2014 Fantasy Football: Week 5 QB and D/ST Streaming Options
Defense/Special Teams streaming has been a popular option for a while now for fantasy owners. But quarterback streaming has begun being put into use just recently, it seems. As the demand grows we must meet it with a supply of fantasy articles. Each week I’ll highlight as many appealing quarterbacks and defenses fantasy owners can pick up for that week to stream in their starting lineups. As the season progresses, more options will appear as teams and players are dropped and we discover who’s real and who’s not. If you have any questions about these picks or fantasy football in general, hit me up on Twitter @44AMiller.
Quarterbacks
Eli Manning (54 percent owned ESPN, 64 percent Yahoo!) – vs. Atlanta – After a miserable opening game, Eli has nine total touchdowns in his past three games and now ranks sixth among quarterbacks in ESPN standard scoring. His other stats back up his superb play in the past three weeks: He’s completing 70.7 percent of his passes at 7.65 yards per attempt. Atlanta isn’t allowing too many points to quarterbacks, but they’ve allowed two 300-yard passing games and both Andy Dalton and Teddy Bridgewater have thrown for over 10 yards per attempt against the Falcons. Manning is a strong start this week and possibly for most of the rest of the season.
Austin Davis (1 percent, 3 percent) – at Philadelphia – Despite playing in 1.5 fewer games than Tom Brady and attempting 43 fewer passes, Davis has scored an equal amount of points as the Patriots quarterback. Davis looked very good against Tampa Bay, despite not throwing a touchdown. He fit passes into tight windows all game and was fearless leading the Rams’ comeback. He looked very good against Dallas, too. He ranks sixth in yards per attempt at 8.02 and first (FIRST!) in completion percentage at 72.3. The Eagles are tied with the Broncos at fourth-worst against quarterbacks in fantasy scoring, and they’ve allowed multiple touchdown passes in every game.
Mike Glennon (1 percent, 6 percent) – at New Orleans – I thought Glennon should’ve been Tampa’s starter at the start of the season after a positive rookie season in ’13. He only completed half his attempts Sunday against Pittsburgh, but I saw at least four drops while watching the game and two incompletions were well-thrown balls caught by Mike Evans just a bit out of bounds. His lone interception occurred on an overthrow of Evans who stopped early on the route, which makes it seem like there was miscommunication and not solely Glennon’s fault. Now Evans isn’t expected to play in Week 5, but the Bucs have another rookie pass-catcher with a ton of talent – Austin Seferian-Jenkins. He played 98 percent of the team’s snaps in his first action since Week 1 due to an injury. He should help make up for Evans’ absence. New Orleans ranks just one spot better than Philly against quarterbacks, and the Saints haven’t forced a single turnover from QBs this year.
Defense
Pittsburgh (41 percent, 52 percent) – at Jacksonville – The Jaguars have been the most accommodating offense to opposing D/STs this year, and while most of that is attributed to Chad Henne, they still struggled last week with Blake Bortles starting. Bortles threw two picks and was sacked three times; Jacksonville has allowed at least three sacks in every game.
Cleveland (5 percent, 19 percent) – at Tennessee – Tennessee has been the seventh-easiest offense to score points against for opposing D/STs this year, and regardless of who starts at quarterback for the Titans Sunday, the Browns make for a good play this week. Tennessee’s allowing just under three sacks a game, and its quarterbacks have thrown two interceptions in each of the last three games.