Lamb, but I’m probably fading the rest.
The Pittsburgh Steelers @ Detroit Lions has the highest over/under of the slate (52.5), and there’s lots of options here as well.
- I like Jameson Williams and Amon-Ra St. Brown, in that order, agains the Steelers bottom 10 pass defense. St. Brown is clearly the WR1 in Detroit, but he’s expensive. Williams is not only cheaper but is averaging 7 receptions for 124.7 yards and 0.66 TDs over his last 3 games. Jahmyr Gibbs is also in play as he has slate winning upside and tends to blow up every other game (and this week is his blowup week, particularly against the Steelers who have the 5th worst run defense in the league and is without TJ Watt.
- I don’t mind playing Aaron Rodgers and DK Metcalf since both are cheap, and the Lions are allowing the 3rd most passing TDs (28) this season.
De’Von Achane is one of my favorite plays this week. Achane has the 3rd most rush yards (1,186), 4th most receptions (61) and 4th most receiving yards (450) of any RB in the league this season. With Tua being benched for Quinn Ewers, I’d expect Achane to get even more work to keep pressure off the rookie in his first start. And facing the Bengals and their 31st ranked run defense should give him plenty of upside.
Nico Collins quietly has the 6th most receiving yards (1,001) in the league among WRs and is coming off an 85-yard and 2 TD performance in Week 15. Las Vegas’ defense is ranked just 29th against the pass, so I suspect CJ Stroud will continue to hit his favorite receiver.
Bo Nix trusts Courtland Sutton and so do I. Sutton has played at least 78% of the snaps in all but one game this season and has averaged 8.5 targets for 74 yards and 2 total TDs over his last 4 games. The Jaguars pass defense is ranked just 18th in the league and there’s a little bit of shootout potential here, so I like taking advantage of the reasonable pricing.
The Vikings have a nice matchup against the Giants who allow the 3rd most rush yards (382.5) and 4th most points (28.3) per game to opposing offenses in the league. Justin Jefferson and Aaron Jones are both “focal” points of the Vikings offense although they’ve underperformed this season, but this is the perfect get-right opportunity in a lost season, not to mention both a cheap across industry.
Did you know that Harold Fannin Jr. has the 2nd most targets (99), 6th most receptions (66) and 5th most yards (667) of any tight end this season? Clearly, Shedeur Sanders likes targeting Fannin, so that means I also like targeting Fannin this week against the Bills who haven’t been as good a defense as you’d expect.
On defense, I love taking value and paying down, so I’m in on the New Orleans Saints Defense against the New York Jets on FanDuel and Minnesota Vikings Defense against the New York Giants on Draft Kings and Yahoo DFS, which are all close to minimum salary this week.