The Good, the Bad and the Ugly:
Fantasy Football Week 5

By James Collier

This week’s The Good, the Bad the Ugly comes with a slight twist and will be mainly focussed on the Jaguars and Bills game that I attended at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. The UK has been hosting regular season NFL games since 2007 but I think you’d find it difficult to pick out a game that had an atmosphere as good as this one. The Bills were the “home” team and you could definitely feel that in the stadium. 

The Good

Jaguars Skill Position Players

If you beat a team as good as the Bills then the chances are you have had above average performances on both sides of the ball. That is definitely true for the Jaguars, whose defense forced the Bills to punt five times in the first half. But we are talking fantasy football here and so unless you are playing IDP, you aren’t really bothered by the punts or even Darious Williams’ fantastic interception. 

Travis Etienne had over 25 carries for just the second time in his NFL career and thanks to two fourth quarter touchdowns, was the RB1 on the week. This was the best fantasy performance of his career and Etienne himself was on the receiving end of it. 

This was also a good game to be a Jaguars wide receiver with Calvin Ridley WR9, Christian Kirk WR21 and Zay Jones WR28 in Week 5. Ridley had not had more than three catches since Week 1 and so we needed to see a big game like this to continue to be happy putting him into our lineups each week. His 32 yard grab down the right sideline on third down right before Etienne’s 35 yard touchdown all but ended the Bills hopes in this game.

The Bad

The Bills Run Game

The game never really got out of hand for the Bills even though they were behind for most of it. So the fact that their running backs combined for just 10 carries reflects how much they struggled to get anything going on the ground. James Cook’s first carry of the game went for five yards but that was as good as it got as he then lost nine yards on the next four. Cook is the RB16 on the season but games like this will keep him out of the top 12, particularly if he is also losing goal line work to both Damien Harris and Latavius Murray.

Embed from Getty Images

The Ugly

Injuries, again! 

There was nothing really ugly to come out of the London game this week in terms of the play on the field but once again there were some potential season ending injuries. The Bills look to have lost Matt Milano and DaQuan Jones for most, if not all of the rest of the season. 

Elsewhere, Week 5 was supposed to be a week to celebrate the return of fantasy studs with Jonathan Taylor and Cooper Kupp returning to the field. But just as we got them back we appear to have lost Justin Jefferson and De’Von Achane, who are candidates to go on IR and miss at least the next four weeks. Why can’t we have nice things?

Feature image credit: USA Today

JAMES COLLIER

Lead Fantasy Football Analyst

A Washington fan since the early 2010’s, James had no choice but to turn to fantasy football in search of happiness – and it wasn’t long until it became an obsession. You can follow him on Twitter @jamesc294.

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