NFL Week 5 FTN Staff Bets
FTN Staff
We finally got a fantasy football explosion in Week 5. Offensive scoring had been down all season thanks to defensive changes and bad offensive line play. The quarterback position had been especially brutal.
In Week 5, we got to witness 10 teams score over 27 points. We also got a 500-yard passing game out of Kirk Cousins and seven different quarterbacks throwing for over 300 yards. These performances were needed given some of the explosive offenses on byes in Week 5.
Bye weeks and injuries will continue to take out some of the most reliable fantasy options in 2024. Understanding the players who are rising and falling in fantasy could be crucial when it comes to attacking the waiver wire and making the fantasy playoffs. Check out Week 5’s risers and fallers below.
Risers
Kirk Cousins, QB, Atlanta Falcons
Kirk Cousins continues to get healthy after his 2023 Achilles injury. That is bad news for any defense facing off against the Atlanta Falcons.
Cousins completed 42-of-58 passing attempts for 509 yards and four touchdowns with one interception against the Buccaneers in Week 5. The veteran quarterback still hasn’t been as consistent as we all would have liked this season, but there are signs that the quarterback is starting to turn the corner.
It isn’t likely that we will see this performance out of Cousins (or any quarterback) again in 2024. But if Cousins is getting healthy and starting to understand how to best utilize the pass-game weapons in Atlanta, then he should be squarely on the fantasy football radar going forward.
Tyrone Tracy Jr., RB, New York Giants
Tyrone Tracy Jr. hadn’t made much of an impact in his rookie season through the first four weeks of the season. In that span, Tracy Jr. had just 12 carries for 29 yards and four receptions for 31 yards. The backfield had been dominated by Devin Singletary
Singletary missed Week 5 with an injury, which allowed the rookie to show that he deserves a bigger role in the offense. He made the most of it.
Tracy handled 18 carries for 129 yards in a surprising win against the Seattle Seahawks in his first professional start. He also added one reception (on two targets) for one yard. It was an impressive performance for a late-round pick and certainly showed he can make an impact at the NFL level in 2024.
Ultimately, Singletary will continue to lead the backfield when healthy. However, Tracy. may have earned a bigger role for the Giants going forward now that the team has seen what he can do with volume in the backfield.
He’s worth rostering as a bench running back with flex-level upside if Singletary misses a game. That is much better than we could have expected a week ago.
Tank Bigsby, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars
Tank Bigsby continues to show how much he grew as a player after a catastrophic rookie season. Bigsby finished with the most rushing yards on the Jaguars for the second straight week. He had 13 carries for 101 yards and two rushing touchdowns while adding one reception for 28 yards.
Bigsby hasn’t taken over the backfield, but he continues to provide explosive plays as a runner while seeing an increased workload with Travis Etienne Jr.’s ailing shoulder. The second-year running back has averaged 8.0 yards per carry on 34 carries to start the year.
The Jaguars secured a crucial win against the Colts in Week 5 thanks to the explosive playmaking of Bigsby (and the excellent play of Trevor Lawrence). Bigsby will continue to see a steady workload as long as he keeps ripping off big plays to move the ball.
DJ Moore, WR, Chicago Bears
The connection between DJ Moore and Caleb Williams has been rough through the first four weeks of the season. However, this duo is poised to erupt if they can carry over their performances in Week 5 going forward.
Moore caught five of eight targets for 105 yards and two touchdowns in a revenge game against the Panthers. Yes, we need to take his performance (as well as Williams’ performance) with a grain of salt against a terrible Carolina defense. But it is still an encouraging sign for a wide receiver who had just one touchdown in the first four games of the season.
The Moore and Williams connection should continue to grow with excellent fantasy matchups on the horizon for the foreseeable future. The Bears draw a bad Jaguars defense in Week 6, followed by the Commanders, Cardinals, Patriots, Packers, Vikings and Lions from Weeks 7 to 13 (the team’s bye is in Week 8).
Williams is getting comfortable at the NFL level, which will only mean more fantasy points for Moore going forward.
Tucker Kraft, TE, Green Bay Packers
Tucker Kraft continued to provide big production with Jordan Love under center. Since Love returned from his Week 1 knee injury, Kraft has caught 10 of 14 targets for 141 yards and three touchdowns.
The tight end position continues to be underwhelming in fantasy, but Kraft is quickly emerging as a top-5 tight end option when Love is throwing the ball.
