We are off to a very hot start in cash games this year. Pretty much all of the cash routes did well last week as Tyreek Hill and Amon-Ra St. Brown were huge winners. There were a couple combos that had both of them and we were really off to the races there.

I have personally hit on both my cash lineups this year, and I’m hoping you are having similar success. The Week 3 slate presents us a really tough set of players. The Running Back group is fairly weak, so I don’t think I’ll be making a lot of lineups that carry an RB in the flex this week. There’s a rather big decision to make at QB this week. As you can see, we are choosing to pay up at QB which leaves us with a bit of an interesting option in the Flex.

Cash Game Locks

Starting with Stefon Diggs here who is fresh off a 12-148-3 line on Monday night football. Of course, salaries locked for Week 3 prior to that performance, so he is severely underpriced. Load him up and hope for a shootout in the Bills and Dolphins game.

Leonard Fournette has massively under-produced this season, but he is seeing an immense workload and has mainly just been running cold. The Packers got thrashed through the ground last week, and Tampa Bay is once again going to be undermanned at the WR position. Lenny should get back on track here in Week 3.

This is where the fun begins. Yes that’s right we are going with a TE in the flex! Irv Smith Jr. and Juwan Johnson combine for $6000 in salary and are both projecting pretty well. We’ll talk through some of the other studs this combo gives us access to later, but most importantly it allows us to get up from Tua Tagovailoa or Marcus Mariota to these two studs below.

Quarterback and Defense

I know I’m skipping ahead to column 3, but the segue above just worked too nicely. Jalen Hurts and Josh Allen are our two QB options this week and certainly raise the ceiling outcome of our Cash Game lineups. Now typically, we don’t need to pay too much mind to ceiling, however when we are breaking ties, ceiling is where we always want to look.

If we want to keep access to some of the studs we have listed in Columns 2 and 4, then the QB/Flex decision is essentially a 2v2 of Hurts/Allen and Johnson vs. Mariota/Tua vs. Curtis Samuel/Jakobi Meyers. I know which side of the equation I want every time.

Defense is relatively straight forward this week. We’ve got the Jaguars who appear to be getting ready to play the Justin Herbert-less Chargers. On the otherside, the Panthers matchup with the Jameis Winston led Saints who are always good for a couple of turnover options.

2nd Running Back & Wide Receiver Stud

Ok, so it seems like things are trending for Josh Jacobs to be in this week, but in the off chance he does not play we’ve got a Zamir White option floating here for your last minute needs. If building right now, we are going to plug in Dameon Pierce instead here and pair him up with Amon-Ra St. Brown. Pierce did not have a great role in Week 1, but then bounced back well and had 15 carries in Week 2. It makes sense for Houston to run with him as the lead back, so we are banking on that here. Not much needs to be said about Amon-Ra this year. Off to a screaming start and picked up right where he left off last year.

David Montgomery feels like an incredibly gross play for tournaments this week, but his $5900 salary seems fine for cash and since his ownership will be high, we will essentially just be blocking a spot in our lineup and hoping to beat our competition in the other positions (like QB). On this side of the flowchart, he gets paired up with Jaylen Waddle who saw an insane 19 targets last week. I am more confident in Waddle’s floor in the Dolphins offense given that target share, so I think he’s a really standout play this week against the Bills.

Final Piece

Ok so pretty duplicative here in the last column and that will be slightly common with the cash builds I’m sure. In most weeks, we want to be thinking about a smaller player pool, so don’t be surprised to see players mentioned twice. As you start building out options, you will see how it all makes sense.

Of course, don’t play Tyreek Hill with Waddle lineups, but otherwise Hill is a fine play. As I mentioned above, I would rather Waddle for cash, but when playing the Bills we know they are going to have to score points.

Davante Adams should be in for a huge week with no Hunter Renfrow. This Titans defense gave up that huge game to Diggs last week, so no reason Davante can’t do the same.

Last but not least, Tee Higgins is simply underpriced this week on DraftKings at $6100. He is my least favorite WR option on the flowchart, but there are some combinations where it makes sense.

Good luck in your cash games and head-to-head contests this week!