Week 5 brought us scoring…lots of it. For the first time in the history of fantasy football, five players scored 40 or more PPR points in a week. With scoring coming in droves, who can you trust moving forward and who needs to start riding the pines?

Start Em’

Gerald Everett, Tight End, Los Angeles Rams

Gerald Everett is in the midst of a breakout season and it’s time to get him in your fantasy lineups. Everett has been on the field for more than half of the Rams’ snaps in every game after Week 1 and he’s been targeted 19 times in the past two weeks. 

The Rams receiving options have been especially profitable this season because of how porous the LA defense has been. They are 26th in points allowed at 26.8 per game. This has forced Jared Goff to throw 44.4 times per game, tied for the lead in the NFL. One of the league’s premier offenses has a featured tight end. It's time to start treating him as such.

Curtis Samuel, Wide Receiver, Carolina Panthers

You’ll know after this week whether you can keep Curtis Samuel on your roster or knot. My guess is he’s an easy start by Week 7. Samuel is tenth in the NFL in air yards at 524 but 46th in fantasy points. Neither Cam Newton nor Kyle Allen have been able to connect with him on any of the large amounts of deep balls he’s been seeing. This week Samuel faces the Buccaneers who are allowing the most points to opposing wide receivers at 47.7 per game based on DraftKings scoring. 

The game currently has a 48.5-point total that has been bet up multiple points since it opened. If this game is going to hit that total, Samuel’s volume indicates that he’ll have to be involved.

Baker Mayfield, Quarterback, Cleveland Browns

Oh boy. This one is hard to stomach. Baker Mayfield turned the ball over three times on Monday night. If you play in a league that heavily penalizes turnovers he was likely in the negative. However, Mayfield and the Browns host the Seahawks next week in what is shaping up to be a must-win game. 

The Seahawks have been beatable on defense and potent on offense. They have allowed 23.6 points per game and have scored 26.6 points per game. 

Baker is also at home again where quarterbacks generally do better.

Finally, before this week, Baker was playing fairly well. He was averaging 7.8 yards per attempt before Monday night. The only problem was he had thrown four touchdowns to six interceptions. Both of those are highly variant stats.

After a truly abysmal Monday night, starting Mayfield puts a pit in your stomach. Everything points to this being a bounce-back spot for him though.

Phillip Lindsay, Running Back, Denver Broncos

Denver has committed to splitting the rushing work down the middle between Phillip Lindsay and Royce Freeman. Lindsay has seen just 55.6% of the team’s running back carries while Freeman has been given the other 44.4%. Lindsay doesn’t need to dominate the team’s carries though.

Lindsay has been targeted 23 times this season and converted those targets to 17 catches and 142 yards. Lindsay doesn’t have a 25-touch ceiling but he does have a 15-touch floor. That makes him the perfect flex option for fantasy teams with volatile options at receiver or running back.

Sit Em’

Andy Dalton, Quarterback, Cincinnati Bengals

Andy Dalton put together a nice performance but it came at home, against the Arizona Cardinals. Everyone does well against the Cardinals. You, reading this right now, could probably find the end zone at least once against them. This 262 yards in Week 5 were only fourth among the passers that have faced Arizona. 

This week Dalton faces the Ravens in Baltimore, an obvious spot to bench him. From Week 6 to Week 9, Dalton faces the Ravens twice and the Jaguars once. He also has a buy. That means he has one week where you’ll be starting him in the next four. He’s not worth the roster spot at that point.

Delaine Walker, Tight End, Tennessee Titans

Week 6 features a matchup between two teams that have no interest in passing the ball: The Titans and the Broncos. The Titans are passing the ball 28.2 times per game (31st in the NFL) and the Broncos are sitting 33.6 times per game (22nd). This will be a slow-paced game that features two ground-based offenses.

On top of that, Delaine Walker has an 18% target share. This is a five-year low for the veteran tight end. 

Walker is losing targets to Corey Davis and rookie A.J. Brown on an offense that isn’t already conducive to volume. It’s time to bench Walker as he heads into the twilight of his career.

Ronald Jones, Running Back, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Ronald Jones was a favorite breakout candidate for many fantasy players this year despite being nothing but a tremendous bust in his rookie campaign. He’s played well this year but the Bucs have opted to give him mostly empty volume that offers little upside in fantasy.

Jones and Peyton Barber are tied in red zone carries and totes within the ten yard-line but Barber is still the definitive goal-line back. He has three of the four goal-line carries for the team with Dare Ogunbowale getting the fourth. 

On top of that, Jones is still getting little work in the passing game. He has just one game with more than one target on the season. Ogunbowale has 16 targets and Barber has nine while Jones is sitting at a measly six.

Jones gets rushing work between the 20’s and that’s his role on the offense. Until that expands in a major way, keep the young back on your bench.

Every Receiver and Tight End on Miami or Washington

Stop playing players on these teams. Just stop. Miami is averaging 5.1 yards per pass attempt as a team and they are only passing 34 times per game (20th). Washington is averaging 5.9 yards per attempt and pass 35.8 times per game. However, Chris Thompson is soaking up targets for the team leaving little left for the other weapons. The two players that may be viable in fantasy lineups from these teams are Preston Williams and Terr McLaurin. 

Williams is seeing 9% smaller market share of the team’s air yards than DeVante Parker. Until Parker’s role is scaled back, Williams doesn't have that Parker’s high-leverage targets carry but he still has a zero point floor.

McLaurin is getting those targets. He owns over half of the team’s air yards in the games he’s been healthy for. However, even in a week where he was targeted seven times, McLaurin registered 8.1 PR points.

The two teams play each other this week in a game you should just write off entirely.