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For the uninitiated, playing daily games on DraftKings can be an enjoyable experience, but equally sobering is the fact that season-long knowledge does not always translate to success in the daily space. Footballguys will bring you a series of value- and strategic-based selections from a number of seasoned daily veterans throughout the NFL season. Herein is another edition of “Tipandpick’s Tips and Picks,” where we will examine the salaries of players at each position on DraftKings and make value-based recommendations for both your cash games and tournaments.

Below you will find a list of recommended players for both formats. GPP players generally have high-upside, but are too risky for cash games; cash game players are consistent with high fantasy floors. In some instances, the value for a player is so strong, he may fall into both categories…let’s have a look.

TIPS AND PICKS

Let's take a deeper look into some of the players who I will be targeting for my cash game and tournament rosters this weekend. A short summary follows each respective table to fill in the gaps that led to the respective recommendations; that text represents only an overview of the methodology and rationale that goes into each recommendation. If you have questions about any of the recommendations or the process that led to them, please email me at john.lee@footballguys.com.

CASH GAMES

Quarterbacks: If you can get there with minimal opportunity cost (and I suspect you can), Patrick Mahomes II is the preferred cash game (and tournament) quarterback this weekend. Mahomes has thrown for multiple touchdowns in every game this season except for Week #7 against the Broncos when the Chiefs scored a defensive touchdown and a special teams touchdown, negating a need for Mahomes to be involved in the second half of the game. Against the Buccaneers' loaded offense, however, Mahomes should be involved for four full quarters. Vegas has touted this game as the highest-scoring game on the slate and that is exactly where you want exposure for DFS purposes. If Mahomes' $8K salary is too much, Matt Ryan is perfectly acceptable at a ~ $2K discount at home against the Raiders. Ryan is coming off a 7-DK point stinker against the Saints last week, but he has historically performed well at home and is indeed averaging over 300 passing yards per game at home again this season. Our David Dodds has him projected at 18.5 DK points, which is > 3x his modest $5.9K salary.

Running Backs: With 30+ touches in 3 out of his 4 previous games, Dalvin Cook is the hero we need to anchor our cash game lineups. His matchup is excellent against the Panthers, who allow the 5th-most fantasy points per game to running backs including a near-200 yard performance from Ronald Jones II just 2 weeks ago. In Jacksonville, James Robinson continues to merit consideration given his bellcow role and modest salary. The Jags are projected to play from behind in this matchup, which does not affect JRob because he is has been an excellent receiver out of the backfield in this rookie season; with Myles Garrett missing this contest due to COVID, JRob should exhibit a solid scoring floor in this contest. In Cincinnati, Wayne Gallman is one of this week's more intriguing running back options for all DFS formats. Gallman has scored in four consecutive games and is coming off a two-touchdown performance against the Eagles that represented his best game in four years as an NFL pro. While Gallman's viability as a cash game option is secure, there are questions about his upside--he has yet to surpass 100 rushing yards in his career, which should temper expectations if his percent-rostered numbers get much past 12-15%. At the low-end of the pricing spectrum, Brian Hill gets a spot start for the Falcons with Todd Gurley missing due to a knee issue. Hill has primarily played the passing down role for the Falcons since Gurley's arrival, but he gets a chance to shine against the Raiders, who allowed 94 rushing yards and 3 rushing touchdowns to Chiefs running backs just last weekend. SATURDAY AFTERNOON EDIT: With the recent news of Jonathan Taylor being put on the COVID list and missing Sunday's game against the Titans, Nyheim Hines becomes cash-game viable and possibly the top option behind Dalvin Cook at the position. Adjust your lineups accordingly.

Wide Receivers: Because you should be considering spending up at other positions in cash games this week, the recommendation is to go modest-to-low on salary at wide receiver. Topping the list of mid-range receivers is Justin Jefferson, who should get all the action he can handle against the Panthers with Adam Thielen missing this game due to COVID. Likewise, Cole Beasley should benefit from John Brown missing the Bills' contest against the Chargers; Beasley has evolved into a critical component of the Bills offense since Stefon Diggs has arrived and should play a significant role underneath if Diggs struggles with Casey Hayward on the outside. In this same spot last week, Michael Pittman delivered early with a 44-yard catch-and-run touchdown en route to a 15.6-DK point performance against the Packers; Pittman's price jumped to $5K this week, but he scored 22-DK points against this same defense just 2 weeks ago. As punt options, Denzel Mims and Andy Isabella are in play. Mims is playing > 90% of the Jets' snaps and gets an implied gamescript that should see Sam Darnold throw the ball 35+ times against the Dolphins. Meanwhile, Isabella steps in for Larry Fitzgerald (COVID) and should play the WR3 role behind DeAndre Hopkins and Christian Kirk. Both need 5/50/0 stat lines to justify their spot in your cash game lineups and are projected in that range.

