Oct 9, 2017

By: @SMich_5

It was a tough week for home teams in Week 5, and road teams with serious playoff aspirations really showed up in Pittsburgh, Oakland, Los Angeles, and Dallas. The boring showing from the league in the first two weeks of the season is a thing of the past now, relegated to a minor bump in the road of the NFL. There were some big days all over the league in fantasy, including a few we predicted, in what was another fun week in football. Here’s how our targets did this week.

QB

Tyrod Taylor

Heading into the game against Cincinnati, Taylor looked to be ready to hit the triple price point benchmark. Instead, Taylor and the Bills struggled to consistently gain yardage. The Bills’ rushing attack, which had been responsible for much of the Bills’ success earlier in the year, was inconsistent as the Bills didn’t have much in the way of a passing attack to worry about. Taylor finished with only 166 yards passing, one TD and an INT and lost a favorite target of his, Charles Clay, in the process. But, the real let down was the lack of rushing yardage that had helped bolster his value. Rushing only once in the game for 3 yards wasn’t enough to offset the bad day throwing. Taylor seems to be in for a rough time until he can get more out of his receivers, but will still have value when he decides to tuck it and run. Ultimately, this was not a good call, even with the low price point for a starting QB.

RB

Duke Johnson Jr.

Duke continues to be a PPR beast. Despite Isaiah Crowell doing everything he can to beg for more touches, Duke remains the more valuable player. Crowell did have his most touches in a game since the Browns week 1 loss to the Steelers (16 carries and 2 catches), and his highest scoring day against a defense that was begging to be beaten on the ground, and Duke still out-produced him. He had his usual handful of carries, 6 for 20 yards, which makes him more effective as a receiver as well by not allowing the defense to just drop into coverage when he lines up in the backfield. And of course, he really made his day through the air adding another 3 catches on 3 targets for 63 yards and a TD. Duke should be a strong play any time his price stays in the lower tier for RBs, and now after the third straight week of tripling up his price he might see a bump up. Still keep an eye on him, though, as he might eventually become an even bigger part of the Cleveland offense since he has been the much more effective of the two main backs.

Stefon Diggs

The leading receiver heading into Week 5, Diggs looked to have a cushy match-up with a very banged up Chicago defense that was also figured to be busy with Mitchell Trubisky making his NFL debut. Instead, Diggs struggled, battling through what appeared to be a groin injury during the game. Further complicating things was the curious decision to start Sam Bradford at QB, who clearly was not at 100% and was about as mobile as a really nice granite counter top. Bradford was terrible while he was in the game, and the Vikings offense struggled, scoring only 3 points by halftime. Case Keenum came in to relieve Bradford, but the damage had already been done. Diggs will certainly have better days ahead, but he was another big letdown from some of the more “safe” high priced options in DraftKings this week. Like Le’Veon Bell or Mike Evans owners, this one put anyone with him in their lineup in a bit of a hole. Hopefully, you supplemented with the next guy we’ll talk about.

T.Y. Hilton

Unlike Evans and Diggs, Hilton was able to take full advantage of his favorable match-up this week and put up a huge line of 7 catches on 9 targets for 177 yards. He bounced back nicely from a rough day against Seattle, but he’s hardly the first guy to struggle to find success against that secondary, especially in Seattle. With no Jack Doyle, and only Donte Moncrief and Kamar Aiken as real receiving threats, Hilton came up big. Jacoby Brissett has really made a nice connection with Hilton, which is important with the still cloudy status of Andrew Luck. I’m sure Indy fans are glad they avoided having Luck on the PUP list, but they definitely could have benefited in some way by having that roster spot available for another healthy player with a chance of contributing in any kind of way besides cheer leading. Ignoring the Colts’ obvious ploy to lure fans in by dangling the possibility of Luck playing despite him being no where near ready to play, Hilton is a very high end match up play. Playing mostly with Brissett and a little of Scott Tolzien, he’s done very well with favorable match ups, and struggled against top flight cover guys, like Trumaine Johnson, Patrick Peterson, and Richard Sherman. Keep an eye on his schedule and price, and take advantage when you can.

TE

Charles Clay

The Bengals seemed ready to give up a big day to Clay, and it might have happened if he had been able to avoid a knee injury after making a 24 yard catch in the first quarter. He finished the day with one other catch before that for a total of 31 yards on two receptions. Obviously projecting out a guys first quarter production for the rest of the game is unrealistic, but Nick O’Leary was able to fill in and added another 5 catches on 6 targets for 54 yards. Adding those numbers to Clay’s would have left him with a 7 catch, 85 yard day, which would have been above the triple point threshold. Clay seems likely to be out for a couple of weeks with this injury, which is terrible news for him and the Bills. Hopefully, he’s able to make a full recovery and return healthy later this season.

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