Fantasy Football: The Things I Learned – Week 5, 2016

By Chet Gresham – @ChetGresham
Follow @walterfootball for updates.

Below, check out my fantasy-centered recaps of key players from this week’s contests. For instance, did a player come back to earth after an aberrant breakout, or were they simply affected by something like game flow?

Tom Brady’s first game back went as expected against a weak Cleveland defense. He completed 28-of-40 passes for 406 yards and three touchdowns, but the more fantasy relevant piece of statistical news were the three touchdowns caught by Martellus Bennett and the 109 yards receiving from Rob Gronkowski. It seems Bill Belichick once again gets two top offensive tight ends to use as he wants, and they are going to be tough to stop, especially in the red zone.

The not-as-good news for the Patriots is Julian Edelman, who had a drop and caught 5-of-10 targets for just 35 yards. I believe it’s just a hitch in the Brady-Edelman giddy-up for now.

Terrance West ran just 11 times, but for 95 yards, against Washington. He should have been used more in this game, as he was ripping off big runs at will, while Kenneth Dixon rushed three times for negative one yard and caught one pass for six yards. West probably has kept hold of the lead-back job with this performance though.

Giovani Bernard got the start ahead of Jeremy Hill this week and totaled 96 yards on 15 touches, bringing in six passes, while Hill rushed four times for 12 yards. It may have had something to do with Hill’s chest injury that kept him out of practice last week or the Bengals were just looking for a spark with Bernard in the passing game. I don’t think we can gather anything definitive yet, but this may be a trend toward Bernard.

Brock Osweiler was no match for the Vikings’ defense this week, completing just 9-of-42 passes for 184 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. That one touchdown came in extreme garbage time to DeAndre Hopkins and does in no way elevate Osweiler’s play from rotten.

Ben Roethlisberger had another huge game this week, completing 34-of-47 passes for 380 yards and four touchdowns against the Jets’ horrid pass defense. He hit Sammie Coates for a 73-yard touchdown on the first possession, and then when the Steelers took away the deep ball, he hit Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown underneath. The Jets had no answer.

Sammie Coates caught two touchdowns and dropped another, but on the whole, he was outstanding, catching 6-of-11 targets for 139 yards and the two scores. He’s passed Markus Wheaton on the depth chart and should continue to see plenty of targets moving forward.

Steve Smith got off to a quick start before a quick ankle injury took him out of the game. It’s not a good sign when Smith leaves a game and doesn’t end up coming back in, so I’d expect his ankle injury to be significant. Mike Wallace saw 11 targets, and Dennis Pitta saw eight, but the real oddity was Crockett Gilmore getting seven targets, including a touchdown. I don’t think we would see any waiver-wire must-haves if Smith is out next week though. Breshad Perriman did make a beautiful catch just out of the end zone and would be the only player I’d look to add in deeper leagues.

Andrew Luck had a nice game, completing 28-of-39 passes for 322 yards and two touchdowns, but his offensive line is still a problem and looks like it will be until they can get some continuity going, if ever. T.Y. Hilton went off in a great matchup and made up over half of Luck’s passing yards, and until Donte Moncrief comes back, that should continue, but I do think we need to lower our expectations for Colts offensive players, as this offense looks to be good for fantasy, not great so far.

Frank Gore continues to play well, but his touches are being limited, especially in the passing game. He rushed 14 times for 75 yards and had zero targets. He needs touchdowns to be a RB2.

Lamar Miller got caught up in Brock Osweiler’s horrible day and ended up with just eight carries for 20 yards. The Texans were facing the Vikings, so I’m not going to sell all my Miller shares as soon as I can, but the zero touchdowns through five games is a swift kick in the crotch with Miller up to 101 carries now. He gets Indianapolis and Detroit, with a game in Denver in between, so there should be better days ahead, sans Denver.

The Browns have had five quarterbacks under center through five games now. Cody Kessler was hurt in this one, and Clipboard Jesus himself, Charlie Whitehurst relieved him and looked as bad as you would expect. I think the Browns used their one iota of luck on signing Terrelle Pryor.

Theo Riddick is never going to be a running back who can run between the tackles, but he can be used on the edges and in the passing game, like he was today, and be successful. Today against a good Philadelphia defense, he rushed 11 times for 49 yards and caught 6-of-6 targets for 33 yards and two touchdowns. He needs those touchdowns for big games, but even without them, he would have ended up with an acceptable PPR day.

Brian Hoyer completed 33-of-43 passes for 397 yards and two touchdowns, breaking his career high and throwing for over 300 yards in his third straight game. This all with a receiving group consisting of a hurting Alshon Jeffery and Eddie Royal, Cameron Meredith and Zach Miller. Hoyer isn’t a great quarterback – just take a look at his performance for the Texans in the playoffs last year – but he can get hot for stretches, and he’s on one now. He’ll get Jacksonville at home and then head to Green Bay the following week before a doom date with the Vikings. Hoyer has upside in his next two games, and it looks like he will stay the quarterback even when Jay Cutler returns.

