- Commissioner’s statement on Ventura, Marte
- Ronnie O’Sullivan: Masters champion ‘felt so vulnerable’ in final
- Arron Fletcher Wins 2017 WSOP International Circuit Marrakech Main Event ($140,224)
- Smith challenges Warner to go big in India
- Moncada No. 1 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Braves land 2 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
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- New Zealand wrap up 2-0 after Bangladesh implosion
- Mathews, Pradeep, Gunathilaka to return to Sri Lanka
- Elliott hopes for rain for Poli
Week 5 Fantasy Football Rankings: Lineup Advice for Every Position
- Updated: October 4, 2016
It might seem difficult to believe, but we’re already getting into the second month of the 2016 NFL season. Four weeks of football action have passed, which naturally means four weeks of the fantasy season are now in the books.
For many leagues, this means a third of the regular season is over. A number of top players have been injured, some surprise players have emerged and some teams simply are not what we thought they could be.
In short, the fantasy landscape looks a whole lot different than it did a month ago.
If you’ve managed to get off to a strong start in your league, great. If things haven’t gone so smoothly, however, these next couple of weeks are going to be critical.
We’re here to help as we head into Week 5 with some positional fantasy rankings. We’ll be looking at the top players at each position and ranking them based on factors such as past performance, pending matchup, team trends and injuries, where applicable.
We’ll also be taking an in-depth look at some of the biggest risers and fallers at each skill position.
Quarterbacks
Up: Tom Brady, New England Patriots
We can’t really judge how New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has looked this season because he hasn’t yet played in 2016. Brady, of course, was given a four-game suspension for his alleged role in the Patriots’ deflated-football scandal.
Whether you believe in Brady’s innocence or not, one thing is clear: Brady is back. From Adam Schefter of ESPN:
Now that midnight has come, Tom Brady’s suspension is officially over. He’s allowed back in building, back in game.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 3, 2016
To gauge Brady’s likely output this week, we can look at what backup Jimmy Garoppolo produced during his time at the helm. In roughly six quarters, Garoppolo racked up 496 yards and four touchdowns.
Garoppolo did that without the aid of star tight end Rob Gronkowski.
Brady should have a relatively healthy Gronkowski with which to work this week, and he’ll be going up a Cleveland Browns defense rated just 24th in pass coverage by Pro Football Focus.
Toss in the fact that Brady is probably coming in with a nasty attitude, and you might end up with a fantasy performance that is downright frightening.
Down: Ryan Tannehill, Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins have put a whole lot of resources into quarterback Ryan Tannehill. They drafted him high, gave him a sizable contract extension and went out and hired Adam Gase as head coach in order to help him improve.
The problem is that Tannehill just can’t seem to fit the role of a franchise quarterback. He is serviceable—his career passer rating of 85.3 is roughly the same as Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck’s—but there are so many little things that he seems to miss on.
Last week, for example, he committed two turnovers and converted just two of 11 third-down attempts.
“Not a lot worked,” Tannehill said of his game against the Cincinnati Bengals, per Adam H. Beasley of the Miami Herald. “We really didn’t do anything well. It was one of our worst performances from our offense in a long time. … No consistency. No execution. Too many mistakes.”
Mistake-prone quarterbacks are not the ones you want to trust in an important midseason fantasy battle. On top of Tannehill’s shortcomings is the fact that he’s …
