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Fantasy Football Rankings: Wide receivers for Week 5

Ranking the best wide receivers by matchup and opportunity for Week 5 of the 2018 NFL Season.

By Matias Wodner
NFL: New Orleans Saints at Atlanta Falcons Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

Another week of football, another week of everything going according to plan in fantasy football. In Week 4, Mitchell Trubisky threw six passing touchdowns and Allen Robinson scored 9.3 fantasy points, while true #1 receiver Taylor Gabriel put up the 26.9 fantasy point performance we all expected. Aldrick Robinson scored two touchdowns, Donte Moncrief had his perennial big game against Trumaine Johnson and Morris Claiborne, and Zach Pascal and Chester Rogers were WR2s.

Fantasy football truly gets harder to predict every year, but probably more so at the wide receiver position — strictly because teams can rotate and sustain several talented receivers within an offense. Go around the league and look at how many teams have three or more good-to-great receivers that demand targets on a weekly basis. Picking out the right matchups for individual receivers on given weeks has become tough, but teams’ reliance on moving the chains through the air has made so many wide receivers viable in fantasy.

Let’s see what Week 5 has in store for our athletic specimens with stickum on their hands.

WR Rankings - Week 5

Rank Player Team Opponent Notes
Rank Player Team Opponent Notes
1 Julio Jones ATL @PIT PIT is 2nd in points given up to WRs. Julio is 11th in fantasy points w/o scoring a TD. At some point he has to score, but it doesn't even matter.
2 Michael Thomas NO WAS Truly shut down by Jenkins and Co. Now is back home and facing a WAS secondary that's given up 7 RECs to each WR1 they've faced.
3 Antonio Brown PIT ATL Despite the offense's struggles, AB has caught at least 5 pass and gone over 50 yards in each week, while scoring a TD in 3/4 weeks.
4 DeAndre Hopkins HOU DAL DAL is great at limiting WRs, but Nuk's splits w/o Fuller on the field/hobbled are absurd. BIg workload upcoming in a primetime home game.
5 A.J. Green CIN MIA Last time AJG played against Xavien Howard and similar Dolphins secondary at home, he went for 10/173/1
6 Adam Thielen MIN @PHI Leads the league in targets and is 2nd in fantasy points among WRs by 0.2 points. Eagles are getting destroyed through the air.
7 JuJu Smith-Schuster PIT ATL 1st among all WRs in RZ targets and 3rd in overall targets. ATL's defense is decimated and this is going to be a true shootout.
8 Stefon Diggs MIN @PHI PHI just coughed up 9/161/1 to Corey Davis on the outside. Diggs is an even better route runner and will get open at will.
9 Golden Tate DET GB Last year against GB, Tate combined for 14/217/1 in 2 games. Has been one of the most reliable WRs this season and is scoring more than usual.
10 Odell Beckham Jr. NYG @CAR His floor has been great, but he hasn't scored a TD yet. Eli is holding the whole offense back and crushing OBJ's ceiling.
11 Keenan Allen LAC OAK Despite 5 RZ targets, LAC just isn't using Allen in dangerous situations. That makes him a lower-end WR1 despite a fantastic matchup.
12 Davante Adams GB @DET A matchup against Slay is daunting and Adams hasn't shown a high yardage ceiling, but he'll get fed with Cobb and Allison likely out.
13 Calvin Ridley ATL @PIT 6 TDs on 15 RECs and 21 targets is unsustainable, but it might not stop this week against arguably the worst secondary in football.
14 Kenny Golladay DET GB Has established a comfy floor to go along with tantalizing upside. Golladay is right on Jones' tail in air yards and has been more productive.
15 John Brown BAL @CLE Aside from W3 against NYJ, CLE has coughed up huge games to talented opposing WRs. Brown is 3rd in the NFL in air yards and 1st in aDOT.
16 Brandin Cooks LAR @SEA With Earl Thomas out, SEA has no one to cover the backend. Cooks is going to run free often behind this defense.
17 Amari Cooper OAK @LAC Amari has had two explosion games and two duds and now faces a LAC that is coughing up the 4th-most WR production. Incoming 2/13 stat line.
18 Robert Woods LAR @SEA Scored the lone WR TD and was LAR's leading WR in respective games against SEA last year. Griffin and Flowers have gotten abused so far.
19 Tyreek Hill KC JAX He's shown some limitations as of late and this is a game where KC should attack JAX with Hunt and Kelce through the air.
20 Jarvis Landry CLE BAL Even in a poor-efficiency game, Landry came away with double digit points. BAL is tough, but more attackable inside with Smith back.
