The Lineup Lowdown: NFL Week 5 Edition
A popular contributor at RotoGrinders, Travis Mangone, aka Mangone, is this week’s guest for The Lineup Lowdown.
A top 600 ranked Grinder that includes top 1,000 ranks in NFL, MLB, NBA, and NASCAR, Mangone spends a lot of time playing cash games on all the major DFS sites. He shared his Week 5 NFL main slate cash game lineup on FanDuel with us along with how he came up with his line up.
Dak Prescott: Dak was too cheap on FanDuel at $7,700 in a game with the highest total on the slate against a weak secondary. He made too much sense in cash to fade on a site like FanDuel, where roster construction is not as tight as it is on DraftKings.
Le’Veon Bell: The $9,500 price tag is steep, but he was going against a team that is elite against the pass but awful at containing the run. He’s one of the best backs in the league in this type of matchup, and with him at home as a large favorite, the spot was too good to pass up.
Todd Gurley: I struggled with this decision – it was close between Gurley and Zeke, but I felt I could get my Zeke exposure on DraftKings and thought the $1,100 savings between the two would help me build a better lineup on FanDuel. Not to mention the fact that the Rams RB has been on a tear and was getting a matchup against a Seahawks defense that has been susceptible to the run this season.
Dez Bryant: Receivers against the Packers are an every week cash game target, and while Dez has drawn difficult matchups thus far, this was an easy matchup for him and a great way to get exposure to this likely shootout.
Jordy Nelson: I hated not having exposure to the Packers side of the ball, especially in cash games. It was much easier to do on FanDuel and I felt like with that savings on Gurley I could move up to a guy like Jordy. I was able to do that but fading Parker was a tough call, but I felt like getting as much exposure to this Packers game as possible made sense.
Jaron Brown: Brown was a key to making a lot of my spend up plays work, especially facing an awful Eagles secondary for minimum price. I thought Brown was a great value option despite slight concerns with J.J, Nelson and John Brown being ruled as active. In the end though, the $4,500 price tag won out, as he could honestly get me a goose egg and I could probably still have a chance at cashing (now, I’m not saying I want a 0, but you get the gist). Brown was a key for me to get the studs I wanted.
Martellus Bennett: Bennett was another way for me to get exposure to the Packers offense, and although I had other options at tight end that I liked, he fit perfectly into my roster construction. I did like Engram and ASJ as cheap options, but I had ASJ on DK for my exposure to him.
Adam Vinatieri: He cost the minimum at $4,500, and with some nasty weather today I knew a reliable kicker in a dome made sense as a safe option. Sure, I wanted Dan Bailey, but at the minimum Vinatieri allowed me to build the cash game roster I wanted. That and I felt the 49ers defense would be stingy in the red zone, as they are better than people think.
Jets Defense: They were cheap at $4,300 and facing the woeful Browns offense and Deshone Kizer! I know it wasn’t the most compelling case, but that was my reasoning – I also didn’t mind punting at defense because I felt like there were no must own defenses on this slate.
Travis didn’t have a final score that blew you out of the water, and Todd Gurley was a big bust with just 4 fpts, but he got enough from all of his players and with Gurley being 71.5% owned his bust didn’t hurt him that bad. The big performer for him was Dak Prescott who put up 30.74 fpts, but it was probably his “safe” kicker in Adam Vinatieri that made the biggest difference for him as the Colts kicker made four field goals on his way to a 18 fpt game.
A late Jordy Nelson TD (that’s all the dude does) saved him from being a complete bust, and good but not great outings from Bell, Bryant, and the Jets defense were enough to give Mangone a lineup that is top 20% with just the second half of the night game remaining.