“Buy or Bye”™ – Daily Fantasy Football Plays for Week 1 2026 Cash Games

September 9, 2026

By Ha Kung Wong

In 2025, we were over 70% for cash lineups again and we’re back with more Daily Fantasy Football advice for Cash Games for Week 1 of the 2026 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 1 of the 2026 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 1 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 Christian McCaffrey 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 1 is to mostly go mid-priced throughout the lineups since we have no actual intel on who is worth paying up for in the current 53-man rosters. I think you can get one or two premium studs at the RB or WR position with all the value, but don’t have to.
The “Free Squares of the Week”™ are Travis Etienne and MarShawn Lloyd.
- With Alvin Kamara with an MCL injured and likely at least limited if not out for Week 1, Travis Etienne should take the vast majority of the touches both running and catching the ball in a game where there’s likely to be a negative game script. He’s priced like a backup RB yet provides RB1 exposure.
- Josh Jacobs was placed on the Commissioner’s Exempt list as his legal troubles are resolved, leaving MarShawn Lloyd in full control of the backfield at least for Week 1. The Vikings defense is solid, but they’re much weaker against the run, meaning you can get some decent production for essentially minimum salary across industry.

The Cincinnati Bengals @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers game has the highest over/under of the main slate (50.5), so I’m in on most of the skill players here, particularly Joe Burrow (who ranked top-5 with an 81.9 PFF rating against the blitz last season), Ja’Marr Chase & Tee Higgins (facing a Bucs secondary that allowed 671 passing yards on targets to starting corner Jacob Parrish alone), and Baker Mayfield (4th-most dropbacks in 2025 with 680), Emeka Egbuka (11th in the NFL with 127 targets in his rookie year) & Chris Godwin. Both pass defenses are tracking to be bottom 10 in the league at this point, and both passing offenses are just the opposite—Tampa Bay blitzed at a 35.1% rate (5th-highest), leaving massive big-play potential. Loving the upside, and with some decent values this week, it isn’t so hard to jam the likes of Chase into your lineups.

Joe Burrow Passing Stats
Season	Team	G	Cmp	Att	Cmp%	Yds	TD	Int	Rate	QBR
2020	CIN	10	264	404	65.3	2688	13	5	89.8	48.5
2021	CIN	16	366	520	70.4	4611	34	14	108.3	60.2
2022	CIN	16	414	606	68.3	4475	35	12	100.8	60.8
2023	CIN	10	244	365	66.8	2309	15	6	91.0	52.4
2024	CIN	17	460	652	70.6	4918	43	9	108.5	72.1
2025	CIN	8	173	259	66.8	1809	17	5	100.7	63.0
6 Yr	6 Yr	77	1921	2806	68.5	20810	157	51	101.1
17 G	17 G	17	424	620	68.5	4594	35	11	101.1

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

The New Orleans Saints @ Detroit Lions game has the second highest over/under of the main slate (49.5), so I’m also in on most of the skill players here, particularly Chris Olave & the aforementioned Travis Etienne and Jahmyr Gibbs (projected heavily for 80+ rushing yards and 5+ targets out of the backfield), Amon-Ra St. Brown (projected as a high-tier option commanding a 7+ reception floor), and Jameson Williams. The Saints are looking to have a decent secondary, but a bottom 10 run defense, so I favor playing Gibbs as much as possible and only sprinkling in Brown and Williams if you have cap space. The Lions are looking to be bottom 10 on pass defense, and middle of the road against the run, so the Saints—entering as 6.5-to-7.5 point road underdogs—will likely be trailing and will have to keep their foot on the gas throwing downfield to Olave.
With Isaiah Likely departing in free agency, Mark Andrews steps into Week 1 with zero tight end competition for routes or target volume. Last season, the Ravens split pass-catching tight end duties, but Andrews now reclaims undisputed TE1 status in Baltimore’s offense. As a primary focal point alongside Zay Flowers, he should see a jump from his ~17% target share in 2025 back toward his elite baseline. While Andrews posted career-low yardage in 2025 (422 yards), much of Baltimore’s passing game was hampered by Lamar Jackson dealing with nagging injuries. With a fully healthy Jackson under center to kick off 2026, the Ravens’ offense is projected to bounce back as a top scoring unit. The Colts defense struggled containing tight ends last season, allowing the 2nd-most receiving yards to opposition tight. For the massively discounted price across industry, I love the cap-saving play.
Coming off a dominant Pro Bowl rookie campaign where Tyler Warren racked up 76 receptions, 817 yards, and 112 targets (the 5th-most targets by a rookie tight end in NFL history), Warren is positioned for an even higher target ceiling. With Michael Pittman Jr. departing in free agency, Warren steps into 2026 as Indianapolis’ primary aerial focal point. As a rookie, Warren commanded a 20.9% target rate (3rd among all NFL TEs), led all NFL tight ends with 100+ targets in YAC per reception (6.2 yards) and ranked 4th at the position with 42 first-down conversions. He also ranked 5th among all tight ends in red-zone targets. He was at his best with Daniel Jones and Jones is now healthy. Plus, a minor adductor strain during August camp kept Warren out of late preseason action. However, with his full-practice return cleared for Week 1, any lingering injury noise keeps his DFS ownership lower than it should be. Love the value and upside here.
While DFS sites have essentially treated him as an afterthought with discounted pricing, Quentin Johnston actually operated as the Chargers’ primary wide receiver whenever fully healthy last season. Outside of a midseason stretch impacted by a hamstring injury (Weeks 6–8), Johnston led Los Angeles in virtually every meaningful receiving category including a 20.3% Target Share and a team-high 24.8% First-Read Share. Johnston established himself as Justin Herbert‘s preferred boundary and end-zone target, coming off an 8-touchdown, 735-yard 2025 campaign on just 51 receptions. The Chargers open against an Arizona Cardinals secondary that struggled to contain perimeter wide receivers in 2025, ranked 9th-worst in yards allowed per target and 16th in fantasy points allowed per opportunity to outside wideouts.
On defense, I love taking value and paying down, and mysteriously, some of the better defenses of the weekend, the Minnesota Vikings Defense and the Chicago Bears Defense, are close to minimum salary on Draft Kings. On Yahoo, I prefer the New York Jets Defense at minimum salary and on FanDuel, I prefer the Las Vegas Raiders Defense and the Miami Dolphins Defense on the cheap.