NFL 2026 Week 5 Start ‘Em Sit ‘Em: Stack Jacoby Brissett and Michael Wilson
· Yahoo Sports
Week 5 is underway, bringing us another round of start/sit decisions. These are my biggest stands and fades for Sunday's slate of games.
Quarterback
Start: Jacoby Brissett, Cardinals
Visit sportfeeds.autos for more information.
It doesn’t get better than a matchup with the Lions that features a 54.5-point total. Detroit ranks 30th in EPA per dropback allowed. They are giving up the most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks (27.9) and it’s not a close race. The gap between them and the No. 2 team is as large as the gap between two and 13. To no one’s surprise, Brissett has thrived in shootouts since joining the Cardinals.
His fantasy output soars to 22.5 points per game when the total hits 48 points. This is an incredible streaming spot for the gunslinger.
Start: Michael Penix, Falcons
Vegas likes Atlanta this week, assigning them a healthy 23.5-point team total versus Baltimore. It’s a tough matchup, but one Penix has played well enough to overcome. He currently ranks second in the league in EPA per play and eighth in completion percent over expected. He’s averaging over 10 yards per attempt but has thrown for a combined 45 passes across two starts. Penix’s low passing volume largely comes down to his team’s dominance early in games. The Falcons have outscored their opponents 55-17 in the first three quarters of Penix’s two starts. If he can even hit 30 attempts versus Baltimore, Penix will surge up the QB2 ranks.
Sit: Jalen Hurts, Eagles
Sportsbooks are throwing in the towel on Philly. The Eagles have the second-lowest implied team total of the week. They looked atrocious with DeVonta Smith, Saquon Barkley, and Lane Johnson in the lineup. Now all three of those pillars of the offense are gone. Four teams are down to their backup quarterback this week. All four of them have higher points projections than the Eagles, who have an implied team total of 17.
Sit: Tyler Shough, Saints
Shough gets the nightmare matchups this week. He’s taking on a Vikings defense that leads the league in EPA per dropback allowed. They are also the worst fantasy matchup for opposing passers through one month of football. Brian Flores’s blitz-first defense is simply putting quarterbacks in a blender. Minnesota has allowed the second-fewest completions and the ninth-fewest yards this year. For as good as Shough has been for fantasy, his efficiency isn’t awfully impressive. He sits at 18th in EPA per dropback headed into Week 5. This finally looks like a matchup that will shut down his volume-based fantasy scam.
Running Back
Start: Bhayshul Tuten, Jaguars
Tuten is really good. I said it. Don’t believe me? Enjoy some nerd stats:
- 4.02 yards after contact per carry (4th among running backs)
- .32 missed tackles forced per attempt (2nd)
- .67 rush yards over expected per carry (10th)
- 1.35 yards per route run (12th)
Now he gets to tee off on a Philly defense that ranks 28th in rush EPA per play allowed as a 7.5-point favorite. This is the breakout game for Tuten.
Start: J.K. Dobbins, Broncos
Dobbins is strictly a two-down grinder on a team that has been hit or miss at best on offense. The good news is the Broncos are in a get-right spot versus the reeling Chargers this week and Sean Payton is back on the headset calling plays. Denver is favored by 3.5 points this week. Since the start of 2025, Dobbins has averaged 16 carries per game when the Broncos are favored by a field goal or more.
Sit: Tony Pollard, Titans
I previously said that the Eagles were projected to score fewer points than all but one team. That team is, of course, the Titans. Pollard’s workload is solid. He is 15th in total expected fantasy points. That simply doesn’t matter when you play on the worst team in football. Pollard ranks dead last in fantasy points over expectation. This is a high-end RB2 role on an offense that can barely support RB3 fantasy output.
Sit: Omarion Hampton, Chargers
The Hampton experiment is coming to an end. He plummeted to season-lows in snap share (32 percent) and carry share (36 percent) last week. His route rate held under 25 percent for the second week in a row and he failed to earn a double-digit target share for the fourth week in a row. Keaton Mitchell saw more snaps, carries, routes, and targets than Hampton in Week 4. Hampton looks like a backup running back on a bottom-five offense.
Wide Receiver
Start: Michael Wilson, Cardinals
Wilson’s role is downright elite. With top-10 marks in both target share (29 percent) and air yards share (44 percent), Wilson’s .76 weighted opportunity rating ranks fourth among wideouts. He gets a Detroit defense that can’t stop a nosebleed right now.
Not only are the Lions terrible against the run and pass, but they also give up explosive pass plays (15+ yards) at the fifth-highest rate. This is a WR1 spot for Wilson.
Start: Parker Washington, Jaguars
Washington has gone cold over the past two weeks as the Jags have spread the ball around more than they did in their first two games. Even after the mini-slump, Washington looks like the team’s clear WR1. His 26 percent target share and 40 percent air yards share both lead the team by a comfortable margin. He also looks like their best receiver with top-20 marks in PFF receiving grade and yards per route run. He leads the Jags in slot routes headed into a game versus a Philly defense that has given up more targets o slot receivers than all but one other team.
Sit: Rome Odunze, Bears
Whether it’s the player, the offense, the quarterbacks, or some combination of the three, this setup just isn’t working for Odunze. He ranks 53rd among wideouts in target share and is being targeted on a dismal 15 percent of his routes. Odunze isn’t making big plays at a high enough clip to offset the low target totals. His 16.4 yards per catch is really strong, but it still has him at just 37th in yards per route run. Maybe things change once Caleb Williams returns to the lineup, but Odunze is merely a WR4 right now.
Sit: Quentin Johnston, Chargers
There will be people who play Johnston one last time because Ladd McConkey is banged up once again. I will not be among them. Johnston’s numbers improve when McConkey is off the field, but only to levels strikingly similar to Odunze. He has averaged 1.4 YPRR and .14 TPRR with McConkey on the sidelines. Tre’ Harris has better marks than him with or without Ladd on the pitch. If you’re playing any LA pass-catcher this week, it should be Harris.
Tight End
Start: Isaiah Likely, Giants
Likely leads all tight ends in target share (31 percent) and targets per route run (.32). He is third in air yards share. This isn’t just a hot streak. The offense runs through him. Likely has a monstrous 37 percent first-read target share. His 30 first-read targets are 10 more than Malik Nabers. He trails only Trey McBride in first-read target share.
Start: Sam LaPorta, Lions
We really just want to get every member of the Detroit/Arizona in our lineups, but it doesn’t hurt for the Cardinals to be giving up the fourth-most fantasy points to opposing tight ends. LaPorta is eighth in total routes run from an inline position. The Cardinals are giving up yards to inline tight ends at a top-10 rate this year. Matchup specifics aside, just start your Lions this week.
Sit: T.J. Hockenson, Vikings
The Week 4 spike was incredible for Hockenson drafters, but he can be sent back to waivers with Justin Jefferson expected to return this week. Hockenson has averaged a pedestrian 8.9 PPR points per game since 2023, his first full season as a Viking. The number skyrockets to 18.3 when Jefferson is sidelined.
There won’t be enough room for a second pass-catcher in this anemic offense once Jefferson is cleared for Week 5.
Sit: Kyle Pitts, Falcons
Pitts was struggling to earn targets early in the year. Now he is struggling to even get on the field. He was held under 50 percent of the Falcons’ routes for the second time in three weeks. That had only happened one time in his career before this year. The per-route numbers are just as bad. He is outside the top 30 tight ends in both yards and targets per route. This is the profile of a low-end TE2.