Kraft benefitted from a passing attack missing both Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs in Week 5, but he continues to flash excellent playmaking ability when given opportunities. He’s certainly in the conversation for being one of the best young tight ends in football.
Fallers
Jacoby Brissett, QB, New England Patriots
Jacoby Brissett continues to do his job. He protects the football, makes safe throws and eats a whole bunch of sacks behind a terrible New England offensive line.
Brissett has just one week where he’s scored more than 10 fantasy points (10.5). He has just two games with a passing touchdown this season and has just two games with more than 150 passing yards. He hasn’t surpassed 170 yet.
More importantly, the Patriots continue to lose. Each loss pushes the team closer to seeing what 2024 top-10 rookie Drake Maye offers as an NFL player.
Not many are relying on Brissett in fantasy, but he could be on the radar in deeper superflex and 2QB leagues. At this point, he offers zero weekly fantasy upside.
Trey Benson, RB, Arizona Cardinals
There was hope that Trey Benson would be fantasy-relevant in 2024 as a complementary running back to James Conner Benson was taken in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft after flashing excellent size (6-foot, 216 pounds) and speed (4.39 40-yard dash) during the draft process.
Benson hasn’t had many opportunities to show what he offers through the first four weeks of the season (25 carries for 81 yards and two receptions for 12 yards). Conner is still dominating the backfield while Benson has struggled to take over the RB2 role from Emari Demercado But at least he had been seeing the field.
That changed in Week 5.
Benson didn’t receive a single snap in a 24-23 victory against the San Francisco 49ers. Conner continued to dominate (46 of 58 snaps), while Demercado handled 13 snaps and received just one target.
The rookie running back has very little streaming appeal with bye weeks on the horizon and can be safely dropped if you are desperate for players who can produce in fantasy. However, he is worth stashing given Conner’s extensive injury history.
Zach Charbonnet, RB, Seattle Seahawks
Zach Charbonnet looked really good during his two starts this season with Kenneth Walker III injured. In Weeks 2 and 3, Charbonnet amassed 164 yards and three touchdowns on 32 carries while adding eight receptions on nine targets for 47 yards. There was hope that the strong performances (plus Walker’s injury history) would lead to more consistent work for the second-year running back.
Unfortunately, that has not been the case.
Since Walker returned from his injury in Week 4, Charbonnet has handled just two carries for 26 yards. He’s continued to provide decent production as a receiver (eight receptions for 58 yards), but that is hardly enough to keep him on the fantasy radar.
Like Trey Benson, you can’t outright drop Charbonnet because of his upside with a Walker injury. However, if you were hoping to get a bye-week flex play out of Charbonnet with Walker in the backfield, then he is droppable.
Christian Kirk, WR, Jacksonville Jaguars
On the surface, Christian Kirk had a solid performance (four receptions for 88 yards) in a surprise shootout against the Colts.
Unfortunately, a poor trend has continued to show itself for Kirk. The wide receiver is exclusively playing in three-wide receiver sets.
Kirk played on just 53% of Jacksonville’s snaps in Week 5 against the Colts. He’s been able to remain productive in fantasy thanks to negative game scripts and the lack of Evan Engram on the field.
Engram was close to playing in Week 5 and will certainly be active in Week 6. That gives Kirk competition for the middle-of-the-field targets with the dynamic tight end.
Kirk won’t be a zero for fantasy, but he’s far from a lock given his role as a slot-specific receiver in three-wide receiver sets. He will only get harder to trust with the team’s pass-catchers at full strength.
Greg Dulcich, TE, Denver Broncos
Fantasy managers are undoubtedly turning over every possible stone at the tight end position to try to find some level of consistent production.
You no longer have to consider Greg Dulcich as an option after the veteran tight end was a healthy scratch in Week 5. While it hasn’t been a great season for Dulcich, at least he was on the field and producing to a degree (five targets for 28 yards).
We have also seen his athletic ability translate to the NFL level after his 2022 rookie season (33 receptions for 411 yards and two touchdowns). However, he has been unable to establish a consistent role in Denver’s offense with Sean Payton as head coach. That’s even more concerning given the team’s lack of playmaking at wide receiver.
The tight end position is generally a pit of despair in fantasy, and it is far worse with bye weeks taking away some of our most productive options. Fantasy managers hoping to sneak a game out of a waiver-wire tight end don’t need to consider Dulcich (or any Denver tight end) going forward.
