Welcome to our 2020 fantasy football stock watch, in which we’ll examine who’s trending up or down in fantasy after each week.
Week 5 had a couple of very noteworthy injuries: Dak Prescott had a horrifying ankle injury, which means it’s Andy Dalton time in Dallas. We’ll see what the extent of Dalvin Cook’s injury is with the Vikings, which could mean it’s Alexander Mattison time in Minnesota. As far as those two respective stocks go, you know those arrows are pointing up for Dalton and Mattison.
So, as we do every week, let’s begin with the good news for fantasy owners about some of the QBs, RBs, WRs and TEs we watched, followed by the bad news:
Stock up
QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, Miami Dolphins
So much for the Tua Tagovailoa train. Fitzpatrick completed 22-of-28 passes (!) in a win over the 49ers (!!) and had his fourth straight 20-plus fantasy point day. Who’d have thunk it?
RB Mike Davis, Carolina Panthers
If you invested in him after Christian McCaffrey went down with an injury, congrats. Heading into Monday, he leads all RBs in PPR scoring for Week 5 after 89 yards rushing, nine catches and 60 yards through the air, plus a touchdown. It doesn’t sound like the Panthers are rushing McCaffrey back, either.
RB Darrell Henderson Jr., Los Angeles Rams
One week he’s up, next week he’s down. This week: up! The problem here is volume: he did lead the Rams in carries with 15, rookie Cam Akers was next with nine (for 61 yards) and Malcolm Brown chipped in with eight. The good news? Henderson had three catches for 30 yards and two touchdowns. So I’d say he’s ahead of the pack on a team that runs the ball more than all but one team in the NFL.
RB Raheem Mostert, San Francisco 49ers
It’s not great that he’s only getting 11 carries, but it’s what he’s done in returning from injury that’s noteworthy: he averaged 8.2 ypc on Sunday in the loss to the Dolphins. He’s a big play threat every time he touches the ball.
WR DK Metcalf, Seattle Seahawks
Guess who’s the fourth-leading fantasy scorer at WR? This guy! Pretty amazing.
WR Darius Slayton, New York Giants
He’s emerged again as Daniel Jones’ favorite target, and with the Giants playing from behind a lot, he’ll have big fantasy scores like he amassed on Sunday in the loss to the Cowboys.
WR Laviska Shenault Jr., Jacksonville Jaguars
Mr. Dependable in the Jags’ offense: he’s good for a bunch of receptions and some yardage game to game, plus a carry or two. If D.J. Chark misses time, his arrow will continue to point up.
Stock down
QB Lamar Jackson, Baltimore Ravens
The passing yardage was again down (180) and he ran for just three yards (but you expected that in a game against the Bengals). But as I said recently: he’s not giving you the value that you drafted him for.
QB Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons
Three straight bad scores with one touchdown total? Not good at all.
RB Nyheim Hines, Indianapolis Colts
Remember the hype after that huge Week 1? Gone. He’s just not used that much behind Jonathan Taylor, and Jordan Wilkins is cutting into his work. He’s droppable at this point.
RB D’Ernest Johnson, Cleveland Browns
I was excited as anyone to see if he’d get enough of a workload in a run-heavy offense after the Nick Chubb injury. But he got eight to Kareem Hunt’s 20, which isn’t exactly a 50-50 split.
WR Dionate Johnson, Pittsburgh Steelers
Normally, I wouldn’t put an injured player here. But with Johnson missing time again this week, Chase Claypool broke out. When Johnson does return, you get the feeling Claypool earned more attention even with JuJu Smith-Schuster there. Speaking of which …
WR JuJu Smith-Schuster, Pittsburgh Steelers
He’s had no more than five targets in his past two games, and although he found paydirt in Week 3, he had just 28 yards this week and no more than 69 in a game this season. Not great.
TE Zach Ertz, Philadelphia Eagles
Six targets? Good. One catch? Not good. Maybe if the Eagles get back some healthy receivers, it’ll help open things up for him.
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