Week 5 recap: Kadarius Toney and Kyle Pitts explode
Toney's historic day, Pitts comes through and injuries galore.
The Kadarius Toney draft pick was mostly mocked by the NFL media last spring. The New York Giants had so many other needs and had just paid a big chunk of change to bring in Kenny Golladay. And Toney profiled as a freak athlete that lacked refinement as a route runner, which is a nice way to say he’s a gadget player. So why in the world would they draft him in round one?
Less than halfway through his rookie year, it’s easy to see why the Giants selected the speedster from Florida.
The rookie exploded for 10 receptions for 189 yards and added seven rushing yards against a good Dallas defense. A lot of that came with Mike Glennon at quarterback after Daniel Jones was knocked out of the game, too.
Here’s Toney toasting the defensive player of the year frontrunner.
Toney is one of those rare players that just looks like a better athlete than everybody on defense every time he touches the ball. It’s too early to make any declarations of what Toney’s fantasy value will be for the rest of the season. But his volume Sunday put him in rare company. And he is absolutely one of the top three waiver adds this week.
As I said, historic company.
Still, the story of Week 5 is probably injuries. Highlighted by Saquon Barkley, more big names are slated to miss multiple weeks. So, without further ado…..
Waiver Wire Finds
All roster percentages are per cbssports.com. Players must be rostered in 40% or fewer leagues.
Darrel Williams, Chiefs, 38% rostered
At first glance, it looked like the injury to Clyde Edwards-Helaire was a bad one with the way he got folded up Sunday night. Instead, CEH escaped with an MCL sprain, which will reportedly keep him out multiple weeks.
In his absence, pick up and start Darrel Williams. Williams was already starting to get more involved with CEH as the lead back, and the thumper from LSU has been the Chiefs’ goal-line back more often than not. He will be given lead back duties and Jerrick McKinnon will have his chances, too. The Chiefs have trusted Williams with some passing game duties in the past and will likely continue to do so, making him only a slight downgrade from CEH in fantasy football.
Devontae Booker, Giants, 10% rostered
As mentioned above, Barkley suffered a low ankle sprain and the initial timetable given was 2-4 weeks. But Ian Rapoport has since reported that Barkley will work to only miss one week. Still, even if it’s only for one week, Booker is worth the waiver add much like Chuba Hubbard was a few weeks ago. Booker is just a guy at best, but volume should carry the day. He had 17 total touches for 58 total yards and two touchdowns Sunday. He’s a low-end RB2 or flex option until Barkley returns.
Dan Arnold, Jaguars, 5%
Dan Arnold saw his role grow after a predictably light workload in his first game with the team. In Week 5, Arnold had six receptions for 64 yards on a team-high eight targets with a fumble to dampen the fantasy production. Arnold looks like he has a clear path to emerge as the Jaguars’ number three pass catcher. With the state of the tight end position, Arnold is probably a fringe top 12 guy.
Other names to monitor
Rhamondre Stevenson, Patriots, 21% rostered
Amon-Ra St. Brown, Lions, 9% rostered
Teddy Bridgewater, Broncos, 35% rostered
News
JuJu Smith-Schuster will undergo surgery after suffering a dislocated shoulder Sunday. He’ll miss the rest of the season.
Quintez Cephus broke his collarbone Sunday and will miss an extended amount of time.
Maxx Williams suffered a major leg injury and there’s a good chance he’s out for the season.
We all saw how gross Russell Wilson’s finger looked Thursday night. He had surgery last week and will be out roughly six weeks.
The Giants, who were already shorthanded Sunday, suffered another blow with the minor injury to Kenny Golladay. He’s expected to be out a week. Daniel Jones is also currently in the league’s concussion protocol after leaving Sunday’s game.
Finally some good news. Christian McCaffrey will hopefully be back this week.
Situation Watch
Well, hello there, Kyle Pitts.
I guess Pitts just needed to get out of the country. In the Falcons’ London game against the Jets, the rookie finally rewarded fantasy managers for spending an early-round pick to get him. Pitts racked up nine receptions for 119 yards and one touchdown. Everything you heard about Pitts in the pre-draft process looked to be true in this performance.
Clearly, it’s not going to be this good for Pitts every week. Calvin Ridley missed Sunday’s game due to personal reasons, and Russell Gage also didn’t play. But I’m not looking to sell high off this performance. When Ridley is back, there’s no reason Pitts can’t command a high target volume and hopefully continue to produce.
We always warn you to keep an eye out for misleading analysis in the pre-draft season. It’s just as prevalent during the season, too.
This is about as blatantly misleading as it gets in fantasy football. Here’s what it fails to mention in the tweet:
Joe Mixon barely did enough during the week to get on the field and didn’t get the go-ahead until Saturday. A limited role was always likely.
And that’s exactly what happened. Mixon played just 28% of the snaps on Sunday. His previous low was 69% in Week 4 when he left the game on the last drive. Trying to draw a straight line from this game to any sort of usage for Mixon is just looking for clicks.
Yes, Mixon’s target share had gone down every week prior to Week 5 after Week 1. But he also ran plenty of routes in Week 4. And just as quickly as NBC Sports Edge tried to make Semaje Perine a thing, he was placed on the COVID-19 list.
Outside of the Steelers beating the Bills, I think it’s arguable that the weirdest thing to happen in the NFL (on the field) this year is Buffalo shelving Zack Moss in Week 1. Moss’ snap count has slowly gone up in the last four weeks — starting at 28% and getting clear up to 73.7% last night — and Singletary, who’s fumbled four times this season, is going the wrong way. He hasn’t played above 50% of the snaps since Week 2, and he hit rock bottom Sunday night with a career-low 26.3% snap share.
It’s tough to start either back with confidence given how much the Bills pass the ball. But Moss has definitely asserted himself as the top fantasy back in Buffalo.
Must-reads
A ton of great stuff from Matt Harmon as usual. One under-the-radar trend he points out: Justin Fields isn’t running the ball.
A good look back at Week 5. Najee Harris finally had some yards to go with his volume.
It’s a good time for a panic meter. This may just be a podcast topic Wednesday, too.
This & That
Marquise Brown is a touchdown machine.
Ja’Marr Chase is in some pretty good company through five games.
I hope your league does not still make you start a kicker.
I would trade Jalen Hurts while you still can.
This is a Kadarius Toney tweet disguised as a Laviska Shenault tweet disguised as an Urban Meyer tweet.
Elijah Mitchell is back and in control of the 49ers backfield…. For the moment.
Remember super-deep dynasty sleeper Khalil Herbert?
It’s been a week.