Fantasy Football Takeaways: Week 5

We are only an AFC West matchup (Raiders vs. Chiefs) away from completing Week 5, and the fantasy landscape is beginning to shape up. 

This week, we saw more trends continue, while we also saw some impressive performances by a few players filling in for injured starters. Below are a few takeaways fantasy managers should pay attention to moving forward.

It’s Geno’s Time 

Geno Smith entered the NFL with high expectations after getting drafted 39th overall by the Jets back in 2013. After he flamed out in New York, he spent years bouncing around as a backup quarterback, but now in his ninth NFL season, Geno is lighting up the league, making many ask Russell who? Through the first five weeks of the season, Smith has passed for 1,037 yards and six touchdowns on 102 completions. Additionally, he has only thrown two interceptions and has a 77.3% completion percentage. 

Geno posted yet another top-5 finish this week (thus far) with 24.02 points – his second in as many weeks. Most impressively, this was against a stout New Orleans defense that was only allowing 13 points per game to quarterbacks. This is also his third top-12 finish of the season. He is supporting two top-15 wide receivers in Tyler Lockett (WR6) and DK Metcalf (WR14). Moving forward, it seems like Smith and his weapons are all viable in fantasy every week, which is a surprise to many. 

Kenny Pickett looked impressive! 

The Steelers were asking a lot of Kenny Pickett in his first start of his career, as they traveled into Orchard Park to face a vaunted Bills defense. In the first four weeks of the season, the Bills were only surrendering 9.2 fantasy points to quarterbacks. Additionally, they were only giving up 153 passing yards, .75 touchdowns while posting 1.75 interceptions per game. Pickett stood tall and put up the second-best fantasy performance against the Bills defense this year with 12.08 points. 

He threw for 327 passing yards and one interception on 52 attempts. He also added 10 yards on the ground, which was 17% of the team’s 58 total rushing yards. All of this resulted in a 74.6 quarterback rating, which is normally very mediocre. However, the Bills are currently holding quarterbacks to a league-low 64.7 rating on the season (30.4 at home), making this very impressive. 

This box score is not the whole story. Pickett stood tall under pressure and had multiple impressive throws. Luckily for him, he won’t face a defense of this caliber every week. We’ll likely see Pickett put up quality fantasy starts in the coming weeks – especially, in plus matchups. 

It’s David Montgomery’s backfield 

After two impressive fill-in weeks from Khalil Herbert, many thought he would see a larger role going forward. This was not the case. David Montgomery returned to the lineup this week and out-touched Herbert by a 4-1 ratio. Montgomery saw 20 touches for 82 yards and a score. 

This was 28% of the team’s total offensive production, and he touched the ball on 44% of the team’s plays. Sadly, he only averaged a disgusting 1.7 yards per attempt on the ground, but Herbert was no better, averaging 2.8 on his four attempts. It was in the passing game where Montgomery made his hay this week. He caught all four of his targets for a team-leading 62 yards.

Ultimately, this resulted in 18.2 PPR points and a top-20 finish. It is clear that Montgomery is the only player worth starting weekly in this Bears offense. He has one of the highest usage rates in the league and is producing quality numbers with it. 

Increased handcuff values

Unfortunately, this week we saw the nasty part of the game come out with multiple injuries – a few of which were to impact running backs. James Conner, Damien Harris and Rashaad Penny all left Sunday’s games and did not return, but in their absence we saw some impressive performances.

Rhamondre Stevenson led the way for the Patriots, as he posted 175 scrimmage yards on 27 touches en route to 19.5 PPR points. With Harris’ status in question moving forward, Stevenson is a must-start on a team that leans on the run game 47.3% of the time. 

Seahawks rookie Kenneth Walker saw an expanded role when Penny went down to a leg injury. He posted eight carries for 88 yards and a score and 14.8 PPR points. His 11 yards per carry were over four more yards per carry than Penny, who also saw eight carries before his injury. 

Last but not least, Eno Benjamin took 11 opportunities for 53 yards and a score filling in for James Conner, resulting in 14.3 PPR points and a top-30 finish this week. All three of these guys may have huge value moving forward if their counterparts miss significant time, making them key waiver-wire targets. 

Chris Godwin is a must-start 

Although Chris Godwin did not lead the team in targets this week, he did lead all wide receivers in PPR points with 12.3. Godwin was the only player to catch all of his targets this week (six catches for 61 yards). This was good enough for third on the team, trailing only Leonard Fournette and Mike Evans. Most importantly, though, is the fact that Godwin appears to be fully healthy, which only improves his fantasy outlook.

Even in a game that the Buccaneers had control of, they were still forced to attempt 52 passes due to their run game’s ineffectiveness. With a struggling run game and offensive line, the short passing game will be key moving forward for the Buccaneers, and Godwin is an integral part of it. Godwin should continue to hold a steady floor moving forward all while possessing a huge upside on a weekly basis. 

It’s breakout season, Jakobi Meyers style 

After missing two games, Jakobi Meyers returned in big fashion. Meyers led the team with eight targets, which was five more than the next closest wide receiver (Tyquan Thornton). This was a 38% target share, even with rookie Bailey Zappe at the helm. Meyers caught 7-of-8 targets and took them for 111 yards and a score (24.1 PPR points). He finished inside the top 12 at the position for the first time this year and the top 24 for the second time. 

When we look at the entire season, Meyers leads the Patriots in targets (27), receptions (20) and yards (261), all while being tied for the team lead in receiving touchdowns (1). He has seen 19% of the target share and has accounted for 23% of the teams receiving yards. 

Most impressively, Meyers has played two fewer games than his wide receiver teammates. Regardless of who’s at quarterback, it appears Meyers is the key part of the Patriots passing game and should be considered a flex play moving forward.