NFL DFS: Week 5 Fanduel Cash Plays (1PM Only)

Got your main slate NFL DFS lineups all set and looking for a good reason to avoid tinkering with them? Make some more lineups on some smaller slates!! This article will focus on the top cash game plays for the 1PM only slate on Fanduel.

Welcome to the week 5 edition of NFL DFS Fanduel Cash Plays for the early slate from FantasyCPR. This piece will give us a solid look at how to attack our cash games for the eight-game, 1PM only slate on Fanduel. F

or the newbies, cash games are simply the games in the lobby that are 50/50 or close to that to win. These are basically all of the games other than the tournaments and guaranteed prize pool tournaments (GPP’s). Head-to-Head’s (H2H), 50/50, and double-ups would best summarize cash games.

Week five of the 2018 NFL season is here, and once again we have eight games kicking-off at 1PM ET. With a quick glance at these eight games, once again, one stands out far above the others as far as projected points go.

The Falcons will travel to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers, in game that boasts a massive Vegas total of 58. While this is the highest total on the slate by almost a touchdown, there are still a few other fine spots to attack as well.t5rsccx

Let’s continue by saying this, if you don’t like chalk, these slates are not for you. Not only will this article highlight who seems like the top options whether they are popular plays or not is not any of my concern, With just an eight game slate, we are getting a little close to thin.

Ideally, you would like these early slates to be at least ten games, but that is just not the case this week. With that said, let’s talk a little bit about last week’s debut of this article.

Week 4 Recap:

Instead of breaking down each play and making this an even longer read, I figure I will tweet out my results of the sample lineup each week so I can use them here for example. I am big fan of transparency, and I will be the first to admit I do not always get them right. But I think if you appreciate the conclusions I come to by you doing further research yourself, then I know you will be back for another read. Again, I am always here to help so reach out to me on Twitter, and that sample lineup is just a SAMPLE cash lineup. Regardless, I will play it every week, and we will track it right here!

QB – Ben Roethlisberger – Pittsburgh Steelers – $8,400

I love this slate for so many reasons this week, but the depth at the quarterback position has to be my favorite. There is a ton of attention on Matt Ryan this week, who Big Ben will oppose, but I think the home team is the one to target in this match-up. The chalk may steer towards Ryan here, but there are actually at least two other QB’s I would target first. Any time I think I have a stronger play than what may be the chalk I like where we are at.

Don’t get me wrong, Ryan has been fantastic this year… Except for his one road game week one at Philadelphia, where he only threw for 251 yards with zero TD’s. Yup, that means his incredible run of three straight games where he has averaged nearly 35 FDP per game, all came at home. Much like Brees put up a dud last week when his Saints traveled to New York, these road games seem to be tough for QB’s.

So instead of giving you reasons to play Big Ben, I gave you plenty of reasons not to play Matt Ryan. Basically I look at week 2 when the Steelers hosted the Chiefs and try to make a comparison, being that the Chiefs and the Falcons have similarly terrible defenses at the moment. This was Roethlisberger’s best game of the season up to this point. He threw the ball an astonishing 60 times, completing 39 for 452 yards and three TD’s. Atlanta is giving up 40 points per game in the last two. I have to think 325 yards and at least two TD’s is automatic. I LOVE the floor here for cash games for this early slate.

***Also consider – Blake Bortles  – $7,000***

RB – Christian McCaffrey – Carolina Panthers – $8,100

After a monster performance in which CMC was given the most carries he had ever received in an NFL game in week three, the Panthers were able to get two weeks to prep for the New York Giants, fresh off of an early bye. Carolina is favored by a touchdown, and if the week 3 game was any indication of what is to come from this offense. McCaffrey needs to be in consideration. We already know about the receiving threat he is, but now he proved he can get it done on the ground as well. He collected 184 yards on a healthy 28 carries as the Panthers rode his shoulders to victory. Along with our next target, CMC is your chalk for this slate, but it will also be interesting to see how much ownership Giants rookie Saquon Barkley garners. However, McCaffrey is just the better here play in this one. I think the game flow will end up very much in favor of CMC over Barkley.

RB – James Conner – Pittsburgh Steelers – $7,800

Both the Steelers and the Falcons will be looking for just their second win, in what appears to be a “must win” game for both teams this Sunday. I would hope the first priority for the Steelers is getting the run game established, and I think Conner has a nice bounce-back game here. Last week, Pittsburgh’s offense had a tough time getting anything going against the Ravens, who look to have one of the best defenses in the league. It should be much easier to move the ball this weekend against a much weaker Atlanta defense. Conner has proven himself as a viable receiving  threat as well out of the backfield, with 164 yards in the air through four games. I think for $100 more in salary, the chalk move towards Barkley, but the match-up for Conner here is much, much better here in my opinion.

***Also consider (or flex) – Saquon Barkley $7,900, Aaron Jones $6,100***

WR – Antonio Brown – Pittsburgh Steelers – $9,000

For me personally, this is a tough call. As much I love JuJu, and think he will be a superstar, Brown is still the best overall wide receiver in the league. I think both get double-digit targets here, and both have good enough games to pay off their price tags. There is some solid value at this position today, so I think the strategy for most will be to pay down to JuJu in cash, and pay up more at tight end. We will get to that more in the tight end portion, but let’s touch on AB84 a bit before talking about the value targets.

