Tony Cutillo
Bye weeks are starting to hinder lineup decisions and players coming back from injury are leaving us with many questions about how to fill out our lineup. We are consistently seeing a huge dip in consistency from 75% of fantasy rosters from week-to-week. Is this due to matchups? Or is it due to scheduling? Either way you look it at it, the lack of a steady point-scorer will always negatively impact your team.
Last week we saw a number quarterback injuries, as well as returning performers. Snap counts and rust prevailed in some contests, while Le’Veon Bell played like he never left. Sam Bradford keeps winning and OBJ keeps whining. What will it be this week?
The world of sports media can be a beautiful thing when all parties are involved and engulfed in a stern debate. As always, I look forward to your opinions and feedback. You can tweet me with any questions and leave your comments below. For my statistical hounds out there I will put last week’s stats in parentheses so you can see how I performed. Here are my picks for Week 5:
Stars for Week 5 (Last week: 8 out of 9, 88%)
QB: D. Carr (SD), Eli Manning (@GB)
RB: D. Murray (@MIA), M. Jones (@BAL), T. Gurley (BUF)
WR/TE: Marvin Jones (PHI), J. Edelman (@CLE), M. Crabtree (SD)
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Stiffs for Week 5 (Last week: 3 out of 6, 50%)
QB: B. Osweiler (@MIN)
RB: I. Crowell (NE), L. Miller (@MIN)
WR/TE: M. Floyd (@SF), P. Dorsett (CHI), M. Wheaton (NYJ)
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Sleepers: (Last week: 3 out of 3, 100%)
Brate (@CAR), J. Crowder (@BAL), Z. Ertz (@DET)
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Bust Alert: (Last week: 3 out of 3, 100%)
Freeman (DEN), D. Prescott (CIN)
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Week 5 Triple Threat:
Tom Brady (@CLE) – Well the time is now for Tom Terrific to get the band back together. In his absence, the Pats were an impressive 3-1, but clearly lost a lot of offensive fire power. While relying on the running game and sticking to short passes, they paved the way to Week 5. Tom will come out firing on all cylinders, because we all know he has a point to make. Those poor helpless Browns. Maybe they can just forfeit?
Jordan Howard (@IND) – Once Matt Forte was gone, everyone jumped on the Jeremy Langford wagon. There were some questions pertaining to his ability to become the full-time running back for John Fox. How he followed a gap, held on to the ball and picked up a blitz were all concerns breaking camp. Once the season started, it was obvious to see he was overmatched. I know the rule of thumb is that a player shouldn’t lose his job to injury, but when the other clearly outperforms it’s an easy decision. The job is Howard’s to lose!
Demaryius Thomas (ATL) – Trevor Siemian has made John Elway look like a football god as he keeps the Denver Broncos moving the ball into the end zone. His line consists of 21/332/2 and it sheds some light onto the relationship Thomas and Siemian are starting to form. They are just starting to hit their stride and a matchup against the Falcons will only help their progress. If Siemian doesn’t start due to injury, I am fully confident that Paxton Lynch will feed the ball to Thomas enough to make him a top point-scorer this week.
As always, you can stop by my Facebook page (Fantasy Sports Addiction) or tweet me (@TCutillo23) for questions or some nice fantasy debates. I can also be heard weekly via the internet stream live at WENG RADIO every Monday at 4:00 P.M. ET for a weekend sports wrap. But most importantly, you can catch me here at Pi!
For fantasy purposes, all my articles are predicated upon a PPR-based system.