I play around 60% of my action each week in “cash games.” Cash games refer to any contest in which roughly 50% of the field gets paid out, such as head-to-head, double up or 50/50. I try to get as much head-to-head action as I can every week and then supplement that with other cash games. I make one cash lineup for DraftKings and one for FanDuel.
Each week, I’ll review my cash-game lineups in this space. Sometimes I’ll lose, but hopefully I’ll win more often. Either way, I’ll post it here and give you my thought process.
This was a brutal slate. The highest game total was just 45.5 points, and both sites priced up players in a way that left very few standout options. It’s far from the setup I think I do best in.
Note: Unless stated otherwise, the discussion below is about DraftKings.
MY MUST PLAYS
* Both sites aggressively priced almost all the stars this week. The one they left behind was De’Von Achane. At just $8300, Achane’s outrageous pass-catching plus workhorse role in a home game against the lowly Saints was a stone cold lock. Achane was our top salary-adjusted play on the slate by one of the biggest margins of the season.
* There were real signs Kenneth Walker’s role had changed recently. A ton of strong coachspeak talking up Walker’s role had coincided with actual separation from Zach Charbonnet in all usage categories. So with the Seahawks a heavy home favorite against the Vikings, the $5300 tag on Walker was too cheap relative to his talent and volume projection.
MY WANT PLAYS
* This was a brutally bad quarterback slate. My favorite for cash was Jacoby Brissett, and I did get to him on FanDuel. But on DraftKings, finding the $800 to get from CJ Stroud to Brissett wasn’t easy. I also looked at some Tyrod Taylor teams, but didn’t love what the $700 got me. So I settled for Stroud, who was in a dome with all his weaponry and projected to be in a trailing script. The $5000 tag was around $500 too cheap.
* I knew I wanted to play three RBs on this slate. Both TE and WR were a mess. The final RB spot came down to Kimani Vidal or Breece Hall. I liked both a lot at their cost and in these matchups. In the end I simply decided to roll with our projections, which had Breece 1.9 points clear.
* The wide receiver position was brutally overpriced across the board. I liked both Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, but they were fully priced. In the end, I decided that although JSN was all the way up at $9500, this slate called for a player who could break it. So I went with the “stars and scrubs” approach at WR in JSN and Jayden Higgins, who I considered the safest sub-$4K WR. I also looked at AD Mitchell and John Metchie for cheap.
* I struggled mightily with the tight end position this week. On really tightly priced slates, I think it is typically “right” to punt at both QB and TE. And I was all set to punt with one of Taysom Hill, Colby Parkinson, or AJ Barner. But at the last minute I decided to come off of Parkinson and Jaylen Waddle for Orande Gadsden and Khalil Shakir. On what I expected to be a very low-scoring slate, I wanted to find two upside spots here instead of just one.
* The only two D/STs I considered were the punts: Titans against Trevor Lawrence, or Jets D/ST against Kirk Cousins. I preferred Jets as Cousins is more likely to generate strip sacks and pick-6s, but I was always going to play whatever fit.
Week 13 Results
I’m fine with the CJ Stroud play on DK. Yes he failed, but he dropped back nearly 40 times in a dome with all his weapons healthy… and simply ran bad on TDs. The play I’d like to have back is forcing in Jaxson Smith-Njigba on such a tightly-priced slate. Paying $9500 for a receiving in a home game against “Max Brosmer” was stretching it, and prevented me from upgrading at QB and WR. That said, there simply weren’t many mid-range WRs worth paying for – I liked Jaylen Waddle, Ladd McConkey, Chris Olave, but all were a bit overpriced. Khalil Shakir dropping a TD plus Gadsden getting stopped at the 1-yard line were tough beats, but I don’t think this DK team was one of my best. Luckily I ran into a big Alec Pierce and Brissett game on FanDuel, plus got the Kyle Pitts TE decision right.
YEAR-TO-DATE RESULTS
Week 1 DraftKings: 111.32 points, won 37.0% of head-to-heads
Week 2 DraftKings: 145.40 points, won 76.5% of head-to-heads
Week 3 DraftKings: 168.68 points, won 70.6% of head-to-heads
Week 4 DraftKings: Did not play
Week 5 Draftkings: 192.22 points, won 87.5% of head-to-heads
Week 6 DraftKings: 153.92 points, won 56.8% of head-to-heads
Week 7 DraftKings: 186.04 points, won 94.9% of head-to-heads
Week 8 DraftKings: 95.48 points, won 11.4% of head-to-heads
Week 9 DraftKings: 179.04 points, won 86.8% of head-to-heads
Week 10 DraftKings: 189.72 points, won 86.4% of head-to-heads
Week 11 DraftKings: 154.88 points, won 75.7% of head-to-heads
Week 12 DraftKings: 200.28 points, won 77.0% of head-to-heads
Week 13 DraftKings: 82.44 points, won 2.9% of head-to-heads
Week 1 FanDuel: 114.22 points, won 92.3% of head-to-heads
Week 2 FanDuel: 119.00 points, won 95.2% of head-to-heads
Week 3 FanDuel: 149.42 points, won 82.6% of head-to-heads
Week 4 FanDuel: Did not play
Week 5 FanDuel: 177.7 points, won 89.4% of head-to-heads
Week 6 FanDuel: 149.62 points, won 90.1% of head-to-heads
Week 7 FanDuel: 160.44 points, won 66.7% of head-to-heads
Week 8 FanDuel: 158.18 points, won 100% of head-to-heads
Week 9 FanDuel: 120.2 points, won 42.9% of head-to-heads
Week 10 FanDuel: 137.32 points, won 58.8% of head-to-heads
Week 11 FanDuel: 94.9 points, won 46.7% of head-to-heads
Week 12 FanDuel: 158.56 points, won 52.2% of head-to-heads
Week 13 FanDuel: 122.84 points, won 100% of head-to-heads
* Note: Win percentages do not include ties.
