Fantasy Football 2017 - Week 5 Studs & Duds, Rising Stars, Trade Targets

When you go for almost 200 yards in a touchdown, you're going to get this. But it was nice to come against a good defense in Buffalo. His upcoming schedule, he's going to go to the buy. And then Pittsburgh and Indianapolis, I mean, not much to say about Agent Green. He good. I'm going to mention a wide receiver here. He was drafted in the first round, or first round. A fantasy or no, NFL. Okay. So first round draft pedigree.

Blazing fast. Okay. Hands have been a little questionable throughout his career. This player is on pace for 32 touchdowns. Is this player Will Fuller? Yes, Will Fuller on a 16 game pace. You'll be scoring 32 touchdowns. Take that, Randy Moss. Duce, deuce for Will Fuller. Two, two in his first game, two this week on three targets. Two receptions for two touchdowns. So what do you do with Will Fuller?

This is an outlier, right? Yes. I mean, I think it is. It's an outlier, but what do you do moving forward with Will Fuller? Deshawn Watson's throwing a bunch of touchdowns. He likes to go deep. Will Fuller, that's his, that's his bread and butter. Yeah, I mean, you pick him up and you know now that he is the wide receiver two for the Houston Texans. And if you believe Deshaun Watson is going to stay as, let's just call him a top 10 quarterback for fantasy the rest of the way,

If you look at other top 10 quarterbacks, they produce a wide receiver 1 and a wide receiver 2 usually. I mean, you know, serviceable, startable type of players, almost everybody. I mean, the thing is, is you don't always know, take Phillip Rivers. You don't always know who's the number 2 this week. Is it Tyrell Williams? Is it Travis Benjamin? Is it going to be Don Trell Inman? Is it going to be the goose, Henry? Who's the second target? But it looks like you know who the second target's going to be in...

in Houston, it's going to be Will Fuller. So I think you pick them up, and I think you'd take your gamble type of shots at starting them. I mean, look, I don't love starting a guy who's getting three targets. I hate that. That sounds terrible. But to have the wide receiver two on a team that looks like they're going to be able to put up points. And they're going to have to. With the loss on the defensive line. Yeah. So I would say pick him up and use him as a flex start.

His teammate, DeAndre Hopkins, had himself a solid game on the back of three touchdowns. Devante Adams, great game. T. Y. Hilton finally came through in a big way, seven for 177 yards. This is two out of the last three weeks. I mean, if he's got a beatable matchup, Brissette is good enough to utilize his talents. And he gets the tightens next week. So this is, T. Y. Hilton is, he's staying in your lineup.

Absolutely. He's staying in and Andrew Luck probably still several weeks away, but he is practicing. And who knows with Andrew Luck? He's coming. Is he? Yeah. Did you know that Antonio Brown had more targets in that game against Jacksonville than Blake Bortles, the quarterback on the other side of the ball, had attempts? Blake Bortles did not throw the ball.

as many times as Antonio Brown was targeted. Well, here's what makes sense is that Jacksonville is the best defense against the past and the worst against the run. So, of course, you're going to give Antonio Brown 19 targets. Squeaky wheel, man. It's their game plan was, I don't know what Pittsburgh was doing. And they lost, I think, because of that. You didn't, how do you not write out Levi on Bell against the Jaguars? It's absolutely ridiculous. But Antonio Brown had a great day.

O'Dell Beckham before the injury had a great game. This is a guy I want to talk about here because I mentioned Keenan Allen as a great O'Dell Beckham replacement trade target. Chris Hogan is playing fantastic. It was before the season started, you had Edelman's injury and it was, well, who's going to pick up the slack? I mean, they paid a first round draft pick to get Brandon Cooks on the team. So it was, I mean, the signs pointed to that.

