Week 5 Risers and Fallers

by Jonathan Lange · Studs and Duds
Week 5 Rankings

One more week is in the books, and now it’s time to check in on the Week 5 rankings Risers and Fallers. There was plenty of action this past weekend, and we now have five games of data to measure the performances of these teams and skill players. Unfortunately, we also had big injuries to star players Justin Jefferson and Travis Kelce, so the fantasy marketplace will have plenty of moving pieces over the coming days. Let’s get started with the Risers of this past week, including a stud wide receiver that had the game of his life on a Thursday night!

Risers

D.J. Moore – WR, Chicago Bears

Welcome to Chicago, D.J. Moore! Moore obliterated the Commanders secondary, collecting eight receptions for 282 yards and three touchdowns. To put this in perspective, only one Bears receiver had a game with more receiving yards in franchise history (249 yards by Alshon Jeffery in 2013). After a slow start, the Justin Fields experience is going much smoother thanks to his new wide receiver. In fact, D.J. Moore was the only wide receiver to catch a pass Thursday night. Coming up on the schedule for the Bears are the Vikings, Raiders, and Chargers, so more D.J. Moore explosion games could be on the way.

Ja’Marr Chase – WR, Cincinnati Bengals

Another week, another Bengal listed on the Riser/Faller list, and this time its Ja’Marr Chase! After another frustrating offensive performance, Chase went on record to say that he was “always open.” That was shown to be a reality this Sunday when Chase went off to the tune of 15 receptions for 192 yards and three touchdowns. With no Tee Higgins available, the offense leaned heavily on the star wideout, and he came through.

I would argue that the only thing better than seeing Chase breeze by the secondary was Joe Burrow launching accurate, perfect passes and looking confident in the pocket. The calf injury may be behind us, which is scary news for Bengals opponents.

Breece Hall – RB, New York Jets

Head coach Robert Saleh said this about Breece Hall going into Week 5: “From an opportunity standpoint, there is no pitch count with him anymore.” So, we got to see a fully unleashed Breece Hall against the worst rushing defense in the NFL. Hall made the most of his opportunities, tallying up 177 rushing yards to go along with a rushing touchdown. It appears that the ACL injury is completely behind him. We have seen flashes from Hall that indicate he might be back to 100-percent but the team continued to trot out Dalvin Cook or Michael Carter through the first four games. Hall received 22 of the 29 team rushing attempts, and looked as explosive as ever. The best thing Zach Wilson can do as quarterback would be to turn around and get the ball to his All-Pro running back.

Travis Etienne – RB, Jacksonville Jaguars

If you can remember way back to the summer, one of the topics of conversation among fantasy players was the threat of Tank Bigsby taking work away from Travis Etienne. After five games, Etienne has logged a Snap Share of at least 70-percent in every game this year, and he spearheaded the upset of the Buffalo Bills in London, rushing for 136 yards and two touchdowns. Last year was Etienne’s first full season after the Lisfranc injury, and this season he does appear to be running with more burst. Bigsby might make more of an impact as the season goes along, but Etienne has a stranglehold on this backfield, and he won’t be giving it up anytime soon.

Fallers

Skyy Moore – WR, Kansas City Chiefs

The Skyy Moore year two breakout season might not be happening after all. After a quiet rookie season, there was hope that Moore could take a step forward in his development and become the established #2 target for Patrick Mahomes behind Travis Kelce. In the last two games, Moore has combined for five fantasy points against the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings. It can be exhausting to find any type of excuse for the 2nd year receiver, but even Rashee Rice has the same number of touchdowns as Moore, and he’s played in 22 less games! The Skyy Moore dream may be dead.

Bryce Young – QB, Carolina Panthers

We’ve seen rookie quarterbacks Anthony Richardson and C.J. Stroud ascend to new heights this season, but unfortunately, Bryce Young has not had the hot start to his career that he hoped for. Against the Lions, we did get garbage time stats, but Young had already thrown two interceptions that contributed to the negative game script Sunday. He’s yet to have a game where he has thrown for more than 250 yards passing and we continue to see decisions you would hope the No. 1 overall pick wouldn’t make.

Time will tell how the career of Young will go, but for now, he’s shaping up to be the third best quarterback of his class despite being the first one drafted.

Mac Jones – QB, New England Patriots

I went back and forth on this one, but eventually had to mention the subpar performance by the Patriots offense, and one of the performers that has underwhelmed has been Mac Jones. Jones started off the season with three straight performances as a QB2 or better before his Week 4 performance against the Cowboys where he was benched after only producing 2.7 fantasy points. He was benched again, this time against the Saints. The Patriots offense resembles a black hole, sucking the life out of any potentially relevant fantasy player. This team appears hopeless, destined for a top-10 draft pick this spring. When they take a quarterback early, that will mark the end of the Mac Jones era in New England. Unfortunately for Jones, there will not be many franchises lining up to offer him the starting job.

Dak Prescott – QB, Dallas Cowboys

After a full buffet of football Sunday, everyone was looking for an entertaining matchup between the San Fransisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys.  The 49ers showed up, but Dak Prescott and the Cowboys were non-existent. Prescott threw three interceptions and could never get into a rhythm. Prescott has been particularly underwhelming this season, never finishing higher than QB16 in fantasy so far this season. Two of his games have been blow outs where the defense did all the heavy lifting, but the offense still lacked consistency.

Prescott and the Cowboys do have a revenge game coming up against former offensive coordinator Kellen Moore and the Chargers, so the opportunity is there for a bounceback. Still, Cowboys offense has only produced nine offensive touchdowns over the first five games of the season. Something has to change for this team to reach its offseason aspirations.

Buy High Opportunities

Here are this week’s Risers from Week 5: D.J. Moore, Ja’Marr Chase, Breece Hall, and Travis Etienne. Skyy Moore, Bryce Young, Mac Jones, and Dak Prescott are the Fallers. Last week I gave actionable advice to buy Joe Burrow before he gets healthy, but now that window has closed. However, if a fantasy manager is under the impression that D.J Moore or Travis Etienne can’t keep up with this pace of production, now would be a great time to buy before it’s too late!