21 Dede Westbrook JAX @KC KC pass defense slightly improving, but Berry is still out and he's been the most consistent passing option out of the slot. JAX will have to throw.
22 Emmanuel Sanders DEN @NYJ Keenum has looked atrocious, but Sanders has a really good matchup on the inside away from Claiborne/Trumaine.
23 Cooper Kupp LAR @SEA Didn't make much of an impact in two games vs. SEA last year, but the offense is firing on all cylinders.
24 Corey Davis TEN @BUF In games where Mariota has been healthy for at least a half, Davis got 13 and 15 targets. Finally exploded last week and is TEN's clear WR1.
25 Tyler Boyd CIN MIA Has become Dalton's most trusted option
26 Marvin Jones DET GB Jones' last 4 games vs. GB: 6-205-2, 5-76-0, 7-107-2, 4-81-1. But he has taken a backseat to Tate and Golladay.
27 Julian Edelman NE IND Edelman returns from suspension and will immediately slot in as Brady's #1 target, especially if Gronk sits.
28 Jamison Crowder WAS @NO NO has given up the most fantasy points to WRs and this is a game where Crowder could be relied upon heavily in the MOF away from Lattimore.
29 Will Fuller HOU DAL Hamstring injury is very worrisome, but Fuller practiced on Wednesday and looks as if he'll try to gut it out in a middling matchup.
30 Ryan Grant IND @NE His only competition for targets at WR this week will be Zach Pascal and Chester Rogers against an up-and-down NE pass defense.
31 Josh Gordon NE IND IND being heavily banged up at CB gives Gordon some breakout appeal with Hogan a disappointment and Gronk likely out.
32 Devin Funchess CAR NYG NYG has truly stifled WR1s to open the year thanks to Janoris Jenkins and Eli Apple. Funch's floor is safe, though, without Greg Olsen.
33 Michael Crabtree BAL @CLE The matchup isn't daunting, but he's been overtaken by Brown and Snead is taking away targets while Crabtree keeps dropping passes.
34 Alshon Jeffery PHI MIN Coming off a huge game and looks fully healthy, but Rhodes is likely to shadow him and severely limit his upside.
35 Demaryius Thomas DEN @NYJ The targets aren't terrible I guess. Keenum and him are, though.
36 Doug Baldwin SEA LAR LAR's secondary has gotten steamrolled over the past two weeks, but Robey-Coleman ate his lunch last year and SEA is bad on offense.
37 Sterling Shepard NYG @CAR CAR's secondary isn't elite and Shepard has provided two straight great games. CAR also got killed by fellow slot WR Tyler Boyd in W3.
38 Larry Fitzgerald ARI @SF The matchup is pretty good. That's about all of the positives we can say about him and his situation right now.
39 Taywan Taylor TEN @BUF Snaps and targets keep going up every week and he is now officially the WR2 in an ascending offense.
40 Tyler Lockett SEA LAR Diggs/Thielen/Aldrick were able to get loose often last week against Peters/Shields, but Russ may not have the time to find Lockett deep.
41 Mohamed Sanu ATL @PIT Has contributed usable performances and PIT is more than capable of giving up enough points to WR3s to make them viable in deep leagues.
42 Jordy Nelson OAK @LAC Is the OAK passing game becoming good or is it just sheer volume? We'll find out, but Jordy has turned back the clock these past two weeks.
43 Keelan Cole JAX @KC Took a backseat to Moncrief/Westbrook last week, but could have one of his signature explosion games this week against weak KC defense.
44 Quincy Enunwa NYJ DEN He's been consistent despite Darnold looking like a deer in headlights, but now gets a matchup against Chris Harris in the slot.
45 Paul Richardson WAS @NO All NO CBs have been beaten for long TDs this year. P-Rich is a big-play guy and has somehow been WAS's best WR in fantasy.
46 Kenny Stills MIA @CIN MIA's nominal #1 WR hasn't topped 6 targets in a game all year, but they are likely to trail and CIN just got dusted by all 3 of ATL's WRs.
47 Antonio Callaway CLE BAL Snap share and targets are great, but he can't catch the ball and Hue said they might dial back his playing time.
48 Tyrell Willliams LAC OAK You could do worse for a dart throw than chasing Williams' big-play ability against an OAK team that has coughed up long receptions.
49 Chris Hogan NE IND Maybe he can get open with almost all of IND's CBs injured and find more than a couple of targets with Gronk probably out.
50 Martavis Bryant OAK @LAC He's gotten 4-5-7 targets and could've had a huge day last week if not for a critical drop. LAC is very forgiving to WRs and OAK will have to throw.

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