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.
Each week, I’ll review my cash-game lineup 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 bit of a strange slate as I had a very small pool of players I was considering. On DraftKings, I only really considered five RBs, five WRs, one TE, and one D/ST. But that didn’t mean the slate was easy. It came down to a ton of very difficult 2v2s involving QB, RB, and WR.
MY MUST PLAYS
* I would have considered Tucker Kraft a solid play even if everyone was healthy. But the Packers were without Romeo Doubs (personal), Christian Watson (ankle), and Luke Musgrave (ankle)… and they were facing a Rams defense ranked dead last in yards per play allowed. Given the state of the tight end position, I was never passing on this spot for Kraft at $3500.
* Jordan Mason continues to run as the unquestioned feature back and goal-line priority with Christian McCaffrey (Achilles) rehabbing. Now he got a home spot against a Cardinals defense inflating opponent running back scoring by a league-high 10.8%, per our DvP metrics. It was a very crowded RB position again, but Mason’s matchup and role made him stand out.
MY WANT PLAYS
* I certainly liked Deebo Samuel and thought he had massive ceiling in this spot. But given Brandon Aiyuk, Jauan Jennings, and George Kittle were all healthy, I had volume/floor concerns. I thought a way to middle that was to simply play Brock Purdy, who was our third-best QB value in projections. Additionally, playing Purdy with Jordan Mason gave me access to (hopefully) all of the 49ers touchdowns. The 49ers implied team total was three points clear of any other team on the slate.
* I didn’t have a big pool of cash options at WR, but it was still a struggle to decide between them. I thought the five in play were: Deebo Samuel, Jayden Reed, Michael Pittman, Dontayvion Wicks, and Jordan Whittington.
As noted above, I was fine with the Deebo fade. I thought Reed was nearly a must, given the Packers matchup and injuries noted above. I also thought the floor on Pittman was very high – when you remove Anthony Richardson’s rushes and rush TDs, plus remove Jonathan Taylor’s rushing, plus add in Joe Flacco… you get a ton of pass attempts and touchdown opportunities against a poor Jaguars defense.
I did prefer Wicks to Whittington. But I didn’t want to come off Purdy to find the $400, as noted above. So given that I already had Wicks on FanDuel, and Whittington had the short-area role as arguably WR KingMaker Matthew Stafford’s No. 1 WR, I was OK with it.
* The Broncos D/ST was at home facing Gardner Minshew, who would be without Davante Adams. I didn’t think they were a lock at $2900, as the Patriots ($2900), Commanders ($3000), and Sehawks ($3500) were all strong as well. But I was fine leaning into the very aggressive Broncos defense in this spot.
* The last 2v2 I looked at was Kenneth Walker and Chuba Hubbard vs. Kyren Williams and Dontayvion Wicks. I honestly couldn’t decide on this one, it was extremely close on projection (the 2-RB side was 0.6 ahead in base). This is the kind of spot I talked about a couple weeks ago on the Solo Pod, I want to make a decision and not get too bogged down time-wise on it.
In this case, I thought leaning into RB in cash given the state of today’s NFL made a little more sense. Especially since I already had Dontayvion Wicks on FanDuel. While Kyren’s volume projection was elite, I considered it similar to Chuba Hubbard’s. And Kenneth Walker was clearly in a very strong spot after looking so healthy Monday night.
I certainly didn’t love not being able to play Tyrone Tracy or Kyren Williams. I thought both were really strong. But this is the game on DraftKings these days… can’t play all the strong RB plays (this week there were five really strong ones, I thought).
Week 5 Results
I was really happy with the way I handled Deebo Samuel and quarterback on DK. There’s just so much opportunity cost at wide receiver there, we need to be certain every spot is really strong – especially if we are paying up. So by middling it (play Brock Purdy, not Deebo), I think I gave myself more outs.
I was also really happy with my decision to prioritize QB and Lamar Jackson on FD. That format is so QB-centric, and we had Lamar Jackson with the highest projection on the entire slate.
Obviously, getting a touchdown and huge game from Broncos D/ST helped a ton. As did Tucker Kraft’s eruption.
YEAR-TO-DATE RESULTS
Week 1 DraftKings: 147.38 points, won 98.6% of head-to-heads
Week 2 DraftKings: 116.94 points, won 21.1% of head-to-heads
Week 3 DraftKings: 109.3 points, won 54.8% of head-to-heads
Week 4 DraftKings: 146.28 points, won 75.3% of head-to-heads
Week 5 DraftKings: 143.06 points, won 83.5% of head-to-heads
Week 1 FanDuel: Did not play
Week 2 FanDuel: 143.24 points, won 75.2% of head-to-heads
Week 3 FanDuel: 111.88 points, won 71.9% of head-to-heads
Week 4 FanDuel: 120.92 points, won 41.9% of head-to-heads
Week 5 FanDuel: 130.22 points, won 71.4% of head-to-heads
* Note: Win percentages do not include ties
