Week 5 Recap

 

Fantasy giveth, and fantasy taketh away...

Starting off with a quick player stat overview..

Top 5 players in positional scoring through 5 weeks:

WR

1. Puka Nacua (Brice)
2. Amon-Ra St. Brown (Zach)
3. Emeka Egbuka (Zach)
4. Jaxon Smith-Njigba (Ramsey)
5. Garrett Wilson (Eric)

RB

1. Jonathan Taylor (Matt)
2. Christian McCaffrey (Brice)
3. Javonte Williams (Zach)
4. James Cook (Tom)
5. Jahmyr Gibbs (Eric)

TE

1. Jake Ferguson (Kent)
2. Dalton Kincaid (Dan)
3. Tyler Warren (Eric)
4. Hunter Henry (FA)
5. Trey McBride (Dan)

QB

1. Josh Allen (Kyle)
2. Patrick Mahomes (Tom)
3. Baker Mayfield (Ramsey)
4. Dak Prescott (Eric)
5. Jalen Hurts (Zach)

After starting the season 2-0, Ramsey had lost the last couple matchups, but he sure bounced back in a big way, handing it to my team this week.

Putting up 141 points, his entire lineup produced.  Although the Jets have yet to win a game, Fields has proven that he can still be quite the fantasy asset.  Jaxon Smith-Njigba is averaging nearly 110 yards per game, and Justin Jefferson now has back-to-back games with double-digit targets (which the Vikings SHOULD be giving him every single week).

Ramsey will try to keep the train rollin' when he faces Matt in Week 6.

Brice put up the highest score of the week, en route to getting the win over Kyle's squad.  And he didn't even need Lamar Jackson to do it, although the same can't be said for Baltimore..

C.J. Stroud had 4 TDs as the Texans decimated the Ravens, and Rachaad White proved to be a viable replacement start with Bucky Irving out, getting 2 scores on Sunday, to go with 70+ combined yards.  CMC hasn't found much running-room lately, but it doesn't really matter when he's averaging 80 receiving yards to go along with it.

While Brice picked up his 3rd Cardinals RB (so far), the backup to the backup, Emari Demercado...it's probably a good thing he didn't start him, as watching him drop the ball on the 1-yard line prior to an easy TD can't be good for one's health... 

Part of me finds it hard to believe that this sort of thing continues to happen regularly...but then again, somehow I am not all that surprised.  That would have put the Cardinals up 27-6 in the 4th quarter, by the way.  And yeah, they went on to lose the game. 

Thankfully Brice is not the Cardinals, as he knows how to win weeks.  Brice is sittin' at 4-1 and currently in 1st place in the standings.  He faces Zach in Week 6.

Kyle got solid games out of all 3 of his starting RBs, but the rest of his team was dropping like flies.  Darius Slayton is now dealing with a hamstring, Brock Bowers is week-to-week with his knee, his kicker is out the remainder of the season with a torn ACL/MCL, Saquon is nursing his knee, and add Ricky Pearsall to the laundry-list of 49ers players that are currently hurt.

In positive news, RB Jacory Croskey-Merritt (aka "Bill"), finally had a breakout game with 150 combined yards and 2 scores, so he's making a strong case for leading the Commanders' backfield going forward.

It'll be Kyle vs Jordan in Week 6.

For Zach's team, Emeka Egbuka continues to impress, catching all 7 of his targets for 163 yards and a score in Sunday's game.  Taken as a 10th round pick, he is one of the steals of the year so far.

Speaking of steals... he ALSO got Javonte Williams in the 13th round, who has been unexpectedly phenomenal through 5 weeks.

Having Xavier Worthy back on the field may also help rest-of-season, although he hasn't found the endzone yet since his return.

Zach moves to 2-3 and will see if he can get back to .500 when he squares off with Brice.

Dan had to deal with some fairly pedestrian performances this week, although at least Nico Collins and George Pickens managed to find the endzone.  Unfortunately the rest of his team did not have the same luck, and it's always a bit of an insult when your Defense drops into the negative numbers.

Dan benefits from roster depth, so we'll see if he makes the right managerial moves when he faces off against Tom this week.

Don't see too many matchups start with a player trade, but it happened this week, with Chuba Hubbard now on Matt's team & Rico Dowdle in Jordan's lineup.  This could be seen as an act of desperation, with Jordan in Bye week hell and badly needing a starting RB to try to get his first win of the year.

As it turned out, Dowdle went on to run for over 200 yards and post the highest RB score of the week...which played a large part in securing the win for Jordan.  Yet to be determined what will happen when Chuba comes back, but Dowdle has clearly shown he can handle the rock quite effectively when needed.

Jordan moves to 1-4, and we'll see what other shenanigans he'll be up to when he faces Kyle this week.

Although Matt's team came up a bit short, Jonathan Taylor found the endzone 3 times and Ja'Marr Chase proved he can still produce even when the Bengals are tanking.

A.J. Brown has been inconsistent, to say the least.. but he's at least getting targeted.  Some more favorable pass-defenses coming up may help get him back on track.

Matt drops to 2-3 and gets a matchup with Ramsey in Week 6.

Kent may have been reeling after 3 straight losses, but he got an important win this week over Tom.

Jaylen Waddle saw his first real productive yardage game, and Jake Ferguson has emerged as the #1 TE on the year, notching 2 scores in Sunday's game.  Derrick Henry put up yet another frustrating game, although he did find the endzone to avoid a total disaster of a stat-line.

I have been hyping up his emerging rookie RB duo of Judkins & Hampton... but just as he was starting to reap the benefits, the fantasy gods ripped the rug out from under him (or possibly Dan put another curse on his team).  Omarion Hampton is being placed on IR after injuring his ankle during Sunday's game.  Not sure on the severity as of now, but either way, not great news.

Onto more positive news.. CeeDee Lamb SHOULD be back in action soon.  Tough to win games when you lose your first-round pick, but all things considered, not in too bad of a spot sitting at 2-3 heading into Week 6.

Tom drops to 3-2, but he did have to deal with Bijan on Bye, as well as James Cook putting up a dud of a performance.

He took the prudent "wait-and-see" approach with Darren Waller after picking him up this week, but back-to-back productive games means he may have two viable TE options going forward.

Tom gets a pivotal matchup vs Dan this week.

That's it for me.  Good luck on the waiver wire & your Week 6 matchups!

- Eric