Week 5 Waiver Wire Targets

Another round of byes (Chiefs, Jaguars, Saints, Seahawks) means fewer options in our Week 5 fantasy football kicker rankings, including two every-week starters in Cairo Santos and Steven Hauschka.

The waiver wire won’t replace the studs listed above, but finding the right player with the most advantageous opponent is vital to help win your week. This will focus exclusively on players owned in less than 50 percent of all Yahoo! leagues. If your record is not quite what you would have hoped for then now is the time to make some moves.

Kenneth Dixon (RB-BAL): Yes, the Baltimore backfield is a committee situation right now, and that doesn’t bode well for any fantasy owner. He’s coming off an impressive effort against the Raiders. But Washington faces Baltimore in Week 5 and, with the Tuesday release of Justin Forsett, the Ravens have only one running back on their roster with more than three carries on the season.

Each week, I look at my three big money leagues of 10-12 teams and see who is out there to get a overall feel. Smith may even be available on the waiver wire depending on how competitive your league is.

The Packers get a fantastic matchup against a very weak Giants defense in week 5 that Nelson should be able to exploit.

The popularity of daily fantasy sports continues to expand year after year with advertising campaigns running during the games and with some teams even sponsored by the providers. Woods will continue to see targets every week and should be added immediately in all PPR formats and deep standard leagues. It’s a bit unclear how long Decker will be out, but Enunwa is a borderline start with Decker inactive. But that may not be all, as Matt Forte was carted off for x-rays after Sunday’s game.

Jordan Howard ran hard last week and was given 26 touches while the Lions struggled to get anything going on the other side of the ball. Troymaine Pope is the only other RB active. If you’re a Newton owner in a redraft league, instead of scrambling for whatever option is out there, just pick up Anderson and start whichever is the starter come Monday. And if Forte misses time, Powell becomes startable. He is now owned in just 3.9 percent of leagues.

Here are some hi-lights from our most recent conversation (October 4th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer. After losing top wideout Sammy Watkins for the year, the Buffalo Bills’ pass game will need a suitable replacement. If Palmer can’t go, Stanton will be worth a look in deeper leagues.

Tight Ends: San Diego Chargers’ Hunter Henry has picked up the slack in Antonio Gates’ injury absence. My badass, unique team of all-stars, all mine, under my control, for me to play and bench and hire and fire as I pleased.

This isn’t a long-term add, but it makes sense for this week.

If your starter is on bye, or you don’t want to start an injured Carson Palmer on Thursday, or you’re anxious about Matt Ryan’s upcoming schedule (Denver and Seattle on the road in back-to-back weeks) it might be worth taking a chance on Brian Hoyer…seriously. That makes QB a need for several owners and Flacco is the ideal streaming QB this week. The Eagles are coming off a bye and have a juicy matchup against the Lions in Detroit. He will be a great WR3 player for the week, and a sneaky stacking option with Rivers in DFS this week.

We’ll keep this section pretty short with only a few of the notable names.

Breakout Players: These are probably the guys you drafted in the later rounds and expected them to have somewhat decent flex potential.

Terrance West, RB, Ravens. Hoyer is available in 96% of leagues and needs to be rostered as the Bears travel to Indy to take on the Swiss cheese D of the Colts. Many experts chose Golden Tate, Jones’ teammate, as the breakout receiver to replace Johnson. It’s time to cut ties.

I have no idea how he’s doing it, but Smith has somehow come back from a major Achilles injury to return to top form just three years shy of 40 years old. Once you accept Coates isn’t Martavis Bryant, perhaps think about accepting a player who leads the National Football League in 40-plus yard receptions (at least one in all four games; Julio who?) onto your roster.