Injuries galore made for a not-so-great Week 5 of the 2023 NFL season, muddying the waters even more for your fantasy football rosters. With the onslaught of bye weeks starting to hit teams as well, finding the right players to invest in and the right players to move on from is key.
As always, the following list provides cases for why you should not worry at all, be a little bit worried, and be in a full panic for bigger names on your fantasy football rosters. This is not any advice to move on from any players in the ‘Full Panic’ section, but you should absolutely be exploring moves to try and move that problem somewhere else.
No Need to Panic
After a strong three-week start to his season, Chris Olave has come back to Earth for the New Orleans Saints, and yet, the offense continues to have no issues scoring points. While Olave did record a touchdown in Sunday’s shutout win over the Patriots, he only managed two receptions.
Derek Carr is still managing the injury to his throwing arm, which likely is limiting his chances of hitting big downfield plays, which is where Olave eats. But it is clear that Olave and Carr have a solid working relationship in the offense, so things just need to work themselves out.
The streakiness of the Dallas Cowboys has hit earlier in the NFL season than usual, and CeeDee Lamb has unfortunately seen his stat line dip a few notches the past few weeks. Lamb had a conversation with head coach Mike McCarthy after Sunday’s walloping by San Francisco, and the quarterback play of Dak Prescott is really at the core of why Lamb has struggled lately.
Dallas will need to re-invest in developing the passing attack, which will make Lamb the biggest beneficiary. You can have your concerns about the star Dallas receiver, but don’t be surprised if he has a field day in Week 6 against the Chargers.
You could take the dreadful Week 5 performance (eight touches, 25 total yards) from James Cook as a precursor to Buffalo adding a guy off the street, but you should also look back to his heavy usage earlier in the season as to why they likely still have a lot of trust in him.
While some pass-blocking reps certainly could have limited his reps in Sunday’s London loss, Cook is clearly the best back the Bills have. In his first season as the team’s lead back, bumpiness has to be expected – a Week 6 matchup against the Giants could be the get-right game he needs in a positive gamescrip.
Some Panic
Javonte Williams
He’s been on this list a few times so far and he just can’t get off of it – it’s Javonte Williams!
While his return from his ACL injury has not been as smooth as many fantasy football rosters had hoped for, his new quad injury (that kept him out of Week 5) certainly has derailed any sort of momentum.
Combine that with a breakout two-game stint from Jaleel McLaughlin, and you have the makings of some caution lights starting to go off. All pieces on the Denver Broncos roster could very well be shipped out sometime this season, including Williams, so there are some question marks with him.
However, Williams has earned double-digit carries in every game he has finished this season, so there is still some hope for the player that should be the lead back in Denver.
Christian Watson
Playing the role of the burner on the Green Bay Packers, Christian Watson faces a dilemma – catching passes from a young QB (Jordan Love) who struggles mightily on deep throw accuracy. Monday’s loss to the Raiders showed that Watson can still be Love’s top target, however, as he was tied for the team lead in targets (7) and led the team in yardage (91).
On a night where Love struggled throwing the ball, it was a pleasant surprise to see Watson earn a good chunk of his QB’s attention. Granted, most of that yardage came on a 77-yard pass play, but Watson, who looks to be fully healthy and gets a bye week to continue to heal up, still offers a ton of big-play value moving forward.
Full Panic
Miles Sanders
It had the looks of a good offseason signing for the Carolina Panthers, as they brought in Miles Sanders to be Bryce Young’s steady veteran running back. And through the first five games this season, it looks like the offensive line is doing Sanders no favors.
Having fought a groin injury for most of the season so far, Sanders has been very inefficient running the ball, averaging a measly 3.1 yards per carry and losing touches to Chuba Hubbard. While featured more in the passing game than during his time in Philly, there is a lot needing to be figured out to make Sanders passable as a RB2/3.
Once seen as one of the darlings of the offseason by the fantasy football community, Rhamondre Stevenson has been losing touches to Ezekiel Elliott to start the season. A dual-threat running back who is capped by his awful offense, the light on Stevenson seems to be burning out quite quickly.
While he was fighting through a thigh injury, Stevenson tied Elliott for carries (8) and saw two fewer targets (2 vs. 4) in the passing game than his counterpart. You can knock Stevenson down a peg or four on your fantasy football team moving forward, as the looks of both his stock and that of the New England Patriots’ offense is dreadful – at best.
This must be the week of discrediting running backs, because we have yet another entrant on our list from that position group, Derrick Henry. Once known as the King, Henry has looked like a shell of himself this year, with no real reclamation in sight.
Tennessee has always chosen to feed Henry with one of the highest touch percentages in the league each year, but with Tulane rookie Tyjae Spears looking good as his backup, Henry has been inefficient and losing some work.
While this is certainly not to say that Henry will lose his starting role to Spears, because that will not be happening, this is to say that your first-round investment is looking like a sure-fire miss, barring any sort of late-season comeback.
Final Thoughts
This article felt much more negative than in week’s past, and it really keeps with the trend that Week 5 produced. With injuries suffered by Justin Jefferson and rookie Devon Achane, your fantasy football rosters are probably hurting currently, both for depth and for consistency.
Week 5 is no deadline to have things figured out, but you should know what kind of roster you are working with. Start to sniff around your league for deals, look into what you can do to improve your roster, but also don’t dump any of these big names that were mentioned just because they have underperformed so far this season.
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