Borg’s DFS Cash Lineup Review for Week 5 (Fantasy Football)

The goal of this article is neither to boast nor wallow in “shoulda, woulda, couldas” but rather give a transparent look at my thought process for the week. Hopefully, this will help DFS & Betting 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. On Tuesdays, Betz and I review our cash lineups, and this week we’ll give some common overreactions we see and hear.

For cash, I specifically play 50/50s, Double-Ups, and H2Hs on DraftKings. I’ll share my unfiltered gut reaction, and the thought process behind this lineup construction, and at the bottom, I will post my weekly results including the cash line and H2H record to stay accountable with you.

If you want to go back to the drawing board, we did an overview podcast before the season on DFS Cash Game Strategy + Creating Player Pools. I also published an article on DFS Strategy for Beginners and another entitled: How to Approach Each Position in DFS & Gain an Edge.

Week 5 Cash Lineup

Draft % and cash lines each week will be from DraftKings’ $10 Single-Entry Double-Up with roughly 5,000 entries. This is a slightly elevated price point from the $1 and $5 double-ups and I think gives a solid idea each week of double-up roster percentages.

The Thought Process

Cash Locks (In My Opinion)

• In our Week 5 DFS Best Plays (which comes out on Saturdays for DFS Pass subscribers only), I shared the pool of players and this week was blatantly obvious who the top plays were.
• Justin Fields was the easiest click of the week. The price + game environment made him a lock and nearly 80+ % of the field felt the same.
• Once we got news that Chuba Hubbard was out, Rico Dowdle was locked into my lineup. I wrote in Best Plays: “Rico Dowdle is the cheap RB I will have in my lineup this week for cash. At only $4,300, we are getting a major discount for a player who already was seeing a ton of work inside the red zone. He has five carries inside the 5 over the last three weeks to Chuba Hubbard‘s zero. Yes, the Panthers are not a great bunch but Miami’s defense is allowing 5.1 yards per carry (4th most) and the 2nd highest explosive rush rate (9.7%) in the NFL. It’s a mix of volume, price, and a decent spot at home. If you get 10+ DK points, you are a happy camper but obviously more is on the table if he sees 15+ touches.“
• De’Von Achane received the MNF pricing discount and the matchup against Carolina was juicy, to say the least. We shared that we were fine playing two RBs in the same game because the workload for both felt so secure.
• Was there any chance Tyler Warren wasn’t in my lineup? I guess I included Zach Ertz and Jake Ferguson in the pool of players early in the week but my bias and the Cover-3 data I dug up made him. Let me be candid here as I sent this to Betz on Friday: “I might lock button Tyler Warren” in GPPs.
• Jaxon Smith-Njigba was our WR1 in Best Plays. The game environment against Tampa Bay + his role made him too cheap at $7100.

Gut-Wrenching Decisions

My goal in this section is to discuss the pool of players I considered for cash and how I arrived at my final lineup.

• I knew I was going to go with a 3RB build this week. With Achane and Dowdle already in, I was struggling to figure out what to do. Jonathan Taylor was my preference but I wanted to test out my lineup to see what Jahmyr Gibbs, Breece Hall, Rachaad White, or Michael Carter could afford me to do. What’s wild is that you honestly could’ve picked any of those RBs and it could’ve worked out in cash. I need to emphasize how strong the best plays were this week across the board. ALL of those RBs hit and allowed you to have a chance to hit the cash line.
• Among the WRs I considered this week, it went from elite (Amon-Ra St. Brown), the middle tier (Garrett Wilson, Quentin Johnston, Ladd McConkey, Jakobi Meyers, Chris Olave, Jameson Williams), and the cheapo (Chris Moore). I didn’t like punting with Moore so I quickly threw him out preferring a balanced build with all of the savings I got at the RB position this week.
• I definitely could not fit in three high-priced RBs this week or I would’ve likely will be spending down at other spots (TE, WR1) but JTT was my favorite. It did force me out of the range of paying for someone like Garrett Wilson. Stacking Fields with Wilson probably was obvious to many but I emotionally hedged (never helpful for actual DFS advice) as I have Wilson on 3/4 main teams in redraft & dynasty.
• Jakobi Meyers went from “oh Betz always likes him” to “welp, with Bowers out, he is in”. The correlation with the Colts in my lineup felt too easy. I mean c’mon… this is Jakobi Meyers we are talking about! How bad could Geno Smith be? I figured 6-for-67 was the floor. (Narrator: but it was not his floor.)
• You might be a bit surprised to see Jameson Williams in my lineup. I wanted access to the Detroit implied total and Jamo was popping in our Fantasy Expectation Report. I’ll share where my thoughts were straight from my DMs with Betz: “I know Jamo is risky but I kinda want to play him in cash.“

• “More fun” they said… I had HOU DST as my #1 DST and the pricing worked out perfectly to play that combination.
• For me, my final 2v2 decision was playing Jamo + HOU DST > Olave + NO DST. This led to my demise.

What Did the Field Do

My goal in this section is to discuss the pool of players used the most in cash style contests. You can compare the roster percentage, DK outputs, and how much of their salary they X’ed this week.

Get the 2026 Ultimate Draft Kit!

Preorder the 2026 UDK

Mistakes Were Made …

Every week I’ll highlight my biggest mistakes which range from not weighing low-end outcomes to assuming, to not thinking, and ultimately moving away from plays I started with. We’ve all been there… stay water. Don’t try to justify yourself or make things sound better than they were. You made a decision, now deal with it.

• It was a wild week where the chalk hit and one small mistake was the difference between hitting the cash line or not. For some, cash has become a tough avenue for DFS as the micro edges have vanished with so many people playing duped lineups, paying for plays, or losing out on a 1v1 or 2v2 decision.
• For me, playing Jamo + HOU DST > Olave + NO DST was my demise.
• Was Jameson Williams too cute of a pick? In hindsight, sure but I thought baking in a low rostered play in the afternoon with spike potential from a team with the highest implied total in a great matchup made sense. I guess I should’ve played boring ole Chris Olave and been happy with my 7-for-59. Targets!
• But honestly, even in spite of my Jamo failure the Saints DST going for 18 points ultimately was my doom.

2025 Results

Each week I’ll post my head-to-head (H2H) win percentage here to give you an idea of what type of week I had. Keep in mind there are varying price points, competition, and players who take my H2Hs in the lobby that have no rhyme or reason. The volume of my H2Hs differs each week due to my feeling of the slate and my weekend activities with my family. Every week I will also post the “cash line” from the $10 Double-Up from DraftKings.

Hopefully you’ve done better than me to start the year (2-3 on cash lines for Double Ups) and you are enjoying the process!

Heads up! I will NOT be writing this Cash Review article next week as I will be at the beach on an annual fall family beach trip and NOT playing cash for Week 6. Betz will still publish our Best Plays so if things go south while I’m away, blame him!