Fantasy Football Week 5 Start Em & Sit Em: Its Deshaun Watson breakout week – CBS Sports

As of Wednesday, we’re unfortunately faced with another scenario of some games potentially being moved around or postponed in Week 5 because of more positive COVID-19 tests. It’s something to keep an eye on with your Fantasy players in the games involving the Bills-Titans, Broncos-Patriots, and Raiders-Chiefs. You might have to adjust your Fantasy rosters.

In Week 4, we had the Titans-Steelers game postponed, with those teams using last week as a bye, and the Patriots-Chiefs game was moved from Sunday to Monday. The Titans were the reason for the postponement, and they now have 11 players who have reportedly tested positive for COVID-19, including receiver Corey Davis, who was added to the COVID/Reserve list. Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore also has reportedly tested positive for COVID-19, which came after Cam Newton was out in Week 4 for the same reason. And the Raiders had a player reportedly test positive for COVID-19 as well.

Nothing official has been said about any games being postponed or moved, but you should be prepared to alter your lineups in case that happens. Hopefully, as we’ve been telling you all offseason, your Fantasy commissioner has set up scenarios to provide relief, whether it’s extra roster spots or injured reserve slots to stash players.

And we recommend allowing for a replacement player or players to be named prior to kickoff before Thursday or Sunday afternoon in case something unexpected happens to one of your guys, especially for any Sunday night or Monday night games. The best thing is to be flexible if possible.

For now, just continue to monitor the news, and hopefully the games are played as scheduled. And as you’ll read below, I still have start and sit recommendations for players involved in those games in question. Just be prepared to react in case you need to change your Fantasy lineups for any COVID-19 related updates.

Start ‘Em & Sit ‘Em

The Texans had a big change this week with Bill O’Brien getting fired, and Romeo Crennel will take over as the interim head coach. Hopefully, that’s not a bad thing for Deshaun Watson, who has not lived up to the billing as an elite Fantasy quarterback so far.

Now, part of Watson’s struggles — and the Texans, who are 0-4 — has been the schedule. Opening the season with three games in a row at Kansas City, vs. Baltimore and at Pittsburgh was going to be tough for any quarterback. And to Watson’s credit, he scored 22 Fantasy points against the Chiefs and 20 points against the Steelers, but he also was limited to 16 points against the Ravens.

We told you to expect better things for Watson with the schedule getting  easier in Week 4, and that was the case when he had his best game of the season with 24 Fantasy points against Minnesota. And now comes Week 5 against Jacksonville in the first game after O’Brien’s firing.

The Jaguars have allowed either 300 passing yards or multiple touchdowns in all four games this year, and Watson should light them up this week. It helps that Jacksonville’s cornerbacks are banged up with D.J. Hayden (hamstring) on injured reserve and C.J. Henderson (shoulder) sidelined.

I’m counting on Watson to dominate and start playing like the Fantasy quarterback I expected prior to the season. Things are bad in Houston, but maybe the big shakeup could be the spark the team — and Watson — needs for a strong finish. And it all starts now.

More Week 5 Fantasy Prep: Starts & Sits, Sleepers & Risks | QB Start ‘Em & Sit ‘Em | RB Start ‘Em & Sit ‘Em | WR Start ‘Em & Sit ‘Em | Waiver Wire | QB Preview | RB Preview | WR Preview | TE Preview | Trade Values | Cut List 

Cardinals (at NYJ): Even though Le’Veon Bell is back for the Jets, they are still starting Joe Flacco behind a suspect offensive line. The Jets have three games this season where they’ve scored 17 points or less. And last week, the Broncos had six sacks against the Jets. This should be a great week for the Cardinals DST.       

• Cowboys (vs. NYG): While I like Daniel Jones this week, he has been sacked 14 times on the season. He also has five interceptions, and the Giants have scored 16 points or less in every game.
• Texans (JAC): Maybe Romeo Crennel can get this defense on track now that he’s the head coach. While I like Gardner Minshew this week, he has been sacked at least three times in three games this year. And he has four interceptions in his past three games.
• Browns (vs. IND): The Browns are a sneaky DST this week because if the Colts get behind we could see Philip Rivers get turnover prone. That happened in Week 1 when he threw two interceptions at Jacksonville, and I could see the same thing unfold this week if the Colts are chasing points.

Broncos (at NE): Even with Jarrett Stidham expected to start this week for Cam Newton (illness), I still wouldn’t trust the Broncos DST this week. Denver did a nice job against the Jets in Week 4 with six sacks, but the Patriots run game should ruin the Broncos in this matchup. Stay away from the Broncos DST in Week 5 on the road.

So who should you start and sit this week? And which surprising quarterback could lead you to victory? Visit SportsLine now to get Week 5 rankings for every position, plus see which QB is going to come out of nowhere to crack the top 10, all from the model that out-performed experts big-time last season.