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6 Must-Start Players for Week 5 | The Primer (Ep. 1749)
00:20:26
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A
This is an iHeart podcast.
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B
Look, if you smoke or dip, I'm.
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A
Going to give you a few good.
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A
All right. And welcome into the Fantasy Pros fantasy football podcast. It's the week five primer episode where we'll give you our top six sleeper starts that have advantageous matchups to target. I'm your host, Seth Wilcock, and today I'm joined by a company man who sacrificed nearly everything for this week's edition of the Primer. His blood, his sweat, his tears, and even his health. The selfless, the honorable, and even the noble Derek Brown. What's going on today, D, bro?
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B
Seth, I love you, dude. This is kind of like my flu game. Been going through it, man. I've been chugging. I don't even have a decor bottle. I had it. That's because it's empty. I've literally been chugging cough and cold medicine the entire week. I was up till midnight. I was like popping a fever at the desk trying to get to the last few games. It's. I've been going through it, man. Yeah, but I couldn't swear away, man. I couldn't get away from the keyboard. Had to give people the intel and trying to get people wins and fantasy this week, man. So I'm here for it. I'm barely here, but I'm here for it.
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A
Let's go, man. Sometimes it's the flu games that you come in. You bat the highest, right? So we've seen it before time and time again. So hopefully we can do that once again this week. And quick shout out to the people who keep us employed here for tuning in, either on the Fancy Pros YouTube channel or the audio feed. Thank you so much for all the support this season. Please do us a quick favor, give this video a thumbs up and also make sure you're subscribing to the channel if you're new. Also, if you want a chance to win a signed Jamar Chase Bengals jersey for free courtesy of our friends over at pristine auction.com, all you need to do is head to fancyprose.com contest co complete the form and either a download the Fancy Pros app, B leave a review for this podcast or c follow us on x Instagram or TikTok. We're@ fantasyprose. The more actions you complete, the more entries you're going to receive and we will be announcing a winner right here on the program at the beginning of next month. So if you're watching on YouTube, please ring the bell. Turn on those notifications so you can be alerted when new episodes are up and to claim your prize if you are that lucky winner. Jamar Chester has definitely gone down in value a little bit here over the last month. D Bro, but still very cool giveaway nonetheless.
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B
Yeah, all the dynasty GMs will still love it. I don't know if anybody in Redraft will.
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A
And D Bro, speaking of loving it, let's get into the quarterback that you love this week that is actually outside the top 12 in ECR.
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B
Surprisingly, I don't understand why people don't like him enough, man, But Jackson Dart, QB14 baby. He was just the QB11 in fantasy last week and really did this without throwing the ball much at all. Like he only finished with 111 passing yards, 5.5 yards per attempt. Got it done on the ground and he has a wonderful matchup this week. Seth, he gets the freaking Saints and people don't want to put him as a QB one. But I'm telling you, you gotta consider starting this guy if you got guys out on bye weeks, which is the first week for bye weeks, the Saints have given up the sixth highest yards per attempt and the third most passing touchdowns. So if there is an avenue, not against the Chargers, for the Giants to unlock Jackson Dart and for us to see more of a passing upside and still see the rushing utility this week. I mean Jackson darts a QB1 dude, get him in your lineups.
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A
He's one of those quarterbacks early on in his career that looks like a bit of a one read guy. He's going to look at his first read. If he doesn't see it, he might take off and dash for it. But that's good for fantasy, right? And you look at this matchup, Derek against the saints in week one. Kyler Murray, a pretty mobile quarterback, 7 for 38 on the ground. Look at last week Josh Allen the other mobile quarterback they faced. 7 for 45 and a rushing touchdown for Mr. Josh Allen. So the matchup is right for Jackson Dart to have another strong performance here. And let's go to the running backs as well where you're taking another guy who calls The AFC east home.
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B
Yeah, dude. So we, I was really high on Trayon Henderson last week and I think a lot of us in the fantasy space were. And Mike Vrabel and company said guess what? We don't care that Radre fumbled. We're still going to be making the lead back. He played 58% of the snaps at a 50 route share. He tied Trayvon Henderson with two red zone rushing attempts. He just didn't get into the goal line. Like, Ramandre is still the lead back as much as people don't want to talk about it. And he's playing well when he's not putting the freaking ball on the grass. Randre Stephen is playing well, well this year. He's 14th in explosive run rate and he's six best in missed tackles force per attempt. And I'm not telling you that. Look, the Bills are going to put up points. The Patriots are still going to run because you can run versus this Bill's defense and you're going to have success doing it. So if the, if the Patriots want to try to keep pace or keep the ball out of Josh Allen's hands, they're going to feed Randre this week against a run defense that's given up the second most rushing yards per game and the highest explosive run rate. So Randre Stevenson, I was kind of surprised when I pulled up ECR this week that I can even talk about him. Seth. Like, he is the clear lead back for the patriots, but he's RB27 and ECR like, and he's got a fantastic matchup. Somebody's going to make sense out of that for me. I. I don't get it.
