NFL Week 5 Fantasy Pop Quizz: 3 Rookies to Liven Up Your Bye Week

So, you missed out on this week’s obvious waiver wire pickups. You know, Stevan Ridley, Victor Cruz, Jacoby Jones, Kendall Hunter.

Who’s left that could possibly spark your team this weekend? How about three under-the-radar rookies with a proven penchant for taking it to the house from anywhere on the field. 

Who, you say? Time for a pop Quizz. 

1. Jacquizz Rodgers was an electrifying scoring machine at Oregon State. He totaled an impressive 53 touchdowns during his three-year Pac-10 career in Corvallis – 48 rushing, 5 receiving and a pair of TD tosses from the Wildcat formation. 

He’s playing in the marquee Sunday night game against the Packers in the Georgia Dome, where the Falcons are nearly unbeatable during the Matty Ice era. With Jason Snelling hurting, expect Quizz to get up to 10 touches or more to complement Michael Turner. 

Quizz is ultra fast and shifty, and at a generously listed at 5-6, 195, is hard for defenders to locate, let alone tackle. He can take it to the house at any time. If you need a flex RB and especially if your league rewards long TDs, take the Quizz. 

2. Titus Young will also play week 5 in a nice, climate controlled dome with a fast artificial playing surface—Ford Field. And like Quizz, Titus gets to perform on nationally televised, Monday Night Football, as the resurgent Lions host the rival Bears. 

The Bears will be obsessed with stopping Megatron, Nate Burleson, Brandon Pettigrew & Co. If they overlook Titus Young, he could have a huge MNF coming out party. Young has worked his way into the Detroit WR rotation, and could see 6 to 8 targets.

He has 4.4 speed and was Kellen Moore’s top receiver at Boise State, where he caught 25 touchdown passes. 23 of those TDs were longer than 20 yards, and 16 of those TDs were longer than 40 yards! 

Matthew Stafford knows that, and now you do too. Go for the Titus touch this weekend. 

3. Doug Baldwin and the Seattle Seahawks visit the Meadowlands with disaster surely looming. A cross-country trip for Seattle, and an early 1 pm Eastern time kickoff, against a powerful Giants team that is hitting its stride. Who in their right minds would put a rookie Seahawk WR in their fantasy lineup? 

You, that’s who. Because you know about Doug Baldwin. He’s the rookie from Stanford who caught a 55-yard TD pass in week one from Tarvaris Jackson. Week 4 was his best game yet, with 84 yards on 5 catches. 

While the matchup against the Giants looks unfavorable at first, it could be made to order for Baldwin. The Seahawks have no running attack to speak of, Sydney Rice is back in top form, and Jackson will be throwing constantly in the second half as Seattle plays catch-up. 

Baldwin was one of Andrew Luck’s favorite targets at Stanford last year, hauling in 58 passes for over 850 yard and 9 touchdowns. Tarvaris Jackson may not be Andrew Luck, but he doesn’t need to be for Baldwin to have another excellent game. 

If your WRs are injured or on a bye, just do the Dougie this weekend.