Meanwhile, Chris Hogan is being an absolute stud. And I don't know if the value, if the perceived value of Chris Hogan matches what his actual real life fantasy value is. I mean, the team who has Chris Hogan, they probably know. But that's another door that I would open up, knock, give a little knock, say, hey, could I get Chris Hogan? Right. If you've got, you know, Amari Cooper, can you turn Amari Cooper?

into Chris Hogan. That would be like, that's a heist movie. Because that's the plot of a heist movie. That's trading. That's ocean's 14. That's you've traded Amari Cooper for Chris Hogan right now. Yeah. I mean, I think you do it in a heartbeat. Chris Hogan has since week one, week one complete done one reception for eight yards wasn't involved. Since then.

78 yards, 68 yards, 60 yards, 74 yards, while accumulating a touchdown in every single game, two touchdowns in week three. He is an integral wide receiver to a team that is going to be, you know, throwing four touchdowns every game. It wouldn't shock me if Chris Hogan averages, you know, 0.9 touchdowns per game the rest of the way. And I see him as a wide receiver one. I mean, I would trust him over.

the vast majority of wide receivers right now. He's the clear, to me, 1A, at least, or 1B on the Patriots offense. Yeah, sign me up. And if I can turn a big name who's underperforming into Chris Hogan, who has been performing, but is not a big name, I would do it. He is exactly what they hoped Brandon Lloyd was. He, the Patriots, he is exactly what they hoped that Brandon LaFalc could be. And they found him.

and Chris Hogan. They finally got a wide receiver right over there. A couple names of guys who had great games that I just want to talk about because moving forward, Devin Funches, are we completely bought in at this point? As soon as Greg Olson went down, you saw more targets funneling to Devin Funches. He's performing. Yeah, I mean, he's getting, you know, high single digit targets every game.

He out-targeted Kelvin Benjamin. Yeah, he's involved enough to where I think you can start him. And I don't expect him to continue catching a touchdown a game as he's been doing right now. But he's certainly a guy that, I mean, he's still available on a lot of waivers, pick him up. Also, shout out, if we're talking, throwing some names out, I don't trust him going forward. But Nelson Aguilar, that play, the one play where he had his big touchdown. Yeah, I mean, but that was just sick. He, he'd.

He made the Arizona Cardinals defender look like a fool. Yeah, it was an amazing catch and then an amazing juke. Tight ends. This is important. I'm not specifically talking about, you know, like really any fantasy players that you know, but you might know someone who lost Charles Clay and is devastated. Right. And their team really needs a tight end replacement. Yeah. I don't know anyone like that. No. But we have a couple names. Ed Dixon.

What? Dude, 175 yards. Ed Dixon. Ed Dixon. On only five targets. Is this a Mercedes-Lewis flash in the pan for Ed Dixon? It is not. What? No. Here's why it's not. Now, I'm not by any means saying that Ed Dixon, yeah, you can beg on them for 175 yards.

I feel like you're telling me that's what I need to bank on. What I am saying is that Mercedes-Louis is a guy where if you take that flyer, tight-ins are so crappy this year. They're just, the whole position is a mess outside of pretty much Zacherts, Travis Kelsey, and Gronk if he's healthy. Ed Dixon, if you take that shot at him, I think you're going to end up with at least five points. Mercedes-Lewis, I think you're going to end up with zero to one points.

except for maybe one more game this year, he'll get another touchdown. I think Ed Dixon, while Greg Olson is gone and he's filling in that role, he is capable enough to where... 62 yards the previous week against the Patriots. Which for a tight end is pretty darn good. Yeah, I would take it. I mean, even in a standard league, 6.2 points for a tight end this year, it's okay. So I don't think he's a complete mirage, but obviously...

you don't usually take five targets at the tight end position for 175 yards. All right. So Ed Dixon or this character, George Kittle, who has flashed a couple times, came through big time this past week, seven for 83 with a touchdown, nine targets for Mr. Kittle. Yeah, I think that's going to be one of those. Kittles and bits. Matchup, matchup directing things. So for instance, this coming week at Dixon plays Philly and George Kittle is at Washington.