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A
I mean, the Bills have allowed the top 10 mark in rushing yards this season to opposing running backs. Everyone remembers what Derrick Henry did going for over 160 yards in week one against them. But also like, aside from that jets game in Week two that got a little weird. We saw the Miami Dolphins running backs have success with them on a short week. And then even last week, like they made us all think that Kendra Miller actually might be a guy. I mean, that's pretty hard to do, Derek. It is.
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B
It's very tough. And the other thing about this is I don't understand why Travion Henderson, the second back in this backfield, is ranked above Ramandre Stevenson and ecr. Again, I think it's wrong.
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How much money do we have to do to like get Antonio Gibson traded to the Cardinals or something? Because then it would be even more of a smash spot yes. I'm just so sick of the. The three man rotation with AG there.
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B
Agreed, agreed.
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A
And speaking of the Arizona Cardinals, that's where you're going for your second running back sleeper start this week. Give us a little love down there in the great state of Arizona.
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B
So this is really just. I know a lot of people because this was the talk of Twitter. This is talk of the fantasy space. Whenever Trey Benson went on the ir, people are like, oh, it's Amari D. Mercado. Oh, it's Michael Carter. And people are like, they're, they're taking sides. They're like, I'm on the Carter side. I'm on D. Maro side. And I'm like, bro, I, I think it's the Carter backfield because we've seen this before. Like last year, in week 17 through 18, Michael Carter drew two starts for the Arizona Cardinals. He averaged 18 touches and 70 total yards. He was the RB20 and the RB11 in weekly scoring in both those weeks. I think he's going to be the early down guy. Like, if you look at how Arizona has operated their backfield through throughout the entirety of this year, even with James Cotter and Trey Benson, they had a clear early down guy and then a guy who was Trey Benson taking more of the passing down snaps. I think Carter is going to be the James Connor in this backfield and I think Amari D. Mercado is going to be the Trey Benson and he's going to take more of the passing down work. And if Michael Carter. And look again, this is shot in the dark because we don't know how it's going to work out. But I'm trying to read tea leaves and I'm trying to give people what I think is a strong flex play because he is down at RB40 in ECR right now. And if he is the lead back or he is the early down back in this offense, that ranking this week is blasphemous because the Tennessee Titans give it up to running backs. They're allowing the fifth most rushing yards per game and the fourth highest explosive run rate. So if Michael Carter is that guy and he are. He even came out when, when the media was talking to him. He was talking about his journey from the practice squad and then he let it slip while he was getting interviewed and he was like, I've gone from practice squad to starting.
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A
There you go.
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B
That also needs to be factored in here. Like, you don't just come out and say that. And it wasn't him. Like just wagging his jaw like talking about that like congrats to him. I loved him as a prospect. Should have sit here and invested him and not drafted Bree hall, but that's a story for another day. But Michael Carter, if he's the lead back and he's going against this type of run defense, RB40 is laughably low.
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A
I mean you look at what the Titans have allowed this season, the fourth most fancy points to opposing running backs on the year. If you want a two game sample size for the last two weeks, they're number two man. And it's not like they've played right backfields, right. It was Woody Marks and Nick Chubb last week who went over 100 yards combined. The week before it was JT. So I'm, I'm in here on Michael Carter. I think he's very sneaky in the props market as well. I'm sure we'll get those lines as we get closer to the weekend. And what a wild week this has been. Dbro where everyone had to drop what they were doing yesterday after waivers had already ran and just sprint and try to pick up Michael Carter as fast as you could. And if you did, you have a potential plug and play this week against the Titans. It's a smash spot for you. So before we get to your wide receivers, I did want to remind everyone that you can dominate your fans football leagues with fancy pros Premium now available for free six months on the house when you deposit and place your first wager on on any of our partner sportsbooks including Hard Rock Bet. This is the easiest way to get full access to our top fantasy tools all season long. Just go to fantasypros.com premium to get yourself started. Derek let's go to wide receivers where your first one is a guy who might have even been dropped in a couple of these leagues recently.
