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Week 5 Fantasy Football Power Rankings: Brees should continue momentum

Let’s put a fantasy spin on the Week 5 action by ranking the games in expected order of point-producing relevance (a Fantasy Power Rankings if you will) using the over/under totals from Las Vegas, specifically as reflected on Wednesday at VegasInsider.com.

Note: Dollar values in parentheses denote a player's current week price in the Yahoo Daily Fantasy game. It is displayed for point of reference.

Fab Four

1. Patriots at Cowboys, Sunday 4:25 p.m. ET, O/U 49.5: Will the Cowboys use Christine Michael ($10) finally? I’m sick of holding him but you really must. RB allocation will be the big question for the Patriots, too, though I firmly believe that Dion Lewis ($25) is the guy to own here even in half-point PPR. You don’t want to pay for garbage time stats because it’s much harder to play in these situations and the backups could come in early. So fade the Cowboys in this game, all of them.

[Yahoo Daily Fantasy Football: Enter our $750K Week 5 contest]

2. Saints at Eagles, Sunday, 1:00, O/U 49: I firmly believe that defending NFC Player of the Week Drew Brees ($34) will be a top three QB going forward. This is straight volume. He’s still very accurate and not even on the injury report this week. The injury really was not a big deal at all. Willie Snead ($17) is worth owning everywhere. Brandin Cooks ($22) is tough to start but I’d stick with him.  Ryan Mathews ($14) is the better fit if the line can’t block because DeMarco Murray ($30) is a downhill guy who can’t make defenders miss at the point of attack. But money talks. Jordan Matthews ($26) needs to deliver.

3. Redskins at Falcons, Sunday, 1:00, O/U 48: Another easy game for the undefeated Falcons. Have teams figured out a way to slow down Julio Jones ($37) or did game-script get him last week? Atlanta’s defense can’t sack the quarterback and that’s the thing that really gets the quarterbacks in garbage time during blowouts. So Kirk Cousins ($25) could compile numbers. To which receivers, though, I have no idea. You have to ride Devonta Freeman ($27) even with Tevin Coleman ($18) likely back. I have no explanation why Freeman is good all of a sudden but you don’t need to know how a car works to drive it.

4. Rams at Packers, Sunday, 1:00, O/U 46: Todd Gurley ($10, which is crazy low minimum price) should run it well against the Packers, 30th in yards allowed per rush. This concept of balance is so frustrating. Aaron Rodgers ($43) should be having all-time fantasy seasons given he’s the best to ever play. Instead you have The Cooler, Eddie Lacy ($29), who decreases Packer point probability with every carry. Yes, Lacy is good for fantasy though. But he just levels the playing field for Packer opponents.

[Week 5 rankings: Quarterback Running Back | Receiver Flex | All Positions]

Best of the Rest

5. Steelers at Chargers, Monday, 8:30, O/U 45.5: Melvin Gordon ($18) is having a strange season. He leads the NFL in big runs (20-plus yards) but is viewed as a bust and unable to get any real flow in this stop-and-start offense where he has to look to the sideline after every snap to see if Danny Woodhead ($20) is coming in (he usually is). Michael Vick ($26) is so bad at this point that it’s going to really slow down Antonio Brown ($32), who is a WR20-something now. 

6. Bears at Chiefs, Sunday, 1:00, O/U 44.5: The Chiefs are so bad everywhere. How on earth are they giving nine points? They can’t protect the passer or stop the opposing passing game. Alex Smith ($32) gives game managing a bad name, keeping the KC offense in low gear. When the opponent scores 24-plus points, Smith’s record is 3-40-1.

7. Cardinals at Lions, Sunday, 4:05, O/U 44: David Johnson ($18) has scored four touchdowns in four games and is in Bruce Arians’ doghouse. Arians is in the doghouse of every David Johnson owner, for sure. The Lions defense is pretty tough and Carson Palmer could get banged around. Is Megatron done? I wrote about Calvin Johnson ($29) on Monday for the Wall Street Journal. It would be unusual, though Scott Pianowski reminds me that I say tall WRs decline quickly. But THIS quickly?

8. Browns at Ravens, Sunday, 1:00, O/U 43.5: On our podcast this week, Scott and I imagined how much better everyone would be if the old Ravens wideouts could just go back to the Ravens. What a mess there. You can’t play anyone with confidence here though Justin Forsett ($25), who is slow and small, has a good matchup on paper. But I view last week as Forsett’s sell window.

9. Seahawks at Bengals, Sunday 1:00, O/U 43.5: Big test for Andy Dalton ($31), who is up there with Matt Ryan when you think about it. Is Russell Wilson overrated? He’s still so Helter Skelter, which is fun to watch but no way to sustain offense. Or is it that the Seahawks are just so bad at finding offensive skill players?

10. Broncos at Raiders, Sunday, 4:25, O/U 43.5: I’m officially worried about Peyton Manning ($36). The Broncos offensive stats are ghastly. We have a backfield committee now but I still believe that if someone is going to emerge other than C.J. Anderson ($26) as a solid play, it will be Juwan Thompson ($10). We’re not there yet, though. Ronnie Hillman ($14) can’t be a bell cow.

The Dregs

11. 49ers at Giants, Sunday, 8:30, O/U 43: Odell Beckham Jr. ($34) needs a breakout game, especially after being so frustrated last week by the way he was manhandled by the Bills that he sucker punched a DB (landing a fist-to-helmet blow, doubly foolish). 

12. Jaguars at Buccaneers, Sunday 1:00, O/U 42.5: This is a good matchup for sleeper fantasy defenses, particularly the Jaguars ($10), who get gaffe-prone Jameis Winston ($29).

13. Bills at Titans, Sunday, 1:00, O/U 42: Marcus Mariota ($32) gets a huge test. The Bills have allowed 10 passing touchdowns. The Titans have allowed 8.2 per pass attempt so Tyrod Taylor ($35) is a good play, too.