It was a weekend full of twists and turns, and Peter Overzet is here to break down his Week 5 fantasy football takeaways:
It's time for Pete's Pick 6—my weekly recap column where I round up six things–the good, the bad, and the ugly–that caught my eye on the Sunday main slate.
Let's dig in …
Takeaway #1: The Ravens & Bengals go brrrrrr in the game of the year
There are only one or two games like this a year where everything comes together perfectly for a fantasy bonanza and that's exactly what happened in Cincy yesterday.
Joe Burrow exploded with 392 passing yards and 5 TDs. Both Ja'Marr Chase (10-193-2) and Tee Higgins (9-83-2) feasted in the Ravens secondary all day.
The Burrow double stacks won DFS players tournaments yesterday, but Lamar Jackson and the Ravens got the real-life W. Jackson threw for 4 TDs and three of them went to TEs. As you can imagine, Mark Andrews went off! Just kidding, Isaiah Likely (2) and an individual named "Charlie Kolar" (1) scored the TDs.
Andrews (4-55) did show some signs of life, but the Kolar trolling is almost too much to bear. Andrews needs to remain on benches until we get to the bottom of this Kolar body-snatching/cosplaying situation.
Takeaway #2: An RB flippening in Jacksonville?
It's easy to get carried away and react to small sample sizes. Remember when people left D'Andre Swift for dead and now he's one of the hottest RBs in fantasy football?
Anyway, I wanted to provide that caveat before ditching the long view and proclaiming Tank Bigsby the new RB1 in Jacksonville.
Consider this:
- He out-snapped Travis Etienne for the first time in his career yesterday.
- He went 13-101-2 TDs.
- He got both the rush attempts inside the 10-yard line.
- He had 107 yards *after* first contact (yes, he only had 101 yards rushing!).
- And finally, he looked absolutely incredible out there (Exhibit A, Exhibit B).
If we are being real, Etienne is obviously not going away–Doug Pederson said as much in his post-game conference–but this deserves to be a split backfield going forward. Bigsby is simply running too well to keep off the field.
Takeaway #3: Your Survivor contest is over
I got bounced from my Survivor contest in Week 1 when I played the Bengals vs. the Patriots like a complete donkey.
But if there's one consolation to going one and done, it's knowing that basically every Survivor pool is done by this point.
The two biggest underdogs of the week–Cardinals (+7.5) and Giants (+7)--both won outright, taking one final sledgehammer to those who had tiptoed their way through the Survivor minefield through the first four weeks.
Per ESPNBet, 7-plus-point underdogs are now an absurd 7-2 outright–-not against the spread, outright–-on the season.
You could almost go as far as saying, “The NFL is drunk this year!”
Thank god there are still new Guillotine leagues we can join …
Takeaway #4: Garrett Wilson & Brandon Aiyuk off the schneid
It's been a rough start to the season for two highly drafted WRs, Garrett Wilson and Brandon Aiyuk.
Wilson was clearly not on the same page with Aaron Rodgers through the first four weeks as he took a backseat to Allen Lazard and whoever else woke up on Rodgers' good side that day.
And everyone is extremely familiar with the Aiyuk trade saga that resulted in a sluggish first month.
But things took a turn for the better in Week 5 for both top pass catchers:
- Wilson (13-101-1) on 22 targets
- Aiyuk (8-147)
Now the haters, of which there are many, will say Wilson did about as little as you could possibly do with 22 targets. I guess that's fair? But beggars can't be choosers and I desperately needed those fantasy points today.
As far as Aiyuk, it was simply nice confirmation that he didn't forget how to play football. He didn't quite reach his 'chopper projection, but shout out to Ian for the bold call.
Takeaway #5: Dare I say…a solid TE week?!
Look, I'm not here to say the "TE position is back, y'all!" But … the position showed a pulse on Sunday.
We flagged Tucker Kraft as a must-start yesterday when it became clear Luke Musgrave was not going to be the factor and he paced the position with 4-88-2.
Rookie phenom Brock Bowers went 8-97-1, including this bully ball catch and YAC explosion. His 300+ receiving yards through 5 games are the 6th-most by a rookie TE in NFL history.
George Kittle continued his hot streak as the most reliable TE in the game with 8-64-1.
Isaiah Likely made good on his Week 1 breakout with another 2 TD effort.
And let's not forget Kyle Pitts, whose 7-88 on TNF felt like Ja'Marr Chase's line today when you put it in the context of how bad things had gotten for him in his first four games.
Here's to hoping Travis Kelce can keep the good TE times rolling tonight …
Takeaway #6: It's time for a change in Cleveland
The Browns got rocked by the Commanders on Sunday and Deshaun Watson managed to throw for just 125 yards.
He took some brutal sacks and, at one point in the third quarter, literally left the field early despite his head coach clearly wanting to go for it on fourth down.
The advanced metrics are even worse–he's averaging -.30 EPA per dropback.
I don't know what more the Cleveland coaching staff needs to see before they give him the hook. This is the worst QB in the league right now. He's awful. Like, what are we doing here folks? Amari Cooper's talent is withering on the vine so your front office can save face on handing out the worst contract in NFL history?
What was the point in signing Jameis Winston this offseason if you have no interest in playing anyone other than Watson?
It's enough already. This org deserves every single loss until they give us Winston and purge themselves of this Watson horrorshow.