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.
I actually really liked this slate for cash. We had some reasonable value at WR, and I thought some people would mess up their RB spots.
Note: Unless stated otherwise, the discussion below is about DraftKings.
MY MUST PLAYS
* I’d have to go back and check, but I suspect De’Von Achane is the guy I’ve played most in cash this season. There simply aren’t many RBs who can run for an 80-yard TD, catch eight passes, and handle 25 touches – let alone do it all in the same game. Even as Achane’s price crept up to $8800 here, I was always playing him against the lowly Jets.
* The Bengals are arguably the best possible matchup for the running backs. James Cook’s pass-game role has been ticking up lately. And this game had a rising total up to 54.5 points. Cook projected to lose work to Ty Johnson in clear passing situations, but that was baked in. The $7800 tag on Cook was far too cheap for this spot.
* I’ve played Michael Wilson in cash every time Marvin Harrison has been out. The matchup here against the Rams was certainly tough and Wilson was more expensive at $5600, but I also thought Jacoby Brissett would drop back another 40+ times. Wilson was our top salary-adjusted WR play on the slate.
* I didn’t consider Luther Burden a “must” in a vacuum. But in the context of the slate, I wanted to get the expensive RBs and didn’t love the expensive WRs. So to spend just $3800 on a talented player (perhaps the best WR on the Bears) with Rome Odunze out was a treat. Even if Burden didn’t project all that great.
MY WANT PLAYS
* Based on projections, Kyle Pitts was a “must” here. We had him for 13.1 points at just $4200. Drake London was out, Kirk Cousins has clearly landed on Pitts as his favorite target, and the best way to beat Seattle’s defense is with tight end. However, I would’ve been willing to come off Pitts and punt with a Colston Loveland or Harold Fannin if it cleanly got me up to Josh Allen. Alas, it did not.
* I had this team in on Friday, except with Trevor Lawrence and Commanders D/ST. I still had that same team in on Sunday morning. I hate to get blown off a team that I really like by weather FUD, which is almost always overrated.
But I didn’t think I was really downgrading by going to Jayden Daniels and Saints D/ST. Obviously the matchup for Daniels was difficult, but his unique dual threat ability at just $6000 was crazy cheap. He also had a fresh Terry McLaurin and was playing in a dome. So I was happy to keep this team I really liked, by only coming off QB and downgrading at the extremely volatile D/ST position. Once superstar LT Tristan Wirfs was ruled out for the Bucs, I was fine playing the Saints.
* I didn’t love AD Mitchell at $4600 and he didn’t project great. As discussed on Friday night’s show, there was no real role change for Mitchell in his Week 13 breakout – he simply finally capitalized on his opportunity and natural talent. I certainly preferred Terry McLaurin and Christian Watson, but not by a wide enough margin to come off any of the RBs. And I was OK with Devaughn Vele, but the $900 savings wasn’t enough to get me to Allen.
* There were certainly options for the RB3 spot. I liked the spots and workload projections for Kenneth Walker and RJ Harvey. And I would have played one of those guys if Josh Jacobs was priced fully. But Jacobs was just $6800 here for the biggest game of the Packers season. I expected Jacobs to handle 20+ touches, including goal-line and 2-minute work. That’s just a massive role for a player sub-$7K, whereas I knew Walker and Harvey would be losing touches to backfield mates.
Week 14 Results
I’ve run very pure on injuries in cash so far this season, so I shouldn’t complain. But I still will. De’Von Achane was going for 50 if he didn’t get hurt, Jayden Daniels missed all of garbage time against the Vikings, and the Jets had to turn to “Brady Cook” after Tyrod Taylor went down. On FanDuel, I thought Kenneth Walker vs. RJ Harvey was a true coinflip… and I lost that by 15.7 points.
All that said, perhaps I should’ve made Josh Allen a priority on DK. He certainly was on FD. The DK 4v4 of Allen, Walker, Loveland, Commanders vs. Jayden Daniels, Jacobs, Pitts, Saints was tight — I simply didn’t think Allen would separate far enough from Jayden to accept the downgrades at RB and TE. Mistakes were made.
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 14 DraftKings: 123.12, won 28.0% 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
Week 14 FanDuel: 153.84 points, won 60.0% of head-to-heads
* Note: Win percentages do not include ties.
