The Recap Zone: Week 5 Top Fantasy Performers

Welcome back folks to another segment of The Recap Zone. This past week was filled with some surprising “Booms” and a whole lotta “Busts” for fantasy owners. My fantasy team has currently been on an L streak and if yours is too, no worries, there’s still hope.

Some players from my Week 5 picks went down with injuries mid-game and you hate to see it for the player. We all want to win in fantasy for bragging rights amongst our peers, but at the end of the day, you can’t get mad when a guy gets hurt because they play the most violent sport on Earth. Let’s jump right into the recap as I’m intrigued by how my picks went.

The Recap Zone: Week 5 Top Fantasy Performers

Quarterbacks

For Week 5, I had Russell Wilson, Dak Prescott, and Teddy Bridgewater to be my top performers. Off the bat, I think I speak for everyone in wishing Dak a speedy and healthy recovery. It’s never easy to watch an injury like that, let alone imagine going through it.

For Wilson and Bridgewater, they put up respectable numbers for your fantasy team if you started them at 24.48 and 20.82 points apiece. The problem is, those were only good for the #7 and #12 spots respectively. The leaders this week were headlined by two QBs with their first appearance in the Top 3. Ryan Tannehill was #1 with 30 points and Ryan Fitzpatrick was #3 with 27.60 points. Patrick Mahomes ended at #2 with 29.70 points. Starting off rough with my QB selections.

Running Backs

The RBs that I tabbed to be top performers in Week 5 were Dalvin Cook, James Robinson, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire. Cook was looking great until he went out with a groin injury in the second half. He ended at #10 for the week with 19.90 points and what could have been more.

Now the next two weren’t complete swing and misses, but more like swinging bunts. Edwards-Helaire ended with 11 points, good for #26 and Robinson ended with 10 points good for #29. It is definitely a tough pill to swallow for fantasy owners of those running backs as they both have hit a relative slump the past two weeks.

The Top 3 RBs in Week 5 were Mike Davis with 29.90 points, Todd Gurley with 25 points, and Miles Sanders with 23.90 points. Davis has been hot with his third straight 20+ point performance while this is the first Top 10 appearance for both Gurley and Sanders. My Top 3 picks, another 3 misses.

Wide Receivers

The WRs saw the biggest “Boom” production of any position in Week 5. Chase Claypool was #1 with 42.60 points, Travis Fulgham was #2 with 31.20 points, and Brandin Cooks was #3 with 30.10 points. Of course, I didn’t pick any of them though. My picks were Emmanuel Sanders, Keenan Allen, DeAndre Hopkins, Diontae Johnson, Amari Cooper, and DJ Chark.

The three “Busts” of the group were Johnson with 0.80 points, Cooper with 4.10 points, and Chark with 4.60 points. All of them were outside the Top 70. Of my six picks, the injury bug hit 3 of them. Johnson left in the first half, Chark left late in the fourth, and Allen, after a promising start, left in the first half. Hopkins and Sanders were the highlights of the group going for 25.10 and 24.20 points respectively, good for the #8 and #9 spots. Can’t complain about those performances if you had them. Allen was #40 at 10.90 points and had he not been sidelined, that number would have been higher.

Tight Ends

The TEs I tabbed for Week 5 were Zach Ertz, Travis Kelce, and Greg Olsen. Hey, my first player to be in the Top 3 of his position group! Kelce was the top performer with a 24.80 point showing. Ertz and Olsen are a completely different story though. Ertz had his second straight slump week going for a measly 1.60 points. Olsen wasn’t any better at 3 points. Olsen more than Ertz, but both tight ends have had a rough go at it to start the season.

To round out the top performers were Jonnu Smith with 21 points and Mark Andrews with 17.60 points.

DEF/STs

For Week 5, I thought I had some slam dunk picks for DEF/STs. Well, in sports anything can happen and your predictions aren’t as spot-on as you thought. I tabbed the Los Angeles Rams, Indianapolis Colts, and Arizona Cardinals to be the top performers. They definitely weren’t bad choices, other teams just had better performances. Like the Miami Dolphins “Boom” performance vs the 49ers, securing a tie for the #3 spot with the Rams at 12 points. The Colts were #4 at 11 points, but it was the team they played that came in at #2 with 13 points, the Browns. The Cardinals finished with 7 points good for #11. I guess the most obvious miss was the Baltimore Ravens at #1 with a stellar performance to grab 26 points.

Kickers

The kickers I picked to be top performers for Week 5 were Jason Sanders, Daniel Carlson, and Randy Bullock. If you watched the Bengals game, you know Bullock got their only points. He was #25 with 3 points. Carlson had a good week ending at #12 with 10 points. The gem of the group was Jason Sanders. My prediction was almost spot on, but nonetheless, Sanders was #1 in Week 5 with 21 points. Graham Gano and Wil Lutz were #2 and #3 respectively with 20 and 14 points to show for.

To Conclude

Alright, so it was another rough week for my predictions. But I’m Mr. Optimistic and I believe my finger is getting closer to the pulse. Two of my picks did end at #1 in their position group, so that’s a plus. I’d also say that at least half of my picks had good weeks by fantasy numbers. They may have not been Top 3 like I predicted, but good weeks regardless. This is, however, a Top 3 prediction series so I must stay true to my numbers. I matched my worst week at 3 for 21. That worst week was Week 4, so there’s some consistency! My season total now moves to 22 for 102 good for a .215 average. Oof, not good as I near the Mendoza line. There’s still time to turn it around though and that’s what I plan to do.