Fantasy Football Week Five RB Sleepers
Week five finds the Buccaneers and the Bears on Bye, which means many of us will be without Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen (and some are given a reprieve from Peyton Barber). That leaves a lot of room in a lot of leagues to try to fill in with one or more RB sleepers. We at Football Absurdity like to help separate the wheat from the chaff, and bring you only the prime choice running back sleepers each week. To make this list, the RB sleepers are available in over 50% of Yahoo! leagues, with one of the RB sleepers available in over 90% of leagues. Ownership percentages are as of Wednesday afternoon, after waivers have run.
IF YOU’RE READING THIS BEFORE THURSDAY: Nyheim Hines at New England (48% owned)
It’s extraordinarily telling that pro-football-reference.com lists the targets to Hines before his carries. He had nine targets in week one and eleven targets last week, and the Colts will be in an exceptional bind in the passing game this week without T.Y. Hilton and Jack Doyle. The Patriots, for their part, allow 9.1 yards per reception, which is tenth-most in the league.
IF YOU’RE READING THIS AFTER THURSDAY: Jamaal Williams at Detroit (48% owned)
The Aaron Jones writing is on the wall, which led to Williams’s ownership cratering this week. However, the Packers need to have him on the field for at least some of the snaps. He still had eleven carries last week in a game that saw the Packers taking their foot off the gas. That won’t happen with the Lions this week. The Lions defense allows the third-most fantasy points to running backs this season, on the back of an eye-popping 6.1 yards per carry and the most total yards to the position overall. That 6.1 yards per carry is nearly a half-yard per carry more than the #2 running back.
Ty Montgomery at Detroit (18% owned)
Ty Montgomery has the opportunity of Jamaal Williams with the role of Nyheim Hines. The Lions allow the most yards-per-carry and the sixth-most yards per reception to running backs. With Randall Cobb and Geronimo Allison questionable for Sunday, that leaves Ty Montgomery to soak up targets. He has increased his yardage weekly (including 60+ in back-to-back weeks), and will play a vital role in the Green Bay passing game this weekend. All he needs is a touchdown and he’s a top-fifteen back.
Frank Gore at Cincinnati (9% owned)
There’s always a market inefficiency because we don’t want to believe what teams are showing us. We want Kenyan Drake to be the top dog in Miami, so we don’t believe when the Dolphins inexplicably keep giving Frank Gore carries. He had as many opportunities last week as Drake has had at any point this season, and his 57 yards is over three times as many as Drake had in the last two games combined. It’s baffling, but we have to go with the information that’s put in front of us. The Bengals allow the twelfth-most fantasy points to running backs this season, with Christian McCaffrey as the only world beater that they’ve faced so far.
You can check out the rest of this week’s sleepers below
Quarterback Sleepers
Wide Receiver Sleepers
Tight End Sleepers
D/ST Sleepers
