The Daily Spin – NFL Cash Game Selections – Week 12

Week 11 was one of the more challenging weeks of the season and Week 12 is shaping up to be the toughest in terms of pricing that we have seen all year. The most elite players in the league have seen their salaries climb up into the $9-10.5k range which creates problems when it comes to getting creative in our lineup builds each week. We really want to find a way to get Michael Thomas or CMC onto our cash teams, but that also means we need to find the value plays at the bottom to pair with them.

The issue that most of us end up running into many times is that these become duplicated as there tend to be a handful of very obvious names at the bottom that are on almost every roster so that there are not a lot of areas for differentiation. This means that we cannot afford to make any mistakes along the way in the areas where we have some discretion. With all of the information that is readily available to our opponents, getting the key match ups right and not chasing after the previous week is more important than ever.

A quick look back at last week shows that while things were challenging, the results were mostly encouraging. At QB, Lamar and Dak both came through in a big way as Jackson continues his MVP run after crushing the Texans at home. I ended up paying up for Lamar as he’s been so good all season and Houston has been getting smoked by opposing QBs. Dak continues to make his case to become the highest paid QB in the league as he’s changed the Cowboys from a run first to an aerial attack. He torched the Lions one week after doing the same against the Vikes while Zeke was mostly ineffective. This is definitely a trend to follow. Josh Allen and Jameis were both solid as secondary options. The only real bust was if you paid down for Kyle Allen who was awful against the suddenly resurgent Falcons. He did not need to do much against what had been a mediocre defense, but instead got thoroughly thumped at home. That is always the big risk of paying down for guys that do not have a real high floor. However, he did still post 12.7 fantasy points so it was not a total disaster. It just made it tough since Dak and Lamar were both in the 30+ range.

At RB, despite his team not getting into the end zone, Christian McCaffrey still manage to score 33 DK points for the week. It is just amazing what a volume monster this guy is week after week. His price makes it challenging to find room for him, but with the touches he gets, especially as a pass catcher, it makes for a tough fade even at his price. Dalvin Cook struggled to get going against the Broncos last week. He was completely bottled up in the first half, but did manage to get a TD in the second half to somewhat salvage his day. Josh Jacobs was the other RB who I had to find a way to work into my lineup last week and he did not disappoint as he went over 100 yards. I wish he would have gotten into the end zone when he had touches inside the 5 yard line, but that part is out of our hands, we can only plan around touches.

The value RBs last week ended up being a bust for everyone. Both Miles Sanders and Brian Hill were heavily owned and neither one did well at all. Hill lost out on a short yardage TD to some no name RB and Sanders never really got into gear against the Pats. While singularly, neither one probably hurt you badly, if you paired them up as some owners did, it may have been catastrophic for your week. Both were in a nice spot, especially Hill. The Panthers are about as bad as it gets against the run so the fact that Hill could only muster two yards per carry was pretty ridiculous, especially in a game that the Falcons were dominating.

At WR, if you paid up for Thomas, you were likely pleased again as he had over 28 points for the week and went over 100 receiving yards yet again. He’s on pace to set receiving records this year so it is unlikely that this pace slows down. The Bucs were trouble again last week. I really liked Mike Evans and his match up against PJ Williams, one of the softest CBs in the league. Whiff. With Marshon Lattimore out and in a game where we knew the Bucs would be trailing, I thought Evans would have a big day. Instead, he was held to 4/69 and even if you ended up with Godwin, he was not much better.

The mid value range at WR was hit and miss. DJ Moore continues to play great football this season and keeps rolling up double digit targets each week. John Brown had a massive week for us as the Bills finally broke out their passing attack against the overmatched Dolphins secondary. But it was not all pretty for us. Mohahed Sanu was hurt early against the Eagles and toughed it out through the game, but produced very little after seeing 14 targets the week prior. Tyler Boyd was also nonexistent for the Bengals against the Raiders despite trailing most of the game. Having a rookie QB took me off of Boyd, but I was not able to dodge the bullet with Sanu. Lastly, Deebo Samuel was a gift for us at $4k and was heavily owned in cash games for the week. With the beat up 49er WR corp, he was an easy plug and play and ended up with over 100 yards against a bad Cardinals secondary.

The TE position has been tricky over the last few weeks with limited options, but it all worked out pretty well last week. While we would have liked to see more out of Waller, he was not awful and the same can be said for Cook and Olson. The play of the week at TE was Ross Dwelley who found pay dirt twice against the team that is the worst in the league against the TE. The way the 49ers use the TE in their offense and the way the the Cards are simply unable to cover the slot made this a perfect spot, even with how little Dwelley had been used prior to Kittle getting hurt.

Defense was a tricky spot last week as well. The Vikings got lit up by Brando Allen and the Broncos at home in the first half before settling down in the second half to get the win. The Panthers got steamrolled at home by the Falcons, who suddenly have some life again. The Saints were able to score a defensive TD and grabbed 4 Jameis INTs in rolling to an easy win so hopefully you landed on the Saints for the week!

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