Fantasy Football Week 6 Cheat Sheet: Waiver Rankings, Projections and More

The quarterback controversy in Cleveland has been put to bed—at least temporarily.

Remember the hue and cry a couple of weeks ago when head coach Mike Pettine said that Josh McCown would return to the starting lineup over Johnny Manziel? Fans were upset because they thought McCown didn't have the game to compete with Manziel and feared that the Browns would disappear into mediocrity.

Nobody is complaining after Week 5, because McCown not only led the Browns to a comeback win against the Baltimore Ravens on the road but did it by completing 36 of 51 passes for 457 yards and two touchdowns.

It was a brilliant performance that paid off for the Browns and fantasy owners. McCown's performance earned 35 fantasy points for his owners, the top quarterback performance of the year in the NFL.

We're not saying we have completely bought in. The Browns face the Denver Broncos and their No. 1 defense in the NFL in Week 6, and that's going to be a tough unit to attack. McCown should be able to avoid disaster against the Broncos, but it would be quite shocking if he threw for more than 250 yards against a defense that includes Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware and is loaded with speed.

In this piece, we offer our best waiver-wire pickups, rankings and projections for Week 6.

Position	Player	Team	Week 6 Opponent
QB	Josh McCown	Cleveland Browns	Denver Broncos
QB	Sam Bradford	Philadelphia Eagles	N.Y. Giants
QB	Teddy Bridgewater	Minnesota Vikings	Kansas City Chiefs
RB	Mark Ingram	New Orleans Saints	Atlanta Falcons
RB	Andre Ellington	Arizona Cardinals	Pittsburgh Steelers
RB	LeGarrette Blount	New England Patriots	Indianapolis Colts
WR	Donte Moncrief	Indianapolis Colts	New England Patriots
WR	Jarvis Landry	Miami Dolphins	Tennessee Titans
WR	Torrey Smith	San Francisco 49ers	Baltimore Ravens
TE	Larry Donnell	N.Y. Giants	Philadelphia Eagles
TE	Charles Clay	Buffalo Bills	Cincinnati Bengals

QB Sam Bradford, Philadelphia Eagles

There's finally some relief in Philadelphia.

At the start of the season, it seemed that Chip Kelly's Eagles were the best team in the NFC East, although the Dallas Cowboys were the defending champions and had the ability to make an argument.

However, when the Cowboys lost Dez Bryant and Tony Romo in back-to-back weeks, head coach Jason Garrett's team lost much of its luster.

That didn't mean anything to the Eagles, because they were falling far below expectations. Kelly's offense looked like it was in fantasy prison in the Week 2 loss to the Cowboys. Fantasy owners and Philadelphia fans had lost patience with Bradford, and he looked like he would be a bust.

Bradford is not out of the woods yet but is coming off a 333-yard, two-touchdown performance in Philadelphia's 39-10 victory over the Saints. 

Skeptics may point out that the Saints have the worst defense in the league, but that should not be an issue if you are considering Bradford for the immediate future. When he goes up against the New York Giants Monday night, he will be competing against the 32nd-ranked pass defense in the league. 

The Eagles are a game behind the Giants in the NFC East and are starting to play better. With an opportunity to tie a flawed New York team for first place in the division, look for Bradford to build on his performance against the Saints.

Jonathan Bachman/Associated Press

RB Mark Ingram, New Orleans Saints

This is a bit of a long shot, because the Saints are struggling so badly and the Atlanta Falcons are undefeated, but look for Mark Ingram to play a key role Thursday night when the Saints host their longtime rivals.

The Saints have the 32nd-ranked defense in the league and very little chance of stopping Matt Ryan and the Falcons, even if Julio Jones (hamstring) can't play or is limited. The best hope for the Saints is to maintain possession and control the clock.

That means Mark Ingram has to have a heavy dose of rushing attempts. The Saints don't have the explosiveness on offense anymore to trade points with their opponents. Drew Brees will give everything he has to keep his team in the game, but the New Orleans receiving crew is deficient. Marques Colston is a possession receiver and Brandin Cooks is moderately capable, but the firepower has been reduced.

The Saints need to give the ball to Ingram and hope he can wear down the Atlanta defense. The Falcons have been playing well on that side of the ball and have the top-ranked run defense in the league. However, much of that is because the Falcons have built sizable leads, at which point opponents have become one-dimensional and gone to the passing attack.

Ingram is nasty and powerful, and if the Saints keep on hammering away with him, he will find his creases against the Falcons and punish their defense.

Michael Conroy/Associated Press

WR Donte Moncrief, Indianapolis

You can't often get the best of Bill Belichick, but you may have a rare opportunity if you pick up Donte Moncrief and put him in your lineup Sunday night against the Patriots.

This is the ultimate revenge game for the Colts since the Patriots blew them out in the AFC Championship game last year. But it's also a revenge game for the Patriots because of the Deflategate controversy that emerged after that game. The Pats would like to pay the Colts back for lighting the fuse on that controversy.

So the revenge aspects cancel each other out. This is a huge game for the Colts, who have gotten back on the winning track by taking three games in a row but have not looked impressive in the process. This is their chance, and the New England secondary is vulnerable.

The Patriots will try to counter this issue with pressure on Andrew Luck or Matt Hasselbeck, so the Colts must find a way to protect their quarterbacks. The Patriots will have to pay extra attention to T.Y. Hilton, which should leave plenty of wide-open spaces for Donte Moncrief to attack.

Moncrief had just one catch for three yards in the Week 5 win over the Texans, which might make him an afterthought. But don't write off Moncrief, because he had six catches for 75 yards in Week 4 against Jacksonville. He also had TD receptions in each of the first three games of the season.

Moncrief will be in a position to hurt the Patriots and should be a productive waiver-wire pickup this week.

Position	Player	Team	Opponent
RB	Adrian Peterson	Minnesota Vikings	Kansas City Chiefs
WR	Randall Cobb	Green Bay Packers	San Diego Chargers
WR	A.J. Green	Cincinnati Bengals	Buffalo Bills
RB	Devonta Freeman	Atlanta Falcons	New Orleans Saints
RB	Le'Veon Bell	Pittsburgh Steelers	Arizona Cardinals
WR	Julio Jones	Atlanta Falcons	New Orleans Saints
RB	Matt Forte	Chicago Bears	Detroit Lions
TE	Rob Gronkowski	New England Patriots	Indianapolis Colts
WR	Calvin Johnson	Detroit Lions	Chicago Bears
QB	Aaron Rodgers	Green Bay Packers	San Diego Chargers
RB	Arian Foster	Houston Texans	Jacksonville Jaguars
WR	Odell Beckham Jr.	N.Y. Giants	Philadelphia Eagles
QB	Tom Brady	New England Patriots	Indianapolis Colts
WR	Antonio Brown	Pittsburgh Steelers	Arizona Cardinals
WR	T.Y. Hilton	Indianapolis Colts	New England Patriots
TE	Greg Olsen	Carolina Panthers	Seattle Seahawks
WR	Brandon Marshall	N.Y. Jets	Washington Redskins
QB	Matt Ryan	Atlanta Falcons	New Orleans Saints
RB	Eddie Lacy	Green Bay Packers	San Diego Chargers
WR	Julian Edelman	New England Patriots	Indianapolis Colts