Fantasy football team guide for NFL week five
It’s Week 5 in your fantasy football league, and already there are some teams pulling away from the pack. Your team is a middling 2-2 and needs a boost, but the bye week is hitting you hard and everyone’s still too frightened to trade around big-name players. Fear not, for this is the time to make adjustments — with the right pickups and lineup choices you’ll be in the winner’s circle in no time.
Start: Tyler Eifert
Tight end may be the most frustrating position in all of fantasy sports. There’s nothing worse than getting a goose egg from Coby Fleener while your opponent demolishes you with two Greg Olsen touchdowns. The right play here can pay huge dividends, and Eifert provides a sneaky good play this week against Seattle.
The Seahawks’ defense has looked top-flight in its past two outings, until you realize those games were both against two of the league’s worst offenses. Andy Dalton has the Bengals rolling, and Seattle will be on the road with an early start time — all factors that point to a rough day for the Seahawks’ secondary.
Eifert may not be in your good graces after Baltimore held him without a catch in Week 3, but he’s a reliable outlet for Dalton when nothing else is open downfield. Obviously AJ Green should be in your lineup if you have him, but Eifert has a good chance of reaching the end zone Sunday.
Other sneaky starts: Donte Moncrief, Sam Bradford, Eli Manning, Darren Sproles, Arian Foster
Sit: Drew Brees
If not for his final two possessions Sunday, this would be a no-brainer. Brees’ deep ball is nowhere to be found, completing just eight passes of more than 15 yards this season. You can think to yourself “hey now, that sounds like kind of a cherry-picked stat,” and you’d be right. But understand that he’s tried 23 of them, and a 35 percent completion percentage on explosive plays is miserable.
It’s tempting to see a game against the Eagles and make a snap decision about their mediocre secondary allowing Brees a big day, but if you want to start a quarterback in this matchup, you’re better off with Bradford.
If you’ve got a decent replacement quarterback stashed away on your bench, this is what you’ve been saving him for.
Other players set to disappoint: Latavius Murray, Terrence Williams, Brandin Cooks, Alfred Morris, anyone who plays for Detroit.
Pick up: Giants D/ST
When it comes to finding a defense on the wire, San Francisco is this year’s Jacksonville. The 49ers offense is so bad you almost feel like a bully for laughing at it, but then Kaepernick throws another interception and you realize they’ve brought this suffering on themselves. This is the definition of dumpster fire. Carlos Hyde — the only pretty girl at the party in Week 1 — has decided not to call the Niners back, leaving them hopelessly alone with a quarterback quickly losing the support of his teammates.
With Miami and Carolina’s defenses on a bye week, the Giants should be your prime streaming target. If you’re forced to drop the Panthers’ defense to secure New York’s for this week only, do it — Carolina’s schedule toughens up soon anyway.
Pick up: Owen Daniels
Remember how fickle tight ends tend to be? Apparently there exists at least one factor helpful in predicting success — a matchup with the Raiders. Oakland has given up monster weeks to opposing tight ends for four straight weeks. Daniels plays in an offense with a lot of mouths to feed, and is probably the most touchdown-reliant option you can find. That’s a risk of course, but it’s also why he’s likely available in your league.
Honorable mention pickups: Gary Barnidge, Allen Hurns, Fred Jackson. Rueben Randle.
— Logan Jones is a junior majoring in journalism. His fantasy league is pretty brutal, but he’s off to a good start despite basically zero production from Marshawn Lynch. Comments, questions and hate mail can all be sent to logantjones@aggiemail.usu.edu or on Twitter @Logantj.