What an interesting week this is setting up to be.
Fantasy football is the ultimate game of strategy because every season has a vast galaxy of variables. How we assess, interpret and act on those variables is critical to our success.
Boy oh boy, Week 5 is chock full o’ variables.
The bye weeks are back to challenge our roster depth and our managerial acumen. Can you win with one hand tied behind your back? Two hands? Two hands and one foot? If you went heavy on Chargers, Browns and Seahawks in your draft, you might be feeling like the Black Knight at the end of the sword fight in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”
But there are some positive variables, too. Week 5 could bring the return of a pair of stars who spent the first four weeks of the season on injured reserve: Cooper Kupp and Jonathan Taylor. Kupp reportedly practiced with the Rams without limitation on Wednesday. Taylor also practiced in full, though it’s unclear whether he and the Colts have resolved their differences over Taylor’s contractual status. Also back in Week 5 is Lions WR Jameson Williams, whose six game gambling suspension was shortened to four games after a change to the NFL’s gambling policy.
And of course, we have to sift through all of the other variables: matchups, injuries, shifting depth charts, etc.
Buckle up, friends. It’s going to be a wild week.
As always, feel free to use these tiered rankings as a tiebreaker for your difficult lineup decisions. Here are all of my fantasy football rankings, tiers, and player notes for Week 5. Below we dive into a few notable players.
- Weekly Fantasy Football Expert Rankings
- Fantasy Football Start/Sit Advice
- Fantasy Football Trade Tools
- Waiver Wire Picks
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Fitz’s Fantasy Football Outlook
Saquon Barkley is expected to return from a high-ankle sprain this week. No doubt most of his stakeholders will be compelled to start him. But if you’re in a shallow league where every roster is star-laden, consider leaving Barkley on your bench for another week. Barkley probably won’t be 100% for a matchup against the Dolphins in Miami, and the Giants’ offensive line is in a state of utter disrepair.
David Montgomery‘s big performance against the Packers in Week 4 forced a reckoning among Jahmyr Gibbs advocates — and among fantasy analysts guilty of pie-in-the-sky weekly rankings for Gibbs early in the season (like me, for instance). Game scripts have been kind to Montgomery, with the Lions trailing by more than one score for only 4:56 of clock time so far this season. Even with the Monty-friendly game scripts, Gibbs has had at least seven carries in every game and is averaging 4.5 targets. Montgomery is averaging 23 carries per game — an unsustainable pace. Gibbs’ workload will go up as the Lions inevitably encounter some negative, less run-friendly game scripts. Even though the Lions probably aren’t getting a negative game script on Sunday as a 10-point home favorite against the Panthers, Gibbs is still going to get touches against a Carolina defense that has given up the fourth-most rushing yards to running backs.
-Pat Fitzmaurice
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