Tight Ends: In line with the opening of this article, if the opportunity cost is not prohibitive, try to get Travis Kelce into your cash game lineups this week. The position is relatively barren and Kelce's role is too much to ignore in what could be the slate's highest-scoring game. Kelce has double-digit targets in 50% of the Chiefs games this season and has scored in 4 straight games. His 20.9-DK point per game average dwarfs every tight end in the league and we have no reason to expect him to slow down against the Buccaneers, who have allowed no-name tight ends Colin Thompson, Josh Hill, and Adam Trautman to reach the endzone against them in the month of November. As a punt option, Kyle Rudolph is priced below $3K and could be the #2 receiver behind Justin Jefferson on Sunday. As mentioned above, Adam Thielen will not be active, which should redistribute approximately eight targets to other players including Rudolph at a fair price point.

Team Defenses: In 3 starts with the Broncos last season, Brandon Allen completed only 45% of his passes and threw 2 interceptions versus only 3 touchdowns in that span. Due to Joe Burrow's unfortunate season-ending knee injury last week, the Bengals have elected to bypass Ryan Finley in favor of Allen, but we should not expect Allen to run this Bengals offense remotely as well as Burrow. This is a get-right spot for the Giants, winners of two in a row and coming out of a bye week, to position themselves for a playoff spot in the NFC East. If you cannot afford to pay up for the Giants, stay in New York City and roll with the Jets at $2.1K against the Dolphins, who are not expected to start Tua Tagovailoa due to a nagging thumb injury. While Fitzpatrick looked serviceable as a starter earlier this season, he is known to implode from time to time and the Jets are cheap enough that they do not need to do much to hit 3x on their $2.1K salary. SATURDAY EVENING EDIT: All of Denver's quarterbacks have been announced as ineligible to play tomorrow against the Saints. A practice squad wide receiver (Kendall Hinton) or Royce Freeman will likely be under center for the Broncos; in either event, there is little threat of scoring from Denver and the Saints defense is one of the better cash game options despite their hefty $3.8K price tag. For tournaments, however, you are advised to go underweight on what should be a hefty percent-rostered number because the likelihood of significant upside is limited given that passing will be limited on both sides of the field for this contest.

TOURNAMENTS

Quarterbacks: Discussed in the "Cash Games" section above, Patrick Mahomes II is assuredly in play against a pass-funnel Buccaneers defense. Handle your GPP portfolio accordingly. After Mahomes, a scattering of cheaper quarterbacks top the list of GPP selections in Week #12. Philip Rivers (and all of the Colts, actually) is probably too cheap and not getting enough attention against the league's 25th DVOA pass defense. Rivers has thrown for 300+ yards and/or 3 touchdowns in all-but-one game over the Colts' past 5 games; stack him with Michael Pittman and/or T.Y. Hilton and "run it back" with your favorite Tennessee Titan for a complete gamestack. In southern California, Jared Goff gets consideration this week against the 49ers, who allowed back-to-back 4-touchdown games to Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson prior to a rebound game in Week #10 when Drew Brees left early with a rib injury. Goff has strung together 3x 300-yard games in a row entering this contest and is going under the radar on less than 5% of rosters. With plentiful receiving options, none of whom are projected to land on > 10% rosters, Goff is surprisingly sneaky. In the "bottom of the barrel" category, both Sam Darnold and Mike Glennon get nods as cheap sleepers with upside. Darnold makes his first start in several weeks and will be on nobody's DFS radar, but he represents a sizeable uptick in talent from an aging Joe Flacco. The Jets are projected to score ~ 19 points with an implied pass-heavy gamescript. Given that Frank Gore scored his first touchdown in 25 games last week, we should not expect Gore to be stealing too many scores in the near future; if the Jets can edge on the higher side of 19 points with 3 touchdowns, Darnold will almost assuredly delivered 4x value on his pittance of a salary. Lastly, rostering Mike Glennon is not for the weak of heart--he has not started a game since 2017 with the Bears, but the 6'7" veteran is sub-$5K and has a few cheap receivers (Laviska Shenault and Keelan Cole) who should collect a slew of targets. The move here is to gamestack Glennon with a Jags receiver and run it back with either Kareem Hunt or Nick Chubb while hoping for the Browns to jump out to an early lead via their running game.

• Sleeper: Top-tier quarterbacks have carved the Vikings young secondary this season on multiple occasions; they have only fared well against pedestrian quarterbacks (i.e., Nick Foles). Enter Teddy Bridgewater who, ironically enough, bridges the gap between "top-tier" and "pedestrian." Bridgewater gets the nod here because all three of his receivers are (again) too cheaply priced for their expected fantasy output, which elevates Teddy's likelihood of outdelivering his own fantasy expectations. As a short road underdog, Bridgewater could be expected to throw a bit more than usual and he gets a slight bump because even his running back (Mike Davis) is a solid receiver out of the backfield; thus, all Carolina's scores could conceivably come through the air and Bridgewater is a roster differentiator at only 1% rostered.
• Fade: Fading Justin Herbert admittedly did not work out last week when he diced the Jets for 30.7-DK points (but who expected the Jets to score 28 points of their own?). This week, however, Herbert's salary has increased $400, his percent-rostered is second-highest on the board, and he makes a cross-country trip to play one of the better pass defenses in the NFL. Keenan Allen is in a similar spot (more below), which makes Herbert a tough sell yet again this week.