With Week #5 of the NFL season quickly approaching, it’s important to have a decent idea of which top rated players you should lean toward in your daily fantasy football league. While this is certainly not an exhaustive list, it will get you pointed in the right direction if you are considering any of the players listed below.
Quarterback
Tom Brady: It will be interesting to see what happens with Tom Brady this weekend. He’s coming back off of a four game suspension and he hasn’t been allowed to workout with the team at all during that time, and there’s no telling what he’s capable of here. We like Brady a lot, but drafting him here is completely dependent on his price. The Patriots are a banged up team right now, and one of Brady’s favorite targets—Rob Gronkowski—has received almost no playing time so far this season thanks to an injury that has been bothering him. Will Brady post better results than either of his replacements so far this season? Definitely. But don’t draft him if he’s expensive. The team is too banged up for him to post extraordinary numbers.
Matt Ryan: Ryan has been one of the top performing quarterbacks so far this year. He had an amazing game last weekend, throwing four touchdowns against the Carolina Panthers and having 503 yards in passing. We expect a lot out of Ryan, especially with Julio Jones playing better than expected so far this season. However, with the Denver Broncos having the 6th best defense in the NFL against the QB and the top ranked defense against the pass, Ryan is at a huge disadvantage this weekend. Will he play well? Probably. But we don’t expect him to play nearly as well as he has been just because of the matchups here.
Wide Receiver
Antonio Brown: Brown is one of the top ranked WRs in the league. He has 4 touchdowns so far this season and is averaging 92.3 yards per game, making him one of the best fantasy players so far this year. Brown is likely to be the most expensive player in any league thanks to this, but he’s probably worth it in most cases. Plus, you need to take into account the fact that the Steelers are taking on the New York Jets this weekend, who have been playing incredibly poorly this season. Brown is expensive, but he’s going to be a monster this weekend.
Julio Jones: In many leagues, Jones and Brown are tied in average fantasy point output per game, but there is a big difference between these two. Although Jones has more yards per game right now, Brown has one more TD than Jones. They are fairly equal in ability, too. However, because of the fact that Jones is going up against a much tougher defense with the pass. The Broncos have been great at shutting down WRs so far this season, and Jones is likely to be highly overpriced as a result of this.
Running Back
Le’Veon Bell: Bell had a fantastic weekend in Week #4 after finishing up his suspension. If you took a risk on him last weekend, it really paid off. He had 144 yards rushing and 34 yards passing with 5 completions. However, with the New York defense, although they are weak against the throw, they are pretty strong against the rush. Bell will not only be hindered in that way, a smart QB like Ben Roethlisberger is likely to throw the ball more as a result. We’re staying away from Bell this weekend.
Melvin Gordon: Gordon is a much stronger choice than Bell this weekend. The San Diego Chargers have been run heavy this season, and Gordon has benefited as a result of this. He’s averaging just 57.5 yards per game right now, but has 6 touchdowns. He also is going against a pretty weak defense in the Oakland Raiders, which will only bring his averages up for the season. Plus, in pretty much every league out there he will be significantly cheaper than Bell.
