The Daily Spin – NFL Cash Game Selections – Week 7

Week 7 is upon us and we are nearly halfway through the regular season which is amazing. The fall seems to go by faster than any other time of year for me and football is largely to thank for that. On the other hand, as soon as the season ends those last couple of months of winter feel like an absolute eternity up here in Minnesota so I better start planning my trip for the Farmers Insurance Open down in San Diego at the end of January before too long.

Last weekend, I was a little off the radar on Sunday morning as I was able to attend my first regular season game at the new Viking’s stadium in downtown Minneapolis against the Eagles. It is really funny how the league can spin you around from one week to the next. Just two weeks ago after Week 4, Viking country was in complete disarray. After another sloppy loss on the road in Chicago, the phone lines were flooded up here demanding the head of Kirk Cousins. Stefon Diggs went AWOL from practice that Wednesday before the game against the Giants and when he returned Thursday he gave what I can only describe as a cryptic interview about his intentions moving forward with the team. Cousins publicly apologized to Adam Thielen on his weekly podcast for missing open connections with him in the Bears game and it felt like the team was ready to go over a cliff and plunge its way down to a 6-10 season.

Fast forward to today and the outlook is completely different. The Vikings went on the road to NY and handled their business without any trouble. While that steadied the ship briefly, it was a game they were certainly expected to win without much difficulty so fans were still feeling cautious going into the game with the Eagles on Sunday. However, what happened on Sunday brought much of the life back into the fanbase here as Cousins looked sharp, Diggs had a huge day and the coaching staff definitely had the better of things against the well regarded Doug Pederson. When things looked they could slip away the team responded in a big way and ended up putting the game away without having to make a late stop to win it. It was a great day all around and I finished it up with my favorite steak over at Murray’s, an institution for steak in Minneapolis and I spot I always recommend to folks in town. Of course, next week brings another tough matchup against an angry Lions team on the road so just as easily as everyone was starting to feel good, things can always change in an instant.

I bring this up since DFS can often feel the same way. One week, things are going off the rails and then the next week you are flying high. Round and round it goes and it can be challenging to manage your emotions when things are not going your way. The key to having success long term is not in grading whether you won or lost in a given week. I see rosters every week that hit in cash games that were terribly constructed and I see some that lose where I do not see a single play that looks out of place. If you can look at your decisions each week and see what worked and what did not as well as any plays that you missed that the rest of the industry took advantage of, you will improve your process, which will in turn lead to becoming more profitable.

Last week was a roller coaster for me with my cash game roster. It really is tight this season and there are not a lot of differences between the lineups some weeks. It felt like last week was one of those weeks where everyone would be very similar so it was just a matter of not having things go against you in the spots where you might have differentiated.

At QB, I had the obvious play of Matt Ryan who has been DFS gold this season. The Falcons do not have much of a rushing attack or a competitive defense so just about every week they find themselves in a shootout and last week was no different. I paired him up with Austin Hooper at TE in a real smash spot and both paid off their salary easily.

At RB, I laid out that I was going to for sure have Lev Bell at a discounted price since DK had hung a number before knowing that Sam Darnold would return. That play worked fine, but the other play I felt like we were forced into did not go as well as Malcolm Brown got off to a good start, but then did not produce. He was stuffed at the goal line twice near the end of the first half which hurt, but he was very heavily owned, so that did not do us in. Brown ended up in the flex spot since he had the late game and Leonard Fournette was my other RB and he did well. He did not do anything huge, but his performance was solid and did not put us behind the sticks.

At WR, it felt like it was finally going to be a breakout week for DeAndre Hopkins, but that did not happen. He caught 9 balls, but only mustered 55 yards which was disappointing. Oh well, he had a huge target share just like we thought so I cannot complain there. The guy that hurt me was Cooper Kupp. He was seeing a massive number of targets each week and it seemed likely to continue with Todd Gurley out, but the Rams looked dead as an offensive unit on Sunday and Kupp caught just 4 passes for 17 yards which was absolutely dreadful. Yes, the 49ers have a good defense this year, but that was inexplicably bad. Finally, the one spot where I felt like I might be taking a bit of risk was with using Dede Westbrook. He had a great matchup against the very beatable, and now suspended, PJ Williams on Sunday. Though the targets were there with 8 balls going his direction, he caught only 3 for 53 yards, which was a big disappointment. I am fine with my decision there. I thought that DJ Chark would have a tougher time getting loose with Lattimore on him so I thought it was a nice spot where Dede could pick up extra targets against one of the weaker CBs in the league.

On defense, I paid all the way down to the Jets at $1500. They delivered 1 point which was disappointing, but I was using them strictly for the salary savings so anything I got from them was a bonus to me.

Late in the day, my team made a nice charge to work back close to the cash line in most contests. When the Falcons scored what looked like the tying TD against the Cards, I knew I had a good chance for a win on the week if the game went into OT. Of course, Matt Bryant blew the extra point and subsequently the game as Matt Ryan and Austin Hooper did not make it back onto the field. I got back a little over half of the money I entered for the week, but came up just short of sweeping for the week. It was discouraging to have it end that way, but overall, I was happy with the team I put together and there is not anything I would have done differently so I am still feeling really good about where I am t for the season and where we are headed the rest of the way.

To read the entire article, become a premium member of Football Insider Edge by clicking here, or on the JOIN NOW button on the homepage