Week 5 Fantasy Football Start/Sit Candidates: Wide Receivers
Wondering who to start and sit at quarterback this week? Below are two top-notch start and two sit options at the quarterback position for Week 5 of the 2022 NFL season.
Week 4 Review – half-PPR scoring
Starts
- WR Romeo Doubs (Green Bay Packers) vs. New England Patriots – 11.2 fantasy points (WR24)
- WR DeVonta Smith (Philadelphia Eagles) vs. Jacksonville Jaguars – 3.2 fantasy points (WR72)
- WR Curtis Samuel (Washington Commanders) @ Dallas Cowboys – 5.8 fantasy points (WR54)
Sits
- WR Corey Davis (New York Jets) @ Pittsburgh Steelers – 15.9 fantasy points (WR12)
Wide Receiver – Starts
Chris Godwin (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) vs. Atlanta Falcons
Tampa Bay Buccaneers slot receiver Chris Godwin returned from a two-week absence (hamstring) to a crowded wide receiver corps—Mike Evans, Russell Gage, and Julio Jones were all active—yet stormed his way to an 84.9% route run rate, second highest among Tampa Bay wide receivers, and a 22.0% targets per route run rate, No. 1 among the four, and his 10 total targets tied Evans for the team lead, per 4for4's NFL Player Stats Explorer.
Tampa Bay’s Week 5 foe, the Atlanta Falcons, are the NFL’s seventh most fantasy-friendly team, surrendering 33.2 half-PPR points per game to the position, thanks to a bottom-five 13.6% quarterback pressure rate, per 4for4's NFL Team Stat Explorer, and surprisingly leaky coverage.
Godwin produced a pair of dominant stat lines in two games against Arthur Smith’s Atlanta defense last year: four receptions on five targets for 62 yards and one touchdown in Week 2 and 15 receptions on 17 targets for 143 yards in Week 13.
Robert Woods & Kyle Philips (Tennessee Titans) @ Washington Football Team
The Tennessee Titans wide receiver corps took a big hit in Week 4, with Round 1 rookie Treylon Burks suffering a turf toe injury that is expected to sideline him for multiple weeks. A matchup against the Washington Commanders means Robert Woods, and potentially Kyle Philips, need to be locked into lineups come Sunday.
Washington is allowing 40.2 half-PPR points per game to the wide receiver position and their 10.5% explosive pass plays allowed rate, as well as their 0.02 defensive turnovers per drive rates, rank bottom-three league-wide. With Burks out of the picture, Woods will be operating as the team’s unquestioned alpha and should increase his 19.8% target share. Philips, the Round 5 rookie, brings sneaky fantasy WR4 potential.
Philips shot out of the gates in Week 1, earning team-highs in targets (nine), receptions (six), and receiving yards (66). Among NFL receivers with at least five targets in Week 1, Philips’ 3.14 yards per route run ranked eighth and 43.0% targets per route run rate was tied for No. 1.
Philips suffered a shoulder injury late in Week 1 and has played sparingly since, yet stills shows dynamic target-earning ability when active. 4for4’s resident physical therapist, Adam Hutchison, notes in his Injury Index that wide receivers typically miss an average of 3.8 weeks after suffering nonspecific shoulder injuries. While Philips was only officially inactive in Week 3, his 5.5 average routes run per game (Weeks 2 and 4) are an effective deactivation. A Week 2 punt-return fumble likely contributed to the snap count dip but was hardly the prime mover.
Week 5 marks Philips’ four-week mark since the injury, which puts him at the tail-end of his implied recovery timeline. Should Philips return to Full Participant practice status by Friday, Phillips would offer WR4 fantasy potential, while Woods belongs in all manner of re-draft lineups this week.
* Full WR rankings for Week 5 are found here.
Wide Receiver – Sits
D.J. Moore (Carolina Panthers) vs. San Francisco 49ers
Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule finally prioritized D.J. Moore last week, but unfortunately, Carolina lost, and Rhule is coaching for his job on the daily. A run-first coach is unlikely to do the smart thing a second time if the first occurrence did not deliver immediate results.
Carolina is going up against the vaunted San Francisco 49ers defense this week, which has kept opposing passing games to just 161.2 yards per game, the second-fewest in the league. San Francisco also ranks No. 1 in quarterback pressure rate with a phenomenal 30.4% pressure rate, impressively achieved by rushing four defenders on 76.4% of plays, ninth most in the NFL.
The drunken-sailor pocket presence of Carolina quarterback Baker Mayfield has earned him an 8.1% sack rate, the eighth highest in the NFL, and his 57.6% on-target rate ranks dead last among quarterbacks with at least 40 dropbacks.
Through no fault of his own, Moore has little chance of succeeding on Sunday afternoon.
