Fine or Pine, Week 5

By Adam Filadelfo (@FNTSYArchitect)

With one game in the books for week five, most fantasy owners are now faced with big decisions on which players to start and which players to bench. This week will give fantasy owners more options since only two teams are on byes as opposed to the six last week. You have questions regarding your week five lineup and we've got the answers. It's week five. Let's do this.

Quarterback

Fine- Philip Rivers- San Diego Chargers- The Chargers signal caller has been playing like an MVP candidate through the first four weeks of the season and fantasy owners can expect more of the same heading into his week five matchup versus the fourth worst passing defense in fantasy football. The Jets are allowing almost 22 fantasy points per game to the opposing quarterback and Philip Rivers is averaging over 24 fantasy points per game himself. He's thrown for nine touchdowns and only one interception.

Pine- Jake Locker- Tennessee Titans- So Jake Locker returns from an injury that sidelined him in week four. Much like Locker sat on the bench for the Titans last week, he should sit on the bench for fantasy owners this week. Not only is his matchup not great, he's not great either. The Cleveland defense has been stingy versus opposing quarterbacks allowing under 16 fantasy points per game to them and Locker's three touchdowns to four interceptions will allow the Browns defense to be a top fantasy defense in week five. Locker himself is averaging a pedestrian 17.9 fantasy points per game. This could be a week for Bishop Sankey to make some headway in fantasy football.

Running Back

Fine- Rashad Jennings- New York Giants- Rashad Jennings has looked like the lead back the GMen envisioned when they signed him in the offseason. He's rushed for 341 yards and two scores as well as added nine catches for 92 yards. Jennings is averaging almost 14 fantasy points per game and is gold in PPR formats. He gets the Atlanta defense this week which is allowing over 32 fantasy points per game to opposing running backs. Jennings needs to be started with such a great matchup in his favor.

Pine- Montee Ball- Denver Broncos- It's safe to say that Montee Ball has been a disappointment up until this point for fantasy owners that drafted him. He's averaging under 10 fantasy points per game and the week five matchup is not in his favor taking on an Arizona Cardinals defense that is allowing just over 11 fantasy points per game to opposing backs.

Wide Receiver

Fine- Keenan Allen - San Diego Chargers- With a New York Jets defense that is allowing almost 28 fantasy points per game to the other teams receivers, Allen has caught 22 of his 28 targets this season and is coming off of a week four performance that saw him finish as the 11th best receiver as he scored 13.5 fantasy points. Did I mention he faces the fourth worst passing defense in fantasy football this week?

Pine- DeSean Jackson- Washington Redskins- With a Monday night matchup versus the Seattle Seahawks on tap, D-Jax doesn't appear to have the best of matchups this week. The Seahawks defense has allowed 505 yards to wide receivers in three weeks (168.3 per week) and just under 19 fantasy points per game to the receiver position.

Tight End

Fine- Heath Miller- Pittsburgh Steelers- The Steelers tight end had himself quite a game in week four and fantasy owners can expect another big game from him again in week five when he faces a defense that all but forgets to cover the opposing tight end. The Jaguars are allowing the third most fantasy points to the tight end position at 13.5 fantasy points per game. Miller has hauled in 21 of his 27 targets this season for almost 200 yards and a score. Miler himself is averaging 6.4 fantasy points per game.

Pine- Jason Witten- Dallas Cowboys- Witten himself has been pedestrian at best so far with Romo seemingly only having eyes for Dez Bryant, Terrance Williams and DeMarco Murray. With that said, the Cowboys opponent this week is the Houston Texans who happen to be allowing the third least amount of fantasy points to opposing tight ends. The matchup doesn't play in Witten's favor. On the season, Witten has 15 catches for 156 yards while averaging under four fantasy points per game.

Defense

Fine- Seattle Seahawks- The Seahawks defense is scoring over 11 fantasy points per game while Kirk Cousins was ranked 22nd among fantasy quarterbacks for week four. While week five is a new week and the Seahawks are a different team on the road, the matchup says to start the Seahawks defense this week and sleep soundly Monday night.

Pine- Jacksonville Jaguars- There's a good chance no fantasy owner will be starting the Jaguars defense this week or any week for that matter but on the off chance there is a fantasy owner somewhere that is thinking about it, don't. The Jaguars defense is scoring under four fantasy points per game as a unit and Big Ben is the ninth highest scoring quarterback in fantasy football through the first four weeks of the season with 19.3 fantasy points per game.