Last week had some good recommendations like starting Lamar Miller and Kelvin Benjamin while benching Rashad Jennings, to go along with some bad ones like the horror show that was Kirk Cousins. Maybe it was possible that I jumped the gun early with basing most of the recommendations on the defensive stats so early, but as we get to this week and next week, it will be a solid tool to depend on. As I say before every start and sit article, if you have a decision with a player that isn’t covered in this article, you can tweet me @pacman453323. Now let’s get into the Week 5 Starts and Sits.
Starts: (outside of top 10 players of that position):
QBs
Ben Roethlisberger– Jacksonville is the worst defense in the league against QBs and they maybe the worst defense in the league period. Big Ben won’t let his foot off the gas this week like they did against the Bucs. This one could be one of those ugly 20+ point blowouts.
Cam Newton – The Panthers have no RBs, they still lack talent at WR after Kelvin Benjamin, and their normally stingy defense has given up 30+ for 2 straight games. However, some times you just get a feeling that “Superman” will come out of Cam. This is one of those weeks.
RBs
Rashad Jennings – Yes, tell a friend to tell a friend. For the 1st time all year, I am actually recommending you to start Rashad Jennings. The Falcons are by far the worst defense in the league against RBs. I don’t care who is starting against them, I’d start them against this rush defense.
Matt Asiata – Even with Jerick McKinnon breathing down his back, Asiata is still the starter and the goal line back for the Vikings. Asiata has shown that against bad rush defenses, he can take advantage. Packers have allowed the most rushing yards in the league and the 4th most points to RBs.
WRs
Marques Colston – The Buccaneers have struggled badly against opposing WRs this year, giving up the more points to WRs than anyone. Add that to the fact that the Saints need to wake up soon and have won 16 straight games at home with Sean Payton on the sidelines and you get a high scoring 10+ point win.
Brian Quick – One of the fantasy pickup gems of the year so far will be going against a Philly defense that is one of the 5 worst defenses against WRs. Quick is averaging 79 yards per game and will be the #1 target for whoever is quarterbacking the Rams this week.
TEs
Heath Miller – It was a great game by Miller last week. He ended up with 10 catches off 11 targets to rack up 85 yards and a TD. Now he faces a Jacksonville defense that has not been good against TEs, despite their surprisingly good effort against Antonio Gates last week.
Sits:
QBs
Alex Smith – After putting on a stellar performance against the Patriots on Monday Night Football, Smith takes the Chiefs across country to San Francisco to play the 49ers on a short week. Smith is normally a down to earth guy, but I think the emotions of coming back to the team that pretty much dropped him may get the best of him.
Tony Romo – Granted, it’s probably very hard to bench Tony Romo the way he has played over the last 3 weeks. However, The Texans have one of the best defenses in the league and are the 4th toughest against QBs. I do expect another huge game out of DeMarco Murray though.
RBs
Montee Ball – Until he proves me wrong, I will continue to say that Ball doesn’t fit the Broncos offense. I think Ball is a good RB, but he doesn’t catch much passes and he will be very TD dependant on a team that passes a lot inside the 5 yard line.
Frank Gore – We saw a blast from the past last week with Gore going for 119 yards on the ground and 174 total yards on 25 touches. I don’t see him being able to do that on back to back weeks, especially against a KC defense that is pretty tough against RBs, let by their big NT Dontari Poe.
WRs
Andre Johnson – The sad part about watching Johnson play now is that you can see he still “has it”. The problem is that he gets nicked up a bit too much and he has arguably the worst starting QB in the league throwing to him. Not only is Johnson questionable this week, he is facing an underrated Dallas defense that ranked 3rd best against WRs.
Steve Smith Sr. – This week will be the test as to if Smith will be placed in the same category that Mike Wallace stepped into last week, which is the “Start him every week no matter the matchup” category. Colts are at home and good against WRs so something has got to give.
TEs
Larry Donnell – Okay, don’t shoot. Donnell maybe one of the hottest TEs in the league, but I think the Giants will take a note from Minnesota and run the ball down their throat. Combine that with Atlanta actually being typically good against TEs and I dont see Donnell getting as much of an opportunity as he had last week.
Those are your Week 5 Starts and Sits in the NFL. Enjoy the games.