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B
He might have been man. And here's the thing. I'm not telling people to believe in Cooper cup for the entirety of the season. But if you especially with how Seattle is running their offense. But I think that this week could be a very good week for Cooper cup and people need to be getting him in in the flex because if you look at the matchup, look, Seattle does not want to throw the ball. They do not want to throw the ball at all. But this week going against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the one thing that Tampa Bay does really well on the defensive side of the ball is stop the run. Seattle is going to be forced to chuck the ball in this game and and if they do that Cooper cup is going to have a really nice day. If you look at just his per route metrics, if I were to tell you a wide receiver at 1.91 yards per out run on a 20% first reach here, we'd be pretty like a little bit interested in that guy. But that's Cooper cup the problem. What's held his stats down on a weekly basis and he does have one top 24 finish already in fantasy and weekly scoring this season. He's just been terrible for the other ones because they don't want to throw the ball. So if they are forced to throw the ball because they have the third lowest neutral passing rate, if they are forced to throw the ball and they can have success doing that this week, Cooper cup is going to be a very strong flex play. Going against the Tampa Buccaneer secondary, They've allowed the 10th most fantasy points per game and the sixth highest pass rating when targeting slot wide receivers. And they did move Cooper cup out out to the boundary last last week. I think that comes back because if you look at weeks one through three, Cooper Cup 52% in the slot. I think he's going to be in the slot this week and if he gets that matchup against Tampa Bay's nickel, he's going to succeed.
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A
Yeah, I just picked him up. I spent a little bit of fab on the wire this week to make sure I had a guy like Cooper cup to throw in. The flex and like the efficiency hasn't been awesome. The opportunity hasn't been awesome. You noted that the team right now lasts in Pass plays per game, 32nd, 27.3 of them. So it hasn't been great all around for Cooper cup. But like you still look at some of these metrics and like he hasn't been bad at yak. Right. I mean he's top 20 right now in the league. Four yards after the catch. So I do like that for Cooper cup and maybe continue to kind of grind this out. I don't think it's going to be a fun watch or anything like that, but I just don't know if you can run against Tampa Bay. Right. That's what you can't.
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B
Yeah, like, well, Sam Darrell almost made this list. I would be full transparency. Sam Darnold almost made this video because I think Seattle is going to unlock their passing attack this week. I don't think that's how they want to play and they're not going to play every single week. But I think looking at the matchup, I think KUBIAT'S going to look at the matchup and say, look, we need to do one of two things. We either try to impose our will and be the same exact offense we've been every single week and try to run, run, run ball and run into a brick wall and this could be a gross game. Or we could throw the freaking ball and have success doing so. And Sam Darnold quietly is playing really, really good football. A statement in the year 2025. I didn't think I was going to be making, but if Sam Darnold plays good this week, Cooper cup is going to be an extremely strong flex.
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A
Yeah. Everyone who said Geno Smith to Sam Darnold was a downgrade, I don't think about. I don't think so. Yeah. And leading rusher against Tampa Bay this year, dbro Saquon Barkley. 19 opportunities, 43 rushing yards. Just to kind of put that in perspective. Yeah, absolutely. Let's go to your other wide receiver here, a guy who was also on waiver wires most leagues beginning this week before we had a just absolutely brutal injury on Sunday.
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B
Pour one out from elite Neighbors, man, that's just, I mean, the, the, the hits just keep coming, dude. We, we get these guys that, you know, so many players that we drafted highly and that we love in fantasy and then the NFL like that are going out with just these catast injuries. But with Malik going out, Darius Slayton is going to step forward. And we've already seen this before, Seth, last year when Malik Neighbors missed weeks five through six. I'm not telling you Darius Slayton is going to get this type of target share, but he's done it before, people, and he did it last year. In the two games Malik Neighbors missed last year, Seth, brace yourself. Darius Slayton got a 29% target share. He got 57% of the air yards. He put up 2.5 yards per route run and averaged 89.5 receiving yards per game with almost a 37% first read share. He was basically thrust into the Malik Neighbors role. He finished wide receiver 7 and wide receiver 31 in weekly scoring in those two games. What happened when Malik Neighbors went out last week? Darius Slayton and this is a small sample. So again, follow me on this. People like grain of salt here. But last week we've seen it. Last year when Malik Neighbors was out and last week when Malik Neighbors went out during the game, Darius Slayton got a 20 target sharing at 42% of the air yards. If he gets close to those numbers, Seth, he's Going to have a fantastic day against the same secondary that's giving up the second most PPR points per target to perimeter wide receivers. So yes, I like Jackson Dart. If Jackson Dart's going to have a good day and a good day throwing the ball through the air. Darius Slayton is coming along for the ride.
