Fantasy Football Outlook: DeAndre Hopkins, Christian Watson, Jakobi Meyers (Week 5)

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.

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Fitz’s Fantasy Football Outlook

DeAndre Hopkins hasn’t topped 65 yards in any game this season, but he’s a good play this week against an Indianapolis defense that’s playing two rookie cornerbacks on the outside in its nickel package. The Colts have given up the seventh-most receiving yards to wide receivers.

Christian Watson returned from a hamstring injury last week and played 46% of the Packers’ offensive snaps last week. His two-catch, 25-yard performance would have been a disaster for his fantasy managers had his second catch not been a 1-yard touchdown late in the game. The Packers have long been conservative in their handling of injured players, so I would expect a heartier snap share for Watson this week after he got the kid-gloves treatment in Week 4. But Romeo Doubs had 9-95-0 on 13 targets last week and has drawn 25 targets over the Packers’ past two games. Doubs’ presence could be a drain on Watson’s production. I have Doubs ranked WR29 and Watson WR30.

I’m way below consensus on Jakobi Meyers, who is generating rankings enthusiasm that, frankly, I can’t understand. Well, maybe I can understand it. Meyers had two touchdowns in Week 1, and he had 16 catches for 166 yards over his first two games. But people are forgetting that Meyers hasn’t ever been a big-play guy, and he famously had trouble finding the end zone early in his career, playing his first 38 regular-season games without scoring a touchdown. Meyers has a career average of 11.7 yards per catch, and he’s scored 10 touchdowns in 64 career games (playoffs included). With that sort of production profile, you need heavy target volume to be a useful fantasy asset. Meyers got that in the Raiders’ first two games, but he’s sharing a field with Davante Adams, one of the most prolific target hogs in the league. Other rankers seem to be viewing Meyers as a must-start for Week 5. I think he warrants consideration as a starter, but I don’t think he’s a no-brainer.

-Pat Fitzmaurice