Bye weeks starting this week across the league mean fantasy football managers who have been relying on Keenan Allen, Mike Evans, and Amari Cooper will have to go in a different direction at the WR position for their upcoming fantasy matchup.
Here are some of my start/sit options at the WR position for Week 5 of NFL action.
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Which WRs Should You Start in Fantasy This Week?
Other Start/Sit Position Analysis: QB | RB | TE
Nico Collins, Houston Texans
Nico Collins has given us a pair of seven-plus receptions with a TD performance through the first four weeks of the season.
Doubters will likely point to his Week 3 dud against the Jacksonville Jaguars, but his usage and production continue to scream that he is firmly planted in the WR2 conversation moving forward.
MORE: Early Week 5 Fantasy Football WR Rankings
The offense simply continues to throw the ball consistently in 2023. C.J. Stroud is currently tied for the third-most pass attempts in the league (151) and has thrown the ball a minimum of 30 times each game.
Not to mention, Stroud is just one of four quarterbacks to average over 300 yards passing per game in 2023.
As long as Collins continues to see this type of volume, he should be in your starting lineup.
Zay Flowers, Baltimore Ravens
It finally took until Week 4 for rookie wide receiver Zay Flowers to post a game with under 10 fantasy points in PPR formats. Sure, his production last week was disappointing, but his worst game came against the league’s best pass defense.
The task gets much easier against the Pittsburgh Steelers, who just gave up 168 yards to the aforementioned Collins this past Sunday.
With both Rashod Bateman and Odell Beckham Jr. dealing with injuries, and start Flowers with confidence in Week 5.
Christian Watson, Green Bay Packers
The 2023 debut for Christian Watson was mostly underwhelming outside of the touchdown that saved his fantasy day.
The silver lining here would be the fact that the Green Bay Packers had Watson on a pitch count, seeing that he only played 46% of the offensive snaps.
The Las Vegas Raiders defense can be exploited vertically down the field, which is one of the many tools Watson has in his bag to produce fantasy points for your squad.
Which WRs Should You Sit in Fantasy This Week?
DeAndre Hopkins, Tennessee Titans
DeAndre Hopkins is proving he can still be productive on an NFL field, but this Tennessee Titans offense simply doesn’t look capable of producing a top-25 fantasy wide receiver at the moment.
DHop hasn’t topped the 70-yard mark or found the end zone through the first four games of the NFL season. And while he did see 13 targets in Week 1, he has only seen 18 over the last three games combined.
He is still a capable talent, but the opportunities in a run-heavy offense just aren’t giving him enough chances to deliver the breakout fantasy performances we have become accustomed to over his NFL career.
Drake London, Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Falcons’ passing offense feels like it is holding back the likes of Drake London and Kyle Pitts every week.
These two players are dynamic options that most teams would love to feature in their passing attack.
Yet, through the first weeks of the season, it is Jonnu Smith who leads the Falcons in receiving yards.
To make matters worse, Smith has 15 receptions on the season, while London and Pitts both have 11 each.
That doesn’t even address the fact that running back Bijan Robinson also has more receptions and receiving yards than London and Pitts up to this point of the season.
I know the quarterback play has a lot to do with these disappointing numbers, but unless the team makes a change under center or Desmond Ridder’s play drastically improves swiftly, we simply have to accept the fact these two talented players will be touchdown-dependent fantasy plays moving forward.
Trending Searches for WR Start/Sit
Did you know that we have a Start/Sit Optimizer here at Pro Football Network?! It’s completely free to use, allowing you to enter up to six players to find the best option to plug into your starting lineup!
It also allows us to see the most popular trending searches, and we’ve jotted some of them down here to help provide some clarity.
Should You Start Collins or George Pickens?
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett suffered a knee injury and could miss some time in the coming weeks.
If that is the case, then George Pickens fantasy managers will have to endure the reality of being forced to rely on Mitchell Trubisky, producing through the air to keep Pickens in your starting lineup.
Now, you choose to go that route, but when given an option like Collins, I find myself wanting to avoid the Steelers passing game with Trubisky under center. I’ll roll with Collins this week.
Should You Start Hopkins or Garrett Wilson?
Both of these talented wide receivers feel like they are stuck in bad passing offenses. Both have produced modest production on a fair amount of volume, but I’ve seen Garrett Wilson do more with less than DHop so far this season.
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I’d rather go with Wilson’s potential big-play ability this week.