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A
Darius Slayton is so fun because it feels like every year, by hook or by crook, this guy makes his way back onto fantasy rosters. He leads the Giants in receiving yards almost every single year. You know, other than the last year, you know, breakout rookie year from league neighbors. So he's back, man, he is back. And the efficiency so far this season, it hasn't been a ton of opportunity, but still quarterback rating per target 111.5, 25th best production premium, 15th best in that as well. And I don't know what we get game script here. I don't know if the Giants will get out in front and then maybe we see a little more scatter boo and and Jackson dart on the ground. But this could be a spot for the Saints at home, right? They get up and. And maybe the Giants have to chase a little bit with a rookie quarterback.
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Well, anyway, you kind of slice this, okay, Maybe the Saints get up in this game and then the Giants are chasing and throwing the. The Giants say, look like we can't sit here and go like full run game, lean on a lead and our defense save us and stuff like that. We need to infuse Jackson dart with confidence and we gotta throw the ball, we gotta do it well because if we want the rookies to succeed and we wanted to play well, he can't just get back in the pocket and then take off running if his first read's not there. So this is a good avenue for you to kind of open up the passing game. And the other thing about like last week with, with the Giants just in general, Malik neighbors, we know it was central to what they wanted to do in their passing game. When he goes out in the first half, your entire install your offensive game plan goes out the freaking window like during the game. So now they've had a week to adjust, kind of like re acclimate. And this is a good opportunity because the, the upcoming schedule for the Giants is rough. They're going to be trailing in a lot of those games, like both the Eagles games, the Broncos game. So they're going to have to rely on Jackson dart not only his legs but his arm. They're going to do that. They need to get the chemistry going between Jackson Dart and Darius Slayton.
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Darius Slayton, one of my very final picks in the Scott Fishbowl this week. He will be in my lineup coming into week number five. Let's go to the other New York franchise where you have a tight end you're looking at.
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B
I've been talking about him in the waiver wire article for the last few weeks and we finally saw it happen. Seth. Mason Taylor broke out this last week. Mason Taylor broke out and was the tight end 11 in fantasy last week. And it's not just oh well, he lucked into a touchdown. He ended up with like 30 receiving yards. This dude earned a 25.9% target share. He had 2.5 yards per route run and a 33.3% first reach here. So I was talking about the entire off season. Like look, you got Garrett Wilson. They need a second option to step up in the jets passing attack and finally we have it bad. Mason Taylor is the second option in the jets passing attack and for a player that walked into the season dealing with an ankle injury and isn't fully wasn't fully healthy, you've seen the ramp up. He's been a full time player every single game but last week, massive ramp up the week before that. So it's not just a one game sample. He gets six freaking targets. So we've seen the ramp up over two games. It finally like coalesced and went into the box score last week. So Mason Taylor this week like look like. Yeah, like we know the jets and the Cowboys are going to put up points. Both those defenses are not as good as people would think they are on paper. We know Dallas is bad, but the jets have not played good on defense either. They are going to be forced to throw the ball and Mason Taylor's gonna be the number two option. I mean I've got him ranked as a, as a tight end one this week. Seth.
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A
Wow.
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B
Like, I mean you're telling me a guy's gonna get like over a 25 target share and he's gonna be like over a 31st read share. Those are elite type of numbers and I'm not saying that's going to be every single week.
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A
Sure.
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But tell me how it's not close to that considering the constitution of this offense too.
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A
Well, you need a couple things to be a fantasy difference maker at the tight end position. One is you should probably be the second or the first option in the passing game.
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B
Done.
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A
It looks like he is that. Yep. Check that. You need to be on the field a lot. Well check, check for that as well. He's 90% of the route participation in the jets offense. That's fourth among tight ends. Also air yard share here, 12th best among the position at 14.6%. So the opportunity is there for Mason Taylor and what better secondary to target him against than this Dallas Cowboys that. I don't even think they could catch your cold right now, Derek.
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B
I mean it's been bad, man. Dallas blown coverages, players playing bad. Like they don't have any answers on defense and I think they're going to have any answers. So like Mason Taylor, like if you picked him up off of waivers, kudos if you're starting him this week.
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A
Let's go, let's go. All right guys, that'll do it for us on this episode of the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast. Please comment down below your favorite week five sleeper starts. And while you're here, make sure you're smashing that like button and subscribing to the channel. If you're new, subscribe for Derrick Brown, I'm Seth Wilcock. Take care, y'. All. Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast. If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on apple podcasts@fantasypros.com review or on Spotify. Follow us on X Instagram and TikTok Antasypros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com fantasypros if you're a smoker or dipper ready to make a change, you really only need one good reason. But with Zyn Nicotine Pouches, you'll discover many good reasons. Zynn is America's number one nicotine pouch brand. Plus, Zynn offers a robust rewards program. There are lots of options when it comes to nicotine satisfaction, but there's only one Zyn. Check out zyn.com find to find Zyn at a store near you. Warning. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. This is an iHeart podcast.