Good Surprises, Bad Surprises from Fantasy Football Week 5

Things seemed to settle down (just a bit) on the field in the NFL and for fantasy purposes in Week 5, but good and bad surprises still abounded.

While some previous letdowns like LeSean McCoy, Matt Forte and Eddie Lacy picked it up, other players still greatly underperformed.

But others were incredibly impressive, with a couple unheralded guys stepping up big time for their teams. Let's look at them first.

Good Surprises

Brian Quick, WR, St. Louis Rams

Maybe this should be less surprising now, but I still can't hide how impressed I am with Quick and the Rams offense in general.

Austin Davis had another good game and lead St. Louis on a comeback (which ended up falling short) against the Eagles' shaky defense, and Quick was a major benefactor.

He caught five passes, two of which went for touchdowns. With 87 yards on the day as well, he put together yet another very solid game and is a legitimate weekly starter at this point.

Travis Benjamin, WR, Cleveland Browns

Benjamin, a former fourth-round pick for the Browns, hasn't exactly been a world-beater in his career and likely wasn't on anyone's fantasy radar last week.

But someone has to catch Brian Hoyer's passes, and Andrew Hawkins can't do it all with Josh Gordon still serving his suspension.

Benjamin only had five catches in all of 2013, so his 22.8-point game (in PPR formats) with four catches, 48 yards and two touchdowns was truly a shock.

Branden Oliver, RB, San Diego Chargers

Don't feel bad if you've never heard of Oliver, who stepped in after Donald Brown left the game with a concussion and showed a lot of promise.

The undrafted rookie started the season fourth on the depth chart, but Danny Woodhead and Ryan Mathews are out, and Brown's injury put the backfield solely in Oliver's hands.

He responded in impressive fashion, rushing for 114 yards and a touchdown. He also caught four passes for 68 yards and a score.

With Mathews and Brown likely coming back in the next few weeks, Oliver won't be valuable for long, but it was a nice breakout day for him.

Bad Surprises

Joe Sargent/Getty Images

Reggie Bush, RB, Detroit Lions

Yes, Bush left the game with an ankle injury in the fourth quarter, but he was having an extremely disappointing day already.

With Joique Bell out, Bush was primed to get more touches and rack up the fantasy points as a result. But he was bottled up by Buffalo every time he had the ball, which wasn't very often.

Bush had just eight touches on the game and gained a mere 43 yards without a score. This season has proven that his best fantasy days are officially far behind him.

C.J. Spiller, RB, Buffalo Bills

Another dual-threat running back who looks like he may be fading from fantasy relevance, Spiller came up short yet again when he faced Detroit in Week 5.

He had a pitiful eight rushing yards on 10 carries and caught three passes for 25 yards. Fred Jackson was far more effective and got more touches. 

Spiller is younger than Jackson and theoretically more explosive, but it wouldn't be surprising if he takes a permanent back seat to Jackson at this point.

Michael Crabtree, WR, San Francisco 49ers

While he had solid games in Weeks 2 and 3, Crabtree has to be one of the more disappointing wide receivers thus far in the 2014 season.

His foot may be an issue still, but that does nothing to console his owners, who have suffered through terrible performances in Week 1 and 4. Yet those two were good in comparison to Week 5.

In a game with plenty of offense, Crabtree was simply invisible on the field. He caught one of his four targets for 16 yards. That type of outing is enough to kill an owner's fantasy week, and I bet I'm not the only Crabtree owner who lost this week.