Brown is not putting up the type of numbers we are used to. Basically with no LeVeon Bell, opposing defenses have chosen to double team Brown on nearly every play this season. His targets haven’t dipped at all, as he has seen 53 balls thrown his way already. Problem is that he has just 29 catches for 272 yards. The three touchdowns is promising however, and he is still averaging close to 15 DP per game despite the down year.  As Smith-Schuster becomes even better taking advantage of the single teams, defenses will be forced to give him the same attention as Brown at times. This should open up things for AB84. Don’t give up on him yet.

WR – Tyler Boyd – Cincinnati Bengals – $6,300

Boyd has put it together for three straight weeks now, and his salary still sits down here below $7K. Seriously doesn’t it feel like he should be at least that? In last weeks shoot-out with the Falcons, Boyd grabbed 11 balls on 15 targets for 100 yards. He failed to get in the end zone however, keeping his total at 15.5 FDP, but it was his third straight double-digit game FDP game, and back-to-back 100 yard receiving games.

Boyd is clearly emerging as one of Andy Dalton‘s top targets, and his game is starting to get noticed. This week should be even better for him, as the Bengals will face the Dolphins at home, and counterpart A.J. Green should get all of the attention from Miami top cornerback Xavien Howard. Play him now regardless of chalk because that salary will only go up from here.

WR – Dede Westbrook – Jacksonville Jaguars – $5,900

Going to go back to the well here on Westbrook, another receiver I like for a couple reasons. One, there is little doubt that Westbrook and QB Blake Bortles will be popular in cash games, considering the match-up is arguably the best on the slate, as the Jaguars face the Chiefs. Two, this price is just way too low. On a slate where it looks like you will need to choose correctly between the top three running backs and nail your QB to hit the money, getting a WR at sub $6K of this caliber is just too good to pass up. Yes he has his bad games and struggles, but he was clearly Bortles’ favorite target last week, as they connected nine times on 13 targets, for 130 yards. Westbrook should have his way with this Chiefs secondary. Let’s just hope he and Bortles remain in sync for another week, and we can take advantage of yet again, another WR priced too low.

***Also consider: JuJu Smith-Schuster $8,000, Corey Davis $6,400***

TE – Vance McDonald – Pittsburgh Steelers – $4,600

Did you think I was done with writing up Steelers yet? Not so fast. This tight end position on this slate is pretty ugly overall. The good match-up’s are just not there. Jimmy Graham is starting to make some noise for the Packers, and the fact that they are hurting in the receiving corps leads me to believe Graham could also have a big week, I am just not in favor of paying that much for tight ends in cash games. McDonald however, is way down here at a punt price with an easy potential for a touchdown, as he slowly becomes a bigger part of the Steelers offense. He had a tough go last week against the Ravens, but so did the entire offense for the most part. McDonald showed what he is capable of in week three against the Buccaneers, when he went for 112 yards and a touchdown on just four catches. The Steelers are putting up 40+, Stack up your favorite four.

***Also consider: Jimmy Graham $6,100***

Tennessee Titans – $3,900

Much like the tight end position, we are looking at a pretty thin selection of defenses in good match-up’s. The mighty Jaguars defense is in action, but I am pretty sure I want no part of them against the Chiefs offense this week. Looking at it as a whole, the Panthers or the Jets may be in the best overall spot, but I will do what I did last week, and target the Buffalo Bills offense.

That brings us to Buffalo, where the 3-1 Titans will be in town. This might be 60% ish chalk at this price, but after last week when I picked the Green Bay Packers against the Bills in this piece, I will go right at the Bills again. I expect them to be a little better at home, but this Titans team has should impressive wins under their belt in the early goings, and this defense should easily contain this Buffalo offense, and the Titans just seem like the easy play here. I am on board for every slate available as well.

***Also consider – Baltimore Ravens – $4,200***

NFL DFS: Week 4 Fanduel (1PM Only!) Slate Sample Lineup:

The line-up below is meant to be illustrative only to further back-up the logic laid out in previous slides. It is not an optimal line-up. It is in fact, just a “Sample Lineup.”

QB – Ben Roethlisberger – Pittsburgh Steelers – $8,400

RB – James Conner – Pittsburgh Steelers – $7,800

RB – Saquon Barkley – New York Giants – $7,900

WR – Antonio Brown – Pittsburgh Steelers – $9,000

WR – Tyler Boyd – Cincinnati Bengals – $6,300

WR – Dede Westbrook – Jacksonville Jaguars – $5,900

TE – Vance McDonald – Pittsburgh Steelers – $4,600

FLEX – Aaron Jones – Green Bay Packers – $6,100

DEF – Tennessee Titans – $3,900

Thank you for coming back again or finding this for the first time. You can find me on Twitter with the link at the top of the page. Reach out to me if you would like to see more of this! We have TONS of FREE content here from many incredibly talented writers at FantasyCPR, and new stuff to check out constantly. As we try to cover more and more angles of fantasy sports, you will see more articles focusing on the smaller slates among the different NFL DFS sites. Good luck on the early slate!