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 difficult slate (on both sites) because the best plays were also the most expensive plays. Even the salary-savers at WR were in the $4000 range, rather than the $3000 range. We also had guys like JSN, CMC, and Puka getting closer to “full price”.
Note: Unless stated otherwise, the discussion below is about DraftKings.
MY MUST PLAYS
* Rico Dowdle was only our No. 3 salary-adjusted value at the RB position. But his price ($6300) made him a “must” for me. In other words, getting off our No. 2 RB Christian McCaffrey ($9000) or No. 1 RB De’Von Achane ($7400) yielded much more viable teams than coming off Dowdle. And I was fine with that given the Panthers’ unrelenting commitment to the run, and their newfound commitment to Dowdle as their true three-down plus goal-line workhorse.
MY WANT PLAYS
* On most slates, Christian McCaffrey and De’Von Achane would’ve been musts. But there were so many great expensive WR plays, and so few viable cheap plays, that I looked at other stuff.
I looked at a 2-TE team that faded CMC in an effort to play JSN or Puka Nacua. I looked at a team that faded Achane in favor of Treveyon Henderson, again in an effort to play one of the expensive WRs. But in the end, I thought Achane’s unique pass-catching plus explosive run ability was too much to ignore on full-PPR DraftKings. And as noted last week, McCaffrey’s current role is what cash-game dreams are made of. So I decided to fade the expensive WRs instead.
* One of the reasons I was OK fading the expensive WRs was because I really liked the $4K range. Parker Washington was outplaying Brian Thomas Jr. even when BTJ was healthy. Now Washington had his chance to operate as the true No. 1 with both BTJ and Travis Hunter out. Jauan Jennings finally looked healthy in Week 9, giving us the 49ers true No. 1 WR at just $4700. And Tez Johnson was ticketed for an every-down role with Chris Godwin plus Mike Evans out – and I expected Christian Gonzalez to spend most of his time on Emeka Egbuka.
* I decided to go with that three $4K WR lineup about 15 minutes before lock. I had JJ McCarthy and the Jaguars D/ST in, leaving me with $0 of remaining salary. I realized that I could go Jacoby Brissett and Browns D/ST instead. I didn’t like the matchups for JJM or Brissett. I did think Browns D was slightly better than Jaguars D. So I decided to make the move, it projected roughly even.
* I knew Hunter Henry would be very popular in DK cash, but I considered him yet another “score a TD or bust” play. So I looked at all kinds of different TEs including Greg Dulcich ($2600), David Njoku ($3200), and George Kittle ($4500). I was fine playing whatever fit. But given I knew so many people were playing the low floor/ceiling Henry, I thought it was an interesting strategical play to try to blow them out of the water at TE with Trey McBride. Even at $6000, McBride was easily our best salary-adjusted play at the position.
Week 10 Results
I lost the 2v2 of Brissett/Browns vs. McCarthy/Jaguars by 1.3 points, which cost me some head-to-heads. That’s frustrating because the Jets D/ST flukily scored two special teams TDs in the first half. Of course, playing McBride on both sites separated me from the pack. I was also happy with the decision to go to the Brissett/Browns side as it was contrarian and I think it had higher floor. When I have a contrarian cash team with a stack, I try to always put it in a GPP — this team finished 76th out of 1,721 entries in the $150 3-max.
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 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
* Note: Win percentages do not include ties.