Jordan Howard has had two nice matchups and has capitalized on both. This week, he took 16 carries for 118 yards and caught three passes for 45 yards and a touchdown against the Colts. Howard has solidified his job as the lead back moving forward.

Alshon Jeffery was banged up in this one, but only missed one series as he caught 5-of-6 targets for 77 yards. He didn’t seem overly happy about his lack of targets though. I’d expect the Bears to make a more concerted effort to get Jeffery the ball next week.

Cameron Meredith took advantage of Kevin White’s injury and then Jeffery’s injury in a big way, as he got the start and caught 9-of-12 passes for 130 yards and a touchdown. At 6-foot-3, Meredith makes for a nice red-zone target and should continue to start. He’ll be a favorite waiver-wire pickup this week.

Tajae Sharpe had another quiet day, catching just 2-of-4 targets for 17 yards. He can be dropped.

Jerick McKinnon had a down game this week, getting 20 carries for just 36 yards and one reception on three targets for 10 yards. After a nice game against the Giants’ tough run defense, this was a let-down. The Vikings did try to take the air out of the ball completely with a big lead, so most of McKinnon’s runs were telegraphed, so I’m going to take this one as a bump in the road for McKinnon. Minnesota’s defense is going to hold teams down, so McKinnon should see plenty of carries with leads. He gets a bye next week and then a tough matchup with the Eagles in Philadelphia, but then at Chicago, home against Detroit and then to Washington, all three being poor in run defense.

DeMarco Murray didn’t get into the end zone this week, but he did accumulate 121 yards on 27 carries and 16 yards on five receptions. Marcus Mariota had one of his best games of the season, so that helps, but Murray has been putting up these numbers even while Mariota has struggled. Murray’s on pace for 2,000 total yards.

Sam Bradford played well against the Texans on Sunday, and his favorite target was Adam Thielen, who caught 7-of-8 targets for 127 yards and a touchdown. He was the main target due to Stephon Diggs being out. Kyle Rudolph took a back seat this week as well, but when Rudolph and Diggs are both playing, it will be tough for Thielen to get the targets he’ll need for fantasy production.

LeSean McCoy rushed for 150 yards on 18 carries and caught two passes for eight yards. He was amazing and really the only thing holding him back from being a RB1 every week is Buffalo’s offense, which he has to put on his back at times. McCoy’s now topped 100 total yards in his last three games, with 330 total rushing yards at a nice 6.1-yards-per-carry pace.

Tevin Coleman and Devonta Freeman both scored a touchdown, while Coleman accumulated 163 total yards and Freeman 123 yards; Julio Jones caught just 2-of-6 targets for 29 yards. Matt Ryan missed Jones on a couple passes, which would have went for long gains, but did well throwing to Coleman. You pretty much have to start these two backs each week with the way they’ve been playing. One could have a down game, but their up games are just too big with this offense right now.

Ezekiel Elliott seems to have gotten the hang of this NFL thing now. On just 15 carries, he rushed for 134 yards and two touchdowns, while also catching 3-of-4 targets for 37 more yards. Coming into this game, the Bengals hadn’t allowed a rushing touchdown or 100 yards to a running back. That ended in spectacular fashion today.

Paxton Lynch was not accurate in his first start and really only had luck with shorter passes. His offensive line wasn’t that good either, as he was sacked six times, but his internal clock was not set correctly, because he needed to have better awareness in the pocket. Trevor Siemian will get the start next week against San Diego in a good matchup.

The Chargers can’t buy a break in real football, but they sure do give you points in fake football. Philip Rivers completed 20-of-29 passes for 359 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions. He now has gone over 300 yards and/or thrown for four touchdowns in four of his first five games. This week, those yards went to Tyrell Williams and Travis Benjamin, as both went for 117 yards exactly, with Williams adding a touchdown. Rivers is good, and as long as the Chargers can keep that offensive line together, he’s going to put up good numbers as their pass defense will continue to be weak and keep Rivers and company behind and throwing.

C.J. Anderson had a pedestrian game, rushing 11 times for 41 yards and catching 3-of-4 targets for 21 yards. Not horrible, but nothing great, but this time, he had a friend running along side, as Devontae Booker saw 10 touches for 59 yards. This backfield is becoming a committee pretty quickly.

Jalen Richard and DeAndre Washington split work evenly this week with 14 touches each, but Richard outgained Washington 97-52. I like both players and think they would continue to split time if Latavius Murray was out again.

Amari Cooper had a nice breakout game against the Jason Verrett-less Chargers, catching 6-of-12 targets for 138 yards and one touchdown. This was a great matchup for him, but it’s good to see him have a big game and get into the end zone for the first time.

It wasn’t the best game for Odell Beckham Jr., but he did make a spectacular touchdown reception in the back of the end zone. The ability is there, and it will return in a more-consistent basis, but the whole Giants offense, especially Eli Manning, is not playing well right now. They’ve shown that they can get over the hump in the past though. I’d buy fantasy players from this offense if possible.

For more thoughts, check out Walt’s updated NFL Power Rankings, which will be posted Tuesday morning.

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