2015 Fantasy Football: Week 5 DFS Running Backs
Welcome to Week 5 of the fantasy football season. As always, these player selections are for DraftKings – the best daily fantasy site out there. Stats for fantasy points allowed come fromNFL.com.
Expensive
Le’Veon Bell – $8,500 at San Diego – Bell has seen 26 and 29 touches, respectively in his two games this year with yardage totals of 132 and 150 total yards, respectively. He’s scored in each game, too. Now he gets the second-friendliest defense toward running backs, one that has allowed 772 total yards and six scores already. Duke Johnson and Isaiah Crowell combined for 241 total yards Sunday. If you pair Bell with a lower-priced back he should be a good play and not be too hurtful to your budget.
Eddie Lacy – $6,700 vs. St. Louis – Lacy’s big game is coming so you need to continue to play him. Despite only one score he’s averaging almost 18 touches a game when he’s been healthy, averaging 4.7 yards per carry. His price is at a season-low despite a good matchup against a Rams defense that excels against the pass but not against the run, yet. The Rams are giving up 4.4 yards a carry, a touchdown and 169 total yards per game to running backs. This is an ideal time to play Lacy.
Latavius Murray – $6,300 vs. Denver – Murray disappointed Sunday, but he still had 19 touches and got a touchdown vultured by Roy Helu. The Broncos are middle-of-the-pack against running backs, but they have allowed 30 catches and five scores. Murray should again see plenty of touches and present a high-floor/ceiling combo. I’m playing him in tournaments and cash games.
Cheap/High-Upside
Dion Lewis – $4,800 at Dallas – We’ll have to see how much run LeGarrette Blount gets this week, but Lewis’s price and versatility continue to make him a good play. He’s produced all over in every game, and Dallas has allowed six running back scores and 333 receiving yards to running backs, the second-most in the league.
Danny Woodhead – $4,600 vs. Pittsburgh – Woodhead now has at least 16 points in three of four games, and this should be a high-scoring game. Pittsburgh’s been really good against running backs so far, but it hasn’t faced very many dynamic ones. The one who did the most damage was Lewis, who caught four passes for 51 yards in Week 1. Woodhead should approach another 16 points this week.
LeGarrette Blount – $4,500 at Dallas – New England can obviously support two running backs for fantasy purposes, so it’s always worth a shot at plugging Blount into your lineup and hope he scores twice.
Todd Gurley – $4,300 at Green Bay – Gurley’s also more of a tournament play this week as the matchup and situation isn’t awesome, but he’s 3-for-3 receiving this year in two games and he dominated a very good Cardinals’ run defense Sunday.
Chris Thompson – $3,300 at Atlanta – Atlanta’s offense can’t be stopped so that means Washington will have to abandon the ground game and throw, throw, throw. That means more snaps for Thompson, who’s had at least 77 total yards in each of his last two games. His 15 targets rank tied for 17th among running backs and is triple the amount of targets for Washington’s next running back. Oh, and Atlanta has allowed the most receptions, targets and receiving yards to running backs as well as eight total touchdowns. This is purely a large tournament play, but Thompson’s matchup is prime.