NFL Week 5 Preview
Here’s a few standard preface notes:
^ Notwithstanding the claims of any website to be your “home for Sunday morning injury report news,” nothing beats Google News – nothing. Entering a player name into this search engine trumps any other means of gathering information because it culls the data from an unbelievably wide variety of sources.
^ Especially earlier in the season, it’s always good to refer to a strong baseline of where players should have been drafted – and nothing beats FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009.
^ Unless there are any injury questions, we never discuss “gimme” players. Such core players should be started week in and week out unless there is any question surrounding their playing status. Winning teams only need to worry about “playing the matchups” with one, two or (at the most, during bye weeks) three spots in the lineup. Some websites promise you a crystal ball for how to manage high-risk, high-reward juggling during the season. We don’t. We play the percentages. That approach may be boring, but it’s highly effective and much more intellectually honest in what we promise you.
^ By the way, here are your core players who should not be benched if healthy
QB: Brady, Brees, P Manning, McNabb, Rivers, Rodgers, Romo, Warner
RB: M Barber, R Brown, Forte, Gore, Grant, S Jackson, Jacobs, C Johnson, Jones-Drew, Lynch, Peterson, Portis, Slaton, Tomlinson, Turner, Westbrook, D Williams
WR: Boldin, Bowe, Colston, Fitzgerald, Jennings, A Johnson, C Johnson, Houshmandzadeh, V Jackson, Marshall, Moss, Ochocinco, Owens, S Smith, Wayne, R White, R Williams
TE: Clark, Gates, Gonzalez, Witten
^ Links for each game take you to the CBS Sports home page for each game, with stats, analyis and even video previews.
^ All times listed are EDT.
^ Of the non-gimme players we like this week, the stronger plays are the ones in all caps.
Sunday, Oct. 11(Byes: Chicago, Green Bay, New Orleans, San Diego)
Cincinnati at Baltimore, 1 p.m. QB Palmer, QB Flacco, RB RICE, RB McGahee, TE Heap
Cleveland at Buffalo, 1 p.m. RB Harrison, QB Edwards, WR Evans
Washington at Carolina, 1 p.m. WR Moss, TE Cooley, Panthers all-out
Pittsburgh at Detroit, 1 p.m. Steelers all-in (with Mendenhall at RB), Lions all-out
Dallas at Kansas City, 1 p.m. RB Choice, WR Crayton, Chiefs all-out
Oakland at N.Y. Giants, 1 p.m. RB Fargas, WR SMITH, WR Manningham, TE Boss
Tampa Bay at Philadelphia, 1 p.m. TE Winslow, RB McCoy, TE Celek
Minnesota at St. Louis, 1 p.m. QB Favre, WR Berrian, TE Shiancoe, Rams all-out (with RB Jackson as the closest to a take-out-of-your-lineup recommendation as we could ever give for a “gimme”)
Atlanta at San Francisco, 4:05 p.m. QB Ryan, RB Coffee, TE Davis
Houston at Arizona, 4:15 p.m. Texans all-in, RB Hightower
New England at Denver, 4:15 p.m. TE Watson, Broncos all-out
Jacksonville at Seattle, 4:15 p.m. WR SIMS-WALKER, RB J Jones, WR Burleson, TE Carlson
Indianapolis at Tennessee, 8:20 p.m. Colts all-in, RB White, WR Britt
Monday, Oct. 12
N.Y. Jets at Miami, 8:30 p.m. All-out on both sides
NFL Week 5 Best Waiver Wire Pickups
NOTE: We only recommend plausible pickups; our threshold is 40% or less ownership in CBSSports.com leagues. As such, players may show up on our list multiple weeks if they fall below that percentage and if we still believe in their upside potential.
1 Jermichael Finley
2 Kelley Washington
3 Derek Anderson
4 Kevin Faulk
5 Chansi Stuckey
FantasyDrafthelp: Week 5 NFL Fantasy Advice
