Start or Sit (NFC Home Games)
Talking the business of sports
In a way, it's fitting that the big Thursday night prime-time game features two teams that will be playing without their star running backs, because injuries have dominated the NFL season in the early going. There have been so many injuries to sort through so far, and Week 5 is no exception. If anything, the fact that we at least have clarity on Jonathan Taylor -- he's out for tonight's game , by the way -- is a blessing.
Because there are a ton of players whose status is very much up in the air as practices kicked off Wednesday. I have the latest on all the injuries you need to know about for Week 5 at the bottom of today's newsletter.
In case you missed it yesterday, Jamey Eisenberg's Start 'Em & Sit 'Em picks for Week 5 are right here, and today's newsletter will also bring Dave Richard's start and sit picks to you as well. And if you have some other questions you need answers to, make sure you subscribe to the Fantasy Football Today YouTube channel and join Adam Aizer and I at 2 p.m. ET for our start/sit live stream. We'll be discussing all of the latest news and answering your toughest lineup questions.
In tomorrow's newsletter, I'll have previews of every game on the Week 5 schedule, including the latest injury updates for everyone you need to know about, plus all of the key takeaways from tonight's Colts-Bengals game.
Get ready for Week 5 with all of our preview content here:
Here's what else today's newsletter will cover:
There are the obvious calls, and then there are the ones you need help with. Dave Richard goes through each game to identify the most interesting matchups and biggest lineup dilemmas for Week 5. Here are some of his top picks for this week. You can find the rest of his advice for Week 5 here :
All lines from Caesars Sportsbook
Both teams lost their starting running backs last week, with Javonte Williams out for the season with a torn ACL and Jonathan Taylor ruled out for this one with an ankle injury. I wrote about Taylor being ruled out here, but long story short, Nyheim Hines is an RB2 for me and I don't really have much interest in anyone else in that backfield. I'll get to my expectations for Melvin Gordon shortly, but it'll be interesting to see what these two teams do with their most effective runners out. Neither offense has lived up to expectations to date with their new quarterbacks, but I'm still starting Michael Pittman and Courtland Sutton as WR2s, with Jerry Jeudy a solid WR3.
The Big News: Kyle Pitts was unable to practice Wednesday due to a hamstring injury, which might explain his limited role in Week 4's win over the Browns. Pitts played just 62% of the snaps in the game, but that number was down to 46% in the second half. Not that it would be good news that Pitt is dealing with an injury, but at least it would mean he wasn't limited arbitrarily. He has been one of the most frustrating players in Fantasy, and this definitely doesn't help his near-term outlook. But, if Pitts is active, I'm going to have a tough decision to make in the league where I have him and T.J. Hockenson – if the Lions injury situation isn't improved, it might be a Hockenson week.
I'll have a full breakdown of the injury report in Friday's newsletter along with my previews of each game, but here's a look at the first practice participation reports of the week.
It's not clear what these injuries mean quite yet.
This doesn't mean they will play, but we got good news about them Wednesday.
This doesn't mean they won't play, but they aren't moving in the right direction yet.
© 2004-2022 CBS Interactive. All Rights Reserved.
CBS Sports is a registered trademark of CBS Broadcasting Inc. Commissioner.com is a registered trademark of CBS Interactive Inc.
Images by Getty Images and US Presswire