I don't really love either matchup because Washington, it's in Washington. I think I might lean Kittle there. All right. There's a tight end catching touchdowns for the Detroit Lions. Finally. Eric Ebron. Oh, no. No. He's still dropping touchdowns. Oh, my goodness. Dude, this guy, if all he did, if all Eric Ebron did was just catch the easy ones that he's dropped this year, everyone would be like, oh, he's done it. He's leveled up. He'd be a top 10 tight end. He drops F.

Everything. I'm done. Oh, no. No, no. Full breakup mode. If I can find sad music on here, I would have played for you. No, Eric Ebron, you're dead to me. Oh, that's so sad. Never, never coming back. But Darren Fells, uh, two receptions, two touchdowns. Yeah, you can't bank on him, but Cameron Brayt is remains great. Yeah, he's, he's a great pickup. If you're, if he's still available on your waiver wire, Zach Kurtz, Travis Kelsey. They're great.

ASJ. Yeah. It took a little bit for Austin Safarian Jenkins tied in for the New York Jets to come through. Some of our starts the week here with Austin Saffarian Jenkins and Hunter Henry. And goose. They both came through. Both got in the end zone and had pretty darn good weeks. And the goose nickname is sticking. Oh, yeah. He's goose. He doesn't have to have a goose. He's, he's goose now. All right. We're going to talk some rising stars. Raising Cain's Rising Stars of the Whig.

Oh, the Raising Cain's Rising Stars of the Week. This is where we like to highlight someone where we think not only did they have a solid week, but there's something, something special moving forward. Jason, give me your Raising Cain's Rising Star of the Week. My Raisin' Rise and Star of the Week. My Raisin' Rise and Star of the week is Marlon Mac, Dick, Dick, Dick, Dick, Dick. The running back rookie for the Indianapolis Colts. Week one, Marlon Mac came out.

And when he touched the ball, I went, who's that guy? He looked great. He got 10 carries week one, and he scored two touchdowns. Now, if you look at the box score, he only has one touchdown from week one. That's because they didn't challenge the play where he got in and scored the touchdown like dummies. But he did get in. Now, this last week, then he got injured.

He got injured in week two and was gone for week three and week four. I was curious if he was going to be back because this was a great matchup for him against San Francisco. He was back. He got nine carries again for 91 yards and a touchdown. Looked as terrific as he had. And this is a guy that is getting it done on the ground, even though when he got drafted and came in, everyone was thinking he's just going to be a scatback because he's very talented in that role. So right now.

He's behind Frank Gore. You can't really assume good value from Marlon Mack. I don't think you can start him, but I am looking to acquire him on the cheap. Most leagues, he'll probably be on the waiver wire. He'll be one of my favorite pickups because I think as the season progresses, when you get Andrew Luck back, he is, Marlon Mack looks to be the future back here for the Indianapolis Colts to me. And he has shown me enough to where I go, maybe he takes over this year.

Maybe he actually usurps Frank Gore because Frank Gore is 34 years old. And, I mean, can he keep going for this whole season? We don't know. But Marlon Mack, he's rising in my heart and in my mind. Marlon Mack, when I see him standing pre-snap, everyone is lined up. I just imagine the RPMs of an engine. You know, when someone's indicating they're about to race and you're like, right. Because he's able to just peel out.

I mean, he's, matrically speaking, he's not the fastest guy. But then when you watch him running, I mean, he is. Some guys, you know, when they get pads on, they slow down and their numbers aren't as good. Yeah, the game speed matters. My rising star of the week, I said last week I would be very aggressive with him on the waiver wire, despite all the weird news coming out of Green Bay.

about the running back position. Aaron Jones, 19 carries 125 yards and looked fantastic. Now you had the problem with Aaron Jones last week was if you played him, congratulations. I mean, you got a fantastic week from Aaron Jones. But it was it was trepidacious to start him with Montgomery not being.