Fantasy Football Week 5: Biggest Takeaways from Sunday

Week 5 of fantasy football is now mostly set in stone, and Jamaal Charles’ season-ending injury is the key takeaway from Sunday’s action. What is the impact on Kansas City’s offense, and what can you expect from Charles’ backups moving forward?

We'll go over that and more inside.

Overall, the fantasy football world was mostly back to normal in Week 5 after an unpredictable Week 4, but that doesn’t mean some new tidbits of information didn’t bubble to the surface.

For instance, Buffalo Bills signal-caller Tyrod Taylor staked his claim as a top-flight fantasy quarterback this week. On the other end of the spectrum, a preseason darling has failed to live up to expectations and is falling fast.

We’ll go over all of these takeaways and more, starting with Charles’ injury and the impact it has from a fantasy perspective.

Charcandrick West Is Top Waiver Pickup with Jamaal Charles out

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Jamaal Charles

Kansas City Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles went down with a non-contact knee injury in Week 5, and Adam Schefter later reported that Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said that the preliminary reports are that the superstar tailback tore his ACL.

Confirmation is expected in the coming days, but it’s a bleak situation no matter how you spin it.

With Charles likely out for the rest of the season, Kansas City’s backfield will become a two-headed attack led by Charcandrick West. Knile Davis—who has filled in admirably for Charles in the past—will also play a role. However, West was ahead of Davis on the depth chart in Week 5, and that figures to be the case moving forward as well.

Both West and Davis are worth a pickup at this point, with West leading the way. However, with a split backfield expected, neither player has all that high of a fantasy ceiling; you’re best off tentatively approaching both West and Davis as flex options.

Charles’ absence also leaves a hole in Kansas City’s offense overall. Alex Smith no longer has his favorite checkdown mark—and A. Smith is the king of checkdowns—and the Chiefs offense figures to be less potent. As a result, the Chiefs will likely find themselves in scoring position less often, which hurts the fantasy value of players like Travis Kelce and Jeremy Maclin.

Kelce is still a must-start each week—and Maclin should be in starting lineups too—but they move down a few pegs as a result of Charles’ injury. Kelce is now behind Greg Olsen and Tyler Eifert (as well as Rob Gronkowski) in the tight end rankings, and Maclin is more of a tail-end WR2.

Tyrod Taylor a QB1—No More Questions Asked

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Tyrod Taylor

Heading into Week 5, Buffalo Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor was already among the top six in terms of fantasy points scored by quarterbacks. After scoring the sixth-most points among all players at the position in Week 5 (as of this writing), that’s a spot he’ll continue to hold.

Taylor may not finish the season as a top-five quarterback, but he’s made his case as a QB1—i.e. top-12 material. Taylor can now be trusted on a weekly basis in fantasy—thanks in large part to his dual-threat abilities, which were on full display in Week 5.

Taylor also has a potent deep ball, evidenced today by a pretty 46-yard pass to Chris Hogan. Taylor's deep ball has been on point all season long, and while deep passes are inherently hit-or-miss, when one “hits,” it means the fantasy points rack up fast.

Taylor also led a scoring “flurry” in the second half in Week 5. “Flurry” goes in quotation marks because it was only 14 points, but relative to the overall game, 14 points was a lot. He also led the Bills to a plethora of points in a relatively short amount of time against the New England Patriots earlier in the season. The point being: Taylor can rack up the points fast—and at any point.

It may not be conventional, but who cares? No matter how the points are scored, Taylor is a QB1 moving forward. No more questions asked.

DeMarco Murray’s Resurrection Begins: Keep Him in Lineups

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DeMarco Murray

If there was ever any doubt as to whether or not a healthy DeMarco Murray should be in your fantasy lineups in 2015, hopefully his Week 5 performance quelled those concerns.

We’re no longer going to see 2014 Murray—that much has been confirmed—but Murray is still a valuable fantasy asset. The first four games of the 2015 season will likely be Murray's four worst games of the season by the time it’s all said and done.

He has already started to right the ship.

Murray put up the fifth-most fantasy points among running backs in Week 5 after touching the ball 27 times (20 carries and seven receptions) for 120 total yards. He also scored a touchdown. Heading into Week 5, Murray had 29 total rushes for 47 yards. To say Week 5 was a breakout week would be underselling the point.

