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 really tough slate on DraftKings, mainly because the RB prices have started to creep up and there were no real values at WR. That created a situation where we’d again be forced into uncomfortable spots at WR, which is a spot I hate to be in on DraftKings.
MY MUST PLAYS
* Drake London entered Sunday seeing 26% of the the Falcons targets and was tied for second among all WRs in red-zone targets with 10. The Seahawks were without two of their top-3 CBs for a game which set up perfectly for a shootout. London was one of just two WRs on the entire DraftKings slate we had as a solid value in projections – Justin Jefferson was the other.
MY WANT PLAYS
* I once again only considered four RBs on DraftKings, and was once again intent on playing three of them: Kyren Williams ($8100), Kenneth Walker ($7300), Chuba Hubbard ($6500), Tony Pollard ($6300).
Walker would’ve been a “must” if he hadn’t been downgraded to questionable Saturday due to an illness. I still thought this spot, this game environment, and this role were worth taking on the risk.
I certainly loved Kyren, but the salary cap was tight this week. I didn’t think it was worth coming off of Jayden Daniels just to upgrade from Chuba or Pollard to Kyren. Pollard got a nice bump with Tyjae Spears (hamstring) out, making him a candidate for 95%+ of the Titans RB touches. And Chuba was still a bit too cheap for his three-down plus goal-line role.
* I only considered two TEs on DraftKings: Colby Parkinson and David Njoku. Njoku was $300 more, but by the time Sunday came around I felt pretty strongly that Njoku was the right play. With Amari Cooper gone and Deshaun Watson unable to push the ball down the field, Njoku projected for a really nice role. And even if the volume wasn’t there, he can do insane athletic things that Parkinson can’t. And I expected another very throw-heavy plan from the Browns.
* Spending up at QB on DraftKings on this slate didn’t feel great. It was so tightly priced at WR, and I am usually confident I can find reasonable 15-20 points for cheap.
Some of the 2v2s and 3v3s I looked at involved going down to one of Daniel Jones, Geno Smith, or Sam Darnold. And then up at wide receiver to Tee Higgins or Tank Dell. But I didn’t feel great about those upgrades, so in the end I stuck with Jayden Daniels. Given this matchup with the Panthers and the way he scores fantasy points, there was almost no way Daniels could fail.
Of course, that left me with very little salary to spend at WR. Which I was fine with because, again, I didn’t love the mid-range for cash. My two favorites below $5000 were Jordan Whittington with Cooper Kupp (ankle) still out. And Juju Smith-Schuster playing some version of the Rashee Rice role.
* As for D/ST on DraftKings, I wanted to play one of Rams ($3000), Colts ($3200), Bengals ($3300), or Bills ($3400). Unfortunately, it was very tough to pay up for D/ST on this slate. So I settled for the Browns, who were at home against a Bengals team which drops Joe Burrow back a ton. Note that I would’ve played Giants D/ST on DraftKings if I didn’t already have them on FanDuel. Brian Burns + Dexter Lawrence were healthy and the Eagles were without LT Jordan Mailata (hamstring).
Week 7 Results
This was one of the most tilting slates I can remember. I had Jayden Daniels in cash on both sites, Jordan Whittington on both sites, and Juju Smith-Schuster on DK. Obviously it’s very hard to win when the injury bug bites this hard. The Whittington and Juju plays are on me, but it’s a frustrating runout nonetheless. I do think that paying up for QB when we had such weak WR options at the low end was probably bad. That said, Jayden was likely going to have 25+ points if he stayed healthy – Marcus Mariota scored 19.6.
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 6 DraftKings: 134.12 points, won 50.1% of head-to-heads
Week 7 DraftKings: 93.14 points, won 28.2% 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
Week 6 FanDuel: 133.36 points, won 80.6% of head-to-heads
Week 7 FanDuel: 100.04 points, won 65.0% of head-to-heads
* Note: Win percentages do not include ties.
