Borg’s DFS Cash Lineup Review for Week 3 (Fantasy Football)
Every week I want to unpack part of the process in assembling my cash game lineup. The goal is neither to boast or wallow in “shoulda, woulda, couldas” but rather give a transparent look at my thought process for the week. Hopefully, this will help DFS Podcast listeners and DFS Pass subscribers get a deeper window into the ups and downs of playing DFS and help you in your selections each week.
For cash, I specifically play 50/50s, Double-Ups, and H2Hs on DraftKings. I’ll share my unfiltered gut reaction, my thought process behind this lineup construction, and at the bottom, I will post my weekly results including ROI and H2H record to stay accountable with you.
If you’re wanting to go back to the drawing board, we did an overview podcast before the season on Cash Game Strategy. I also published an article on How to Approach Each Position in DFS & Gain an Edge.
Week 3 Cash Results
Note: Roster percentages shown from NFL Massive $5 Double-Up [Single Entry] with 22,988 entrants. This contest gives one of the better sample sizes for cash in my opinion.
Unfiltered Gut Reaction
- Ok, so last week was a blood bath. Anything positive… please. Oh wow. Josh Allen… to Emmanuel Sanders! We’re cooking!
- Saquon I vowed I would fade you all off-season. Don’t bite me in the butt now! Against my Falcons. Out of the game??? Ok, you’re back. Whew
- Proud of my chalky Bengals DST. Big Ben looks like dust. Whoever is in charge of the video game controller for PIT is picking the same play over and over: Najee dump pass.
- Another Sanders TD? Oh baby this is gonna be a cash week.
- Wake up Hockenson! My cash-game lock of the week and the player I felt most confident in this lineup was the one who put up the biggest stinker.
- As a kicker truther, I might as well levitated when Justin Tucker hit that game-winner. I’ll treasure that moment for a long time.
- Felt like a Pokemon trainer: Go! Cooper Kupp! Use 2-TD attack!
The Thought Process
Instead of working through every individual player, I want to highlight my thought process and why I made these selections.
- The starting piece for this lineup was Austin Ekeler. I loved his salary, the game total, his workload, his passing work, and the fact the Chiefs are a run funnel defense. Justin Herbert shredded them and Ekeler barely went over 100 scrimmage yards but on a full PPR site, his weekly floor feels like 15 points. Expect his salary to inch closer to $8K in the coming weeks.
- QB had a number of options throughout the week. I toyed with Justin Fields for a brief moment due to his price and rushing upside. However, by Friday, Josh Allen and Matthew Stafford emerged as the QBs that possessed upside as favorites with high team implied totals. On DraftKings, I prefer to play guys with 300+ yard passing upside for a much-needed 3-point bonus. Allen was due for an explosion. I just happened to time it up when he was only $7,000. Expect that to jump significantly.
- Emmanuel Sanders was in my lineup from Day 1. $4,200 in cash was basically a punt play but Sanders’ involvement especially downfield felt like such a bargain. I knew he would be rostered fairly low but under four percent was better than I could imagine. I chose Sanders to stack with Allen over the more expensive Diggs. The early TD put me in a great starting position and the second TD was the icing on the cake.
- As I mentioned earlier, Hockenson was a lock for most of the week. The only other TEs I considered were Mark Andrews ($5,000) or Tyler Higbee ($4,000) to open up salary elsewhere. That BAL-DET game shocked me with how low scoring it was. You can thank Marquise Brown for dropping two TDs.
- While the Titans DST was at the top of the list for most of the week with the potential matchup versus Jacob Eason/Brett Hundley, as news came out about Carson Wentz‘s potential return, I pivoted to the even cheaper Cincinnati Bengals by Saturday. In cash, I mostly punt defense hoping for five points from a sub-$2,500 DST in a fair matchup.
- Once the news came out about Devontae Booker being a healthy scratch, it seemed like Saquon Barkley was all systems go. I smashed the lock button for Saquon for FanDuel earlier in the week but the workload plus the matchup with the Falcons made him in the mix on DraftKings as well. Clyde Edwards-Helaire was in there at $4,800 for most of the week and he turned out to be an excellent point-per-dollar play. You sweat decisions all weekend and then sometimes… it just doesn’t matter. But the lesson here is before locking onto certain players, write down two or three other options earlier in the week that are interesting. This allows you to pivot if news changes the slate.
- In terms of the late game window, I had the uber-chalky Cooper Kupp and suddenly popular Alexander Mattison as late swap options IF this lineup went awry. Obviously, this group was pacing most of my 50/50s and outdistancing myself from all my H2Hs that staying on the chalk was a no-brainer.
- I must add that this week the chalk hit in a big way. Cooper Kupp was mega chalk and the dude just prints two TDs. Mattison did well. CEH, Saquon, and Ekeler all were solid. If you tried to get contrarian at QB with Justin Fields, Jared Goff, or Daniel Jones, you likely were buried.
2021 Results
| Week | DK Pts | Weekly Cash ROI | H2H Win % |
| 1 | 129.66 | 85% | 90% |
| 2 | 88.04 | 0% | 0% |
| 3 | 194.62 | 100% | 100% |
Week 3 will likely go down as my best cash lineup of the year. After a week like this, I like to keep myself in check and make sure I don’t try to mismanage my bankroll.
Check in for Week 4’s salaries with the DFS First Look Pricing article that comes out Tuesday AM!
Comments
First time using the DFS pass/podcast, to be honest I forgot I bought the bundle. I cashed like %400 this week. Gotta keep my cool this week when joining games.
Great lineup this weekend! I was pretty close to cashing a good amount of money if weren’t for the Jonathan Taylor and Hockenson stinkers. It was still a good weekend but could have been much bigger! Keep it up man!