Murray was able to put up top-five numbers in Week 5 despite the fact that his teammate—Ryan Mathews—also put up top-10 numbers at the running back position after gaining 73 yards on the ground and scoring. Mathews touched the ball 11 times in Week 5.

Arguably the biggest free-agent signing this year, Murray should be viewed as a tail-end RB1 moving forward.

Arizona’s Backfield Is Messy, but It Shouldn’t Be Avoided

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Chris Johnson

The Arizona Cardinals backfield is the ultimate backfield-by-committee—featuring a rejuvenated Chris Johnson, rookie David Johnson and a now-healthy Andre Ellington—but unlike other crowded backfields, there’s still some fantasy value to be had here.

D. Johnson appears to have stepped into the role of goal-line back, which is in and of itself valuable from a fantasy perspective. He’s also a threat through the air, so there’s an additional boost to his value there. Johnson has been a touchdown machine through five weeks, and we haven’t seen anything yet to have us think that’ll change.

Randall Liu, the NFL's Director of NFC Football Communications, tweeted that D. Johnson is the first rookie with two-plus rushing and receiving scores, and a return score, in a team’s first five games since Gale Sayers did it in 1965. That’s quite the company to keep.

The elder Johnson racked up more than 100 rushing yards in Week 5, and Andre Ellington added a 63-yard rushing score of his own. Not every week is going to be as rich as Week 5 was for this trio, but it’s clear that there’s room for all three to succeed when the cards—no pun intended—fall into place.

Allen Hurns Belongs in Starting Lineups

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Allen Hurns

Jacksonville Jaguars wideout Allen Hurns is one of the most underrated players in fantasy football. It’s time to shine the spotlight on him.

Hurns just had his second straight game with 116 yards and one touchdown. He also has three straight games with a receiving score.

The second-year pro has gained at least 60 yards every game so far this season. Additionally, Hurns has had a reception of at least 20-plus yards in all five games so far this season, and he has two 50-plus yarders to his name as well.

It has gotten to the point where we can no longer ignore Hurns. He belongs in starting lineups.

Willie Snead Continues Upward Trend: Now a Flex Consideration

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Willie Snead

New Orleans Saints receiver Willie Snead continues to trend upward. He put up top-10 numbers in Week 5 against the Philadelphia Eagles after catching six passes for 141 yards. In just about every category, Snead has improved week-over-week.

• Receptions (by week): 1, 4, 5, 6 and 6.
• Yards (by week): 63, 44, 44, 89 and 141.

The only knock against Snead is that he hasn’t been able to find the end zone much (just one score—in Week 2), but that figures to change sooner rather than later if he continues to be a top option in a Drew Brees-led offense.

Snead led the team in targets in Week 5 and currently leads the team in receiving yards.

He should now be considered a flex player in fantasy leagues. The pass-catcher is not a slam-dunk option—there still seem to be a lot of moving parts in New Orleans, including the still-molding roles of Brandin Cooks and C.J. Spiller, two players who could steal targets from Snead—but Snead’s rise to relevance is worth pointing out. 

Ameer Abdullah Falling Fast, No Longer a Starter

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Ameer Abdullah

Detroit Lions rookie running back Ameer Abdullah was the preseason darling of 2015, and his Week 1 outing—in which he scored a touchdown and juked All-Pro safety Eric Weddle out of his shoes—only raised the stakes. Since then, however, Abdullah has been a huge disappointment.

That disappointment landed Abdullah on the bench in real life, and it’s time to send him to the fantasy bench as well. In truth, Abdullah should have been on your bench for several weeks now, but his flashes of brilliance have lingered and likely caused him to remain in lineups a bit longer than was warranted.

Abdullah should still be rostered, but the fact that he failed to separate himself from the rest of Detroit’s backfield with Joique Bell and Theo Riddick dealing with injuries is worrisome. Fumble issues got Abdullah replaced by Zach Zenner in Week 5, and while it’s not clear exactly what Detroit’s backfield will look like in Week 6 (and beyond), it’s safe to say Abdullah is now facing an uphill battle.

“Fumbling issues showing up again for Ameer,” tweeted NFL.com’s Matt Harmon. “Had issues at points in his college career.”

It's not just fumble issues, either. Abdullah hasn’t rushed for more than 50 yards in a game this season, and he has only had double-digit carries in a game once.

Abdullah's fantasy points per game: 15, 0, 9, 4 and negative-1. That’s a troubling downward trend—one that should lead straight to your bench until he’s able to turn it around.